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

COMMERCIAL IMPORTANCE OF YAEOSLAF. 125

veniences of the heat, to dust, flies, and muscµiitos, that I can scarcely realise the idea of my deliverance from these scourges.

The city of Yaroslaf is an important entrepot for the interior commerce of Russia. By it, Petersburg comimmicates with Persia, the Caspian, and all Asia. The Volga, that great national and moving road, flows by the city, which is the central point of the interior navigation of the country — a navigation wisely directed, much boasted of by the subjects of the Czar, and one of the principal sources of their prosperity. It is with the Volga that the immense ramifications of canals are connected, that create the wealth of Russia.

The city, like all the other provincial cities in the empire, is vast in extent, and appears empty. The streets are immensely broad, the squares very spacious, and the houses in general stand far apart. The same style of architecture reigns from one end of the country to the other. The following dialogue will show the value the Russians place on their pretended classic edifices.

A man of intelligence said to me, at Moscow, that he had seen nothing in Italy which appeared new to him.

" Do you speak seriously ? " I asked.

" Quite seriously," he replied.

" It seems to me impossible,'' I responded, " that any one could descend for the first time the southern side of the Alps, without the aspect of the land producing a revolution in his mind."

" In what manner ? " said the Russian, with that G 3