A SINKING CITY.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 24, 8 July 1871, Page 15

A SINKING CITY.

It is asserted upon the most reliable information, that, according to present indication, the great city of the Czar of all the Russias, St Petersburgh, in fifty years will have ceased to exist. Startling as this may sound, the fact is based upon reliable scientific examinations of the soil upen which the city is built, which is found to be sinking imperceptibly to be sure, but with premonitory and fearful regularity. So fully is this fact established that already steps are being taken prior to the permanent removal of the Court. Moscow, from its central position, would seem to offer the most preferable future location for the Seat of Government; but there are many reasons for believing that a preference may be shown for the fortified city of the Kieve, which has the advantage of climate, is near the Black Sea, and is a step forward towards the Mecaa of Russia's Czar, Constantiople. It may be that it was this anticipated removal of the Court that recently led the Czar to elevate Kiev, or Kiew, to the dignity of the third capital of Russia in Europe. Although not so centrally situated as Moscow, being 670 miles South of St. Petersburg, and 490 miles south-west of Moscow, it is beautifully located on the banks of the Dnieper, it is an ancient and extensive city, with a noble University, and the venerable cathedral of St. Sophia, and is at present the official residence of the Governor of Little Russia, a district including eight provinces, with an aggregate population exceeding 13,000,000. Yet the suggested future capital of Russia, Kiew, has only a population of 50,000. While objected to only on account of its geographical position, it must be borne in mind that the present capital is even still more remote from the centre of the Empire, being situated in the noich-western extremity. The cause of this gradual sinking of the great city is easily accounted foi from the pages of history, which tells us that it was built in the reign of Peter the Great, upon piles driven into a swamp.