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A LITTLE fleet of rechievahs, some pashaliks and horse-machines, are lying under the steep bank, along the base of which wooden cottages and storehouses are plentifully scattered. There seems absolutely to be some business going forward; enough, at any rate, to suggest the proximity of a large town. From this commercial little village a broad track is visible straight up the hill-side; and so precipitous is the ascent, that the carts and people who traverse it appear to cling to the mountain as they climb up it. This original-looking road leads to Simbirsk, and the

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ARRIVAL AT SIMBIRSK.

craft lying at its port are probably loading with potash, the most considerable article of export in this province. I found it difficult to keep my seat on the plank, which, placed upon four wheels, was the mode of conveyance used to effect the difficult ascent. The wiry little Cossack horse, however-and he was the party principally concerned-seemed to think nothing of attaining an altitude of four hundred feet in about as many yards.

We entered the main street immediately on reaching Simbirsk. The mate of the steamer, who accompanied me, not thinking our vehicle sufficiently respectable, dismounted, whilst I joined my friend, who had preferred walking up, and we proceeded together to explore the town. For a place which is said to contain nearly twenty thousand inhabitants, Simbirsk wears a mean and insignificant appearance-its situation, indeed, being its only recommendation. From the terrace, near the governor's house, a magnificent and expansive view is obtained over the basin of the river, which here spreads itself in narrow channels over the low land, beyond which the high hills of the Jigoulee bound the prospect to the south, while in every other direction the steppes seem illimitable. Immediately at our feet were cottages and gardens, and on the opposite bank of the river some large villages. The white sails of many pashaliks glistened on the broad surface of the stream, and completed a charming picture.

Near this terrace, and in the centre of a square

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STATUE TO KARAMSIN.

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from which the principal streets diverge, stands a statue of Karamsin, the celebrated Russian historian. There is an annual horse-fair held at Simbirsk; but the town is not in so prosperous a condition as many others on the Volga from which corn is more largely exported. The suburbs seemed more than usually wretched, and the principal street more than usually dull. I found two or three German tradesmen, however, who seemed to be making the most of their superior intelligence, and gave a thriving account of themselves.

About twenty versts below Simbirsk we passed Kriusky, the winter station for the steamers of this company-possessing the advantage of an excellent harbour, in which vessels are safe from the melting ice in spring. Not far from the village rises Hadwallee, a picturesque hill, seven or eight hundred feet high, the greatest altitude which the banks have attained since leaving Nijni. Near Simbirsk they are bare, and covered with a short seared grass; but as we entered the Jigoulee they became more thickly wooded, and we observed, for the first time, some dark-green pines intermingled with the autumn-tinted foliage, with which they pleasingly contrasted.

The Jigoulee is the opening-for it can hardly be called the gorge-by which the Volga forces its way through a range of considerable altitude. The river, which here takes a bend to the eastward a hundred and seventy versts long, encloses a mountainous peninsula, forming an isthmus only twelve versts

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across. As this divergence afforded us the finest scenery which is to be met with on the Volga, we did not grudge the time spent in making it. For once, too, we had occasion to congratulate ourselves upon our captain's prudence, which never hazarded a stroke of the paddle-wheels after dark, and which now secured to us noble scenery for the morrow. He was

no less satisfied with our successful run of a hundred and sixty versts from Simbirsk since the morning, together with the absence of all pericartes. Indeed, since the Kama had added its important contribution to the waters of the Volga, navigation had been comparatively free from difficulty.

At an early hour we were dashing, with a strong current, towards Samara. The stream, though nearly two miles broad, is here rapid and deep, and, for the first time, the left bank has totally changed its character: rising to a height of seven or eight hundred feet, its beetling crags overhang the river, and give an unusual boldness to the scene.

The opposite hills, though of equal if not greater height, swell gently back from the water's edge, or occasionally recede and form amphitheatres, in which villages, picturesquely situated, look as if they were completely cut off from the rest of the world. Not far from one of these, we observed a neat-looking boat moored, and near it a small white tent, close to which a curling wreath of blue smoke suggested the idea of a pic-nic, if the Russians are ever guilty of thus profaning the beauties of their river.

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I discovered that these signs of comfort and civilisation proceeded from a party of soldiers, who constitute some of the river-guard. Until quite recently, robberies of boats were frequent in this romantic spot; and three or four "highrivermen" have been known to batten down the hatches of a rechievah, containing a hundred and twenty men, rifle the cabin, and make their escape, before the astonished occupants could collect the senses or pluck up the courage they possessed.

Emerging from the Jigoulee, which had for a distance of seventy versts displayed its beauties, the better appreciated from being, in some measure, unexpected, we shortly after reached Samara, situated on a sloping bank, to which were moored numerous barges and rechievahs.

Samara is the busiest port on the Volga. Backed by an immense corn-growing country, it supplies a great part of the interior of Russia with wheat. No less than nine million poods are shipped here annually, and carried either down to Astrakhan, and so across the Caspian, or, on the backs of camels, from Orenburg to the adjacent countries; or conveyed by water to St Petersburg.

It is evident that the introduction of steam must soon work its usual miracles even on these distant rivers. Samara was already beginning to feel its magical effects; and what between a recent fire and the increasing trade, the streets seemed filled with scaffolds and ladders, while the chink of hammer and

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