340 RUSSIA IX EUROPE. 



the sea, and commanding an extensive view of the roadstead and wooded shores 

 of Finhxnd, This was the favourite residence of Peter the Great, and west of 

 it is Oranienbaum, another imperial château surrounded by pavilions and villas, 

 over against the island of Kotlin and the formidable granite batteries of Kronstadt, 

 Previous to the reign of Alexander II. upwards of £8,000,000 had been expended 

 on this bulwark of the capital, and since then hundreds of thousands have been 

 spent in adding to its defences, including two revolving turrets doubly 

 strengthened with iron plates and teak. Kronstadt is mainly a military town, 

 and most of its inhabitants are employed in its arsenals, forts, and navy. The 

 rest are engaged in the transhipment of goods between the lighters from the 

 capital and the large vessels from the high seas. In winter the ice becomes the 

 highway of traffic. A temporary hotel is erected midway, with intermediate 

 stations to succour travellers overtaken by the fogs or arrested by fissures in 

 the ice. In 1881 the two cities will be connected by a railway running along the 

 embankment of the Kronstadt Canal. 



In the interior are other towns, palaces, châteaux, villas, pleasure grounds, 

 dependent on the capital. Amongst them is Tzarhoie- Sclo, the " Imperial Village," 

 15 miles to the south, the favourite retreat of Catherine II., around which an 

 industrial town of some importance has sprung up. In the north-west is the 

 Pulkovo Observatory, on an eminence 245 feet high, through which is drawn 

 the Russian meridian.* This observatory, associated with the observations of 

 Struve, will soon boast of the largest telescope in the world, which is now being 

 constructed at Cambi-idge, near Boston. Another observatory, specially devoted 

 to the study of meteorological and magnetic phenomena, has recently been 

 founded near Pavlosk, south of Tzarkoïe-Selo. 



♦ Longitude of Pulkovo, 30' 19' 36" E. Gr. ; latitude, 59" 46' 19" N. 



