fle its fury, and prevent
its further onset.

Such bulwarks were once the strong places of Kasan and Astrakhan,
the former seats of Tartar hordes, which the Tsars of Moscow made
their bases of operations for the indefinite extension of their
civilized empire over Tartar barbarism.

For the experience of centuries had proved that the Steppe was not
everywhere and altogether an irreclaimable land, nor the Tartars
an utterly untameable race.

Astrakhan, like Kasan, is a Russian town, of whose 50,000 inhabitants
one-fourth or one-fifth at least are tamed Tartars, and the sands
around which can be made to yield grapes and peaches, and a profusion
of melons and watermelons. Beyond the immediate neighbourhood,
over the whole province or "Government" of Astrakhan, stretches
the vast land of the Steppe, the wide and thin pasture-grounds on
which the Tartar tribes roam at will with their flocks; a pastoral
set of men; without fixed homes, and, in our sense of the word,
without laws; and yet perfectly harmless and peaceful--exempt,
at least till very lately, from military service, and only paying
a tribute of 45,000 roubles, at so much a head for each horse,
ox, or camel, ranging over an extent of 7,000,000 dessiatines
(20,000,000 acres) of land, an area of 224,514 kilometers, or about
half of that of France, with a population, including that of the
capital, of 601,514 inhabitants.

Astrakhan is a modern town, with the usual broad, straight streets,
most of them boasting no other pavement than sand, with brick
side-walks, much worn and dilapidated, and, like those of Buenos
Ayres and many other American cities, so raised above the roadway
as to require great attention from those who do not wish to run
the risk of broken shins.

The town has its own Kremlin, apart from the citadel. The Kremlin
is a kind of cathedral-close, with the cathedral and the archbishop's
palace, and several monasteries and priests' habitations. The whole
town, besides, and the environs, as usual in Russia, muster more
churches than they can number priests or worshippers.

In a walk of two or three miles I took outside the town and as
far as the cemeteries, I had a scattered group of at least half
a score of churches all around me, but there was scarcely a human
habitation within sight.

The governor's palace is a low building over a row of shops in the
main square of the city. The square itself and the thoroughfares were
enveloped in thick clouds