versation. The little old
man, with white hair, and thin, weather-beaten, wrinkled face, is
Admiral Baron Wrangel, whose Arctic explorations on the northern coast
of Siberia are known to all geographers. Having read of them as a boy,
and then as things of the past, I was greatly delighted at finding the
brave old Admiral still alive, and at the privilege of taking his hand
and hearing him talk in English as fluent as my own. The young officer,
with rosy face, brown moustache, and a profile strikingly like that of
General McClellan, has already made his mark. He is General Ignatieff,
the most prominent young man of the empire. Although scarcely
thirty-five, he has already filled special missions to Bukhara and
Peking, and took a leading part in the Treaty of Tien-tsin. He is now
Deputy-Minister of Foreign Affairs and Chief of the Asiatic Department.
He is, moreover, a good friend of the United States, and was among the
first to see the feasibility of the Russian-American telegraph scheme.

I might mention Count Bludoff, the venerable President of the Academy of
Sciences; General Todleben; Admiral Luettke; and the distinguished
members of the Galitzin, Narischkin, Apraxin, Dolgorouky, and
Scheremetieff families, who are present,--but by this time the
interminable mazourka is drawing to a close, and a master of ceremonies
suggests that we shall step into an adjoining hall to await the signal
for supper. The refreshments previously furnished consisted simply of
tea, orgeat, and cooling drinks made of cranberries, Arctic raspberries,
and other fruits; it is two hours past midnight, and we may frankly
confess hunger.

While certain other guests are being gathered together, I will mention
another decoration of the halls, peculiar to St. Petersburg. On either
side of all the doors of communication in the long range of halls,
stands a negro in rich Oriental costume, reminding one of the mute
palace-guards in the Arabian tales. Happening to meet one of these men
in the Summer Garden, I addressed him in Arabic; but he knew only enough
of the language to inform me that he was born in Dar-Fur. I presume,
therefore, they were obtained in Constantinople. In the large halls,
which are illustrated with paintings of battles, in all the Russian
campaigns from Pultowa to Sebastopol, are posted companies of soldiers
at the farther end,--a different regiment to each hall. For six hours
these men and their officers stand motionless as statue