walk faft. I faw them greedily devour henbane, hemlock, glaucium, and other naufeous weeds, upon their iffue out of the fheering-house. If fheep loved aromatic plants, it would be one of the greatest misfortunes that could befal the farmers of Spain. The number of bee-hives is incredible; I am almost ashamed to give under my hand, that I knew a parish priest who had 5000 hives. The bees fuck all their honey, and gather all their wax from the aromatic flowers, which enamel and perfume two thirds of the fheep-walks. This prieft cautiously feizes the queens in a fmall crape fly-catch; he clips off their wings; their majefties stay at home. He affured me that he never loft a fwarm from the day of this difcovery to the day he faw me, which I think was five years.

The fhepherd's chief care is not to fuffer the sheep to go out of their toils till the morning fun has exhaled the dew of a white froft, and never let them approach a rivulet or pond after a fhower of hail, for if they should eat the dewy grafs, or drink hail water, the whole tribe would become melancholy, faft, pine away, and die, as often happened. Hail water is fo pernicious to men in this climate, that the people of Molina will not drink the river water after a violent fhower of hail; experience taught the danger; but let it be never fo muddy, and rife never fo high after rain, they drink it without fear. Perhaps this may be the unheeded caufe of many endemical epidemics of other cities. The fheep

have coarfe, long, hairy wool. I faw a flock in Extremadura whofe wool trailed on the ground. The itinerant fheep have fhort, filky, white wool. I do believe, from a few experiments and long obfervation, that if the fine woolled fheep ftayed at home in the winter, their wool would become coarfe in a few generations. the coarfe wooled sheep travelled from climate to climate, and lived in the free air, their wool would become fine, thort, and filky in a few generations.

If

The fineness of the wool is due to the animal's paffing its life in an open air of equal temperature. It is not colder in Andalufia and Extremadura in the winter than it is in the Montana or Molina in fummer. There is little froft in Andalufia; fometimes it fnows in June in Molina. I felt a cold day, upon the leaft cloud in fummer. Conftant heat or conftant cold, with houfing, are the causes of coarfe, black, and fpeckled wool. All the animals, I know, who live in the open air, conftantly keep up to the colour of their fires. There are the most beautiful brindled sheep in the world among the coarse-woolled fheep of Spain. I never faw one amongft the fine-woolled flocks; the free but lefs abundant perfpiration in the open air is swept away as faft as it flows, whereas it is greatly increafed by the exceffive heat of numbers of theep houfed all night in a narrow place. It fouls the wool, makes it hairy, and changes its colour. The fwine in Spain, who pafs their lives in the woods, are all of one colour, as the wild boars. They

have fine, filky, curled briftles. Never did a Spanish hog's briftle pierce a fhoe. What a quantity of dander is daily fecerned from the glans of a ftabled horfe! the curry-comb and hair-cloth ever in hand. How clean is the fkin of an horfe that lives in the air!

open

Extract from M. l'Abbé Chappe d' Auteroche's journey to Siberia, for observing the late Transit of Venus over the Sun; performed by orders of his most Christian Majesty.

THE received HE abbé having received orders from the king, and recommendations from the academy, for a journey to Tobolfki, fet out from Paris at the end of September, 1760. The war obliged him to take the route of Vienna and Poland, and he was forced to embark at Ulm upon the Danube, though he knew that the fogs rendered the navigation of that river very flow and inconvenient ; thefe fogs fo much retarded him, that he did not arrive at Vienna till the 31ft of October, 1760.

He proceeded however to Petersburgh, with all convenient speed, and arrived there the 13th of February; but he was then no lefs than 800 leagues diftant from Tobolfki, and he was obliged to furnish himself with provifions of all kinds for the whole journey, before he fet out; being furnish ed also with a fledge and an interpreter, he left Petersburgh the 10th of March; on the 14th he

After he left Petersburgh, he met with no mountain that deferved

the name for a long tract of country, but traverfed a vast plain, which in fome parts was open, and in others covered with woods, After confifting only of pine and birch. After croffing the Wolga at NifniNovogorod, he entered a foreft," which was no lefs than 300 leagues in length; and indeed the whole of his route from Nifni-Novogorod to Tobolfki, which was little lefs than 500 leagues, might be confidered as a continuation of that foreft. The trees were of the fame kind as in the wood already mentioned, but the fnow more considerable, being here at leaft four feet deep, and the thermometer always 24 or 25 degrees below the freezing point.

