For nearly half of the year the rivers are covered with ice, and during a great part of the open season navigation is difficult.

When the ice and snow melt the rivers overflow their banks and lay a great part of the low-lying country under water, so that many villages can only be approached in boats; but very soon the flood subsides, and the water falls so rapidly that by midsummer the larger steamers have great difficulty in picking their way among the sandbanks.

The Neva alone--that queen of northern rivers--has at all times a plentiful supply of water.
Besides the Neva, the rivers commonly visited by the tourist are the Volga and the Don, which form part of what may be called the Russian grand tour.

Englishmen who wish to see something more than St.
Petersburg and Moscow generally go by rail to Nizhni-Novgorod, where they visit the great fair, and then get on board one of the Volga steamers.

For those who have mastered the important fact that Russia is not a country of fine scenery, the voyage down the river is pleasant enough.