﻿THE 



GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 



NEW SERIES. DECADE II. VOL. IV. 



No. VIII— AUGUST, 1877. 



I. — Across Europe and Asia. — Travelling Notes. 



By Professor John Milne, F.G.S. ; 

 Imperial College of Eugineering, Tokei, japan. 



(Continued from p. 297.) 



Part II. — From Si. Petersburg to Perm. 



Contents. — St. Petersburg, its Public Buildings, Museums, Monuments, etc. — 

 Moscow.— Nijui Novgorod. — Kiver Volga. — Eiver Kama. — Perm. 



\TATURE has by no means contributed her charms to the adorn- 

 1.1 ment of St. Petersburg. In fact, it is built upon a marsh, in a 

 situation so flat that it is not until you have almost landed that you 

 can see anything of this great city. The only object in choosing 

 such a site appears in a sentiment of its founder, who wished to 

 have " a window looking out into Europe." In some openings made 

 in the streets and public gardens, I saw sections of from 15ft. to 20ft. 

 thick, which gave some idea of the weak foundation on which 

 certainly a large part of this great northern capital has been placed. 

 It was all a bluish-grey sand. Beneath this sand I was told there 

 was a bed of clay. Eut for this, if I may judge from the weak 

 foundations which I saw, the look-out of the Russian Czar might by 

 this time -have entirely sunk from view.^ The low situation of St. 

 Petersburg, together with its marshy surroundings, at certain seasons 

 gives rise to a mild malaria; and if you visit the city in summer- 

 time, you will find that all the wealthy inhabitants have, in con- 

 sequence, migrated towards the sea. 



On the day after my arrival I paid a visit to the Government 

 School of Mines, where there are about 450 students. Before entering, 

 as at other higher government schools, the candidate must pass an 

 examination or produce a diploma from one of the Gymnasiums 

 which exist in nearly all the towns throughout the kingdom. He 

 then enters upon a fi.ve years' course, paying about 30 roubles (nearly 

 £5) annually. The system of education is very like that adopted in 

 many other European Mining Schools, but very different from that 

 which is followed out in the Government School of England, — many 

 subjects being taught, and each one spread over a great number of 

 years. In such a system a student, leaving before the curriculum is 

 run, does so with a smattering of much, but with no thoroughness 



1 Peter the Great, who, after dispossessing the Swedes, in 1702, of this neighbour- 

 hood, commenced, in the spring of 1703, to build the town, drafting annually 40,000 

 men from distant parts of the empire for this purpose. 



DECADE II. — VOL. IV. — NO. Till. 22 



