NATURAL HISTORY. 
quiry, the real cause of them has 
not been discovered. 
- About twenty years ago, several 
fires broke out, within a short space 
of time, in a rope-walk, and in some 
wooden houses, at St. Petersburgh ; 
and, in all these instances, not the 
slightest trace of wilful firing could 
be found; but there was lying in 
the rope-walk, where the cables for 
the navy are made, a great heap of 
hemp, among which a considerable 
quantity of oil had been carelessly 
spilt, and it was therefore declared 
spoilt ; for which reason it had been 
bought ata low price, and put up 
together, and. was held to be the 
cause of the fire. The inferior in- 
habitants of that part of the town 
had likewise bought of this spoilt 
hemp, at a cheaper rate than usual, 
for closing the chinks, and caulking 
the windows of their houses, which 
are constructed of balks laid one 
upon the other. At this rope-walk, 
coils of cable have been found hot, 
and the people have been obliged 
to separate them, to prevent farther 
danger. 
It was inthe spring of the year 
1780, that a fire was discovered on 
board a frigate lying in the road off 
Cronstadt; which, if it had not 
been timely extinguished, would 
have endangered the whole fleet. 
After the severest scrutiny, no cause 
of the fire was to be found; and 
the matter was forced to remain 
without explanation, but with strong 
surmises of some wicked incendiary 
being at the bottom of it. In the 
month of August, in the same year, 
a fire broke out at a hemp-maga- 
zine at St. Petersburgh, by which 
several hundred thousand poods* 
ofhemp and flax were consumed. 
[*79 
The walls of the magazine are of 
brick, the floors of stone, and the 
rafters and covering of iron; it 
stands alone on an island in the 
Neva, on which, as well as on 
board the ships lying in the Neva, 
no fire is permitted. ~ In St. Peters- 
burgh, in the same year, a fire was 
discovered in the vaulted shop of a 
furrier. In these shops, which are > 
all vaults, neither fire nor candle is 
allowed, and the doors of them are 
all of iron. At length the probable 
cause was found to be, that the fur- 
rier, the evening before the fire, 
had got a roll of new cere-cloth, 
(much in use here for covering ta- 
bles, counters, &c. being easily 
wiped and kept clean, ) and had left 
it in his vault, where it was found 
almost consumed. 
In the night, between the 20th 
and 2ist of April, 1781, a fire was 
seen on board the frigate Maria, 
which lay at anchor, with several 
other ships, in the road off the island 
of Cronstadt ; the fire was however 
soon extinguished ; and, by the se= 
verest examination, little or nothing 
could be extorted concerning the 
manner in which it had arisen. The 
garrison was threatened with a scru- 
tiny that should cost them dear ; 
and, while they were in this cruel 
suspense, the wisdom of the sove- 
reign gave a turn to the affair, 
which quieted the minds of all, by 
pointing out the proper method to 
be pursued by the commissioners of 
inquiry, in the following order to 
Count Chernichet. 
‘“* When we perceived, by the re- 
port you have delivered in of the 
examination into the accident that 
happened on board the frigate 
Maria, that, in the cabin where the 
* A pood consists of 40 pounds Russ, or 36 pounds English, 
fire 
