b o o k munication was firft opened with. China. The bed-room Is
■ ^ . fmall, white-walked, and the floor covered’ with' a-coloured
fail-cloth. It contains a barrack-bedftead without-'curtains ;
and I obferved that the fiaeets were remarkably fine; The
galleries on each fide,-and two fmall rooms, are hung with
pictures of the Dutch and Flemiih fchools; among tliele
were feveral. portraits of himfelf under the- character of
matter Peter when he worked at Sardam ; and one* of his
favourite miftrefs the beautiful Dutch girl.
In the gardens of Peterhof is a- very extraordinary building,
denominated the Mountain for Sledges, and called alfo
by fome travellers the Flying Mountain. It Hands in the
middle of an oblong area, enclofed b y an open colonade
with a flat roof, which is railed for the convenience
o f holding fpedtators. The circumference of this colonade
is at leaft half a mile; In the middle o f the area ftands the
flying mountain, ftretching nearly from one end to the other.
It is a wooden building, fupported upon pillars, reprefenting
an uneven furface of ground, or a mountain compofed o f
three principal afcents, gradually diminiihjng in height with
an intermediate fpace to refemble valleys : from top to bottom
is a floored way, in which three parallel grooves are
formed. It is thus ufed : a fmall carriage, containing one
perfon, being placed in the center groove upon the higheft
point, goes with great rapidity down one h i l l ; the velocity
which it acquires in its defcent carries it up a fecond ; and it
continue^ to move in. a fimilar manner until it arrives at the
bottom of the area, where it rolls for a confiderable way on
the level furface, and flops before it attains the boundary :
it is then placed in one of the fide grooves, and drawn up by
means o f a cord fixed to a windlafs. To a perfon unacquainted
quainted with the meehanifin,, this entertainment wouH ap- c h a p .
pear tremendous ; but as the grooves always keep, th e , ^ ■
carriage in its right direction, there is not the leaft danger o f .
being -overturned. At the top o f the mountain is an hand,-
fome apartment for the accomodation of the court and principal
-no b ility th ere is alfo. room for many thoufand fpedtators
-within the colonade and upon its roof. .
Near the ¡flying mountain * as a ipacious amphitheatre*
in which- tournaments are ufually exhibited;.
As 'i was anxious to vifit every remarkable place in the
neighbourhood o f this city, I did not fail repairing to
Schluflilburgh, a fortrefs often mentioned in the Ruffian
hiitory, and celebrated for the number and rank of the ftate
prifoners who have been there confined.,
•SChluifelburgh lies at the diftance of 40 miles ifrom Peterf-
burgh ; the road runs the whole way by the fide of the
Neva, which flows with a full ftrcam in a broad and winding,
channel; its-banks, which are fteep and high, are ftudded'
with many villages, and feveral country houfes prettily dif-
perled and hanging over the edge of the water.
The village of Schluftclburgh, which is fituated on each,
fide of the Neva, contains -about three hundred wooden
houfes, and about -2800 inhabitants..
The fortrefs is built upon, a fmall ifland of the Neva, ¡at
the point where that river iffues from the lake Ladoga. The-
breadth of the ftream in that part is about three 'quarters o f
a mile, and the.current is remarkably rapid,.
* r)r,.King, in bis Eflay on the Effefts o f Selo : it was taken (town when I few the-
C o’d, has-dcfcribed another -kind o f Flying place, her prefent reajefty not being fo.fon'd;
Mountain, which was. e r e c t e d .at Saiiku- of. tiicfe.divcriions as Uic-.latc coiprcfs.
& T h e