110 NATURAL HISTORY. 



lours, and wear pendants at their ears. They all live 

 under ground, or in huts almost entirely covered with 

 earth, and with the bark of certain trees, or the skin 

 . of certain fishes. Some even form subterranean trench- 

 es, by which one hut communicates with another, and 

 by which, during the winter months, they enjoy the 

 conversation and society of their neighbours. A con- 

 tinued series of darkness for several months, obliges 

 them to illuminate their dreary abodes with lamps, 

 which they keep alive with that very train-oil they 

 use as drink. Under all these hardships, they are 

 subject to few diseases, and they live to a prodigious 

 age. So vigorous indeed are the old men, that they 

 are hardly to be distinguished from the young. The 

 only infirmity they experience, and it is an infirmity 

 common to them all, is blindness. Dazzled by the 

 strong reflection of the snow, in winter, and enveloped 

 in clouds of smoke in autumn and spring, when 

 advanced in years, they seldom retain the use of 

 their eyes. 



The Tartar country, taken in general, comprehends 

 the greatest part of Asia, and extends even from Rus- 

 sia to Karntschatka. It is from eleven to twelve hun- 

 dred leagues long, and about seven hundred broad, nf 

 course its circumference is twenty times larger than 

 that of the whole kingdom of France. 



All the Tartar nations have the upper part of the 

 visage very large and wrinkled, even in their youth. 

 Their nose is short and flat, their eyes are little and 

 sunk in the head ; their cheek bones are high ; the 

 lower part of their visage is narrow ; their chin is Ion;; 

 and prominent-; their teeth are long and straggling ; 

 their eye-brows are so large as to cover the eyes ; 

 llmir eye-lids arc thick ; the face is broad and flat ; 



