captain, using a word which recalled to my mind, at once, the Swedish
_skär_, and the English _skerry_, used alike to denote a coast-group of
rocky islets. The rock encroached more and more as we advanced; and
finally, as if sure of its victory over the lake, gave place, here and
there, to levels of turf, gardens, and cottages. Then followed a calm,
land-locked basin, surrounded with harvest-fields, and the spire of
Serdopol arose before us.

Of this town I may report that it is called, in Finnish, _Sordovala_,
and was founded about the year 1640. Its history has no doubt been very
important to its inhabitants, but I do not presume that it would be
interesting to the world, and therefore spare myself a great deal of
laborious research. Small as it is, and so secluded that Ladoga seems a
world's highway in comparison with its quiet harbor, it nevertheless
holds three races and three languages in its modest bounds. The
government and Its tongue are Russian; the people are mostly Finnish,
with a very thin upper-crust of Swedish tradition, whence the latter
language is cultivated as a sign of aristocracy.

We landed on a broad wooden pier, and entered the town through a crowd
which was composed of all these elements. There was to be a fair on the
morrow, and from the northern shore of the lake, as well as the wild
inland region towards the Saïma, the people had collected for trade,
gossip, and festivity. Children in ragged garments of hemp, bleached
upon their bodies, impudently begged for pocket-money; women in scarlet
kerchiefs curiously scrutinized us; peasants carried bundles of freshly
mown grass to the horses which were exposed for sale; ladies with
Hungarian hats crushed their crinolines into queer old cabriolets;
gentlemen with business-faces and an aspect of wealth smoked paper
cigars; and numbers of hucksters offered baskets of biscuit and cakes,