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

citing. This region inspires a healthful repose; it is a refuge from the encroachments of the age, and though level, open to the eye, and easily traversed, one feels here as much in solitude as thoim`h in the

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midst of an island difficult of access, and where man has not disfigured nature. Here repose is inevitable — the mind sleeps and Time folds his wings.

The people of Holstein and Mecklenburg possess a serene kind of beauty, which accords with the gentle and peaceable aspect of their land, and the coldness of their climate. The colour in their cheeks, the even surface of the country, the monotony of their habits, the uniform aspect of the landscape, all is in harmony.

The hardships which the fishermen have to encounter during winter, when, to reach the sea, they have to cross a border of three leagues of ice, whose broken surface often presents chasms that are perilous to overleap, impart a kind of excitement to a life that would be otherwise very monotonous. Without this winter campaign, the inhabitants of the coast would languish in the corner of their huts, wrapped in sheep skins. The opulence of the sea-bathers upon this fine shore, is a source from which the peasants during summer obtain sufficient to supply their necessities for the rest of the year, without exposing themselves to so much peril and fatigue ; but man wants more than the necessaries of life. Among the men of Travemnnde the winter fishery is the source of every superfluity; the dangers which they voluntarily face during this rude season, enable them to gratify their more elegant tastes. It is for earrings, or a chain of gold for the neck of his mistress, or for