-The
Holy Gate--Great Bell of Moscow--Tower of Ivan Veleki--Wonderful View
from the Summit--The Tulip City.

"And now, my boys, we may pack up and be off for Moscow," exclaimed
Cousin Giles as they reached the Gostiniza Benson, after settling all
the preliminary passport business, without which no one, either of high
or low degree, subject or foreigner, can move from one city to another
in the empire of the Czar. There is no great difficulty in this
passport business, and no great annoyance; but still it is apt to ruffle
the temper of the most mild and patient men, to have to spend the whole
of one day, during their stay in each place, in performing a task which
might well be dispensed with, not to speak of having to disburse several
roubles on each occasion; it is not, therefore, surprising that
everybody who writes about Russia should grumble at the system, and
occupy many pages in abusing it.

The Moscow railroad station is at the end of the Nevsky Prospect. The
travellers reached it soon after ten o'clock. Only one train started in
the day, so that to miss it was to lose a day. The building is a fine
one. It is entirely under Government superintendence, and the
stationmaster, and ticket-clerks, and porters, and policemen, and guards
are all in military uniform; it makes a person very much inclined to
behave himself. A passenger must get to the station in good time, for
there are all sorts of preliminaries to be gone through. One cannot
jump out of a cab, rush to the ticket-office, sing out, "Porter, bring
along my luggage!" jump into a carriage, and away to Edinburgh or
Holyhead without a question being asked;--oh no! People do not go ahead
quite so fast in the kingdom of the Czar. Before a ticket can be got,
the passport must be shown at one office, where it is stamped; then one
goes over to another office, where it is examined and the ticket
granted,--all in the most deliberate way, rather trying to a person who
fancies that he is late. Then the luggage must be taken to another
place, and a ticket bought for it, and paid for according to the number
of articles; then it must be delivered over the counter at another
place; and lastly, the perplexed traveller is allowed to go on the
platform and select his seat. The carriages are very long, the
entrance, after the American model, being at each end, where there is a
platform, a passage running down the whole length of the carriage, so
that people can