The party entered the grounds of the fair, the doctor instructing his driver by signs. The entire space between the Volga and the Oka is laid out in streets and squares. There are ten miles of wharf on the two rivers. There are about four hundred steamers on the Volga, many of which were built in England, Belgium, and other countries, and have been brought to the river through the various canals, or in pieces, and put together again; but Russia can build her own steamers now. The streets are lined with shops, most of the buildings being of brick, a few of stone. Some of the open spaces are covered with booths and tents. The stores are generally quite small, not more than twenty by fifteen feet. In the rear of them are living-apartments for the merchants and their employees. In the centre of the fair are the headquarters of the governor; but the ground floor of the building is devoted to a bazaar for the sale of fancy articles and manufactured goods, and a band of music usually plays here. Concerts are also given in the square by a military band. Near the official residence are theatres and exhibitions of every description. The Great Fair is the harvest time of beggars, and thousands of them visit it, some of them coming from great distances. The lame, the halt, and the blind come, and very many of them are impostors, who pretend to have bodily ailments, or who have produced sores on their persons by artificial means, to excite the sympathies of the benevolent. The number of persons in attendance on the fair is estimated by the amount of bread consumed, and the bakers are required to make daily returns to the governor of the quantity sold. By this means it is ascertained that the fair is visited, during the season of eight weeks, by from one hundred and fifty thousand to three hundred thousand persons. The amount of business transacted by sale and purchase, is about one hundred million dollars.