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. 
