festivity. They who survive this unrestrained debauch, live very temperately during the fast, on herbs, pulse, honey, and fish fried in oil; their beverage, also miserably poor, being nothing but a sort of meagre beer diluted with water.

Immediately prior to this season of penance, all St. Petersburgh, from the palace to the hut, is one crowd of activity and mirth. The Neva as well as the streets, is covered with sledges, whose gay contents are shining in silver and pearls, various coloured velvets and costly furs. Some drive up and down certain streets, for instance the Great Perspective (which is the Bond-street of St. Petersburgh), to see and be seen in all the splendor of their winter array. Others partake of the pastimes annually exhibited on the river, very little differing from those of Bartholomew Fair.

The principal amusement of this kind is the Ice Hill. It is a species of exercise very difficult to describe, as I know nothing in England that I can compare with it. The Russians are particularly fond of the amusement; and though dangerous to the ignorant, yet to the practised, from their dexterity in descending the tremendous fall, it is both safe and delightful.

A temporary stage of wood is erected, about forty or fifty feet from the surface of the river; from the perpendicular height of which is a steep descent like the side of an abrupt rock; against this is laid blocks of ice, that soon become an united mass, by means of torrents of water which are thrown along them, and that harden in a few seconds. On the level, at probably two hundred and fifty, or three hundred yards, stands a similar erection; only placed a little on one side, in order to

clear the glassy road for the sledges darting from the summit of its opposite neighbour. This they mount by means of a flight of stairs in its rear; and placing their sledges on the declivity, are conveyed back to the other hill by the same method they left it. Indeed, the force gained by precipitating themselves from the top, is more than sufficient to carry such light sledges to a far greater distance than that which lies between each icy pyramid. The geometrical scratch underneath, will convey to you a general idea of this pastime.

A. A. the inclined planes of ice. B. the flight of steps in order to ascend. C. the flat between the opposite hills; D. people on sledges, impelled towards its base. E. E. fir-trees stuck on the top of the hills to give them a cheerful and pretty effect.

The bearded natives gather a plentiful harvest of kopecks during this carnival, as a few pieces of that money is their usual charge for transporting individuals down the icy fall. The mode is as follows. A sort of sledge, without projections of any kind, but in shape and flatness like a butcher's tray, is most fantastically and rudely ornamented with carving and colours, and placed on the summit of the hill. The native seats himself upon it, very far back, his legs extending in front perfectly straight. The person to be conveyed, places him or herself before him in a similar attitude, and both remaining steady, pass rapidly down the

frozen torrent. The native behind guides their course with his hands, on the same principle as that of a vessel, touching the contrary side to that which they wish to go. To such nicety do they attain, that they steer round groupes of upset persons, without the chance of their giving or receiving the smallest injury. Many go down in these sledges alone; and others on skates, both men and women, who fly forwards in a perfectly upright position. Steadiness seems the chief accomplishment in the Russian skater: and the velocity of his motion, the object of pleasure in the spectator. Here we no where see those graceful motions on the ice, that Mercurial sway of limbs in their volant sweep over its surface, which have been so much your friend's admiration while standing a wintry day by the Serpentine in Hyde Park. You would call the Russians stout skaters; but I fancy the utmost of your skill could not teach them elegance. Not that the generality of men in this country, who have fine forms, are radically incapable of adopting graceful attitudes; but the cumbersomeness of their dress, and the customary modes of this exercise have never included any thing more pleasing to the eye than the simple object of rapid motion. The sensation excited in the person who descends in the sledge, is at first extremely painful ; but after a few times passing through the cutting air, it is exquisitely pleasurable. This seems strange, but it is so as you shoot along, a sort of ethereal intoxication takes hold of the senses, that is absolutely delightful.

As I am on the river, I may as well continue my cold descriptions, by giving you an account of a ceremony which I witnessed some weeks ago. It is one of the most celebrated in Russia, and is observed in that vast empire at every place on the same day. I mean the benediction of the

waters.