72 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



cargoes to their destined port. These vessels are 

 formed with much ingenuity and little expense, 

 being put together without the use of a nail, and 

 merely pegged with wooden pegs, and stuffed with 

 tow (made from hemp) to make them impervious to 

 the water. They carry from 200 to 500 tons burden, 

 and are from 200 to 400 feet in length, being formed 

 of large trees split into rough boards. The rudder 

 is a single fir-tree, at which ten or twenty men pre- 

 side, according to the strength required. The most 

 valuable part of the cargo, which is wheat, hemp-seed, 

 &c. is stowed in the centre of the vessel, a space 

 being left around the sides for the package of those 

 goods which a little wet will not materially injure, 

 such as hemp, hempen cordage, &c. This being 

 completed, the vessel is ready to take advantage of 

 the earliest part of the navigable season. As soon 

 as the ice is broken up and clear, the vessel floats 

 with the strong current which succeeds to the re- 

 moval of the ice, and thirty or forty of the peasants, 

 sometimes with their wives and families, take their 

 passage upon it. The owner or his steward meets 

 the cargo at Riga, where it is either sold to the mer- 

 chants or warehoused. The vessel then is knocked 

 to pieces, and sold for firing, or frequently for paling 

 for the merchants' yards, and often fetches no more 

 than from 100 to 200 rubles*." (Journey from 

 Riga to the Crimea, by M. Holderness. London, 

 1823.) 



Hemp, or Cannabis saliva, is an annual plant, 

 usually rising to the height of five or six feet. In 

 some situations it is, however, capable of attaining to 

 a much larger growth. Du Hamel relates, that in 

 some parts of Alsace, hemp plants are found which 

 reach twelve feet in height, and are more than three 

 inches in diameter at the bottom of the stalk, having 



* The average value of a ruble is about ten-penes English. 



