MEMOIR OF PALLAS. 63 
and in English in 1802. The plan pursued, and 
the style of these volumes, are very similar to those 
of his earlier “ Travels,” already dwelt upon. As 
this is the only work of our author, which we have 
seen, to which the English reader can have access, 
we shall quote a paragraph which may help him to 
form his own estimate both of the original and the 
translation, which, upon the whole, is excellent :— 
“ The Asiatic method of rearing silk-worms is pre- 
ferable to the Russian. The Persian rears his mul- 
berry trees to about six feet high, which they attain 
in four or five years. He then begins to lop their 
tops and branches, which are given to the insects, 
as soon as they have sufficient strength, by placing 
them gently on their beds. By this means the 
shoots remain fresh and succulent, and the worms 
devour them even to the woody fibres, so that no 
part of the nutritive foliage is wasted. As these 
insects are every day supplied with food, the leafless 
branches gradually form a kind of wicker-work, 
through which the impurities pass; so that the 
cheerful worms preserve the requisite cleanliness 
without trouble to the cultivator, and speedily 
attain a vigorous state. In this manner they are 
continually supplied with leaves till they prepare 
to spin, when small dry brushwood is placed in all 
directions over the leafless branches, and on this the 
worms spin their silk.” —( Vol. i. p. 190.) 
But Pallas did not wish to incur risk by remain- 
ing among a people who are no less dangerous than 
they are interesting. He ere long, then, proceeded 
