Page:Notes upon Russia (volume 2, 1851).djvu/51

which, according to their records, the Apostle St. Andrew brought a little boat by dry land from the Dnieper. It has a course of nearly forty miles, flows by Velikiluki, and falls into the lake Ilmen.

Volock is a fortified city twenty-four miles due west from Moscow, nearly twelve from Mosaisko, and twenty from Tver. The prince usurps to himself the title to this place, and usually amuses himself here every year with the sport of hunting hares with falcons.

Velikiluki is a fortified city a hundred and forty miles west of Moscow, nearly sixty from Great Novogorod, and thirty-six from Polvezko. It is on the road from Moscow into Lithuania.

Toropecz is a fortified city between Velikiluki and Smolensko, on the borders of Lithuania. It is nearly eighteen miles distant from Luki.

Tver, or Otwer, formerly a most extensive domain, and still one of the great principalities of Russia, is situated on the river Volga, thirty-six miles south-west from Moscow. It has a great city, through which the Volga flows, with a fortress on that bank fr-om which Tver looks towards Moscow; while at the opposite point the river Tvertza falls into the Volga. It was by this river that I came into Tver by water, and on another day sailed up the Rha [or Volga].

This city, moreover, was the seat of a bishopric in the lifetime of Ivan, the father of Vasiley, and at that time the Grand Duke Boris ruled over the principality of Tver. Ivan Vasileivich, prince of Muscovy, married his daughter Mary, and had by her his first-born son, Ivan, as has been related above. When Boris died, his son Michael succeeded him, but was afterwards driven from the principality by his sister's husband, the Grand Duke of Muscovy, and died in exile in Lithuania.

Tersack is a town ten miles from Tver. One half of it used to be under the government of Novogorod, the other