180 HISTORY OF 



the mountains of Switzerland to the Black Sea. 

 It is so deep between Buda and Belgrade, that 

 the Turks and Christians have fleets of men of 

 war upon it, which frequently engaged during 

 the last war between the Ottomans and the Aus- 

 trians : however, it is unnavigable further down, 

 by reason of its cataracts, which prevent its com- 

 merce into the Black Sea. The Don, or Tanais, 

 whicli is four hundred leagues from the source of 

 that branch of it called the Sofna, to its mouth 

 in the Euxine Sea. In one part of its course it 

 approaches near the Wolga ; and Peter the Great 

 had actually begun a canal, by which he intend- 

 ed joining those two rivers ; but this he did not 

 live to finish. The Nieper, or Borysthenes, 

 which rises in the middle of Muscovy, and runs 

 a course of three hundred and fifty leagues, to 

 empty itself into the Black Sea. The Old Cos- 

 sacks inhabit the banks and islands of this river, 

 and frequently cross the Black Sea, to plunder 

 the maritime places on the coasts of Turkey. 

 The Dwina, which takes its rise in a province 

 of the same name in Russia, runs a course of 

 three hundred leagues, and disembogues into the 

 White Sea, a little below Archangel. 



The largest rivers of Asia are, the Hoanho, 

 in China, which is eight hundred and fifty leagues 

 in length, computing from its source at Raja 

 Ribron, to its mouth in the Gulf of Changi. 

 The Jenisca of Tartary, about eight hundred 

 leagues in length, from the Lake Selinga to the 

 Icy Sea. This river is, by some, supposed to 

 supply most of that great quantity of drift-wood 



