RUSSIA. 



All travellers agree in praMing the falubrity of the atmo- 

 lphere in RufTia, and the abfence or infrequency of feveral 

 difeafes with which the other countries of Europe are vifited, 

 arifing from it. Herberftein and his followers, from the ge- 

 neral healthinefs of the Ruffian climate, have explained this 

 remarkable faft : that, from time immemorial, the plague has 

 never communicated itfelf from the fources of the Don to the 

 north and eaft ; which opinion, however, has been confuted, 

 even in ancient times, by feveral dreadful peftilences, and like- 

 wife in the laft century, by the formidable plague which, in 

 1770 — 1772, raged in the city and territory of Mofcow. 

 Since the diftrifts of the Lower Don and Dnieper, and thofe 

 between the Dnieper and the Dniefler, have been incorpo- 

 rated with the Ruffian empire ; the country of the Don Cof- 

 facks, and what was formerly called Polifh Ukraine, form 

 an exception to the juftly boafted falubrity of the climate 

 of European Ruffia. Almoft every year ihoufands of per- 

 fons are carried off by all kinds of ardent and putrid fevers, 

 dyfenteries, inflammations of the cheft, pleuriiies, &c. from 

 July to the beginning of winter, efpecially in thofe parts 

 which are furrounded with fetid morafies, or have no other 

 than ftagnant and putrefcent water. 



While, upon the whole, they extol the falubrity of the 

 Ruffian climate, they, in general, complain of the intenfe 

 cold of the winter, and the equally exceflive heat of the 

 iummer, which, in the northern and central Ruffia, very 

 often prove deftruftive to men and beads, no lefs than 

 to the fruits of the earth. Almoit all travellers adduce 

 the fame allegations, or inftances of the infufferable heats 

 and frolts of the Ruffian empire. The winter, fay Her- 

 berftein and his followers, lafts from fix to eight months. 

 During that feafon, all the rivers and lakes are covered with 

 ell-thick ice, and the ground with ell-deep fnow. Where 

 the ground is not covered, it is rent in wide and deep chaps 

 by the winter cold, as in the milder parts of Europe by long 

 continued fummer drought and heat. In the coldeft days, 

 on firft going out of the warm apartments into the open 

 air, the breath is taken away, or contrafted almoft to fuf- 

 focation. Spittle ejected is converted into ice before it 

 reaches the earth ; and if we touch metal with moift hands, 

 the fkin is left adhefive to it, as though the metal were 

 glowing hot, and the fame fenfation is experienced from 

 the contact. With the utmoft precaution it neverthelefs fre- 

 quently happens, that thofe who take only a fhort walk, in 

 a few minutes have their nofe, ears, or fingers frozen. Men 

 and cattle bringing provifions to town are often frozen to 

 death. Ravenous and other birds fall dead to the ground, 

 and fruit-trees are riven by the piercing froft. It is affirmed 

 by Gceteeris, pp. 88, 89, that it fometimes happens that 

 flefh and fifh, which have been boiling and roafting more 

 than an hour, on being cut up on table, were dill frozen 

 within. The fame author relates that the beards of him- 

 felf and others were hard frozen to the bed-clothes while 

 afleep. The greateft advantage arifing from long and fevere 

 winters in Ruffia is this ; that it levels all roads, and opens 

 them in every direction, fo that travelling from one place to 

 another is incredibly rapid and cheap ; therefore, even in 

 ancient times, when many canals were not yet dug, many 

 roads and bridges not conftrufted, and many fwamps not 

 drained, the winter, ftill more than at prefent, was the pro- 

 per feafon for commerce and the tranfport of commodities. 

 Whereas, no foonerhasthe vernal fun diffolved the incrufta- 

 tion of the waters and the land, but at once the rivers and 

 itream°, overflow their banks, converting the lower plains 

 and vallies into lakes or morafles. Within a few days after 

 the fnow has difappeared, the forefts and trees are clothed 

 with beautiful foliage, and the ploughed lands, meads, and 

 pallure-grounds, with the moft luxuriant corn and herbage, 



which, owing to the humidity of the foil, and the rapidly in- 

 creafing ardours, fhoot upwards with an almoft vifible 

 growth. The times of fowing and reaping, therefore, border 

 on each other in Ruffia much nearer than in other European 

 countries. Violent rains, boifterous winds, and continued 

 fogs, are more frequent than thunder-ftorms, as immoderate, 

 or late frofts, are oftener injurious than long droughts. 

