Russia in 1839 -Empire of the Czar: A Journey Through Eternal Russia

FAEMS AND COUNTRY MANSIONS.105

by the thaw, transform, for about three months in the year, the low plains into lakes; namely for about six weeks after summer, and for as many after the winter season ; the rest of the year they continue marshes. The landscape remains the same. The villages still present the same double line of small wood houses, more or less ornamented with painted earvings, with their gable always facing the street, and flanked with a kind of enclosed court, or large shed open on one side. The country still continues the same monotonous though undulating plain, sometimes marshy, sometimes sandy; a few fields, wide pasture-ranges bounded by forests of fir, now at a distance, now close upon the road, sometimes well grown, more frequently scattered and stunted: sueh is the as-peet of all those vast regions. Here and there is to be seen a country-house, or large and mansion-like farm, to which an avenue of birch-trees forms the approach. These are the manor-houses, or residences of the proprietors of the land; and the traveller welcomes them on the road as he would an oasis in the desert.

In some provinces the cottages are built of elay ; in which case their appearance is more miserable, though still similar in general character: but from one end of the empire to the other, the greater number of the rustic dwellings are constructed of long

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and thick beams, earelessly hewn, but carefully eaulked with moss and resin. The Crimea, a country altogether southern, is an exception ; but, as compared to the whole empire, this country is but a point lost in immensity.

Monotony is the divinity of Russia; yet even this f 5