RUSSIA. 



mirey and the flreets not fo floppy as with us. The fnow 

 generally falls from November to January, or from Auguft 

 and September to December. Afterwards the fky is 

 almoft conftantly ferene. It is likewife a well-known fact, 

 that in Ruffia far lefs hardlhip is fuffered from the cold, 

 than in countries where the climate is incomparably milder : 

 for there proper precautions arc taken againit the cold, 

 becaufc it is known for certain that it will be intenfe. 



How comes it then, it will be afked, that fo many 

 people are in Ruffia annually fro/en to death ? That, for 

 inftance, in one winter, no fewer than two hundred perfons 

 in Mofcow alone were found to have thus miferably periihed ? 

 In a country like Ruflia, it may indeed unfortunately happen 

 that perfons are frozen to death, efpecially fuch as have their 

 bufinefs out of doors. Such difaflers would, however, be 

 very rarely heard of, if the people were more prudent. It 

 is not fo much the cold, as the brandy which the labour- 

 ing clafs gulp down in fuch quantities during the winter, 

 that kills fo many. From the years 1759 or 1795, no 

 general conclufion can juftly be drawn. The winter was 

 then, in leveral countries, but particularly in Ruflia, un- 

 commonly fevere. In ordinary years, the number of thele 

 cafualties throughout the empire is not fo confiderable. 



One of the molt important benefits of the Ruffian 

 climate is, that in winter (as we have already hinted) the 

 public ways and roads are in excellent order. The quantity 

 of frow renders them perfectly level and commodious for 

 travelling. No feafon is, therefore, more itudioufly chofen 

 for that purpofe than the depth of winter ; not only for 

 the fake of greater expedition, but many of the highways, 

 being laid with balks or trunks of trees in all other parts of 

 the year, are extremely rough and unpleafant. 



Travelling in Ruflia is performed either with poll -horfes 

 and yeiTi/hiis, or with hired horles and ifvofchiks. At the 

 poll ftations only horfes are to be had ; the carriage mult 

 be the traveller's. The expence of polling is trifling, in 

 comparifon of what is paid the extra poft in Germany. 

 When we travel with hired horfes and ifvofchiks, it is not 

 neceflary to have one's own carriage. We agree with tiic 

 ifvofchik or driver for horfes, carriage, and provifions for 

 the whole journey, whether fifty, a hundred, or a thoufand 

 verfts. This method of travelling is fomewhat more tedi- 

 ous than with polt-horfes, becaufe the fame horfes being 

 continued throughout, it is neceffary to flop at nights ; 

 but it is very cheap. Of thefe ifvofchiks, in St. Peterftmrg 

 alone are at leaft five thoufand. The greater part of them 

 gain their livelihood by letting out carioles and fledges for 

 going about the town. Each of them has a number 

 itamped on a tin-plate at his back, which is renewed or 

 changed every year.. For long journies coaches are rarely 

 ufed, but either femafwagens or kibitkis. Both are half 

 covered, and made nearly in the fame form ; only the former 

 are better and more commodious than the latter. In both 

 the paflenger lies upon a bed ; and they are fo conftrucied, 

 that he can eafily change his pofition either by lying at 

 length or fitting upright. Both may be raifed upon either 

 wheels or fledges, as the feafon requires. Portmanteaus and 

 deep trunks are not fuitable to thefe carriages ; but inftead 

 of them, flat boxes are placed beneath the bed. Kozoies, 

 or fledges entirely clofe, having a door and a fmall pane of 

 glafs for a window, are likewife not uncommon. 



