Note 3 — Chapter XXXIV · FROM NERTCHINSK TO STRETINSK.

It is interesting to know that in certain departments of photography, Russia stands well to the front. In theoretical, scientific, and landscape photography, I am informed England takes place in the foremost rank; but in portrait photography, Russia is before us. Among first-class photographic artists in Petersburg, the names might be mentioned of Levitzky, Bergamasco, and Dinier; and in Moscow that of Eichenwald; but the most remarkable photographer in all Russia, probably, is one Karelin, at Nijni Novgorod. A small view of Kasan, which I purchased in the city of that name, and which is printed by the phototype process, seemed to indicate that this branch of the art had extended more widely, and made further progress eastward, than might have been expected at the time of my visit. There are to be had in Petersburg and Moscow some magnificent photographic panoramas of the two capitals; and in descending the Urals, on the Asiatic side, I procured what can rarely be had elsewhere—a photograph of a surface iron-mine; whilst further east was added one of a gold-mine. A photographic view of Ekaterineburg, given me there, shows how thin and light is the air in Russia, for purposes of photography, as compared with ours in England.