We headed obliquely across the river toward a dozen tow-boats frozen in the ice.  The navigation of the Volga employs more than four hundred steamers, three-fourths of which are tows.  Dead walls in Kazan frequently displayed flaming announcements, that reminded me of St. Louis and New Orleans.  The companies run a sharp rivalry in freight and passenger traffic, their season lasting from April to October.  The gross receipts for 1866 of one company owning thirty-four boats, was one million, two hundred and fifty-three thousand, and some odd roubles.  This, after deducting running expenses, would not leave a large amount of profit.  The surplus in the case of that company was to be applied to paying debts.  “Not a copeck,” said my informant, “will the stockholders receive in the shape of dividends.”

I did not obtain any full and clear information touching the navigation of the Volga.  The steamboats run from Tver, on the Moscow and St. Petersburg railway, to Astrachan, at the mouth of the river.  The best part of the business is the transport of goods and passengers,—­chiefly the former,—­to the fair at Nijne Novgorod.  The river is full of shifting sand-bars, and the channel is very tortuous, especially at low water.  The first company to introduce steam on the Volga was an English one.  Its success induced many Russians to follow its example, so that the business is now over done.

Here, as in the Siberian rivers, the custom prevails of carrying freight in barges, which are towed by tugs.  All the steamers I saw were side-wheelers.

We changed horses on the south bank of the Volga, only twelve versts from Kazan.  The right bank of the river presents an unbroken line of hills or bluffs, while the opposite one is generally low.  The summer road from Kazan westward follows the high ground in the vicinity of the river, but often several versts away.  The winter road is over the ice of the Volga, keeping generally pretty near the bank.  A double line of pine or other boughs in the ice marks the route.  These boughs are placed by the Administration of Roads, under whose supervision the way is daily examined.  No one is allowed to travel on the ice until the officials declare it safe.

Night came upon us soon after passing the first station.  The road was a combination of pitch-holes, water, soft snow, and detours to avoid dangerous places.  The most unpleasant drives were when we left the river to change horses at the villages on the high bank.  It was well enough going up, but in descending the sleigh sometimes endeavored to go ahead of the horses.  Once we came near going over a perpendicular bank sixty or eighty feet high.  Had we done so, our establishment would have not been worth fifty cents a bushel at the bottom of the bank.