176 Of the Checks to Population in Bk. i. 



state of this part of the world, and at the multi- 

 tude of its Russian inhabitants, who in numbers 

 greatly exceed the natives.* 



When Pallas was in Siberia, provisions in these 

 fertile districts, particularly in the environs of 

 Krasnoyarsk, were most extraordinarily cheap. 

 A pood, or forty pounds, of wheaten flour, was 

 sold for about two-pence halfpenny, an ox for five 

 or six shillings, and a cow for three or four.| 

 This unnatural cheapness, owing to a want of vent 

 for the products of the soil, was perhaps the prin- 

 cipal check to industry. In the period which has 

 since elapsed, the prices have risen considerably;']: 

 and we may conclude therefore that the object 

 wanted has been in a great measure attained, 

 and that the population proceeds with rapid 

 strides. 



Pallas, however, complains that the intentions 

 of the empress respecting the peopling of Siberia 

 were not always well fulfilled by her subordinate 

 agents, and that the proprietors to whose care 

 this was left, often sent off colonists, in every re- 

 spect unfit for the purpose in regard to age, disease 

 and want of industrious habits.§ Even the Ger- 

 man settlers in the districts near the Wolga are, 

 according to Pallas, deficient in this last point, || 



* Voy. de Pallas, torn. iv. p. 6. 



t td. p. 3. 



\ Tooke's View of the Russian Empire, vol. iii. p 239, 



§ Voy. de Pallas, torn. v. p. 5. 



II Id. p. 253. 



