surprises, and this was not the least. Crowning a slender, pointed roof,
its connection with the latter was not immediately visible: it seemed to
spring into the air and hang there, like a marvellous meteor shot from
the sun. Presently, however, the whole building appeared,--an hexagonal
church, of pale-red brick, the architecture of which was an admirable
reproduction of the older Byzantine forms. It stood upon a rocky islet,
on either side of which a narrow channel communicated with a deep cove,
cleft between walls of rock.

Turning in towards the first of these channels, we presently saw the
inlet of darkest-blue water, pushing its way into the heart of the
island. Crowning its eastern bank, and about half a mile distant, stood
an immense mass of buildings, from the centre of which tall white towers
and green cupolas shot up against the sky. This was the monastery of
Valaam. Here, in the midst of this lonely lake, on the borders of the
Arctic Zone, in the solitude of unhewn forests, was one of those
palaces which Religion is so fond of rearing, to show her humility. In
the warm afternoon sunshine, and the singular luxuriance of vegetation
which clothed the terraces of rock on either hand, we forgot the high
latitude, and, but for the pines in the rear, could have fancied
ourselves approaching some cove of Athos or Euboea. The steamer ran so
near the rocky walls that the trailing branches of the birch almost
swept her deck; every ledge traversing their gray, even masonry, was
crowded with wild red pinks, geranium, saxifrage, and golden-flowered
purslane; and the air, wonderfully pure and sweet in itself, was
flavored with delicate woodland odors. On the other side, under the
monastery, was an orchard of large apple-trees in full bloom, on a shelf
near the water; above them grew huge oaks and maples, heavy with their
wealth of foliage; and over the tops of these the level coping of the
precipice, with a balustrade, upon which hundreds of pilgrims, who had