6 THE FOREST IAKDS OF FINLAND. 



It is throughout the most magnificent city-river-scenery 

 I have seen ; nor is it devoid of historical associations. The 

 Fortress, like the Tower of London, is the State prison of 

 the metropolis. 



In the Winter Palace, Catherine II., known as Catherine 

 the Great, held her Court. It faces St. Isaac's Plain, the 

 scene of the military insurrection which occurred when 

 Nicholas ascended the throne ; and adjacent to it, standing 

 on the plain, is Alexander's Pillar, of which mention has 

 been made, a monolith erected and dedicated to the memory 

 of Alexander I. 



At the main entrance to the Summer Gardens is a large 

 elegant shrine, with obratzes or sacred pictures, and ever- 

 burning lamps, erected on a spot on which Alexander II. 

 was fired at by an assassin. 



In an upper corner of the Winter Gardens stands the 

 first palace of Peter the Great, to which he removed from 

 the hut in which he lived while it was being built. 



Beyond, but within sight of these, is the noble bridge, 

 leading to what is called the Finnish side, and within a 

 quarter of a mile from this bridge is the station, the 

 terminal station of the Finnish railway, a little way from 

 the landing place. From this the passenger mast walk ; 

 but by tramway car or other conveyance the station may 

 be reached from almost any part of the city. 



For several miles the Finnish railway passes on the 

 one side a far-stretching successions of villas, the summer 

 residences of hundreds, I may venture to say of thousands, 

 of the well- to-do inhabitants of St. Petersburg; on the 

 other it passes stretches of forests of birch and pine, and 

 of level land strewn with boulders of various bulk; an I on 

 both sides, interspersed with these are cabbage-gardens 

 and fields of strawberries. Beyond these, the villas and 

 gardens give place to the dominating forests and boulder- 

 strewn land, upon which are seen patches of rye, and of 

 potatoes, and oats. 



