Page:The Boy Travellers in the Russian Empire.djvu/89

Rh of joltai chai. We'll get a small box of the best and send it home for you to try."

It was so late in the day when our friends had finished their dinner and returned to the Square, that there was not much time left for sight-seeing. They were in front of the Winter Palace and St. Isaac's Church, but decided to leave them until another day. Fred's attention was drawn to a tall column between the Winter Palace and a crescent of lofty buildings called the État-major, or staff headquarters, and he asked the Doctor what it was.

"That is the Alexander Column," was the reply to the question. "It is one of the largest monoliths or single shafts of modern times, and was erected in 1832 in memory of Alexander I."

"What a splendid column!" said Frank. "I wonder how high it is."

Thereupon the youths fell to guessing at the height of the column. After they had made their estimates—neither of them near the mark but considerably below it—Doctor Bronson gave them its dimensions.