Down the Volga. 181 



DOWN THE VOLGA. 



BY PROF. J. L. BUDD, OF IOWA. 



If not dignified with the title of lecture, a few notes from personal ob- 

 servation on the scenery, cities, people and commerce of the Volga river may- 

 have some interest. This great drainage center is navigable for steamers to 

 Tver, 2,150 miles above its inflow into the Caspian. Tourists who can not 

 give more than six weeks to a study of this ancient highway of commerce 

 will do well to approach the river by way of Moscow, reaching Nizhni-Nov- 

 gorod about the 20th of August, when the great fair is fully stocked with the 

 varied and peculiar products of the far east, and its strange medley of a 

 quarter of a million of the merchants and traders of the Orient and the 

 Occident. 



We alight from the cars at Nizhni, on the edge of the fair grounds, on 

 the west banks of the Volga, and at once observe that the city is built on the 

 bluffs on the opposite bank of the stream. We had been told that we would 

 gain time by first taking a bird's-eye view of the city, the fair grounds, and 

 the far-reaching valleys of the Volga and Oka, which here unite, from the 

 highest point of the bluffs back of the city. From this elevation of over 700 

 feet the clear air of this interior steppe region permits an extended pano- 

 ramic view that will long linger in memory. 



Our attention from this point is first directed to the forest of masts and 

 smoke-stacks of steamers, intermingled with quaint barges, which cover the 

 waters of the Oka and Volga as far as the vision can extend. The eyes next 

 linger on the hundreds of steamers, vessels and barges, packed in like sar- 

 dines in a box, along the ten miles of wharfage of the fair grounds on the 

 borders of the two rivers. With the field-glasses at hand, even the faces and 

 the rags of the Tartar laborers who are discharging the queer cargoes may 

 be plainly seen. 



Back of the wharfs the rows of trading bazaars of the fair grounds ex- 

 tend across the level plain from river to river, and extend westward as far as 

 the vision extends. Our deep interest in the river scenes, the great extent 

 and queer expression of the fair grounds, and the back setting to the north 

 and south of harvest fields, dotted with forests, villages and gardens, is such 

 that we quite forget to take a glance at the strange oriental city spread out 

 on the bluffs below us. When we come to this part of the picture, the gilded 

 domes and gaudily painted towers of the forty -nine cathedrals first engage 

 our attention. As to the expression of the domes, we can compare them to 

 that of our new Capitol at DesMoines, as it is truly oriental in size, shape and 

 gilding, but the rainbow colors of the towers and the roofs of the houses 

 have no counterpart in this country or West Europe. The uniform brill- 

 iancy of these colors, and the even whiteness of all whitewashed surfaces of 

 fences and walls, seem to be due to a degree of skill in mixing and preparing 

 colors peculiar to the east, and possibly in part to the aridity of the air dur- 

 ing a large portion of the year. 



