NOETHEEN EUSSIA. 



CHAPTER II. 



CEONSTADT. 



is nothing very imposing about Cronstadt I 

 -- mean in the sense in which Gibraltar, or Quebec, or 

 any such mountain fortresses are imposing. But to a skilled 

 eye the soldier lying on the ground behind a bush with 

 an Enfield rifle, is much more awing than a huge Goliath 

 with his spear boastfully challenging the armies of Israel ; 

 and so these forts, built on low islands, or rising out of 

 the water like three-storied cotton-factories, have a firm, 

 dogged, business look about them. They are evidently 

 built for guns, and for nothing else, to knock down every- 

 thing, and to defy anything to return the compliment. 



And so with great respect we first passed Fort Alex- 

 ander, rising out of the sea on our left, and Peter Vahki 

 on an island to the right (a narrow channel intervening), 



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