178 By Stream and Sea. 



A contrast truly to the modern rink, by daylight, and in 

 the dog-days ! 



A military spectacle in St. Petersburg means a peremp- 

 tory stoppage of the main thoroughfares, any thoroughfares 

 in truth required for the passage of the soldiers. At ten 

 o'clock the Nevski and its principal feeders were under 

 martial law. The gendarmes, who performed the duties of 

 mounted police, and who were as military as any of the 

 soldiers, never permitted you to argue or explain. Before a 

 preliminary word could be uttered they would make a 

 vicious pounce at your horse's head, and send him another 

 way with choice Muscovite oaths. Different regiments were 

 drawn up in different squares and streets, waiting for the 

 order to march towards the Winter Palace. The main 

 body of the troops mustered in the Isaac Plaz, and in the 

 public gardens running along the entire length of the Ad- 

 miralty and offering an unbroken avenue from the Boulevard 

 to the Palace Yard. This used to be bare rough ground, 

 and it is still known by the name of St. Isaac's plain, 

 although some really fine gardens have been already laid 

 out and partially planted. 



The space before the palace presented a most striking 

 scene when, after passing by soldiers for a whole hour, I 

 arrived before the palace to find still nothing but soldiers as 

 far as the eye could reach, fifty thousand men and more 

 being that day brought from the barracks and country 

 stations to furnish a military spectacle. There was a leaden 

 wintry sky, and the roofs of the houses across the Neva 

 were white with newly-fallen snow. Sledges you could see 

 moving like insects over the ice. Spires and domes of 

 oriental-looking churches rose above the monotonous lines 



