24 December 1748. 



.worm-eaten and rotten within. At pre- 

 fent the Swedes no longer make ufe of iuch 

 bowls and didirs, but make ufe of earthen 

 ware, or veiTels made of other wood. 

 Some knobs are of an uncommon fize, and 

 make a tree have a monftrous appearance. 

 Trees with knobs are very common in the 

 woods of this country *. 



The roads are good or bad according to 

 the difference of the ground. In a fandy 

 foil the roads are dry and good ; but in a 

 clayey one they are bad. The people here 

 are likewife very carelefs in mending them. 

 If a rivulet be not very great, they do not 

 make a bridge over it 5 and travellers may 

 do as well as they can to get over : There- 

 fore many people are in danger of being 

 drowned in iuch places, where the water 



is 



* In Siberia, and in the province of Wiatka, in the 

 government of Cazan, in KuJJia, the inhabitants make 

 Life of the knobs, which are pretty frequently found 

 in birches, to make bowls and other domeftic utenfils 

 thereof. They are turned, made pretty thin, and covered 

 with a kind of varnifh, which gives them a pretty ap- 

 pearance ; for the utenfil looks yellow, and is marbled 

 quite in a pi&urefque manner, with brown veins. The belt 

 "kind of thefe veflels are made fo thin that they are femi- 

 diaphanous, and when put into hot water they grow quite 

 pliant, and may be formed by main force, quite flat, but 

 when again left to thcmfelves, and grown cold, they re- 

 turn to their original fhape. This kind of wood is 

 ca]led, in Rvljia, Kap, and the veflels made of it, kup- 

 foivie fchafhki, and are pretty high in price, when they 

 are of the bell kind, and well' v'arniihed. F. 



