curiosity of the ladies. I may here
declare that the bottle was never emptied.

The taste was that of aged buttermilk mixed with ammonia. We could
detect no flavor of alcohol, yet were conscious of a light exhilaration
from the small quantity we drank. The beverage is said, indeed, to be
very intoxicating. Some German physician has established a
"koumiss-cure" at Piatigorsk, at the northern base of the Caucasus, and
invites invalids of certain kinds to come and be healed by its agency. I
do not expect to be one of the number.

There still remained a peculiar feature of the Fair, which I had not yet
seen. This is the subterranean network of sewerage, which reproduces, in
massive masonry, the streets on the surface. Without it, the annual city
of two months would become uninhabitable. The peninsula between the two
rivers being low and marshy,--frequently overflowed during the spring
freshets,--pestilence would soon be bred from the immense concourse of
people: hence a system of _cloacae_, almost rivalling those of ancient
Rome. At each street-corner there are wells containing spiral
staircases, by which one can descend to the spacious subterranean
passages, and there walk for miles under arches of hewn stone, lighted
and aired by shafts at regular intervals. In St. Petersburg you are told
that more than half the cost of the city is under the surface of the
earth; at Nijni-Novgorod the statement is certainly true. Peter the
Great at one time designed establishing his capital here. Could he have
foreseen the existence of railroads, he would certainly have done so.
Nijni-Novgorod is now nearer to Berlin than the Russian frontier was
fifty years ago. St. Petersburg is an accidental city; Nature and the
destiny of the empire are both opposed to its existence; and a time will
come when its long lines of palaces shall be deserted for some new
capital, in a locality at once more southern and more central.

Another walk through the streets of the Fair enabled me to analyze the
first confused impression, and separate the motley throng of life into
its several elements. I shall not attempt, however, to catch and paint
its ever-changing, fluctuating character. Our limited visit allowed us
to see only the more central and crowded streets. Outside of these, for
miles, extend suburbs of iron, of furs, wool, and other coarser
products, brought together from the Ural, from the forests towards the
Polar Ocean, and from the vast extent o