resents it to the Emperor, informing him that his gondola, the first
which has that year crossed the river, is the precursor of navigation. The
Czar drains the cup to the health of the capital, and returns it, filled
with ducats, to the commandant. Formerly it was observed, by some
mysterious law of natural science, that this goblet grew larger and
larger, year by year, so that the Czar who had swallowed Poland without
flinching, and stood ready to perform the same operation upon Turkey,
stood in danger of suffocation from his growing bumpers. Some wise man at
last suggested that this tendency to the enlargement of the goblet might
be counteracted, by limiting the number of ducats returned by way of
acknowledgment. The suggestion was acted upon, and, greatly to the comfort
of the Imperial purse and stomach, was found to be perfectly successful.
The sum now given is two hundred ducats. This goblet of Neva water is
surely the most costly draught ever quaffed since the time when
brown-fronted Cleopatra dissolved the pearl in honor of mad Mark Antony.

The most striking winter spectacle of St. Petersburg, to a foreigner, is
that of the ice mountains. They are in full glory during "Butter Week"--of
which more anon--when Russia seems to forget her desire to be any thing but
Russian. The great Place of the Admiralty is given up to the popular
celebrations, and filled with refreshment-booths, swings, and slides. To
form these ice mountains a narrow scaffold is raised to the height of some
thirty or forty feet. This scaffold has on one side steps for the purpose
of ascending it; on the other it slopes off, steeply at first, and then
more gradually, until it finally terminates on a level. Upon this long
slope blocks of ice are laid, over which water is poured, which by
freezing unites the blocks, and furnishes a uniform surface, down which
the merry crowd slide upon sledges, or more frequently upon blocks of
smooth ice cut into an appropriate form.

Two of these mountains usually stand opposite and fronting each other,
their tracks lying close together, side by side.

[Illustration.]

Ice Mountain.

This is a national amusement all over Russia. Ice mountains are raised in
the court-yards of all the chief residents in the capital. And an
imitation of them, for summer use, covered with some polished wood,
instead of ice, is often found in the halls of private dwellings