Page:Notes upon Russia (volume 2, 1851).djvu/60

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32

NOTES UPON RUSSIA.

to Bieloiesero in the spring, when the trees were budding, and that after he had crossed the river Volga, he performed all the rest of his journey in carriages, for everything was covered with snow and ice. And although the winter is longer there, yet the fruits ripen, and are gathered at the same time as in Moscow. At an arrow-shot from the lake of Bieloiesero is another lake, producing sulphur; and a river which rises out of it, carries the sulphur down with it in abundance, like foam on its surface. Through the ignorance of the people, however, there is no use made of it.

The fortified city of Uglitz stands on the shore of the Volga, and is twenty-four miles distant from Moscow, thirty from Jaroslav, and forty from Tver. The citadel is on the south bank of the Volga, while the city stands on both sides.

Chloppigrod,^[1] the place to which I have said before that the slaves of Novogorod fled, is two miles distant from Uglitz. Not far from it is seen a fort, now in ruins, on the Mologa. This river has a course of eighty miles after leaving the territory of Great Novogorod, and falls into the Volga. At its mouth is a fortified city of the same name;

↑ This town no longer exists, and its very site is a matter of antiquarian inquiry; and although Herberstein describes it as having been so important in his time, that the largest fair in all Russia used to be held in it, the very fact of its existence would but for him — as far as we can learn — have been lost to history.
It is true that Zedler, in the fifth volume of his Grosses Universal Lexicon, which was published in 1733, when Chloppigorod no longer existed, speaks of it as "a Russian town in the principality of Rosdow, on the Volga, between Novogorod, Veliki, and Rosthow. It is populous, carries on a good trade, and is celebrated for its fairs for all kinds of commodities." The authority is not given, but there is a strong reason to suppose that the account was unsuspectingly taken from Herberstein himself.
A dissertation was written on the subject by Count Alexei Mussin Puschkin (Moscow, 1810, 4to.), in which he adduces arguments to show that such a town had really existed, and not far from the position described by Herberstein, but somewhat more westerly, namely, where the village of Starij Cholopije now stands.

[1] This town no longer exists, and its very site is a matter of antiquarian inquiry; and although Herberstein describes it as having been so important in his time, that the largest fair in all Russia used to be held in it, the very fact of its existence would but for him — as far as we can learn — have been lost to history.
It is true that Zedler, in the fifth volume of his Grosses Universal Lexicon, which was published in 1733, when Chloppigorod no longer existed, speaks of it as "a Russian town in the principality of Rosdow, on the Volga, between Novogorod, Veliki, and Rosthow. It is populous, carries on a good trade, and is celebrated for its fairs for all kinds of commodities." The authority is not given, but there is a strong reason to suppose that the account was unsuspectingly taken from Herberstein himself.
A dissertation was written on the subject by Count Alexei Mussin Puschkin (Moscow, 1810, 4to.), in which he adduces arguments to show that such a town had really existed, and not far from the position described by Herberstein, but somewhat more westerly, namely, where the village of Starij Cholopije now stands.

[1]