"Kings and emperors do not like to have such questions. asked," he replied, "And still less do they like to answer them."

3. The Russians delight to tell a great many anecdotes and stories about their great emperor, the founder of St. Petersburg, Peter the Great, who died about a hundred and fifty years ago. Prof. Howard read to us a great deal about him from the library on board of the Dolphin. The Russians give to their emperors the title of czar, which is the Russian term for king. Here is one of the short stories that are told about Peter the Great ::

III.— Which is the King?

1. One day, as the czar was returning from his favorite amusement of hunting, he happened to loiter behind the rest of the company, to enjoy the cool air, when he observed a lad standing on the top bar of a gate, looking earnestly about him. Upon this, Peter rode up briskly, and accosted him with-" Well, my boy, what are you looking for?"

2. "Please your honor," said the boy, "I am looking out for the king." "O," said the emperor, "if you will get up behind me, I will show him to you." The boy mounted, and, as they were riding along, the czar said, "You will know which is the emperor by seeing the rest take off their hats to him."

3. Soon after, Peter came up to the party, who, much surprised at seeing him so attended, immediately saluted. him, when the czar, turning around his head, said, "Now do you see who is the king?"-" Why," replied the boy, archly, "it is one of us two; but I am sure I do not know which, for both of us have our hats on."

4. The king was so much pleased with the lad's wit that he took him into his service; and this same lad afterward rose to be a general in the Russian armies.

IV.-Our Visit to Moscow.

1. We did not at first intend to go so far into the interior as Moscow; but as Dr. Edson told us that Moscow is the most Russian of all the great cities of the empire, and the great centre of Russian manufactures, having water communication, by rivers and canals, with the Baltic, the Caspian, and the Black Sea, we decided to make it a hasty visit. As we went by rail the entire distance of three hundred and ninety miles, we were not long in making the journey.

2. A very curious city we found Moscow to be;- one in which," as Prof. Howard says, "Europe and Asia meet, jostle, and intermingle, with all the peculiarities of each." Here we saw Chinese pagodas, Moslem temples, and Christian churches, with their thousands of domes, and fancy towers and minarets, all glistening in the sun; we saw Chinese tea-houses by the side of French coffee-houses; Turkish bazaars and Russian market-places; and all manner of costumes in the streets, while a perfect babel of tongues completed the confusion.

3. We found that Moscow contains several hundred manufacturing establishments using steam-power and the most improved machinery; and Henry Allen says that its cotton and woollen factories, many of which he has visited with the Doctor, really equal, in the extent and variety of their products, those of any city in our own country. The Doctor told us how, by railroad, by water, and even by sledges, the immense trade of Moscow is carried on. "Only think," said he, "of four thousand sledges leaving Moscow in a single winter, loaded with goods for Tiflis, a city in Asia, nearly a thousand miles distant!"

4. In tracing out the situation of Moscow on the mapand the Russians have excellent maps-I saw that Moscow is on the river Moskva, which enters the Oka;—that the latter enters the Volga; and that the Volga, the largest

river in Europe, enters the Caspian Sea by sixty or seventy mouths. Dr. Edson says that this great inland sea is eighty-three feet below the level of the ocean!

5. Of course we visited that ancient fortress, the Kremlin, which is surrounded by lofty walls with lofty towers at the angles, and is entered by massive gates. What here seemed to interest our party the most, were the long rows of cannon, nearly four hundred in all, which were taken from Napoleon's army in its disastrous retreat from Moscow, in the fall and winter of 1812, when the Russians burned their own city in order to drive out the French.

6. At the hotel at which we stopped, Prof. Howard gave us an account of the burning of the city, when Moscow was an ocean of flame;" and he also described the retreat and sufferings of the French army. Then he read to us, with occasional comments of his own, the poet Southey's comical account of Napoleon's " March to Moscow," which begins thus:

V.-Napoleon's March to Moscow.

1. The Emperor Nap he would set off
On a summer excursion to Moscow:
The fields were green, and the sky was blue,
Morbleu! Parbleu"!

What a pleasant excursion to Moscow !

2. Four hundred thousand men and more
Must go with him to Moscow:
There were Marshals by the dozen,

And Dukes by the score,

Princes a few, and Kings one or two;—

While the fields are so green, and the sky so blue,
Morbleu! Parbleu!

What a pleasant excursion to Moscow !

a French exclamations:--zooks! zounds!

3. With his vast army Napoleon thought he could certainly march to Moscow. And he did reach the city; but he had to fight his way through the Russian army to do it. Then, when he had taken Moscow, the Russians set fire to the city, and thus drove him out of it.

4. He found the place too warm for him,
For they set fire to Moscow.

To get there had cost him much ado,
And then no better course he knew,

While the fields were green, and the sky was blue,
Morbleu! Parbleu !—

But to march back again from Moscow.

5. The Russians closed in upon the French in their retreat, and often routed them with great slaughter; and then a terribly cold winter set in, and the French were frozen to death by thousands. It was a horrible journey from Moscow; and Napoleon found that the cold was a more terrible enemy to fight than the Russian army, as the poet tells us :

6. And then came on the frost and snow,

All on the road from Moscow.

The wind and the weather he found, in that hour,
Cared nothing for him, nor for all his power;
For him who, while Europe crouched under his rod,
Put his trust in his fortune, and not in his God.
Worse and worse every day the elements grew,
The fields were so white, and the sky so blue,—
What a horrible journey from Moscow !

VI.—Our Polish Acquaintance.

1. During our visits to the bazaars we had frequently met an elderly Polish gentleman, a Mr. Del-mar', who

kindly told us the names, and explained to us the market values, of all the precious stones and jewels that were for sale in the shops, or on exhibition there. He spoke English passably well, but with a foreign accent.

2. Through his aid Dr. Edson was able to obtain a very fine and cheap collection of Polish, Austrian, and Russian minerals; and the gentleman very kindly presented me some beautiful specimens, which I intend to place in the Lake-View Muse'um. He was himself a collector of minerals and jewels, and, as he told us, had in early life been what is called a "jewel-hunter."

3. Upon our invitation, Mr. Del-mar' had called frequently at the hotel; and we had become so much interested in him that Prof. Howard at length persuaded him to give us some account of his early life, and, especially, of his experience in jewel-hunting. The following is his story, as it was afterward written out from notes taken by different members of our party :

1. I was fourteen years old when my father took me to the great fair of Cracow, whither he went to purchase tools for his business, which was that of a lapidary, and which he carried on at the village of Meklin.

2. The size of the town, the elegance of the buildings, the crowds that thronged the streets, and the novelty, variety, and beauty of the wares offered for sale, surprised and delighted me.

3. As we walked along one side of the great square, looking for the shop of the merchant from whom my father wished to make some purchases, we saw a great crowd collected before a door at some little distance, which, as we came nearer, proved to be the door of the shop of the merchant that my father was seeking.