174 TRAVELS IN UPPER 



the Volga , and in the sandy hills to the south of the 

 Jrtis, as well as in the schist es of the Altdiqut moun- 

 tains', that is, in the north of Russia, in Tartary, 

 and in Siberia. 



After this, it is assuredly very possible, as you 

 rightly observe, Sir, that Gmelin may have fallen 

 in with only a single individual of the race of the 

 jerbos, always becoming scarcer and scarcer as you 

 advance northward, and that he should have given 

 it the name of alagtaga, or, if you will have it so, 

 of alak-daaga, under which the people of those 

 countries, not much accustomed to employ them- 

 selves in reckoning the number of the toes of ani- 

 mals, and in taking their dimensions, comprehend 

 the whole generation of gerboise. But it is not 

 credible that a well-informed traveller, and accu- 

 rate with respect to other objects of much greater 

 importance, should not have possessed the skill to 

 distinguish an animal mutilated to such a degree as 

 to be deficient in some of its members, and of cur- 

 tailed dimensions, as you are pleased to suppose. 

 It is still more difficult to believe that he should 

 have amused himself with describing a creature of 

 the imagination, and that, by a chance still more 

 inconceivable, this creature of pure invention 

 should really exist in other climates widely remote 

 and totally opposite. 



Gmelin 



