iSO RUSSIAN EMPIRE IN ASIA. 



with ease, are alert on horseback, good hunters, and dexterous at the 

 bow. 



The Kamtschadales have a lively imagination, a strong memory* 

 and a great genius for imitation. Their chief employments are 

 hunting and fishing. The chase furnishes them with sables, foxes, 

 and other game. They are very expert at fishing, and are well ac- 

 quainted with the proper seasons for it. They eat and drink great 

 quantities ; but as what they eat is always cold, their teeth are very 

 fine. Dogs are their only domestic animals, and they put a high va- 

 lue upon them. Some of them travel in small carriages drawn by 

 dogs ; and a complete Kamtschadalian equipage, dogs, harness, and 

 all, costs in that country near twenty rubles, or 4/. 10a. The Kaim> 

 schadales believed the immortality of the soul, before they were 

 prevailed upon to embrace the Christian religion. They are super- 

 stitious to extravagance, and extremely singular and capricious in 

 the different enjoyments of life, particularly their convivial enter- 

 tainments. 



The manners of the Siberians were formerly so barbarous, that 

 Peter the Great thought he could not inflict a greater punishment 

 upon his capital enemies, the Swedes, than by banishing them to 

 Siberia. The effect was, that the Swedish officers and soldiers in- 

 troduced European usages and manufactures into the country, and 

 thereby acquired a comfortable living. Kamtschatka is now con- 

 sidered as the most horrid place of exile in the vast empire of Russia,, 

 and hither some of the greatest criminals are sent. 



Cities, chief towns.. ..Astracan, situate on an island formed by 

 the river Volga, near its entrance into the Caspian sea, is a large and 

 populous city, containing about 70,000 inhabitants. It is about a 

 league in circumference, and surrounded by a wall. It contains 

 twenty-five Russian churches and two convents, and is the seat of a 

 Greek bishop. The Armenians, Lutherans, and Roman-catholics, 

 have also their places of worship, and even the Hindoos a temple. 



Orenburg, the capital of the government of Ufa, was built in 1738, 

 by order of the empress Anne, at the conflux of the Or and Ural : but 

 that situation being found inconvenient, the inhabitants were removed, 

 and the town built lower down on the Ural, in 1 740. It is now a place 

 of considerable trade. 



Tobolsk, the chief town of the government of the same name, and 

 considered as the capital of all Siberia, is situate at the confluence of 

 the Irtish and the Tobol. It consists of two towns, called the upper 

 and the lower town, and contains about 15,000 inhabitants. It has a 

 tolerably strong fortress. To this city are sent the Russian state- 

 prisoners who are banished into Siberia. 



Irkutsk, the capital of the government of that name, situate on the 

 Angara, near the late Baikal, contains several churches and other 

 edifices of stone, and about 12,000 inhabitants. It is a place of con- 

 siderable commerce, the caravans which trade between Russia and 

 China passing through it. 



Tomsk, the chief town of the province of that name, in the govern- 

 ment of Tobolsk, is a place of considerable trade, and contains about 

 2000 houses and 8000 inhabitants. Yakutsk, which gives name to a 

 province in the government of Irkutsk, stands on the river Lena ; it 

 Contains about five or six hundred wooden houses, and is defended by 

 a wooden fort. Ochotsk, which gives name to another province of 

 the same goverrmienfc; is a small tawnor rather station, situate at the 