 Sometimes, however, Ruffia experiences fuch hot and dry 

 fummers, that fields of Handing corn and forefts take fire, 

 fo that entire provinces are filled with noxious fmoke, and 

 in feme fort darkened by it. Among the principal annoy- 

 ances of the hot feafons, are the innumerable fwarmsof muf- 

 quitos, from which no reft is to be had night or day, and the 

 cold nights that not unfrequently fucceed to fultry days. 



Ruffia being generally a level country, or at moft only 

 riling to moderate hills, it is fomewhat curious that, though 

 deftitute of mountains, it contains more forefts, lakes, and 

 rivers, more brooks and running fprings, than any other 

 territory in Europe. 



The north-eaftern provinces, from the Volga to the Ural, 

 are defcribed by former travellers as a country for the moft 

 part covered with inexplorable forefts, and that even where 

 it is cultivated, it ftrikes the eye as having been not very long 

 fince clothed with wood. Herberftein, p. 61, fpeaks thus 

 even of the province of Mofcow : " Totam porro regionem 

 non ita diu admodum fylvofam fuill'e, ex magnis arborum 

 truncis, qui etiamnum extant, apparet." " II eft vrai," 

 fays Miege, " qu'il eft tcllement plein de forets, que dans 

 l'efpace de 500 lieues, que nous nines a travers ce pays la, 

 nous en eumes toujours en vue, quoique ce fut la partie la 

 mieux peuplee du pays." Ruffia is, even at prefent, far more 

 woody than any other European countries. The Volchon- 

 fkoi foreft, through which the road lies from Viafma to 

 Mofcow, extends on all fides to unknown diftances ; and in 

 this foreft it is faid, that, even in the laft century, numerous 

 colonies were difcovered, which, from their origin, had been 

 utterly unknown, not only to the government, but even to 

 the neareft inhabitants. Of fuch colonies feveral may pro- 

 bably ftill exift in the prodigious forefts with which the dif- 

 tri£t3 of Olonetz, Archangel, Perm, and other northern dif- 

 tricts are covered. Even the road between Mofcow and 

 Peterfburg runs moftly through an uninterrupted fucceffion 

 of woodland, in which villages are rarely feen. The forefts 

 of Ruffia confift chiefly of cedars, pines, firs, linden, and 

 birch ; and the fhores of the Volga, the Occa, the Don and 

 its tributary rivers, are adorned with vaft forefts of oak, 

 from which the fhip-timber is conveyed to the ports of the 

 Baltic, and to the wharfs of the Don and the Euxine. The 

 regions between the inferior Volga, between the Don and 

 Dneiper and Dnieiter, have fewer or even no woods at all, 

 and the inhabitants are obliged, in many places, to drefs 

 their victuals with dried cow-dung. 



It would be in vain to attempt at particularizing the lakes, 

 pools, and marfhes, the rivers, brooks, and fprings which 

 are faid by the ancient travellers to be innumerable even to 

 the inhabitants themfelves. Thofe who came from Poland, 

 or Livonia, reprefent travelling through Ruffia as extremely 

 perilous, not only on account of wolves and robbers, but 

 from the badnefs of the roads, and the miferable ftate of the 

 bridges. When people of quality were going a journey, 

 orders were previoully fent to the country-folks of the parts 

 adjacent, to make the roads and bridges in fome degree pail- 

 able. The high roads are now, in many parts of Ruffia, as 

 fine as in other European countries. If the wooden bridges 

 are in fome places badly maintained, and from the defedt of 

 here or there a balk are inconvenient and troublefome to the 

 traveller ; they do not, however, fo often endanger his neck. 

 The roads are at lealt fufficiently wide, and every where pro- 

 Tided 



