ields was wafted
from the distant shores in almost overpowering force. The high right
bank, called the Hills, and the low left shore, known as the Forests,
sank into half-transparent vagueness, which veiled the gray log-built
villages with their tiny windows, and threw into relief against the
evening sky only the green roofs and blue domes of the churches,
surmounted by golden crosses, which gleamed last of all in the vanishing
rays of sunset. A boatload of peasants rowing close in shore; a
red-shirted solitary figure straying along the water's edge; tiny
sea-gulls darting and dipping in the waves around the steamer; a vista
up some wide-mouthed affluent; and a great peaceful stillness brooding
over all,--such were the happenings, too small for incidents, which
accorded perfectly with the character of the Volga. For the Volga cannot
be compared with the Rhine or the Hudson in castles or scenery. It has,
instead, a grand, placid charm of its own, imperial, indefinable, and
sweet. One yields to it, and subscribes to the Russian faith in the
grand river.

No one seemed to know how much of the lost time would be made up. Were
it spring, when Mother Volga runs from fifty to a hundred and fifty
miles wide, taking the adjoining country into her broad embrace, and
steamers steer a bee-line course to their landings, the officers might
have been able to say at what hour we should reach our destination. As
it was, they merely reiterated the characteristic "_Ne znaem_" (We don't
know), which possesses plural powers of irritation when uttered in the
conventional half-drawl. Perhaps they really did not know. Owing to a
recent decree in the imperial navy, officers who have served a certain
number of years without having accomplished a stipulated amount of sea
service are retired. Since the Russian war vessels are not many, while
the Naval Academy continues to turn out a large batch of young officers
every year, the opportunities for effecting the requisite sea service
are limited. The officers who are retired, in consequence, seek
positions on the Volga steamers, which are sometimes commanded by a
rear-admiral, in the imperial uniform, which he is allowed to retain, in
addition to receiving a grade. But if one chances upon them during their
first season on the river, their information is not equal to their fine
appearance, since Mother Volga must be studied in her caprices, and
navigation is open only, on the average, between the 12th