Ch. vii. among modern Pastoral Nations. 139 



In the winter all the lower classes suffered se- 

 verely from cold and hunger.* In general, one 

 third of their sheep, and often much more, died 

 in the winter in spite of all their care ; and if a 

 frost came late in the season after rain and snow, 

 so that the cattle could not get at the grass, the 

 mortality among their herds became general, 

 and the poorer classes were exposed to inevitable 

 famine, j" 



Malignant fevers, generated principally by their 

 putrid food and the putrid exhalations with which 

 they were surrounded, and the small-pox, which 

 was dreaded like the plague, sometimes thinned 

 their numbers; % but in general it appears that 

 their population pressed so hard against the limits 

 of their means of subsistence, that want, with the 

 diseases arising from it, might be considered as 

 the principal check to their increase. 



A person travelling in Tartary during the sum- 

 mer months would probably see extensive steppes 

 unoccupied, and grass in profusion spoiling for 

 want of cattle to consume it. He would infer 

 perhaps that the country could support a much 

 greater number of inhabitants, even supposing 

 them to remain in their shepherd state. But this 

 might be a hasty and unwarranted conclusion. A 

 horse or any other working animal is said to be 

 strong only in proportion to the strength of his 



* Dccouv. Russ. torn. iii. p. 310. 



I Id. p. 270. 



j Id. p. 311, 312, 313. 



