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CHAP. IX. 



Of the Checks to Population in Siberia, Northern and 



Southern. 



The inhabitants of the most northern parts of 

 Asia subsist chiefly by hunting and fishing ; and 

 we may suppose therefore that the checks to 

 their increase are of the same nature as those 

 which prevail among the American Indians ; ex- 

 cept that the check from war is considerably less, 

 and the check from famine perhaps greater, than 

 in the temperate regions of America. M. de 

 Lesseps, who travelled from Kamtschatka to 

 Petersburgh with the papers of the unfortunate 

 Pe>ouse, draws a melancholy picture of the mi- 

 sery sometimes suffered in this part of the world 

 from a scarcity of food. He observes, while at 

 Bolcheretsk, a village of Kamtschatka; "Very 

 " heavy rains are injurious in this country, be- 

 " cause they occasion floods which drive the fish 

 " from the rivers. A famine, the most distressing 

 " to the poor Kamtschadales, is the result; as 

 " happened last year in 1 all the villages along the 

 " western coast of the peninsula. This dreadful 

 *' calamity occurs so frequently in this quarter, 

 " that the inhabitants are obliged to abandon 

 " their dwellings, and repair with their families 

 " to the border of the Kamtschatka river where 



