thors abovementioned, and delivered my vouchers wherever it was neceffary, as the reader will generally find at the foot of the pages. "I have beftowed much care and pains in the compilation of this work from the learned writers abovementioned and other authentic fources; and this is all the merit to which I pretend; yet would it be the height of arrogance to expect that it can be free from faults; these must be submitted to the indulgence of the reader: however, amidst the great variety of matter, and the several authors in various languages confulted, I am far more apprehenfive that fome things fhould, in fpite of all my diligence, be found repeated, than that any thing of confequence is omitted. Fine flowing periods and the finished graces of diction, are certainly not to be expected in a work of this nature; and if I have not failed in rendering it both interefting and entertaining I shall be perfectly fatisfied. "Ruffia, an empire but little known or regarded in the laft century, at the opening of the present made her appearance all at once among the states of Europe; and, after a short trial of her powers, became the umpire and the arbitrefs of the North. The whole fyftem of Europe took another form; the arctic eagle extended her influence to the regions of the Adriatic and the banks of the Tagus, while the lightning of her eye ftruck terror into the receffes of mount Caucafus and made the Hellefpont tremble. The arts of Europe were tranfplanted and bloomed both on the shores of the Neva and thofe of the Irtyfh; a new world was opened to commerce, and the fciences, the manners, the luxury, the virtues, and the vices of western Europe, have found their way into the deferts of oriental Afia, and to the inhofpitable coafts of the Frozen Ocean. The æra of these remarkable phenomena was the commencement of the eighteenth century *. "Arrived at the extreme verge of that period, it must be curious and inftructive to look back and compare the two In the year 1697 Peter the Great began his first journey into foreign countries. In 1699 he concluded the armistice with the Porte, by which he acquired Azof, and was enabled to conftruct a navy on the Euxine. In 1700 the battle of Narva was fought, where the Swedes for the last time shewed their fuperiority in difcipline and the arts of war. H 2 epochas epochas together. To confider what Ruffia was at the beginning of this century, to see what the fucceffors of Peter have built on the foundation laid by that great and afpiring genius, what progrefs has been fince made by civilization, and what impreffion the rapid and violent introduction of foreign manners, the fettlement of fo many thoufand foreigners, and the intercourfe with foreign nations, have produced. "In order to fatisfy himself on these particulars, the reader will here fee a complete arrangement as far as it goes, of statements drawn from authentic fources, of facts related by eyewitneffes of what they deliver, men of fcience fent out for the exprefs purpofe of collecting information on the state of the countries they were to vifit, furnished on their expedition with every accommodation that could poffibly be procured, for facilitating their inquiries and freeing their minds from all folicitudes about collateral objects of fecurity and subfiftence. The fame generous patronage and care was continued to them on their return: they fat down in eafe and affluence to commit the refult of their inquiries to paper; and the substance of what they relate will be found in the following pages. This is all that feems neceffary for me to fay; and I humbly conclude in the words of the hiftorian: "Si in tanta fcriptorum turba mea fama in obfcuro fit; nobilitate & magnitudine corum, qui nomini officient meo, me confuler." The whole performance is diftributed into twelve books, embracing the following interefting topics: The Natural State of the Empire. Hiftorical View of the Nations of the Ruffian Empire. Phyfical State of the Inhabitants. Several Ranks and Claffes of the Subjects. Government of the Empire. Forces of the Ruf fan Empire. Revenues of the Empire. Imperial Colleges. Erection of the Vice-Royalties. Productive Induftry. Manufactures and Trades; and the Commerce of Ruffia. From the enumeration of these subjects it is evident that Mr. Tooke has taken a wide fweep, and presents the reader with a fund of inftruction and entertainment. The natural hiftory of Ruffia is that part of the work with which we were moft amufed; and the fketch of the DOG, which is curious, fhall be tranfcribed: "In concluding this fection; let us not omit a race of animals, which, though forming, in all countries, a part of the domestic animals, yet in Ruffia alone is applied in an extremely curious manner to the service and accommodation of mankind. It is the DOG, of whom numerous packs are found with almost all the nomadic nations, and are used for draught particularly by the Kamtshadales and the Oftiaks, by the eaftern Samoyedes, the Tungufes, and by some stems of the Mandhures: an employment to which they are destined even among the Ruffians in the government of Irkutsk, where in some districts they fupply the place of poft-horfes. But nowhere is the breed of this animal of fuch importance and neceffity as in Kamtshatka *, where they conftitute the only fpecies of tame domestic animals, and where it is as impoffible to difpenfe with them, as in other countries with horned cattle or the horfe. The Kamtfhadale dogs are in fize and fhape little different from the large Ruffian boor-dog; but their manners are almoft totally changed by their courfe of training, diet, and treatment. They are held to be the best and moft long-winded runners of all the Siberian dogs, and their fpirit is fo great that they frequently dislocate their joints in drawing, and their hair is often tinged with red from