Page:The Boy Travellers in the Russian Empire.djvu/286

280 come to the fair, so that for two months of the year nearly three hundred thousand people are assembled here."

"How are they all accommodated with lodgings and food?" one of the youths asked.

"The permanent town of Nijni Novgorod," said the Doctor, "is separated from Fair-town, if we may so call it, by the River Oka, which here joins the Volga. The fair is held on a tongue of land between the Volga and the Oka, and Fair-town and Nijni proper are connected by

bridges of boats. It is a regular town or city, built for the purposes of trade. It has its governor, police force, fire brigade, and all the paraphernalia of a city, and the Government collects by means of a tax about fifty thousand dollars for the support of the organization."

"Then it is a city with a busy population for two months of the year, and a deserted town for the other ten?"

"Exactly so," was the reply; "Fair-town at Nijni in season and out of season will remind you of the difference between Coney Island or Long Branch in July and in January.