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

138 PETERSBURG IN THE EMPEROR'S ABSENCE.

complete, as far as I am able, the picture of this vast and singular empire.

It is impossible to describe the dulness of St. Petersburg during the absence of the emperor. At no time does the city exhibit what may be called gaiety; but without the court, it is a desert. The reader is aware that it is constantly menaced with destruction by the sea. This morning, while traversing its solitary quays and empty streets, I said to myself, " Surely the city must be about to be inundated; the inhabitants have fled, and the water will soon recover possession of the marsh." Nothing of the kind : Petersburg is lifeless only because the Emperor is at Peterhoíf. The water of the Neva, driven back by the sea, rises so high, and the banks are so low, that this large inlet, with its innumerable arms, resembles a stagnant inundation, an overflowing marsh. They call the Neva a river, but it is for want of a more precise signification. At Petersburg the Neva has already become the sea; higher up, it is a channel of a few leagues in length, which serves to convey the superfluous waters of Lake Ladoga into the Gulf of Finland.

At the period when the quays of Petersburg were built, a taste for structures of small elevation prevailed among the Russians. The adoption of this taste was very injudicious in a country where the snow, during eight months in the year, diminishes the height of the Avails by six feet; and where the surface of the soil presents no variety that might, in any degree, relieve the monotony of the regular circle which forms the unchangeable line of horizon, serving as a frame for scenes level as the ocean. In