VERE SSE. S.A EL BALK AL. 
banks of the Irti/ch and Ob, and other Sibirian rivers, are, in many places, covered 
with immenfe forefts, growing on a {oft foil; which being torn up by the refiftlefs 
force of the vaft fragments of ice brought aewn by the torrents occafioned by the 
melting of the fnows, are conveyed into the Icy and other feas, and form the drift- 
wood I have before fpoken of. The channel of the 03, from its fource to the Ket, 
is ftony : from that river to the mouth it runs through a fat Jand, After it has 
been frozen fome timé, the water grows foul and fetid. This is owing to the vaft 
morafles it in fome places goes through, to the flownefs of the current, and to the 
earth-falt (erd/altz) with which fome of the rivers which run into it are impregnated. 
_ The fith therefore fhun the waters of the Od, and refort in vaft fhoals to the mouths 
of thofe rivers which rufh into it from ftony countries, and in fuch places are taken 
in great abundance. ‘This ftench continues till the river is purified in the {pring 
by the melting of the fnow. ‘The Taz, another river which empties itfelf into the 
eaft of the gulph of OA, is liable to the fame impurity. 
The Fenefei next fucceeds. Mr. Gmelin, as a naturalift, would confider this as 
the boundary between Europe and Afa. From its eaftern banks every thing puts 
on a new appearance; a certain new and unufual vigour reigns in every thing. 
‘The mountains, which to the weftward, as far as the Urallian chain, appeared only 
fcattered, now take full pofleffion, and are interfperfed with moft beautiful vallies. 
New animals, fuch as the Argali, p.12, and Mu/z, p. 34, and feveral others, begin 
to fhew themfelves. Many European plats difappear, and others peculiar to A/a, 
gradually mark the alteration *. Tohis river is fearcely inferior to the Ob. It 
rifes from the two rivers Ulu-kem and Bei-kem, in north lat. 51. 30, long. r11, and 
runs due north into the /cy Sea, forming a mouth filled with multitudes of iflands: 
its channel for the moft part {tony or gravelly: its courfe {wift: its fifhes moft 
delicate: its banks, efpecially the eaftern, mountanous and rocky; but from the 
fort of Saiaenes to the river Dubtches, rich, black, and cultivated. It is fed by 
numbers of rivers. The Tungufca, and the lower Tungufca, are the moft noted. 
The firft rufhes, near Jrkutz, out of the great lake Baikal, under the name of the 
Angara, between two vatt rocks, natural, but with all the appearance of being cut 
through by art, and tumbling over huge {tones in a bed a mile wide, and for a 
{pace nearly the fame +. The collifion of the waters againft the ftones is attended 
with a moft dreadful noife, which, with the magnificence of the fcenery, forms the 
moft awful approach imaginable to this facred water. A deity prefided over the 
Jake; and no one dared call it by that degrading name, for fear of incurring the pe- 
nalty of the difrefpect. Inftead cf Jake, the borderers ftyle it the Holy Sea; and 
its vaft mountains, the Holy Mountains. St. Nicholas prefides over them, and has 
* Pref, Fl. Sidir. xliv. + Bell's Travels, 8vo. ed. i. 279s 
n here 
XCVIT 
Irs ANNUAL 
STENCH, 
JENESEI RIVER. 
Lare Barkate 
