"Like other countries, it has different names in different languages," continued Mr. Mapps. "In German, it is Russland; in French, Russie; in Italian, Russia, but pronounced _Roo´-see-ah_; in Spanish, Rusia. The best English authorities pronounce it _Rush´ee-a_, though it is often given with the _u_ like _oo_. It was formerly called _Muscovy_. It has an area, in Europe and Asia, of about seven and one quarter millions of square miles; or one seventh of all the land on the globe. The United States,--including Alaska, has about one half as much territory; but Russia in Europe contains only one third of this vast area. It has a population of seventy-four millions--I give you the figures in round numbers,--of whom four millions only are in Asia. It has about double the population of the United States, which would give the same number of people to the square mile, on the average. Russia consists mostly of two great plains rather indefinitely separated by the water-shed between the rivers that flow south into the Black and Caspian Seas, and those which flow north and west into the Baltic and the Arctic Ocean. The Valdai Hills, in the west-central part, which are not over a thousand feet above the level of the sea, are the only elevations or any consequence, except on or near the frontiers, where we find the Ural and Caucasus ranges. Some portions of the country are uneven, as Russian Poland and the Crimea; but there is very little variety of scenery in the greater part of this vast region. In such a country you would, of course, expect to find large rivers. The largest of these is the Volga, twenty-two hundred miles long, and navigable to within fifty miles of its source. The Don and the Dnieper are about a thousand miles long. The Ural, the Dwina, the Petchora, and the Vistula are important rivers. Russia contains thousands of lakes, most of them in the northern and north-western part. Lake Ladoga, the largest in Europe, is about the size of Lake Ontario; Onega is half as large; Lake Peipus is twice as large as Lake Champlain; and Lake Ilmen is a little larger than Moosehead, in Maine. Nearly all these rivers and lakes are navigable for steamers and barges. You may take a boat,--the commodore's barge, if you please,--go up to St. Petersburg, through the Neva to Lake Ladoga, by the Volkof to Lake Ilmen, by canals, lakes, and rivers, into the Volga, which becomes navigable for steamers at Tver, a town on the railroad from Petersburg to Moscow. Continuing on your voyage down the river to Nijni Novgorod, where the traveller by steamer takes a larger boat, fifty-three miles below Kazan, or eight hundred and fifty from Tver, you will reach the Kama River, the longest tributary of the Volga. Pursuing your voyage up this river, you would arrive at Perm,--if you went by steamer;--in about a week; and this town is within two hundred miles of Asia. This is the usual route to Siberia below Nijni, and the one by which convicts are sent. Instead