ng ins-and-outs, verandahs, and passages. There was a
gauze covering to the verandah, which effectually kept out the flies and
moths, and other teasing things. A stream of water ran at the foot of
the garden, and close to it was built a vapour-bath, and a
dressing-house for a plunge-bath. After breakfast, a carriage and
several little country carts--telegas they are called--came to the door
to take us to our destination. The carts were drawn by one horse in the
shafts and another in the left side, with traces secured partly to the
wheels and partly to a rough bar of birchwood fastened across the cart.
They are in shape like boats with stem and stern cut off, and the ribs
outside instead of in. Each holds two persons seated on horse-cloths
and sheepskins, with their feet in straw. Cousin Giles called the bar
to which the traces were fastened, a sprit-sail yard. The drivers were
boys, who sat in front of the carts. Off we rattled down a steep hill,
and through a bog, and were quickly in Finland. The boys tried to keep
ahead of each other, and galloped down hills and up hills, and along the
road at a tremendous pace;--it was rare fun. The road was sometimes
sandy, sometimes gravelly, and always undulating. After a little time
we had some pretty views, with a chain of lakes on either side of us.
Then we reached the village of Toxova, with its Lutheran church and
parsonage, situated on a wooded hill above the lakes. We stopped at the
village, and went to a cottage with a large room with a table and
benches, and a verandah looking down on the lakes. Here we hired a
samovar, and spread our eatables. The chief dish was a salmon-pie, and
a capital dish it is. A whole salmon (or another fish may be used) is
rolled up in a coat of chopped eggs, and rice or other grain, first well
boiled, and then covered with a coating of bread-dough, which is next
baked like a loaf of bread. It is eaten cold. After dinner we walked
through woods of birch and elder to a hill with a cross on it, above a
lake, whence we got a view of Saint Petersburg.

"We altogether had one of the pleasantest days we passed in Russia, for
though cities and fine sights are very interesting, there is nothing
like the country after all, in my opinion. Another day we received an
invitation from some friends to visit them at Peteroff, a village formed
by a collection of villas and palaces on the south side of the Gulf of
Finland. It can be reached by l