s on piles; the granite quays which line the Neva rest on
piles. The very foot-pavements can not be laid upon the ground, but must
be supported by piles. A great commercial city is maintained, the harbor
of which is as inaccessible to ships, for six months in the year, as the
centre of the desert of Sahara. In the neighboring country no part
produces any thing for human sustenance save the Neva, which furnishes ice
and fish. The severity of the climate is most destructive to the erections
of human hands; and St. Petersburg, notwithstanding its gay summer
appearance, when it emerges from the winter frosts, resembles a
superannuated belle at the close of the fashionable season; and can only
be put in proper visiting order by the assiduous services of hosts of
painters and plasterers. Leave the capital for a half century to the
unrepaired ravages of its wintry climate, and it would need a Layard to
unearth its monuments.

But sure as are the wasting inroads of time and the climate, St Petersburg
is in daily peril of an overthrow whose accomplishment would require but a
few hours. The Gulf of Finland forms a vast funnel pointing eastward, at
the extremity of which stands the city. No portion of the city is fifteen
feet above the ordinary level of the water. A strong westerly wind,
blowing directly into the mouth of the funnel, piles the water up so as to
lay the lower part of the city under water. Water is as much dreaded here,
and as many precautions are taken against it, as in the case of fire in
other cities. In other cities alarm-signals announce a conflagration; here
they give notice of an inundation. The firing of an alarm-gun from the
Admiralty, at intervals of an hour, denotes that the lower extremes of the
islands are under water, when flags are hung out from the steeples to give
warning of danger. When the water reaches the streets, alarm-guns are
fired every quarter of an hour. As the water rises the alarms grow more
and more frequent, until minute-guns summon boats to the assistance of the
drowning population.

So much for the lower jaw of the monster that lies in wait for the Russian
capital; now for the upper:--Lake Ladoga, which discharges its waters
through the Neva, is frozen over to an enormous thickness during the long
winter. The rapid northern spring raises its waters and loosens the ice
simultaneously; when the waters of the Gulf are at their usual level, the
accumulated ice and water find an easy outl