ers have fince totally destroyed

it.

Thefe differences arofe from a revolution which happened among the Rungore Calmucs after the death of Galdan Tcherin, which happened in 1746. Galdan Tcherin was Kan, Caun, or fovereign, of the nation which inhabited that part of Northern Tartary, which is fituated between Siberia and China. This nation admitted no fovereign but its kan; and upon the death of Galdan Tcherin a civil war broke out among feveral competitors to fucceed him. The Chinese, who dreaded the power of this nation, which was become formidable to all its neighbours, contrived firft to weaken it on this occafion, by favouring each of the competitors by turns, and then to fall upon the conqueror, and de

ftroy his power at once.

The name of this unhappy prince was Amourfaman; and the wretched remains of this once mighty nation, confifting of about 20,000 families, took fhelter, under the protection of Ruffia, upon the banks of the Wolga. Amourfaman, after having wandered from place to place, at last retired to the frontiers of Siberia in 1757, where he died of the fmall-pox, according to the Ruffian account, which was published about a year

or two ago.

The Chinefe, as foon as they heard he had retired to Siberia, demanded that he fhould be delivered up, or, as the Ruffians fay, that he fhould be confined for life.

It is faid that he continued a long time at Tobolfki, though the Ruffian account makes no mention

of it; and that when he was dead, the body was fent to the frontiers of Siberia, whither the Chinese fent commiffaries more than once to examine the body.

The abbé d'Auteroche left at Tobolski two Calmuc ambaffadors, who had been fent to Petersburgh before the death of Amourfaman, and who, at their return to this city, learnt that their nation was no longer exifting.

The abbé collected fome of their idols, and fome principles of their religion, which appears to be a ftrange mixture of paganism, mahometanifm, and chriftianity.

He returned by the way of Katerinburg, a city to the east of the chain of mountains that has been juft defcribed; and in the neighbourhood of this place lie the greatest part of the Ruffian mines, which the abbé, as a special favour, was permitted to fee. The mines of gold are in the plains, contrary to thofe of all other countries, which are in the mountains ; they are indicated by a fandy, greyish earth, and the vein appears at two feet below the furface; its direction is generally north and fouth, and it feldom reaches deeper than 14 fathom, below which they find water and red ochre; the veins are parallel to each other, and the principal galleries perpendicular to the veins; the extent of the vein from N. to S. is from 20 to 30 fathom, and the width in the upper part, which is always the richest, from four to five inches; it grows narrower as it defcends, and contains lefs metal, which is contrary to the nature of all other mines yet known; the earth which divides one vein from another,

another, is fandy, and in fome places refembles a kind of clay dried and reduced to powder, fo that they are generally obliged to fhore the galleries with timber. The vein itself is a kind of rock, of a blackish colour, and mixed with earth, but may be broken between the fingers; many topazes found among it, of the fame kind with thofe of Bohemia; but the produce of the mines, upon the whole, fcarcely defrays the expence of working them. The filver mines are not worth mentioning, and the copper turn to very little

account.

are

There are, however, mines of iron, which abundantly atone for the defects of the reft: they are extremely rich, and the metal is the beft of the kind in the world.

At Katerinburg there are alfo found marble, jafper, porphyry, and other ftones of the like kind, which abound in all parts of Siberia, where cornelians and fardonixes are alfo found.

The abbé left Katerinburg on the 20th of September, 1761, and arrived on the 24th at Sabarea, a fmall hamlet fituated on the fouthern limits of Ruffia, and inhabited by a people called Bafkirs, whom the Ruffians found very difficult to bring under fubjection, they confidering themselves as under the protection only of the czar, and not his fubjects. He propofed to proceed by Kongour, which is the ufual route, but the way was then impaffable; he therefore bent his courfe towards the Tartars, who are fituated more to the south, at fome diftance from Berna. Many of the inhabitants came out to meet him, and ex

preffed the utmoft kindness and cordiality by a great variety of figns, which they teftified alfo by their whole deportment and behaviour. They conducted him to the house of the chief of their hamlet, whom they hold in great veneration and esteem; an entertainment was here prepared for him, confifting of garden-ftuff, with butter and honey. The cottages of thefe people are as neat and convenient as thofe of the Siberians are nafty and ill contrived; their manner of life, however, is nearly the fame, except that they are mahometans. They are of a large ftature, robuft, and well-fhaped, and have, in every refpect, the appearance of a martial people: they have preferved their ancient privileges inviolate, and in time of war, furnish Ruffia with a certain number of troops, which fhe takes into her pay. These Tartars are by nature open, courteous, and liberal, and when the abbé took his leave of them, they doubled the number of horses to his carriages, upon account of the mountains he was to pafs, and refufed the acknowledgment he of fered, not only for them, but the expence he had put them to while he was among them.

