ASIATIC RUSSIA. 



891 



fall in pieces. Ancient liistory informs us, tliat all the regions of Asia were originally divided 

 into numerous small kingdoms, in which the will of the monarch found limits in the rights of the 

 nation. Asia has seen several republics. The resistance which Tyre and Jerusalem opposed 

 to the conquerors of the world, was not owing, as Montesquieu says, " to the heroism of ser- 

 vitude." The Persians of Cyrus were not slaves. The Scytliians spoke the language of in- 

 dependent men to the conqueror of Darius. 



The astonishing rapidity of political revolutions in Asia, arises, however, out of one fact 

 which is really dependent on its physical geography. " In that part of the world," says Mon- 

 tesquieu, " weak nations are opposed to strong ; people warlike, brave, and active, border 

 upon those who are effeminate, idle, and timid ; the one must necessarily be conquerors, and 

 the others conquered. Here we have the principal reason of the liberty of Europe, and the 

 slavery of Asia." It is necessary to combine this just remark with another truth, proved by 

 physical geography, namely, that Asia has no temperate zone, no intermediate region between 

 very cold and very hot climates. The slaves inhabit the hot, and the conquerors the elevated 

 and cold regions. The latter are the Tartars, the Afghans, the JNIongols, the Mantchous, and 

 others, comprised under the name of Tartars by the moderns, and Scythians of Asia by the 

 ancients. Here we (ind a totally different physical and moral nature ; courage animates their 

 strong and powerful bodies ; they have no sciences, no fine arts, no luxury ; their savage vir- 

 tues are unpolished, morality is written upon their hearts ; hospitality to strangers, honor to an 

 enemy, and a fidelity wholly inviolable to their own nation and friends. To counterbalance 

 these good qualities, they are addicted to war, or rather pillage and a wandering life, and live 

 almost in a state of anarchy. 



Such were the Scythians ; such are the Tartars. They defied the power of Darius ; they 

 gave a great and sublime lesson to Alexander the Great ; they heard from a distance the victo- 

 rious arms of Rome, but they did not feel their pressure. More than 20 times they conquered 

 Asia and Eastern Europe ; they founded States in Persia, in India, in China, and in Russia. 

 The empires of Tamerlane, and of Ghengis-khan, embraced the half of the ancient continent. 

 That vast nursery of nations appears to be now exhausted ; few of the Tartars remain nomin- 

 ally independent ; but they are still the masters of China, and rather the allies and vassals, than 

 the subjects of Russia. For the present state, political institutions, and history of the differ- 

 ent Asiatic nations, we must refer our readers to the respective accounts of the different coun- 

 tries. 



CHAPTER CXXXIX. ASIATIC RUSSIA. 



1. Boundaries mid Extent. The Asiatic dominions of Russia are bounded on the north 

 by the Arctic Ocean ; east by Behring's Strait, the sea of Okotsk, and the Pacific Ocean ; 

 south by the Chinese empire, Turkistan, Persia, the Caspian Sea, and Ottoman Asia ; and 

 west by the Black Sea, and the Ural River and Mountains, which separate it from European 

 Russia. They extend from lat. 38° to 78° N., and from long. 36° E. to 171° W., having an 

 area of 5,350,000 square miles, with a population of about 4,000,000 inhabitants. 



2. JMountains. The Ural JMountains, on the western frontier, stretch from north to south 

 for a great distance, but nowhere attain a very great elevation, the highest summits not exceed- 

 ing 5,200 feet in height. The Jlltai Mountains stretch from east to west along the southern 

 frontier, forming in part the boundary between the Russian and Chinese empires. This chain 

 surrounds the sources of the Irtish and the Yenissey, under the name of the Sayanian Moun- 

 tains ; further east it extends in a northeasterly direction along the western coast of the sea of 

 Okotsk, under the name of the Stanovoy Mountains, and traverses the peninsula of Kamschat 

 ka, where it presents a series of active volcanoes. The highest summits of this great mass of 

 mountains are from 10,000 to 12,000 feet, except some of the summits of Kamschatka, which 

 have been lately ascertained to exceed 20,000 feet in height. Between the Caspian and Black 

 seas are the Caucasian Mountains, rising to an elevation of from 15,000 to 18,000 

 feet. 



3. Rivers and Lakes. The Ob or Oby rises in the Altai Mountains, becomes navigable in 

 the government of Tomsk, receives the Irtish, a large, navigable river, 1,600 miles in length, 

 and enters the Arctic Ocean after a course of 2,400 miles. The Yenissey, the largest river of 



