JOURNEY FROM ST. PETERSBURG. 5 



Their journey took them from St. Petersburg, through 

 3\v and ^Nijni-Xovgorod to the Volga and the Kama, 

 and thence by laud to their destination. 



The Moscow railway station in St. Petersburg is situ- 

 ated at the further extremity of the Nevskoi Prospekt, a 

 noble, spacious street, a hundred and thirty feet in breadth, 

 and of proportionate length. It and other two prospekts 

 diverge at equal angles from the central spire of the 

 Admiralty, which, like St. Paul's Cathedral in London, 

 and the Tuilleries in Paris, may be considered the centre 

 of the city. 



Beyond the Admiralty, on the one hand, stands the 

 Winter Palace, on the other the Synod-House and the 

 Senate-House ; behind is the Neva in its full flow ; imme- 

 diately in front is the Alexandra Sad, formerly known as 

 the St. Isaac Plain, a noble quadrangle, surrounded by 

 noble buildings. I have seen massed on it a hundred and 

 five thousand soldiers, with their entire equipments 

 infantry, cavalry, and artillery Russians, Finns, Cossacks, 

 Circassians, and representatives of various Caucasian and 

 Trans-Caucasian tribes ; and, according to estimated num- 

 bers, ninety-five thousand spectators on surrounding plat- 

 forms and roofs, the whole being visible from every spot. 

 It was on the occasion of the consecration of a magnifi- 

 cent monolith pillar erected there to the memory of 

 Alexander the First. The effect, when all were hushed, 

 and the quavering voice of the Metropolitan reading 

 the prayers of consecration, came in undulations over 

 the heads of the soldiery, produced a thrill which is 

 even now reproduced as I recall the incident ; but a 

 more intense thrill was produced when the whole at 

 one moment rose from the attitude of worship on the con- 

 clusion of the prayers the horsemen raising the bowed 

 head and replacing the plumed helmet, the footmen rising 

 from a kneeling posture. The scene was like unto some 

 of the grosser representations of the expected resurrection, 

 and the pictures formed by fancy of the prophet Ezekiel's 

 vision of the vallev ->f dry bones: 'And there \VM 