was

As his courfe lay directly north, the cold grew more intenfe, and the fnow deeper every day; the buildings were alfo more thinly fcattered, fo that he was often obliged to travel 25 or 30 leagues with the fame horses. The roads were fo narrow, that the fledges could fcarce pafs, and if two met, it was neceffary to lay one down on its fide, before the other could go by: those who travel with the

royal

royal poft, command the way, and are known by a bell which the firft horfe carries for that purpofe. The abbé had half his fledge carried away by the bad management of his poftillion, when he was giving way to one of thefe carriages, and was obliged to proceed, quite open to the weather, till he arrived at Solikamfka; but the diftance he leaves us to guess.

He came to this place on the 29th of March, extremely fatigued, having taken no nourishment but what was frozen for eleven days before, as in all that time he had not been able to procure the conveniency of a stove.

Solikamfka is a little town, fituated upon the borders of the Kama; in the neighbourhood there are a few wretched falt-works, and fome bad mines of copper. As he was obliged to wait here till he could be furnished with a new fledge, he visited these mines and falt-works; and in the falt-works he found feveral men fcourging their bodies with twigs till the fkin was as red as fcarlet: fome minutes after they had defifted from this exercife, they ran out ftark naked dropping with fweat, and rolled themselves in the fnow. This fight greatly furprized him; but upon enquiry he found it very common in that country.

From Solikamfka he fet out on the 2d of April, and foon reached the mountains of Werkhotaurie, which form a chain that may be confidered as a branch of Mount Caucafus; they commence to the fouthward, and feparate Afia from Europe, quite to the Frozen Sea. This ridge is no where higher than from 50 to 80 fathoms, but

the declivity is very steep, and the fummit is covered with pine, birch, and fir.

The way over thefe mountains is very frightful, and by night extremely dangerous; for if the fledge deviates ever fo little from the beaten track, the unfortunate traveller will inevitably be buried in a gulf of fnow, which, when the abbé made his journey, was ready to melt; yet the talleft firs were fo loaded with it as to bend under the weight; it was every where feven feet thick upon the ground, and there was no fign of returning fpring, not fo much as by the flight of a bird; for even the pies and crows, which abound through all Ruffia, abandon these horrid defarts, where nature herself feems benumbed, and it is only by the traces of the fledge that the country is known to be inhabited. The gloom of defolation furrounds it on every fide, and a horrid filence, which is never broken but by the outcries of thofe that fuffer from the perils of the ways. The inhabitants are shut up in their hovels nine months in the year; the fnow appears upon the mountains in the beginning of September, and fo great a quantity defcends in a fhort time afterwards, as to leave fcarce any traces of a habitation upon them. The inhabitants are then obliged to break a way through it, and it feldom begins to thaw there till the middle of April, though it gives fomewhat fooner in the plain; it does not totally difappear till the end of May, fo that the severity of winter is fufpended only three months in the year, during which time, however, they fow rye, oats, bar

ley,

ley, and peafe, which they get in by the end of Auguft; but none of them are perfectly ripe.

On the 5th of April, the abbé had croffed thefe mountains, which extend 45 leagues from eaft to weft; and then defcended into a large plain, where the fnow was fo much diminished, that in fome places it scarce covered the furface of the ground.

On the 8th, he arrived at a small town called Tumen, where the fnow lay only in the beaten tracks; he perceived water alfo on the ice that ftill covered the rivers, which fhewed the breaking up of the froft to be at hand; he therefore pufhed forward with all poffible expedition, and on the 10th of April, arrived at Tobolfki, only fix hours before the ice broke, having travelled 800 leagues upon a fledge in a month. The melting of the fnow caufed fo confiderable an overflowing of the Irtis, that a fourth part of the town was under

water.

