4 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 
rays of ared setting sun in most transcendent splendour. 
Gradually we left CEland in the distance, but the sun had 
illumined the vault of heaven, and there remained a glittering 
pathway over the waters of the Baltic for many hours, until 
night shrouded the scene. On that occasion I observed a 
ship in the ball of the sun, as he dipped to his rest below 
the horizon. 
The day following we entered the Gulf of Finland. On 
the 20th, when off Hogland island, a Kestrel (Tinnunculus 
alaudarius) paid us a visit, which was the only other bird 
we saw, for the same evening we anchored outside the 
bristling batteries of Cronstadt. Thousands of half-wild 
Pigeons were swarming about the harbour, and I recognised 
my old friend the Grey Crow, (Corvus cornix L.) not often 
to be seen in our country in August, but here in Russia 
they are stay-at-home birds, and probably do not migrate 
at all. Their tameness at St. Petersburg would shock 
Alexander Selkirk. They stalk about the streets with the 
air of a landed proprietor, who is kindly permitting the 
wood merchants to pile their timber on his wharf. It is 
said they have been even known to seize the sacred 
Pigeons! 
The city of St. Petersburgh is built almost entirely upon 
piles. Nevertheless, it is on such a low bad site, that if 
Lake Laddga overflowed, and a certain conjunction of 
wind and tide took place, it would infallibly be swamped; 
and a good many people expect that this will happen some 
day. 
The finest edifice is the Isaac Cathedral, beyond all 
question. It is in the form of a Greek cross. Its grand 
simplicity is very effective. Hemmed in by no houses like 
our St. Paul’s, yet with all the finest buildings in the 
capital grouped around it, its noble porticos, its colossal 
proportions free from all meretricious ornament, and its 
vast gilded dome tower up into the air. It is surmounted 
