38 MEMOIR OF PALLAS. 



crossed the Altaisk mountains, followed the course 

 of the Irtish as far as Kolivan, where he inspected 

 the celebrated silver mines, and finally arrived at 

 Krasnoyarsk, a town upon the Enissey. In spring 

 1772 he set off for another district which is still 

 richer in mines, and which belongs to the crown, 

 on the northern slope of the Altay mountains, the 

 great chain which extends from east to west, and 

 which, by obstructing the south wind, imposes on 

 Siberia a climate much more rigorous than its lati- 

 tude indicates. After advancing still farther east- 

 ward, he crossed the great lake Baikal, and traversed 

 that mountainous country known under the name 

 of Daourie, which extends to the frontiers of China. 

 He here experienced so great a cold, that he wit- 

 nessed the natural freezing of mercury, — which 

 phenomena he minutely described. It was in these 

 regions that he for the first time began to witness a 

 complete difference from every thing seen in Europe : 

 the plants assumed new forms, and the animals, of 

 kinds altogether unknown to us, climbed the rocks, 

 having wandered from the immense deserts of cen- 

 tral Asia. After having met with a great many 

 hordes who were half savage, he here at length 

 discovered a civilized nation, but one whose civi- 

 lization is very different from any thing seen in 

 Europe ; and he could not prevent himself from con- 

 cluding that the Chinese were a race distinct from 

 the others, so far back at least as the last great catas- 

 trophe of the globe, and which in its developement 

 had followed a course alike isolated and peculiar. 



