2 74 THROUGH RUSSIA ON A MUSTANG. 



September. Altogether it may be said to last two 

 months. At the opening ceremonies, flags are hoisted 

 all over the city, and processions of priests with 

 crosses and ikons pass through the streets. Squads of 

 police arrive from Moscow and St. Petersburg, and 

 from July I to September, the Governor of the 

 province is invested with full powers, even of life and 

 death, as in military government. 



For ten months in the year, the long rows of sub- 

 stantial stone and brick shops, the cobbled streets, the 

 numerous hotels and palatial restaurants of the modern 

 fair-city of Nijni Novgorod are deserted, save by a 

 few watchmen. During the seasons of high water, 

 at the melting of the winter snows in the northern 

 forests, the lower stories of the houses are often under 

 water, and in order to get about the streets a visitor 

 would require a boat. 



At the thawing of the Siberian rivers, in April and 

 May, the movement of goods and merchants toward 

 this rendezvous begins. Down the rivers, in barges 

 and in steamers, wool, hides, tallow, pelts, and other 

 bulky produce from Siberia gravitate toward this 

 common center, and, during the fair, occupy the 

 " Siberisky priestin ' in huge stacks, covered with 

 canvas, or long sheds roofed with tin. As fair time 

 draws near, a similar movement of the goods for which 

 this raw material is to be exchanged begins from the 

 West. Goods are packed up and shipped to Nijni 

 from every city in Europe, and, indirectly, through 

 Russian and German houses, from America also. It 

 would be difficult to mention an article that one could 

 not buy in the streets offhand, and quite impossible to 



