AKRIVAL AT ST. PETERSBUEG. 495 



the leaders, sometimes two peasants sat side by side on 

 the box — one driving the leaders, the other the four 

 wheelers, harnessed abreast after the usual Russian 

 fashion ; for two stages only, a man bolder than usual 

 gathered up the mass of reins, and drove the whole team 

 single-handed. This part of the interior of Russia is 

 not so ugly as that country is popularly supposed to be ; 

 where flat, it is generally well-wooded with pine and 

 birch, and between Mohilef and Vitebsk, where the water- 

 shed between the Dnieper and Dwina is crossed, the 

 country becomes really hilly. The autumn tints on the 

 foliage were glorious. We accomplished the 360 miles in 

 seventy hours, and reached Vitebsk early on Thursday 

 morning. There we came upon one of the yet-unfinished 

 threads of the web of European railways which will soon 

 spread itself over the whole of Russia. The train carried 

 us in twenty-four hours to St. Petersburg, where we arrived 

 ten days after leaving Odessa, having, with the exception 

 of our halts of one day at Birzoula, and two at KiefF, 

 travelled day and night. 



Anything connected with the Caucasus, a country 

 associated in the national mind with a long and victorious 

 straggle, is sure to attract attention at St. Petersburg. 

 The notices of our ascents of Kazbek and Elbruz, which 

 had appeared during the summer in the newspapers, had 

 created considerable interest, and we received, on our 

 arrival in the capital, many kind invitations, most of which, 

 owing to the shortness of our stay, we were compelled, 

 much against our wish, to decline. A matter of more serious 

 regret to us was the miscarriage of an invitation to be 

 present at a review of the Czarewitch's regiment of Cossacks, 

 held in the Great Riding School. We did not receive the 

 Imperial commands until it was too late to obey them, 

 and were thus deprived of an opportunity of presenting 



