cIy 
Avrora BorREA- 
LIS. 
Fisx. 
Ty Acre. SE UA, 
this diftant coaft. Part is taken from Mr. Coxe’s Ruffian Difcoveries *, and part 
from a manufcript for which I am indebted to the learned Profeflor before men 
tioned. 
The wind which paffes over the ice of this polar fea, has rendered Sibiria the 
coldeft of inhabited countries : its effeéts may perhaps extend much farther. At 
Chamnanning, in Thibet, in lat. 30. 44. (according to Major Rennel’s claffical 
' map) Mr. Bogle found, during winter, the thermometer in his room at 29° be- 
low the freezing point. In the middle of April the ftanding waters were all 
frozen, and heavy fnows perpetually fell +. I have heard of ice even at Patna, 
in lat. 25. 35; and of the Seapoys who had flept on the ground being found in the 
morning torpid. Near the fort of Argun, not higher than lat. 52, the ground 
feldom thaws deeper than a yard andahalf ¢. At Jakut/R, in lat. 62, the foil is 
eternally frozen even in fummer, from the depth of three feet below the furface. 
An inhabitant, who by the labor of two fummers funk a well to the depth of 
ninety-one feet, loft his labor, and found his fartheft fearches frozen §. Birds 
fall down, overcome with the cold ; and even the wild beafts fometimes perifh. 
The very air is frozen, and exhibits a moft melancholy gloom |. 
The 4urora Borealis is as common here as in Europe, and ufually exhibits 
fimilar variations : one fpecies regularly appears between the north-eaft and eaft, 
like a luminous rainbow, with numbers of columns of light radiating from 
it: beneath the arch is a darknefs, through which the ftars appear with fome 
brilliancy. This fpecies is thought by the natives to be a forerunner of 
ftorms. ‘There is another kind, which begins with certain infulated rays from 
the north, and others from the north-eaft. They augment little by little, till 
they fill the whole fky, and form a fplendor of colors rich as gold, rubies, and 
emeralds: but the attendant phenomena ftrike the beholders with horror, for 
they crackle, fparkle, hifs, make a whiftling found, and a noife even equal to 
artificial fire-works. The idea of an eleétrical caufe is fo ftrongly imprefled by 
this defeription, that there can remain no doubt of the origin of thefe appear- 
ances. The inhabitants fay, on this occafion, it is a troop of men furioufly mad 
which are pafling by. Every animal is ftruck with terror ; even the dogs of the 
hunters are feized with fuch dread, that they will fall on the ground and become 
immoveable till the caufe is over q. 
I am flightly acquainted with the fith of the Jcy fea, except the anadromous 
kinds, or thofe which afcend from it into the Sibirian rivers. ‘The Od, and other 
2 P. 323 to 329. + Ph. Tranf. \xvii. 471. } Pref, Flora Sib. 78. § Forfter’s 
Obf. $5. quoted from Gmelin, |) Pref. Fora Sib. 73. q Voy. en Siberie, ii. 31, 52- 
Sibirian 
