Washington sentinel., 1854-06-22
From the London Daily News.
The Ice-Rursf nm the Nev,

the 4th of Stockholm steamers running, with
crowds of citizens to see the feet; on the 9th.
Of fog so thick that the ships could not stir. In
Finland, meantime, the season is mild, and
vegetation is rapidly advancing. The month
Of May is alway the season OF suspense at st.
Petersburg-the time when it is said the rest
less ear, who sleeps only by snatches, looks
out, or goes forth, almost before anybody else is
stirring, to observe the aspect OF his watery
realm, and see which way the wind is. The
suspense is about the wind; and even now, in
the most solemn spring season Of all the fifty
seven he has known, the movements ofthe wind
are OF more consequence to Nicholas than even
those OF the allies. a long continuance of
strong east winds would do more for him than
| all the preparations he can make. A rush of
west wind would ruin him more speedily and
thoroughly than his united enemies could with
out its help. The suspense is about this: The
fog is the token that the crisis is at hand. The
fog precedes the breaking up of the ice in the
Neva; and it will be succeeded BY those singu-
lar twilight nights of unequalled beauty, which
| are the only charm of the desolate region in
which st. Petersburg stands.
While the fog lasts the sentinels on the
watch towers in the city look out in vain, some
towards Lake Ledoga, some up the Neva, some
towards the sea. They can hear something
ing in the balcony; and with the command
ments at Sweaborg and at Cronstadt; and per.
haps with our Charley walking tho deck,
and talking to himself What he is listening
for is the arrival OF the French squadron, which
will enable him to proceed to this work when
| the fog-curtain rises To some it comes sing.
ing over the peaty plains which stretch to the
| margin of the gulf whence they look like
| mere drift upon the waters. Over that barren
LEAK expanse the wind comes sighing through
the rush.s, with an occasional bark of the
wolf, or bursts of the din Of the water fowl in
| the pools which are already melted. To Others
| the wind comes vibrating like mournfnl music
| through the pine forests, which, surrounding
| the capital with their black belt, no where
further of than twenty miles approach much
nearer in some direction.
There are sounds which come to the ear on
May nights when the wind is from any point
OF the compass; for there are swamps and pine
forests everywhere. 1t is the voice OF the waters
that the watchers listen for with hearts that
stand still. As long as the hollow moaning
| goes on, the moaning Of the imprisoned winds
below the ice, the suspense is complete. Sooner
or later comes the crack, which tells that the
hour OF crisis has come. The cracks Of the
ice are naturally the most impressive, and
sound the loudest in the night. The czar and
his sentries are already on the watch; but now
the citizens rise and look out in vain through
the fog Some dress and 60 to the wharves,
though It is much too soon TO conjecture how
high the waters will rise. Next comes the
crash OF the ice, driven up in heaps in the river,
or against the wharves, and then the more
anxious sound--the swash of the driven waters.
The thing most desired is moderate east
wind, and this is what usually happens. A
violent east wind brings down the inland ice
and Hood too fast, and every inch that the
waters rise above the iron rings in the granite
embankment is so much danger. But the fear.
ful thing IS strong west wind, turning back
the flood on Its way to the gulf. Then it is
less the swash of waters pouring down than
the roar OF the sea coming up; and when the
tides meet, the consequence is what the world
saw in 1924. The vessels that were not cap.
sized BY the meeting OF the floods were carried
over the wharves, and stranded on the sands
which were arabic fields the day before.
The nine rivers and seven canals on which
st. Petersburg is seated all overAowed at once,
and the flood poured into the upper chambers
OF the best houses in the capitol. At Cronstadt
a large vessel was drifted into the main street
Of the town, and left there. Every successive
year adds to the peril Of such chance: for
every year does St Petersburg settle lower in
the swamp. Amid the stagnant silence main.
tanned there about all disagreeable facts, this
very disagreeable fact is we'll understandable
mallet is heard driving new piles necessarily;
that is a sound that cannot be muffed. The
blocks of granite settle unequally that is an
irregularity which the martinet car himself
cannot prohibit or punish. The walls of palaces
crack, and novels sink down endways into the
bog, and all the world may see them melt down
or be shored up. The destruction will be hor.
rible some day; and every inhabitant knows it,
and only hopes that the place may last his.
time.
But if q west wind should carry up--not the
sea only, but those who are now riding that
sea-what then? This is what the car is
listening for; the one other sound-the boom
of cannon which might for once rival in terror
the roar Of the sea. From Cronstadt, l6 miles
of, the spire of the admiralty and the glitter
ing cupolas of st. Petersburg may be seen on
a clear day. Cronstadtis nearer to ST. Peters.
burg than Grnvesend is to London From ST.
Petersburg the boom of such cannon a. we
have sent there may be heard from Cronstadt,
If we have west wind for our herald of ap-
proach By that time the fog will be gone and
the transparent twilight of that latitude will
have set in. The admiral will then have no
more time for listening like the car Such 4
chance as that wind would gil the channels for
them, and obviate their chief difficulty. very
few hours Of such tide would suffice for their
attempt upon Cronstadt. The gun-boats Of
the enemy, anbushed among the islands, and
watching with intense curiosity and awe the
great floating fortifcations that we have sent
against their stationary one, must not, in such
Q case, come out, unless they would be run
down, and the sentries on the bastions of Cron.
stadt would see which dismay how rapidly the
ordinary water-marks are disappearing. Such
a wind would be the best of allies. But with.
out it, we are disposed to believe that Cronsadt
is, as is now limited from the scene Of action,
I" not impregnable.'' We hear much Of he
shadows there; but it is certain that the largest
Russian ships of war are built at St. Peters
burg, as far as the huls are concerned, and
then brought into the Cronstadt harbors to To
finished
They are brought by the old fashioned ma
chinery of camels' down the river and then