"The Government requires the bakers to report each day the amount of bread they have sold, and thus a rough estimate of the number of people present is obtained.
"There are two other fairs held at Nijni, but they are of comparatively little consequence. One, early in July, is devoted to horses; the other, in January, is for the sale of timber, wooden-ware, and boxes. The latter is held on the ice of the Oka. In January, 1864, the ice gave way and a great number of people and horses were drowned."
Two or three days were spent at the fair, and then our friends engaged passage on a steamboat to descend the Volga. The youths were surprised at the number and size of the steamers navigating this river, and still more surprised to find that many of them were of American pattern. The first passenger steamers on the Volga were built by Americans, and were found so well adapted to the work required of them that the system has been continued. Some of the boats are of the Mississippi model, while others resemble those of the Hudson River. At first they had only side-wheel steamers, but in the last few years several light-draft stern-wheelers have been built (also by Americans) and found especially useful in threading among the numerous sand-bars at the period of low water.
Many boats of great power are used for towing barges up and down the river, and find plenty of employment during all the time the Volga is free from ice. Altogether, about five hundred steamboats of all classes are engaged in the navigation of the Volga.
It is sixteen hundred miles from Nijni to Astrachan, and the voyage usually takes five or six days. The boats do not run at night, on account of the difficulty of navigation, which is worse than that of the Lower Mississippi, and more like the Missouri than any other American stream. The fare (first class) on the best steamers is about twenty-five dollars, exclusive of meals which will cost from twelve to twenty dollars more. Competition occasionally reduces the figures considerably, but, as a general thing, the Russians are too shrewd to conduct their business at a loss in order to injure that of a rival.
"We are on a fine boat, which reminds me of the very one that carried us from St. Louis to Memphis," writes Fred in his journal. "She is called the Nadeshda ("Hope"); and that reminds me it was the Hope on which I went from Memphis to Natchez, when Frank and I travelled down the Mississippi. Her captain speaks English, the steward speaks French, and we have learned enough Russian to get along very well with the servants without the aid of an interpreter. The cabins are large, clean, and comfortable, and altogether we expect to make a comfortable voyage.
