palms of the searching
officials have a wonderful tendency to abate the rigor of the
examinations, which being completed, and a silver ruble paid to the
officer in attendance, the traveler is at liberty to go on shore in search
of a hotel or lodgings.

The instructed traveler will resist the seductions of the Russian hotels,
with their magnificent fronts, and Russian, German, and French signboards;
for once past the portals he will find that the noble staircases and broad
passages are filthy beyond all western imagination; and the damask
curtains and velvet sofas are perfect parks for all those "small deer" who
make day and night hideous. If he be wise, he will make his way to some
boarding-house upon the _Quai Anglais_, conducted by an emigrant from some
country where the primitive faith in the virtues of dusters and soap and
water is cherished.

No sooner is the stranger established than he must take an interpreter,
and make the best of his way to the police office, to get a permit of
residence. This he obtains after an interrogation from a very civil
functionary, to whom must be paid a proportionate fee. But this permit is
good only for the capital and its immediate vicinity. If the Russians are
slow to welcome the coming, they are none the more ready to speed the
parting guest. Mr. Smith and his friend Brown must not leave the capital
till they have published an advertisement announcing their intention in
three successive numbers of the Gazette, an operation which consumes a
space of from a week to ten days.

These preliminaries duly attended to, we were at liberty to commence our
examination of St. Petersburg. The traveler who first sees the city under
a summer sun is always struck with amazement. Its public places are so
vast, its monuments so numerous and imposing, its quays so magnificent,
and its edifices, public and private, so enormous, and constructed
apparently of materials so massive and enduring, that he is ready to
pronounce it the most magnificent city upon earth.

A century and a half ago the low marshy shores of the Neva, and the
islands formed by the branches into which it separates just before it
empties itself into the Gulf of Finland were inhabited only by a few
scattered Finnish fishermen. But commanding the entrance to Lake Ladoga,
it was a military position of some importance, and the Swedes had long
maintained there a fortress, the possession of which had been often
unavailingly contested