RUSSIA IN EUROPE. iiS 



. naer provinces. The bulk of the people, however, are misera- 

 bly fee] ; l he soil, indeed, produces a vast number of mushrooms for 

 their subsistence. Peter the Great, and his successors down to the 

 present, time, have been at incredible pains to introduce agriculture 

 into their dominions ; and though the soil is not everywhere proper 

 for corn, yet its vast fertility in some provinces may make grain as 

 common in Russia as it is in the southern countries of Europe. The 

 easy communication by means of rivers, which the inland parts of that 

 empire have with each other, facilitates the conveyance of those pro- 

 ducts of the earth which abound in one province, to another which 

 may be deficient in them. 



Vegetable productions, animals. ..Russia contains numerous and 

 extensive forests of pine, fir, larch, mountain-ash, Sec. Wheat, oats, 

 barley, rye, flax, hemp, and a variety of other vegetables, and fruits 

 of different kinds, are produced in Russia, especially in the southern 

 provinces. The animals of the northern parts of Russia do not greatly 

 differ from those of Denmark and Sweden, to the account of which 

 we refer the reader. The lynx, famous for its piercing eye, is a na- 

 tive of this empire ; it makes prey of every creature it can master, and 

 is said to be produced chiefly in the fir-tree forests. Hyaenas, bears, 

 wolves, foxes, and other creatures already described, afford their furs 

 for clothing the inhabitants ; but the furs of the black foxes and er- 

 mine are more valuable in Russia than elsewhere. The dromedary 

 and camel were formerly almost the only beasts of burden known in 

 many parts of Russia. The czar Peter encouraged a breed of large 

 horses for war and carriages ; but those employed in the ordinary pur- 

 poses of life are but small ; as are their cows and sheep. 



We know of few or no birds in Russia that have not been already 

 described. The same may be said of fishes, except that the Russians 

 are better provided than their neighbours with sturgeon, cod, salmon, 

 and beluga. The latter resembles a sturgeon, and is often called the 

 large sturgeon ; it is from twelve to fifteen feet in length, and weighs 

 from 9 to 16 and 18 hundred weight; its jlesh is white and delicibui. 

 Of the roe of the sturgeon and the beluga the Russians make the 

 famous caviare, so much esteemed for its richness and Savour. 



Curiosities, natural and artificial.... Among the natural cu- 

 riosities of Russia, the thirteen cataracts ol the Dnieper may be enume- 

 rated, as also may other cataracts in the government of Olonetz. The 

 prodigious rocks of ice, of several miles in extent and surprising 

 height, which float in the ocean to the north of Russia, may likewise 

 be reckoned among the natural curiosities of this country; as among 

 the artificial maybe commemorated the palace of ice which the empress 

 Anne caused to be built on the bank of the Neva in 1740. This edifice, 

 constructed of huge quadrats of ice hewn in the manner of freestone, 

 was 52 feet in length, 16 in breadth, and 20 in height ; the walls were 

 three feet thick. In the several apartments were tables, chairs, beds, 

 and all kinds of household furniture, of ice. In front of the palace, 

 besides pyramids and statues, stood six cannons, carrying balls of six 

 pounds weight, and two mortars of ice. From one of the former, as 

 a trial, an iron ball, with only a quarter of a pound of powder, was fired 

 off: the ball went through a two-inch board at sixty paces from the 

 mouth of the cannon, and the piece of ice-artillery, with its carriage, 

 remained uninjured by the explosion. The illumination of the ice- 

 palace at night had an astonishingly grand effect 



Vol Q * 



