Page:Notes upon Russia (volume 2, 1851).djvu/59

without much, trouble, to convey their merchandize from the Caspian by the Volga into different parts, and bring it up even as far as Moscow.

Bieloiesero is a fortified city, situated on a lake of the same name. The Russian word Bieloiesero, means "White Lake". The city, by the way, does not stand in the lake itself, as some have said, but is surrounded on all sides with marshes, so that it seems to be impregnable. For this reason, the princes of Russia are accustomed to store up their treasures there. Bieloiesero is a hundred miles north of Moscow, and the same distance from Great Novogorod. Indeed, there are two roads from Moscow to Bieloiesero; one, the nearest, by Uglitz, for the winter time; the other by Jaroslav, for the summer. Both of these roads, however, on account of the frequent marshes and woods, intersected with streams, are difficult to travel by, unless by making bridges of ice to pass over, — so that from the obstacles presented by these places the miles are reckoned shorter. In addition to this difficulty of travelling, this frequent occurrence of marshes, woods, and interlacing streams, causes the country to be uncultivated, and to have no cities built in it. The lake itself is twelve miles long, and as many broad; and it is said that three hundred and sixty rivers empty themselves into it. Only one, the Schocksna, emerges from it, and falls into the Volga fifteen miles above Jaroslav, and four below Mologa. The fishes which pass from the Volga into this river and lake, improve; nay, the longer they remain in it, the finer they become. The fishermen have such skill in recognizing them, that when they catch fish that have returned from this river into the Volga, they can tell how long they had been in it. The inhabitants of this place have a dialect of their own, although now nearly all of them speak Russian. Their longest day in the summer solstice is said to be nineteen hours. I was told by a person of no small reputation, that he had made a rapid journey from Moscow