, looked like idle sulky fellows shut up in
a poor-house with nothing to do.

"Very fine ships," said Cousin Giles; "but without the men to handle
them, in spite of their long guns, they are like dogs with broken legs:
they may bark and howl, and gnash their teeth, but they can do no
further harm. We should not despise Russia, but we need not be
frightened at her."

Their helmsman, who stood with the tiller between his legs, with his
hands crossed and hid in his "Bosom," was a picture in himself. A low
cap covered a head of shaggy reddish hair, while his thick straggly
beard was of the same hue. His upper man was clothed in a coarse white
jersey, beneath which appeared the tail of a red-striped shirt, while
his widish green cloth trousers were tucked in high leather black boots.
He was a fine big fellow, and had a seaman's air about him, so that he
might have served as a model of a Scandinavian rover ten centuries ago.
There were a number of other, to the young travellers, strange-looking
figures, helmeted, long-cloaked, thick-bearded and moustached beings,
who, with piles of luggage, crowded the decks; and in this numerous
company away they hurried towards the modern capital of the Czars.

CHAPTER THREE.

Distant View of Saint Petersburg--How it is built--Enter the City of
the Czar--Its Appearance at First Sight--Mount a Drosky--The
Travellers reach their Hotel--Outline Sketch of Saint Petersburg--A
Tour round the City--Its Palaces and Public Buildings.

"There it is! There it is! There's the city--Saint Petersburg itself!"
exclaimed the young travellers, as, directly ahead, appeared rising out
of the water a line of golden domes, and tall spires and towers,
glittering brightly in the sun, like some magic city of ancient romance.
Conspicuous above all was the superb pile of the Isaac Church, the most
modern sacred edifice in the city, and by far the finest; and near it
was seen the graceful tower of the Admiralty, tapering up like a golden
needle into the blue sky. Soon other buildings--hospitals, and palaces,
and houses, and towers, either not so lofty or farther off--rose to
view; but no land could be discovered on which their bases might rest.
This vast city, they learned, was built by the imperial will of Peter
the Great on a marsh, he hoping to make it a great maritime port. Every
house in it stands on a platform of piles, driven far down into the soft
ground. Before a building can be erec