coxe’s TRAVELS IN RUSSIA . 66j
theFontanka *, which are feveral miles in length, have been recently embanked in thelame manner, and add greatly to the beauty of the metropolis.
The quantity of polifhed granite ufed in thefe public works is fufficient to aftoniffi anEuropean architeft, who confiders the hardnefs of the ftone, and the difficulty withwhich it is polifhed. I have frequently viewed with furprize the procefs employed bythe Ruffian workmen, in fmoothing the granite. They batter the ftone with an ironhammer edged with fteel; the quantity which flies off at each ftroke is almoft imper-ceptible ; but by repeatedly ftriking the fame place, the prominent parts are wornaway, and the ftone becomes fmooth. To this gradual attrition may be applied theproverb,
Gntta cavat lapidem , non vi fed fape cadendo.
Peterflburgh, though more compact than other Ruffian cities, with the houfes inmany ftreets contiguous to each other, ftill bears a refemblance to the towns of thiscountry, and is built in a very ftraggling manner. By an order lately ifliied from go-vernment, the city has been enclofed within a rampart, the circumference whereof istwenty-one verfts, or fourteen Englifh miles.
The average population of Peterfburgh may be colle&ed from the lifts of births anddeaths during feven years.
Births.
Deaths
•
Males
2459?
4781
Males
3 r 37 <
l 7/ 1 Females
2322 j
Females
1642 1
4779
1772
-
4759
-
-
4727
*773
-
5483
.
-
5°3 1
Males
s8 39 7
Males
2899 }
1 774 FeraaIes
25983
5437
Females
l 559 j
4458
1775
-
4961
-
-
3107
c Males
28167
Males
2694 i
►
1 77 Females
25813
5397
Females
1769^
4463;
Natives.
Natives.
Males
2717I
Males
3 1 * 71
Females
2618
Females
2043 I
1777 Foteigners.
>
5 8 54
Foreigners.
5660
Males
265
Males
265 I
Females
254J
Females
235 J
Total of births for feven years 36,672
Total of Deaths
3
2,165
Annual average of births,
omitting fmall fra&ions
5 2 3 8 '
of deaths
m «■ »
4594
By multiplying the births five thoufand two hundred and thirty-eight by twenty five,the fum is one hundred and thirty-four thoufand nine hundred and fifty; and the cteathsfour thoufand five hundred and ninety-four by twenty-fix, the fum is one-hundred andnineteen thoufand four hundred and forty four. By taking the medium, therefore,
» And the Moika fince ray departure,
a
between