‘NOW, Alice, bring your atlas, and I will show you on the map where Russia lies.’
Alice brought her book of maps, and soon found the maps of Europe and Asia; and grandmamma showed her where the large country lay, and pointed out to her that the greatest part of Russia was in Asia, and reached across the whole of northern Asia.
‘Oh, how big it is!’ cried Alice; ‘it is much bigger than all the other countries together. Look at little England, Beatrice,—this little island is England, where we live; does it not look tiny? And now look at big Russia. Look, all that yellow is Russia!’ and Alice put her finger on the line that divided Russia from all the other countries, and showed her little sister how large it was.
‘Do you see, Alice,’ said grandmamma, ‘how far Russia extends? Even that smaller part that is in Europe reaches up to the Arctic or Frozen Ocean, and down to the Black Sea on the south; do you see, Alice?’
‘Why is that sea called the Frozen Ocean?’
‘Because it is frozen for many months in the year, and the greater part of it is always frozen.’
‘Can the sea really freeze, grandmamma?’ asked both the little girls. ‘How can the waves freeze, and be made quiet?’
‘The sea that lies on the north of Russia freezes every winter, but our sea here does not freeze; it is too warm.’
‘But how can it freeze, grandmamma? I cannot understand how it can,’ said the little girl.