ed
through archipelago after archipelago of islands, some with bold and rocky
shores, and others sloping greenly down to the tranquil sea. Having passed
the Aland Islands, one of which, not thirty miles from the coast of
Sweden, has been seized and strongly fortified by her powerful and
unscrupulous neighbor, we turned into a narrow inlet, and touched Russian
soil at Abo, the ancient capital of Finland.

Here we made our first acquaintance with those fascinating gentry, whom
his Imperial Majesty deputes to watch that nothing treasonable or
contraband finds entrance into his dominions. Our intercourse here was,
however, brief, our passports merely being demanded, and permission
granted us to go on shore while the steamer was detained. At Cronstadt and
St. Petersburg we formed a more intimate if not more agreeable
acquaintance with these functionaries. Setting out again we coasted
eastward up the Gulf of Finland, passing the grim fortress of Sveaborg,
with its eight hundred guns, and garrison of fifteen thousand men, and
shot up the beautiful bay to Helsingfors, one of the great naval stations
of Russia. Touching at Revel, on the opposite shore of the Gulf of
Finland, we ran due east up the Gulf, encountering the great Russian
summer fleet, which was performing its annual manoeuvres, and on the
morning after leaving Helsingfors came in sight of the shipping and
fortifications of Cronstadt. As we crept slowly up the narrow and winding
channel, by which alone the harbor can be reached, and passed successively
the grim lines of batteries which command every portion of it, we were
forced to confess that it formed a fitting outpost to a great military
power.

Cronstadt is not only the chief naval depot of Russia, but is properly the
port of St. Petersburg, as the capital is inaccessible to vessels drawing
more than eight or nine feet of water. Hence Cronstadt is included in the
St. Petersburg customs-district, and vessels clear indifferently for
either, and are subject to only a single customs-house examination. It
forms the key to the capital, which would be entirely at the mercy of any
fleet which should once pass its batteries. It has therefore been
fortified so strongly as to be apparently impregnable to all the navies of
the world. We came to anchor under the guns of the fortress; and were soon
put under the charge of our amiable friends of the custom-house, who took
complete possession of the deck, while the passengers