The traveller muft provide himielf with wine and vari- 

 ous other articles of diet for the whole journey ; as in all 

 Ruflia, to the exception of St. Peterfburg, Mofcow, and a 

 few other towns, no regular inns are found, and nothing is 

 to be had upon the road but bread, milk, which often 

 abounds with taracans (a fpecies of beetle deemed facred 

 by the vulgar Ruffians, believing that they procure a bleff- 



ing to the houfe), wretched quas, and flill more wretched 

 brandy. The Ruffian miles or verfts are in length about 

 one-feventh of a German mile, or fomewhat above three 

 quarters of an Englifh mile. In fhort, 104^ verfls are cal- 

 culated to make one degree of the equator. A Livonian 

 verft is rather longer than a Ruffian. In moft parts, verit- 

 polls are fet up from verll to verft ; which though by far 

 not fo handfome as the Saxon and Hanoverian mile-ftones, 

 yet completely anfwer the fame purpofe. 



One very beneficial efleft of the climate ought not to be 

 omitted, which is, that fome animals change their colour 

 in the winter. This is particularly obfervable with the 

 hares and fquirrels ; the former turning perfectly white, 

 the latter grey ; in Siberia of fo dark a grey as to border 

 upon black, in the other parts of Ruffia only lio-ht grey. 

 When the hares, however, are faid to become white, it is 

 to be underftood of the generality of the common Ruffian 

 hares, of the fiilzi, which are fomewhat fmaller and not 

 quite fo well flavoured as the hares of Germany and England. 

 Beyond Mofcow, and in fome other parts, a larger kind 

 of hares arc caught, called rujfaki : thefe retain their hue. 

 It is certain, that this change of colour in fome animals of 

 Ruflia is owing to the climate, to the feverity of the cold. 

 As heat is known to expand bodies, cold muft naturally 

 have a contrary effect, and caufe contraftion. This effect 

 i; firft and moft remarkably perceptible on the furface of 

 bodies, which in animals abounds with hair-tubes. Thefe, on 

 becoming contracted, can admit only the fine aqueous par- 

 ticles, and not the earthy parts of the blood. On this, 

 however, depends the colour. They are white or in gene- 

 ral brighter, when but few earthy particles can enter thefe 

 hair-tubes. Such animals, therefore, as are not very 

 ftrongly conftituted for refilling the cold, mull, in in f enfe 

 froft, after (hedding their original dark hair, neceffarily be- 

 come whiter. That the fquirrels do not, like the Ruffian 

 hares, turn white, but only grey, is a proof that thefe 

 animals are ftronger than the faitzi, and probably proceeds 

 from hence, that the colour of the fquirrel is naturally 

 darker, or at leall deeper, than that of the Ruffian hare. 

 It is no objection, that the Siberian fquirrel becomes dark 

 grey, bordering upon black. Nothing more can be deduced 

 from thence, than that thefe creatures are of an incom- 

 parably more robull and hardy nature than the Ruffian 

 fquirrels. However dark their hue, it is however not fo 

 deep as the red-brown which they put on in fummer. The 

 black ftripe along the back they retain both in fummer and 

 winter. If this explanation of the change of colour in ani- 

 mals be admitted ; it mull follow of courfe, that all white 

 animals, including the tame, are weaker than the brown, 

 and this feems warranted by experience ; at leaft wild cattle, 

 which are in general accounted ftronger than the tame, are 

 commonly of a darker hue. To conclude ; in Ruffia the 

 faitzi and the fquirrel in the houfe change their colour as 

 completely as in the foreft, fodder and nourifh them how 

 you will. 



The greater part of Ruffia is a flat country, like Poland, 

 of a rich foil, marfliy here and there. If we except the 

 great Verchoturian and the Ural chain of mountains, which 

 divide Siberia from the reft of Ruffia, the ridge which 

 feparates Siberia from the country of the Kalmucks and 

 Mongoles, and the Altai between the Irtifch and Ob, that 

 between the Yenifei and the Baikal, called the Sayane 

 mountains, and the lefs confiderable between the Yenifei 

 and the Lena ; we fcarcely find in all Ruflia any elevations 

 that properly deferve the appellation of mountains. 



The mountains are diftributed by Mr. Tooke into eleven 

 clafles, or divifions, of which the greater part confifts of 

 principal chains of themfelves, whilit others are only con- 

 tinuations 