The rapidity with which he traversed this vaft country did not permit him to examine the manners of the inhabitants with an attention equal to his wifhes; but the account he has given of them is as follows:

They profefs the religion of the Greek church, but with a fanaticifm that seems gradually to increase with the diftance from the capital. They are born in the moft dreadful flavery, fo that the very idea of liberty is not left among them. As their state and fituation do not admit the indulgence of artificial wants, their defires are neceffarily few they have neither manufacture nor comtheir provifion is very

merce

bad, and therefore eafily procured, confifting of dry or ftinking fifh, peafe, and a coarfe black kind of bread made of rye; their drink is a wretched kind of beer, and a liquor they call Quas, which is no other than water fermented with bran, and then mixed with a fmall quantity of meal. They live in total idleness and inactivity, fhut up in their ftoves, the extreme naftiness of which is not to be conceived; they are however fond of their condition, and hate the thoughts of stirring out of their dunghill, efpecially to bear arms; but if they are forced into the fervice, brandy, and the fear of punishment, will make them tolerable foldiers. The unwholesomeness and inconvenience of their hovels are greatly increafed by the feverity of the winter, which prevents their communication with the fresh air: their windows are feldom more than a foot wide, and fix inches high; and they are alfo deprived of the light of the fun all the while he is paffing through the fouthern figns; nor have they any artificial light but by fplinters of birchwood, which they fet on fire, and stick up in the chinks of the floor. This practice is, indeed, common through all Ruffia, and frequently caufes fires, which almost imme diately fpread over half a town, as the houses are all built of wood, except in the cities and principal towns, But notwithstanding all this inactivity, confinement, and naftinefs, they enjoy robuft and uninterrupted health; fo effectually does perpetual temperance counterbalance all that can weigh against health and life. There is fcarce one among them that

is

is weakly or deformed, and their manner of education fecures to them this good fortune. The child, as foon as it is born, is laid upon a heap of ftraw or old rags in a basket, where it fprawls about, and ftretches its limbs without any restraint; it is nourithed with milk by means of a horn, which is fitted to a cow's teats, but fometimes fuckled by the mother; the basket is hung at the end of a long elaftic pole, fo that it may eafily be put in motion, and the child rocked as in a cradle, but before it can go alone, it is placed upon the ground, where it rolls about at pleasure, till it learns first to ftand, and then to totter along, with nothing to cover it but a fhirt, which fcarce reaches to the middle of the thigh; by this management their children walk fooner than ours can ftand alone. As foon as they are able, they are fuffered to run about, and at the end of the winter are playing in the road in the midft of the fnow, while the weather is ftill fo cold, that the traveller is afraid of going out of his fledge, though he be covered with fur from head to foot. They are of a large ftature, extremely mufcular and ftrong, and live longer than the inhabitants of any other known part of the world; this, however, is not because their fituation, upon the whole, is favourable to life in the tender years of infancy, but the contrary; for all the children who are not ftrong by conftitution die foon, and none are reared but thofe who are born with the greatest natural advantages: more than two thirds of the children that are born here die in

their infancy; and it is common to find but three or four alive in families that have had 16 or 18. Many other caufes concur gradually to depopulate the villages that are fcattered through this vaft defart.

The finall-pox frequently carries off half the inhabitants of one of thefe hamlets at a time, and fometimes a greater proportion; the fcurvy is also very fatal among them; and where they can procure fpirituous liquors, the inroads of difeafe and mortality are in proportion to their want of the advantages which make intemperance lefs fatal in other places. The venereal difeafe alfo makes great havock among these unhappy wretches, to whom the method of cure is wholly unknown! It prevails fo much in Siberia and Northern Tartary, that there is great reafon to believe it will at length depopulate the country.

Tobolfki is the capital of Siberia, and contains about 15,000 inhabitants; the clergy confifts of about 50 monks or priests, three of whom, including the archbi fhop, all natives of Poland, are acquainted with the Latin tongue. The manners of the people are the fame with thofe already defcribed, except that they are more corrupt. The women of all ranks and ages paint; they are in general very handfome, but have not the feminine foftness which is the principal charm of the fex.

This city had once a confiderable trade to China by caravans; but the mutual knavery of the Ruffian and Chinefe merchants foon reduced it to a languithing ftate; and fome differences which arofe between the two pow

era