At a little distance from this place the way became very frightful, the mountains being extremely fteep, and the rain having rendered them as flippery as glaís, fo that it was with the utmost difficulty the carriages were dragged to the top of the acclivity, though the company all afcended on foot. The abbé being in the lightest carriage, pufhed on before, hoping to fend affiftance from the next

village

village to the reft, but he could get but about the fourth of a league from the place where he left them, He was then on the borders of the river Tourka, in a bottom, furrounded by mountains an every fide: here he made a great fire, and his company ranged themselves about it; it was then near ten o'clock at night, and in about an hour the other carriages were difcovered by the light of his fire. The Tartars who came with him then took the lead, and fet fire to the firs at proper distances, which they found in the way, in order to light their companions behind. Thefe trees, which kindled from the bottom to the top in a minute, and were very lofty, did them great fervice, and formed a moft pleafing and romantic scene by the wild country which they difcovered, as it were, by torch-light, and the fparks they threw out to a great distance.

From this place he proceeded on the 25th at eleven in the morning, and arrived the fame day at Piffe. On the 28th he reached a village of Wotiacks, a people who are generally faid to be Tartars, but in whom the abbé. found no resemblance of that people: neither the men nor women are more than four feet high, and both are of a tender make and conftitution; the habit of the men is the fame with that of the Ruffians, but that of the women is wholly different from all others, whimfical, but not unbecoming.

On the 29th, in the evening, he arrived on the borders of the river Wiatka, where he waited till the morning, the wind being too high to pass the river (which is full of rocks) fafely in the dark. Dur

ing the night, there fell fo great a quantity of fnow, that it was with the utmost difficulty he got to the ferry, though not diftant more than 600 yards: they had already begun to pafs it in fledges, and the abbé being unwilling to part with his carriages, hoping he fhould foon leave the fnow behind him, was obliged to double the number of horses. On the 1ft of October he arrived at Cafan, but not without great difficulty and labour, though he had no less than 42 horfes to draw two waggons and five chariots, for the last two days.

Cafan is a large city, the capital of a kingdom of the fame name. It is governed by a Tartar prince, from whom the abbé received many favours, as he did alfo from the archbishop, a prelate of great learning, who is held in the higheft veneration through all Ruffia, and was, fays the abbé, the only ecclefiaftic I met with in all these vaft dominions, who heard, without aftonishment, that I went from France to Tobolski to obferve the tranfit of Venus.

His arrival at Cafan was like an entrance into a new world; the froft had fcarcely begun to ftrip the trees of their leaves; he faw oaks for the firft time fince his refidence in Ruffia, orchards of fruittrees, and cultivated inclosures ; inftead of those boundlefs and defolate plains which were scarce inhabited but by animals unknown in Europe; he faw green hills, groves, and gardens, where nature was improved by art, and where many Howers were fill in bloom.

Cafan ftill preferves some remains of its ancient opulence, and though

though its commerce is inconfiderable, yet it is the refidence of many noble families, who form an agreeable fociety, and even condefcend to mix with their neighbours; the place abounds with all the neceffaries and conveniencies of life, even to game and fifh; the inhabitants have alfo white bread, which is as little known in Siberia as the pineapple; indeed nothing is fcarce at Cafan but wine.

He left Cafan on the 7th, and paffed the Wolga the fame day;

pleasing, are referred to the Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Paris, for 1761.

An account of the journey up Mount Etna. From the Latin of the late M. D'Orville, in a work intituled Sicula, or the Hiftory and Antiquities of the Island of Sicily, &c. 2 vols. folio, published at Amsterdam.

came among new nations, the Zeremifes and the Soufvafchi, of which he has recorded nothing but the names. In proportion as he approached Petersburgh, which is to the north of Cafan, the cold became more fevere, and travelling more difficult; fome rivers were already frozen, but the ice of others was not thick enough for the fledge: he at length, however, arrived fafely at Petersburgh, where he paffed the winter, and as foon as the fea was open in the spring, he embarked for France, where he arrived in Auguft, 1762, having been abfent near two years.

