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

the magic of the vapoury nights of the North ; though vapoury, luminous, and — though it cannot be understood without seeing them—full of poetic majesty.

On this evening the disposition of the light was such as to involve the west of the city in obscurity, though the heaven above was clear ; whilst in the east, everything on earth was brightly illuminated, and stood in white relief against a dark sky. This contrast produced to the eye an effect that words could render but very imperfectly. The slow melting of the tints of twilight, which appeared to perpetuate the day in struggling against an ever-increasing gloom, communicated to all nature a mysterious movement; the low lands of the city, with their structures little raised above the banks of the Neva, seemed to oscillate betwixt the sky and the water, which gave the impression of their being about to vanish in the void.

Holland, although it enjoys a better climate and a richer vegetation, might convey an idea of some of the streets of Petersburg, but this would only be by day-light, for the polar nights teem with apparitions of wonder all their own. Several of the towers and steeples of the city are, as I have already said, surmounted with lofty turrets, which resemble the masts of vessels; at night, these ornaments of the Russian public buildings, gilded according to the national custom, seem to float in the expanse, and, when not lost in the shade, shine with a thousand reflections similar to the glossy scales of the lizard.

It is now the beginning of August, the end of summer in these latitudes, nevertheless a small portion of the heavens remains luminous the whole night. This glory of mother-of-pearl, set in the horizon, is