Ch. vii. among modern Pastoral Nations. 137 



quilly the steppes of the Wolga. The reasons 

 which he gives for their not having increased so 

 much as might be expected, are the many acci- 

 dents occasioned by falls from horses, the fre- 

 quent petty wars between their different princes 

 and with their different neighbours; and particu- 

 larly the numbers among the poorer classes who 

 die of hunger, of misery, and every species of 

 calamity, of which the children are most fre- 

 quently the victims.* 



It appears that when this tribe put itself under 

 the protection of Russia, it had separated from 

 the Soongares, and was by no means numerous. 

 The possession of the fertile steppes of the Wolga 

 and a more tranquil life soon increased it, and in 

 1662 it amounted to fifty thousand families.! 

 From this period to 1771, the time of its migra- 

 tion, it seems to have increased very slowly. The 

 extent of pastures possessed would not probably 

 admit of a much greater population; as at the 

 time of its flight from these quarters, the irrita- 

 tion of the Chan at the conduct of Russia was 

 seconded by the complaints of the people of the 

 want of pasture for their numerous herds. At 

 this time the tribe amounted to between 55 and 



* Decouv. Russ. torn. iii. p. 319, 320, 321. 



\ Id. p. 221. Tooke's View of the Russian Empire, vol. ii. 

 b. ii. p. 30. Another instance of rapid increase presents itself in 

 a colony of baptized Kalmucks, who received from Russia a fertile 

 district to settle in. From 8695, which was its number in 1754, 

 it had increased in 1771 to 14,000. Tooke's View of the Russ. 

 Emp. vol. ii. b. ii. p. 32, 33. 



