The next day our friends visited some of the battle-fields near Warsaw, and on the third took the train for St. Petersburg, six hundred and twenty-five miles away. There was little of interest along the line of railway, as the country is almost entirely a plain, and one mile is so much like another that the difference is scarcely perceptible. The principal towns or cities through which they passed were Bialystok and Grodno, the latter famous for having been the residence of several Polish kings, and containing the royal castle where they lived. At Wilna, four hundred and forty-one miles from St. Petersburg, the railway unites with that from Berlin. The change of train and transfer of baggage detained the party half an hour or more, but not long enough to allow them to inspect this ancient capital of the independent duchy of Lithuania. At Pskof they had another halt, but only sufficient for patronizing the restaurant. The town is two miles from the station, and contains an old castle and several other buildings of note; it has a prominent place in Poland's war history, but is not often visited by travellers.
IN ST. PETERSBURG.
At Gatchina, famous for its trout and containing an Imperial palace, an official collected the passports of the travellers, which were afterwards returned to them on arriving at the St. Petersburg station. As they approached the Imperial city the first object to catch the eye was a great ball of gold outlined against the sky. Frank said it must be the dome of St. Isaac's Church, and the Doctor nodded assent to the suggestion. The dome of St. Isaac's is to the capital of Russia what the dome of St. Peter's is to Rome—the first object on which the gaze of the approaching traveller is fixed.
[CHAPTER III.]
IN THE STREETS OF ST. PETERSBURG.—ISVOSHCHIKS AND DROSKIES.—COUNTING IN RUSSIAN.—PASSPORTS AND THEIR USES.—ON THE NEVSKI PROSPECT.—VISITING THE CHURCH OF KAZAN.—THE RUSSO-GREEK RELIGION.—UNFAVORABLE POSITION OF ST. PETERSBURG.—DANGER OF DESTRUCTION.—GREAT INUNDATION OF 1824.—STATUE OF PETER THE GREAT.—ADMIRALTY SQUARE.—THE SAILORS AND THE STATUE.
A commissioner from the Hôtel de l'Europe was at the station. Doctor Bronson gave him the receipts for their trunks, and after securing their passports, which had been examined on the train during the ride from Gatchina, the party entered a carriage and rode to the hotel. Frank and Fred were impatient to try a drosky, and wondered why the Doctor had not secured one of the vehicles characteristic of the country.