St. Petersburg--so called from its founder in 1703--is situated on a marshy plain so far north as to be locked up one half of the year, and, notwithstanding such unfavourable circumstances, has become one of the handsomest cities in Europe, containing a population of about 600,000. The streets are spacious and well laid out, some of them two or three miles long, and, though not often exceeding three storeys, the houses are very lofty. It has been called another Venice on account of the numerous canals communicating with the river Neva, which afford a ready transit to all parts of the city and at the same time greatly assist the drainage, which otherwise would prove very imperfect. The Neva is a beautiful river, about as wide as the Thames in London, but not so polluted. Above the city are numerous islands, on which are erected beautiful villas, mostly constructed of wood in a fanciful style, and painted various colours with gardens very tastefully laid out. Besides numerous delightful drives among these islands they are made further accessible by small steamers. They are also connected by wooden bridges resting on boats which are removed before the winter season sets in, being not then required and also liable to great injury by the breaking up of the ice. But lower down there is one bridge constructed of iron of seven arches and 1,050 feet long and 60 feet wide, costing a million and a quarter sterling. Besides steamers there are many other boats, some very large rudely constructed, bringing wood from the lake of Ladoga, mostly birch, cut in short lengths for fuel, and others freighted with leather, hemp and various products from the interior. In discharging these boats with fuel the serfs[4] make use of a sort of truck with a framework to hold the billets, and the wheels, being not more than six or seven inches in diameter, require a narrow plank to be laid across the street a little below the uneven pavement. They have also a very defective mode of watering the streets; fetching the water in buckets and putting it into a larger vessel upon wheels from which they sprinkle the streets, instead of pumping up the water into a machine and distributing it as it goes along. On account of the boggy state of the ground the buildings are constructed on piles at an enormous expense, so that it has been said by an English resident that larger sums had been expended under ground than above, which I can the more readily believe after witnessing the extraordinary foundations of a new palace now in the course of erection. Most of the buildings, including palaces and churches, are built of brick, and covered with a cement of various colours; often out of condition and presenting a less substantial appearance. The pavement is generally in a bad state, consisting mostly of pebbles of every size mingled together, and all, I should say, wrong side up, in some places a yard or two without any at all.