Ch. ix. Siberia, Northern and Southern. 175 



directed efforts, added to what had been done by 

 Peter I., had, as might be expected, a considerable 

 effect; and the Russian territories, particularly the 

 Asiatic part of them, which had slumbered for cen- 

 turies with a population nearly stationary, or at most 

 increasing very languidly, seem to have made a sud- 

 den start of late years. Though the population of 

 the more fertile provinces of Siberia be still very in- 

 adequate to the richness of the soil; yet in some of 

 them agriculture flourishes in no inconsiderable 

 degree, and great quantities of corn are grown. In 

 a general dearth which happened in 1769, the pro- 

 vince of Isetsk was able, notwithstanding a scanty 

 harvest, to supply in the usual manner the foun- 

 deries and forges of the Ural, besides preserving 

 from the horrors of famine all the neighbouring 

 provinces.* And in the territory of Krasnoyarsk, 

 on the shores of the Yenissey, in spite of the in- 

 dolence and drunkenness of the inhabitants, the 

 abundance of corn is so great that no instance has 

 ever been known of a general failure.! Pallas 

 justly observes that, if we consider that Siberia 

 not two hundred years ago was a wilderness utterly 

 unknown, and in point of population even far 

 behind the almost desert tracts of North America, 

 we may reasonably be astonished at the present 



and the cheapness of manufactures would soon give the cultivators 

 a taste for them. 



* Voy. dc Pallas, torn. iii. p. 10. 



f Id. torn. it. p. 3. 



