Martinsburgh gazette. [volume] (Martinsburgh, Va. [W. Va.]) 1810-1825, 1813-01-15
RUSSIA.

cow 500 English miles. The first town OF
any Importance on The road to it from Mos
COW is the Tver, situated on the river Vol
ga. It is a place Of considerable com
s%iferce, being situated near the ccnfux of
the rivers Volga andTvertza along which
rivers are conveyed all the goods and trade
sen, by water from Siberia and the south
eTn provinces towards st. Petersburg. BY
means Of the Tvertza, a communication is
made between the Caspian and Baltic Seas
IA distance Of 1000 miles) The average
number of barges which pass by Tver eve
~ wear is about 1850. The country about
it produces a great abundance OF wheat,
rye, barley, oats, hemp, flax, and all sorts
OF vegetables. Another important town
on the rout to St. Petersburg, is the " i'm
perial village of vishnei Voloshosk, re-
rnarkable for the canal, which, by uniting
the Tvertza and the Masta rivers, connects
the inland navigation between the Caspian
and the Baltic.
Supposing the Russians could place no
considerable army on the road to rioscow,
the French might occupy both Tver and
Vishnei Voloshosk without much difficulty,
and it is unnecessary to point out the inju-
ry which they might do, by thus inter
cepting the commercial and inland com
munications between the maritime capital
and many OF the richest and most valuable
provinces in the Russian empire. Along
this route also innumerable herds of oxen
pass towards st. Petersburg, for the supply
OF that capital. 1t is a curious fact, that
most of these cattle are brought from the
Ukraine. at least distant 500 miles from
the metropolis.
Pic only remaining place of conseauence
o. this route is Novogorod, about l20 miles
from ST. Petersburg, and $50 from Mos.
cow. Nevogorod was formerly a city oil
great extent and importance, next IN con
sideration to Moscow and though now
greatly declined, is still a place of great
celebrity, and of reverence in the eyes o.
the Russians. 1t has a Kremlin, a fortress
something similar to that OF Moscow
which contains the ancient and venerable
cathedral of st. Sophia, built about the
year 1850.
The road, however, to st. Petersburg,
will present many obstacles to the French,
if the inhabitants adopt early measures for
breaking it up. 1t is almost a straight line,
cut through endless tracts of wood, only
broken by villages, round which, to a small
distance, the grounds are open and cult
waited. The road is made OF trunks OF
trees laid transversely in rows parallel to
each other, and are bound down in the cen
tire and at each extremity by long poles,
OF be@ms, fastened into the ground with
wooden pegs: these trunks are covered
with LAYERS of boughs, and the whole is
strewed over with sand or earth. When the
road is new, it is very good but as the
trunks decay or sink into the ground, and
as the earth is washed away, the road is
broken into numberless holes, and may be
rendered quite impossible by tne iniiabit-
ants.
The Kremlin is built upon the principle
of the Imperial Palace of the Greek En-
perors at Byzantium twhose representa-
lives the Gears, or Caesars" of Russia
profess themselves to be) now we'll known
as the Seraglio at Constantinopie. The
Kremlin stands within the interior circle OF
the city of Moscow, nearly in its centre
it contains within its antique and massy
euceiate. the old imperial palace, the plea
sure or ~banqueting house, the imperial
news, a victualling,h house, the palace OF
the patriarch, a cathedral, four parish
churches, five converts, the arsenal, with
the public colleges and other offices. All
the churches have beautiful spires, richly
guilt: the architecture is a mixture OF the
Grecian and Gothic the insides are SUI
perbly decorated, and the images of the
saints are ornamcnted with gold, silver and
precious stones. The habiliments and de
corations of the image of the Virgin, to
gether with the other gorgeous images in
the Kremlin Cathedral, We're considered
as equalling in value those once to be seer
in the famous Santa Casa at Loretto.
MOSKWA AND MOJASK.