and officers of the
vessel were directed to repair to the cabin to give an account of
themselves, their occupations, pursuits, and designs to these rude and
filthy representatives of the Czar. It was well for us that we had been in
a measure hardened to these annoyances by our previous Continental
experiences. Police and custom-house functionaries are nowhere famous for
civility, but the rudest and most unendurable specimens of that class whom
it has ever been my fortune to encounter are the lower orders of the
Russian officials. We could, however, congratulate ourselves that the
infliction was light in comparison to what it would have been had we
proceeded by land from Abo. There trunks, pockets, and pocket-books are
liable to repeated searches at different stations along the route. We were
told of travelers who had their boxes of tooth-powder carefully emptied,
and their soap-balls cut in two, in quest of something treasonable or
contraband.

But there is an end to all things human, even to Russian
police-examinations. Our passports were luckily all in order, and as our
steamer was cleared for St. Petersburg we escaped the vexations attendant
upon an inspection of luggage and a change of vessel. Every thing was put
under seal, even to an ancient umbrella which had borne the brunt of many
a shower in half the countries of Europe, to say nothing of storms it had
weathered previous to its transatlantic voyage.

After our seven hours' detention, we found ourselves at last steaming up
the transparent Neva, and straining our eyes to get a first view of the
City of Peter. After something more than an hour's paddling against the
rapid current of the river, the gilt dome of the Cathedral first caught
the eye, followed by the sight of dome after dome, tower upon tower, spire
after spire, gilt and spangled with azure stars, long before the flat
roofs and walls of the city were visible.

No sooner had our steamer touched the granite _quai_ than it was taken
possession of by a horde of custom-house and police officers, a shade or
two less filthy and disgusting than their Cronstadt brethren; for it is a
noticeable fact, the higher you proceed in official grade, the more
endurable do the Russian officials become, till you reach the heads of the
departments, who are as civil and well-behaved a body of functionaries as
ever clasped fingers upon a bribe. A few copecks or rubles, as the case
may require, insinuated into the expectant