By aftronomical obfervation he fixes the longitude of Cafan to be 3h. 8m. 37. Eaft of the meridian of Paris, and the latitude to be 55d. 43m. 58f.

The longitude of Tobolfki he fixes by obfervation alfo at 4h. 23m. 54f. E. of the meridian of Paris. His account of the Tranfit of Venus, the phænomenon which he went to obferve, is lefs the object of general curiofity, and lefs capable of abridgment; for this, therefore, the learned, to whom alone it can be either useful or

Ε

18th of July, M. D'Orville left Catanea, and dined at a convent of Benedictines, about 14 miles from that city. These fathers were gathering in their harveft. As far as the monaftery all the country was cultivated and very fertile. The little city of Etna, or Ireffa, is thought to have been formerly fituated there. A little farther the ground rifes, and one must traverse a vast forest, where our traveller faw the largest trees that he had ever obferved, and had the most difficult roads to pafs for three or four miles of the way. After having clambered about 3000 paces, he found himfelf in a valley, where there was scarce any turf. Here he supped frugally with his fellow traveller, their mule drivers, and fervants: two guides, inhabitants of the village, came hither to lend them their affiftance. They went two miles farther in a litter, but not without much hazard, till they came to a place named Castellucci, where all the company ftopped in order to take fome reft in one of the caverns formed by the lava of the volcano, for beyond the Benedictines they found no more Iroufes,

and

and as foon as they had afcended as high as Caftellucci, they faw no more trees, nor plants, nor verdure, but only afhes, and pumiceftones which were covered with fnow. It was cold, our travellers felt it very fenfibly, though they were doubly provided with good cloaks, and though with fome faggots, which they had picked up in their journey, they made a large fire at the entrance of the cavern, where one may easily fuppofe they did not reft long.

They fet out from hence two hours before day, mounted on their mules, whofe bridles their hands benummed with cold held with dif

ficulty. To fee things diftinctly, one must reach the top of the mountain before the fun has raised the vapours. The first thing remark able that prefented itself to M. D'Orville, at the foot of that ridge of the mountain where are the mouths of the volcano, was a great oblong block of marble, 8 or 10 feet high, and 3 or 4 thick; how it came there is unaccountable; for though what Defpreaux has faid, too poetically, from Longinus, that Etna throws from the depth of her abyss, stones, rocks, and floods of fire, (which is impoffible,

on account of the fize of its mouths. and of the vast resistance which the air makes to what comes out of them) though this, I fay, were true, how could the volcano throw out this piece of marble, all polished? Some edifice muft certainly have been there in former times. The temple of Vulcan was on the other fide of the mountain.

Our traveller foon found himself at the top of the first mouth of Etna, from whence he paffed with VOL. VII.

out ftopping through a plain of fulphur and afhes (a little like that of Salfatara, near Naples) which conducted him to the fecond and principal of the two openings; and though it was the 19th of July, all the way as he approached this gulph, he found fnow under the afhes and fulphur on which he trod, while a few paces farther he faw himself furrounded with flaming exhalations, which rofe from place to place, as already particularly defcribed by Silius, Claudian, Severus, Seneca, and fome moderns.

circumference.

The large mouth of Etna may be about three or four miles in M. D'Orville and his fellow traveller, faftened to ropes which two or three men held at fome diftance for fear of accidents, defcended as near as poffible to the brink of the gulph; but the fmall flames and fmoke which if fued from it on every fide, and a greenifh fulphur and pumice-ftones, quite black, which covered the margin, would not permit them either to advance farther, or to extend their views to the bottom of this abyss. They only faw dif tinctly in the middle, a mass of matter which rofe in the shape of a cone to the height of above 60 feet, and which towards the base, as far as their fight could reach, might be from fix to eight hundred. It was a mass of confumed lava which burnt no longer.

While our travellers had their eyes fixed on this fubstance, they perceived fome motion on the north fide, oppofite to that on which they ftood. Presently the mountain began to fend forth fmoke and afhes: this eruption was

H

preceded