Boiling water is poured upon the tea, and when the pot is full it is placed on the top of the samovar.

There it is kept hot but not boiled, and in five or six minutes the tea is ready.

Cups and saucers are not employed by the Russians, but tumblers are generally used for tea drinking, and in the best houses, where it can be afforded, they are held in silver sockets like those in soda shops.

Only loaf sugar is used in sweetening tea.
When lemons can be had they are employed to give flavor, a thin slice, neither rolled nor pressed, being floated on the surface of the tea.
[Illustration: RUSSIAN TEA SERVICE.] The Russians take tea in the morning, after dinner, after lunch, before bed-time, in the evening, at odd intervals in the day or night, and they drink a great deal of it between drinks.
In rambling about Petropavlovsk I found the hills covered with luxuriant grass, sometimes reaching to my knees.

Two or three miles inland the grass was waist high on ground covered with snow six weeks before.