This tower is a very singular structure. It was built in 1600, by Boris Godunoff. It is three hundred and twenty-five feet from the ground to the top of the cross, and contains five stories, the first four of which are square, and the last circular, with a dome. In the lower story is a chapel, and the next three contain thirty-four bells of all sizes, the largest of which weighs sixty-four tons. Though it is a pygmy compared with the great bell at the foot of the tower, it is a monster beside those in ordinary use, for our church bells rarely exceed one sixth of its weight. There are forty or fifty bells in the entire tower, all of which are rung at Easter, to proclaim anew that "Christ is risen." The great bell thunders forth the glad tidings, which are also gently chanted in the sweet tones of the small silver bells.
From each story of the tower a view of the city is obtained, but in the highest beneath the dome, the most sublime panorama is presented. There is no such city as Moscow in the world, and the sight is therefore as unique as it is beautiful. For half an hour the students gazed with wonder and admiration upon the beautiful picture.
The party descended, and hastened to the Great Bell, called the _Czar Kolokol_, or Czar of Bells. Some say that it was never hung, though a Polish traveller, in 1611, speaks of a bell he saw that required twenty-four men to swing the clapper in ringing it. The present bell was recast by order of the Empress Anne, in 1733, its predecessors having fallen in the several fires, and been broken. This one also had a fall in a fire in 1737, which knocked a piece out of the side. It lay buried in the ground where it fell till Nicholas caused it to be placed on a stone platform in 1836. The bell weighs about two hundred and twenty tons. The piece broken out weighs eleven tons. The interior is twenty feet high, with a diameter of twenty-one feet. It is two feet thick, and has figures in relief of Alexis and Anne, and of some sacred subjects, with an inscription relating to its origin and size. On the summit is a cross, and the interior has been consecrated as a chapel. The bell is regarded as holy by the people. At five cents a pound, the material would be worth over twenty thousand dollars. As the thing is utterly useless either for service or as a work of art, and perpetuates no historical event, this dead capital would be better employed in planting school-houses in the villages, the influence of which would soon transform the shanties into houses, and add wealth to the nation by the more intelligent and rapid development of its vast resources.