ot a
deep river, though its channel conveys ten times the amount of water
that flows in those just named. It winds ribbon-like in and about the
city, adding greatly to its picturesqueness as seen from an
elevation. True, this city is in a central position as regards the
length and breadth of Russia, but that is about all one can say in
favor of the location. St. Petersburg reclaimed from the Finland
swamps has the commerce of the world at its door, and therein
presents a _raison d'etre_, which almost excuses the labor and loss
of life and treasure which it cost.

Moscow is to the Russian what Mecca is to the pious Moslem, and he
calls it by the endearing name of "Mother." Like Kief and the
Troitzkoi, it is the object of pious pilgrimage to thousands
annually, who come from long distances and always on foot. The
ludicrously illustrated signs are as numerous here as they are in the
capital, often running into caricature. For instance, a fruit-dealer
puts out a gaudily-painted scene representing a basket of fruit and
its carrier coming to grief, the basket and contents falling from the
carrier's head and the fruit flying in all directions. A milk-shop
exhibited a crude sign depicting a struggle between a hungry calf and
a dairy-maid as to which should obtain the lacteal deposit from the
cow. These signs answer their purpose, and speak a mute language
intelligible to the Russian multitude. The city is said to have once
contained "forty times forty churches and chapels," but it has not so
many to-day, though there must be between six and eight hundred. The
ambassadors of Holstein said in 1633 that there were two thousand
churches and chapels in the capital. The Kremlin which crowns a hill
is the central point of the city, and is enclosed by high walls,
battlement rising upon battlement, flanked by massive towers. The
name is Tartar, and signifies a fortress. As such it is unequalled
for its vastness, its historical associations, and the wealth of its
sanctuaries. It was founded six or seven hundred years ago, and is an
enclosure studded with cathedrals covering broad streets and spacious
squares. That of Krasnoi exhibits a bronze monument in its centre
erected in honor of Minimi and Tojarsky, two Muscovite patriots. The
Kremlin is a citadel and a city within itself, being the same to
Moscow that the Acropolis was to Athens. The buildings are a strange
conglomerate of architecture, including Tartarian, Hindu, Chinese,
and G