makes the soup upon which
he lives. Add to this soup a porridge made of maize, and we have
about the entire substance of their regular food. If they produce
some pork and corn, butter and cheese, these are sold at the nearest
market, and are of far too dainty a character for them to indulge in,
since a certain amount of money must be raised somehow for the annual
visit of the tax-gatherer. We are speaking of the humble masses; of
course there are some thrifty peasants, who manage to live on a more
liberal scale, and to provide better subsistence for their families,
but they form the exception. The railroad is owned and operated by
the Government, and it was a little ludicrous to see the
station-masters in full uniform wherever the train stopped, with
their swords and spurs clanking upon the wooden platforms. A naval
officer might with just as much propriety wear spurs upon the
quarter-deck as a local railroad agent on shore. But the customs here
are unlike those of other lands; Russia resembles herself alone.

With the exception of the provinces which border on the Caucasus, all
Russia is prairie-like in surface. The moderate slopes and elevations
of the Urals scarcely break this vast plain which covers so large a
share of the globe. Two fifths of European Russia are covered with
woods, interspersed with morass and arable land; but as regards fuel,
the peat beds in the central regions are practically inexhaustible,
forming a cheap and ever-present means for the production of heat in
the long dreary winters, as well as for steam-producing purposes on
railroads and in manufactories. In the general absence of coal mines,
the importance of the peat-product can hardly be over-estimated. It
is considered by consumers that the same cubic quantity of peat will
yield one third more heat in actual use than wood, retaining it
longer; besides which it possesses some other minor advantages over
the product of the forest. At some points on the line of the railroad
immense mounds of peat were observed which had been mined, dried, and
stacked for future use by the employees of the Government. The
visible amount of the article was often so great as to be quite
beyond estimate by a casual observer. The long broad stacks in more
than one instance covered several acres of land, closely ranged with
narrow road-ways between them. They were twenty feet or more in
height, and conical-shaped to shed the rain. Prepared with rock-oil,
coal-dust