the extravafation of blood occafioned by violent exertions. They poffefs fo much ftrength that four of them, which are commonly harneffed to a fledge, draw with ease three full-grown perfons with a pood and a half of baggage. The ordinary loading of four dogs amounts to five or fix poods, and a fingle man can in this manner, in bad roads, go thirty or forty, but in good roads eighty to a hundred and forty verfts a day. The deep fnow which the dogs run over without breaking in; the fteep mountains and narrow paffes in the vallies; the thick impaffable forefts; the numerous ftreams and brooks that are either not at all or but slightly frozen over; the storms which drift the fnow and efface every veftige of a track:-all these circumstances together would prevent the travelling with horfes, had they ever fo many of them, in winter at leaft; and it is, therefore, very probable that the dog, even under the highest pitch of civilization to which Kamtíhatka can attain, *Steller's befchreib, von. Kamtfchatka, p. 132-140. P. 370-374. H 3 would would be always the principal and most serviceable animal for draught. Accordingly the tafte for dogs is here as great as elsewhere it is for horses, and confiderable fums are not unfrequently expended in the purchase of them and on the elegance of their trappings. "The manner in which thefe animals are trained to their fingular employment has fo powerful an influence on the individual properties of the whole fpecies, that the defcription of it will not be uninterefting even to the philofophic reader. For proper draught-dogs the choice is principally made of fuch as have high legs, long cars, a fharp muzzle, a broad crupper, and thick heads, and difcover great vivacity. As foon as the puppies are able to fee, they are thrown into a dark pit, where they remain fhut up till they are thought fufficiently ftrong to undergo a trial. They are then harneffed with other trained dogs to a fledge, with which they scamper away with all their might, being frightened by the light and by fo many ftrange objects. After this fhort trial they are again confined to their gloomy dungeon, and this practice is repeated till they are inured to the bufinefs of drawing, and are obedient to their driver. From this moment begins their hard and miferable course,only alleviated by the fhort recreation the fummer affords them. As in this feafon they are of no fervice, nobody cares about them, but they enjoy a perfect liberty, which they principally employ in affuaging their hunger. Their fole nourishment confifts of fifh, which they watch for all this time by the brinks of rivers, and which they catch with great dexterity and cunning. When they have plenty of this food, like the bears, they devour only the heads and leave the reft behind. "This refpite, however, lafts only till October, when every proprietor affembles his dogs and ties them up in a place adjoining to his dwelling, where they must be kept on fpare regimen to bring down their fuperfluous fat, that they may be rendered more fit for running. With the first fall of fnow commences their time of torment; and then day and night is heard their dreadful howling, in which they seem to bewail their miferable fate. With the hard lot these animals have to bear the winter through, their food confifts only of foured or dried fish in a ftate of corruption, and even this they are only allowed, as the better diet, to refresh and invigorate them, as it is obferved that they become nice and more cafily tired on receiving this delicacy fhortly before they fet out on a journey. Their ordinary fuftenance is mouldy dried fish, a treat at which they can feldom fatisfy their appetite without bleeding jaws, as the greater part of it confifts of bones and teeth. This hard ufage, however, they generally revenge by the amazing voracity which spares no object on which they can lay hold. With thievih artifice they mount the ladder to the aerial cupboard of their tyrannical mafter; with unnatural greediness they prey upon his thongs, ftraps, and leathers, wherever they find them; and the depravity of their taste is fuch, that rarely can a Kamtfhadale incline in obedience to the ignobler calls of nature, without first arming himself with a whip, as at all times a ravenous pack is ready to contend even to blood for his loathfome leavings. "Not only in their voracity, however, but in the whole individuality of their brutal behaviour this depravity is ever confpicuous. Inftead of the vigilance, fidelity, and attachment which the dog everywhere fhews for his feeder, and therefore has in all nations been made the fymbol of thefe virtues, the Kamtfhadale dog has affumed the character of a crafty flave. Sly and unfriendly he fhuns the look of his matter; unconcerned about the fafety of his property, he will not ftir to defend it against a ftranger Timid and fullen, he fneaks prowling alone, ftill leering on every fide from fufpicion. It is only by artifice and deceit that they can be harneffed to the fledge; while this is doing, they all ftretch their heads upwards and set up a melancholy yell, but as foon as the fledge is in motion, they are fuddenly mute, and then by a hundred artful tricks feem to vie with each other to weary the patience of the driver, or refolved to bring his life into jeopardy. On coming to a dangerous place they redouble their speed: where, to avoid being precipitated down a steep mountain or plunged into a deep river, he is commonly forced to abandon the fledge, which seldom fails of being broken to pieces, and he only finds it again at the next village, if the dogs have not been fo lucky as to fet themselves free outright. "Yet the dog of Kamthatka, though fo degenerate from the rest of his kind, is not deficient in qualities by which he may be serviceable to man when he pleafes. Befides the ad vantage |