ST. PETERSBURG 33 



me to two wrong hotels and wasted considerable 

 time. I tried to stop him by poking him in the back 

 with my umbrella, but he only replied " seychas," 

 which means " immediately," and continued his wild 

 career. Finally he landed me at my hotel, where 

 I took good care to pay him his exact fare, making 

 a mfental comparison between him and the average 

 London cabby, which was very much in favour of 

 the latter. 



The porter and manager of the H6tel d'Europe 

 both speak English. I had many interesting con- 

 versations with the latter, who is a Swiss. His face 

 shone when I related incidents of my climbs in his 

 native Alps. He introduced me to a Frenchman, an 

 African explorer, who told me that he was the first 

 to discover the African pigmies. He agreed to spend 

 a night with me and relate his adventures, but the 

 Czar gave him an audience that day, so that I was 

 disappointed. 



The Nevsky Prospect is the fashionable thorough- 

 fare of St. Petersburg. One is struck by the German 

 character of the handsome, well-stocked shops. The 

 street itself is very broad and constitutes the main 

 thoroughfare of this great city; but it contains no 

 feature to denote that it is Russian. St. Isaac's 

 Cathedral, an imposing structure not far from the end 

 of the Nevsky Prospect, deserves a visit. Its four 

 lofty porticoes are supported by magnificent granite 

 monoliths from Finland. These monoliths are 

 1 1 2 feet in height. The church is surmounted by 

 a cupola-shaped dome of brightly burnished gold. 

 The inside is of Italian and French marble, and is 

 luxuriously decorated. The golden screen, called the 

 " ikonostas," which separates the inner sanctuary 

 from the body of the church, is beautifully decorated 

 with pillars of malachite and lapis lazuli. Several 

 of the pictures are skilfully worked in mosaic. Gold 



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