et down the broad and rapid
Neva. But let a strong west wind heap up the waters of the Gulf just as
the breaking up of Lake Ladoga takes place, and the waters from above and
from below would suffice to inundate the whole city, while all its
palaces, monuments, and temples would be crushed between the masses of
ice, like "Captain Ahab's" boat in the ivory jaws of "Moby Dick." Nothing
is more probable than such a coincidence. It often blows from the west for
days together in the spring; and it is almost a matter of certainty that
the ice will break up between the middle and the end of April. Let but a
westerly storm arise on the fatal day of that brief fortnight, and
farewell to the City of the Czars. Any steamer that bridges the Atlantic
may be freighted with the tidings that St. Petersburg has sunk deeper than
plummet can sound in the Finnish marshes from which it has so magically
risen.

[Illustration.]

The Inundation of 1824.

Nor is this merely a matter of theory and speculation. Terrible
inundations, involving enormous destruction of life and property have
occurred. The most destructive of these took place on the 17th of
November, 1824. A strong west wind heaped the waters of the Gulf up into
the narrow funnel of the Neva, and poured them, slowly at first, along the
streets. As night began to close in the rise of the waters became more and
more rapid. Cataracts poured into doors, windows, and cellars. The sewers
spouted up columns, like whales in the death-agony. The streets were
filled with abandoned equipages, and deserted horses struggling in the
rising waters. The trees in the public squares were crowded with those who
had climbed them for refuge. During the night the wind abated, and the
waters receded. But the pecuniary damage of that one night is estimated at
twenty millions of dollars, and the loss of lives at eight thousand. All
through the city a painted line traced upon the walls designates the
height to which the waters reached. Were ever house-painters before
engaged upon a task so ghastly? But suppose that, instead of November,
April had been written as the date of this inundation, when the waters
from the Lake above had met those from the Gulf below; St. Petersburg
would have been numbered among the things that were--_Ilium fuit_.

Nothing of the kind can be more imposing than the view of St. Petersburg
from the tower of the Admiralty upon so