BOOK in the center : the houfes of this odagon and of the prin-
. IV’ , cipal ftreets are of brick ftuccoed white, and form a very
magnificent appearance. Part only of the new town, when
we paired through it, was finiihed ; when it is completed,
it will confift of two odtagons, with feveral ftreets leading to
them, and interfering each other at right angles, and would
be no inconfiderable ornament to the moft opulent and
civilized country.
There is an eccleliaftical feminary at Tver, which is under
the infpedlion of the biihop, and admits 600 ftudents. In
17 7 6 the emprefs inftituted a fchool for the inftrudtion of
200 burghers’ children : they are taught to read, write, and
caft accounts, and a few of them are trained to handicraft
trades. In June, 17 79 , an academy was alfo opened in
this town, for the education of the young nobility of the
province, at the charge of the fame imperial patronefs. It
admits 120 ftudents; who are inftrudted in foreign languages,
arithmetick, geography, fortification, tadticks, natural
philofophy, mufick, riding, dancing *, 8cc.
Tver is a place of coniiderable commerce ; and both the
Volga and the Tvertza were covered with boats. It owes
its principal trade to its advantageous fituation, being near
the conflux of thofe two rivers, along which are conveyed
all the goods and merchandize fent by water from- Siberia
and the fouthern provinces towards Peteriburgh.
The Volga, the largeft river in Europe, rifes in the foreft
of Volkoniki, about the diftance of eighty miles from Tver,
and begins to be navigable a few miles above the town. It
is there about the breadth of the Thames at Henley, but
* Ibid.
exceedingly
exceedingly fhallow ; it is, however, confiderably increafed chap.
by the jundtion of the Tverza, which is broader, deeper, and.— ;— .
more rapid. By means of the Tverza, a communication is
made between the Volga and the Neva, or, in other words,
between the Cafpian and the Baltic, as will be explained in a
future chapter. The number of barges which pafled by
the town in 17 7 6 amounted to 2537 ; in 17 7 7 to 2641 ;
and the average number is generally computed at about
2550. The boats are flat-bottomed on account of the frequent
fhoals in the Volga, and other rivers which compofe -
this long inland navigation. They are conftrudted with new
planks, which ihrink and leave wide intervals, that are
fometimes filled up with thin flips of wood cramped with
iron, and not unfrequently flopped with tow. The rudders-
of thefe veflels have a very Angular appearance : the handle
is a tree of about 5 o feet long; at the further end whereof is
a pole which defcends perpendicularly to the water, where
it is fixed to a broad piece of timber, which floats upon the
furface. The pilot ftands upon a kind of fcaffolfl at the diftance
of about 30 or 40 feet from the ftern, and turns the
rudder by means of its long handle. Thefe boats are only
built for one voyage ; for, upon their arrival at Peteriburgh,
they are taken to pieces and fold for fuel.
I have already had occafion to mention the prodigious
wafte of wood arifing from the prevailing cuftom o f
forming planks with the axe. This practice, extremely detrimental
to the forefts of the empire, was no lefs ufual
among the ihipwrights than among the peafants ; and the
former, either from ignorance, or prejudice, could only be
reconciled to the ufe of the faw by the following expedient.
Orders were iflued from government, that each veflel, pairing
by Tver, in which there was one plank faihioned with
6 the