step above step, sometimes thrusting out a sheer wall from the
summit, or lying slant-wise in masses split off by the wedges of the
ice. The fairy birches, in their thin foliage, stood on the edge of the
water like Dryads undressing for a bath, while the shaggy male firs
elbowed each other on the heights for a look at them. Other channels
opened in the distance, with glimpses of other and as beautiful harbors
in the heart of the islands. "You may sail for seventy-five versts,"
said the painter, "without seeing them all."

The fearlessness of all wild creatures showed that the rules of the good
monks had been carefully obeyed. The wild ducks swam around our boat, or
brooded, in conscious security, on their nests along the shore. Three
great herons, fishing in a shallow, rose slowly into the air and flew
across the water, breaking the silence with their hoarse trumpet-note.
Farther in the woods there are herds of wild reindeer, which are said to
have become gradually tame. This familiarity of the animals took away
from the islands all that was repellent in their solitude. It half
restored the broken link between man and the subject-forms of life.

The sunset-light was on the trees when we started, but here in the North
it is no fleeting glow. It lingers for hours even, fading so
imperceptibly that you scarcely know when it has ceased. Thus, when we
returned after a long pull, craving the Lenten fare of the monastery,
the same soft gold tinted its clustering domes. We were not called upon
to visit the refectory, but a table was prepared in our room. The first
dish had the appearance of a salad, with the accompaniment of black
bread. On carefully tasting, I discovered the ingredients to be raw salt
fish chopped fine, cucumbers, and--beer. The taste of the first spoonful
was peculiar, of the second tolerable, of the third decidedly palatable.
Beyond this I did not go, for we had fresh fish, boiled in enough water
to make a soup. Then the same, fried in its own fat, and, as salt and
pepper were allowed, we did not scorn our supper. P. and R. afterwards
walked over to the Skit, a small church and branch of the monastery,
more than a mile distant; while I tried, but all in vain, to reproduce
the Holy Island in verses. The impression was too recent.

The next day was the festival of Peter and Paul, and Alexis had advised
us to make an excursion to a place called Jelesniki. In the morning,
however, we learned that the monastery