a large country, comprehending the most northerly parts of the Russian empire in Asia. It extends from the east by the eastern ocean; on the south by Great Tartary; on the west by Russia; and on the north by the Frozen Ocean. It is about 2000 miles in length from east to west, and 750 miles in breadth from north to south.

At what time this country was first inhabited, or conquered by whom it was peopled, we are entirely ignorant; but writings have been found in it when it was discovered, which shows that it must have been early known to a civilized people. The Russians, from whom we have received our knowledge, knew nothing of it before the middle of the 16th century. In the reign of John Basilowicz I., indeed, an incursion had been made into Siberia, and some Tartar tribes subdued; but these conquests were not permanent; and we hear of no further communication between Russia and Siberia till the time of John Basilowitz II. It was opened again at that time by means of one Anika Strogonoff, a Russian merchant who had established some salt-works at a town in the government of Archangel. This man carried on a trade with the inhabitants of the north-west parts of Siberia, who brought every year to the town above-mentioned large quantities of the finest furs. Thus he acquired a very considerable fortune in a short time; when at last the czar, perceiving the advantages which would accrue to his subjects from having a regular intercourse with Siberia, determined to enlarge the communication which was already opened. With this view he sent into Siberia a body of troops, which crossed the Yugarian mountains, that form part of the north-eastern boundary of Europe. They seem, however, not to have passed the Irtysh, or to have penetrated farther than the western branch of the river Oby. Some Tartar tribes were laid under contribution, and a chief named Yediger consented to pay an annual tribute of 1000 sables. But this produced no lasting advantage to Russia; for, soon after, Yediger was defeated and taken prisoner by Kutchum Khan, a descendant of the great Jenghiz Khan: and thus the allegiance of this country to Russia was dissolved.

For some time we hear of no further attempts made by the Russians on Siberia; but in 1577 the foundation of a permanent conquest was laid by one Yermac Temofeoff, a Cossack of the Don. This man was at first the head of a party of banditti who infested the Russians in the province of Cafan; but being defeated by the troops of the czar, he retired with 6000 of his followers into the interior parts of that province. Continuing his course still eastward, he came to Orel, the most easterly of all the Russian settlements. Here he took up his winter-quarters; but his restless genius did not suffer him to continue for any length of time in a state of inactivity; and from the intelligence he procured concerning the situation of the neighbouring Tartars of Siberia, he turned his arms towards that quarter.

Siberia was at that time partly divided among a number of separate princes, and partly inhabited by the various tribes of independent Tartars. Of the former Kutchum Khan was the most powerful sovereign. His dominions consisted of that tract of country which now forms the south-western part of the province of Tobolsk; and stretched from the banks of the Irtysh and Oby to those of the Tobol and Tura. His principal residence was at Sibir, a small fortress upon the river Irtysh, not far from the present town of Tobolsk, and of which some ruins are still to be seen. After a course of unremitting fatigue, and a series of victories which almost exceed belief, but of which we have not room to give the detail, our intrepid adventurer dispossessed this prince of his dominions, and seated himself on the throne of Sibir. The number of his followers, however, being greatly reduced, and perceiving he could not depend on the affection of his new subjects, he had recourse to the czar of Muscovy, and made a tender of his new acquisitions to that monarch, upon condition of receiving immediate and effectual support. This proposal was received with the greatest satisfaction by the czar; who granted him a pardon for all former offences, and sent him the required succours. Yermac, however, being soon after drowned in an unsuccessful excursion, the Russians began to lose their footing in the country. But fresh reinforcements being seasonably sent, they not only recovered their ground, but pushed their conquests far and wide; wherever they appeared, the Tartars were either reduced or exterminated. New towns were built, and colonies were planted on all sides. Before a century had well elapsed, all that vast tract of country now called Siberia, which stretches from the confines of Europe to the Eastern Ocean, and from the Frozen Sea to the present frontiers of China, was annexed to the Russian dominions.

The air of Siberia is, in general, extremely piercing, Climate. the cold there being more severe than in any other part of the Russian dominions. The Siberian rivers are frozen very early, and it is late in the spring before the ice is thawed (a). If the corn does not ripen in August, there is little hope of a harvest in this country; and in the province of Jeniseisk it is sometimes covered with snow before the peasants can reap it. To defend the inhabitants against this extreme severity of the climate, Providence seems more liberally to have dealt out to them wood for fuel and furs for clothing. As the winter's day in the north parts of Siberia lasts but a few hours, and the storms and flakes of snow darken the air so much, that the inhabitants, even at noon, cannot see to do anything without artificial lights, they sleep away the greatest part of that season.

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(a) M. Gmelin, M. Muller, and two other philosophers, set out in the year 1733 to explore the dreary regions of Siberia, by desire of the empress Anne of Russia. After spending nine years and a half in observing everything that was remarkable, they returned to Petersburgh; and an account of this journey was published by M. Gmelin. In order to examine how far the frost had penetrated into the ground, M. Gmelin, on the 8th of June, at a place called Jacutia, ordered the earth to be dug in high ground; they found mould to the depth of 11 inches, under which they met with loose sand to two feet and a half further, after which it grew harder, and at half a foot deeper so hard as scarcely to give way to the tools; so that the ground still remained unthawed at not less than the depth of four feet. He made the same experiment in a lower situation; the soil was 10 inches deep, after that a loose sand for two feet and ten inches, below which all was frozen and hard. At Jacutia the inhabitants preserve in cellars several sorts of berries, which they reckon among their dainties, perfectly good and fresh the whole year, though these cellars are scarce a fathom deep. At the fortresses of Argun, in little more than 50 degrees of latitude, the inhabitants relate that the earth in many places is never thawed above a yard and half; and that the internal cold of the earth will scarcely permit a well to be dug, of which they bring an instance that happened not long before the author's arrival at that place. They designed to sink a well near a house at some distance. These severe winters are rapidly succeeded by summers, in which the heat is so intense that the Tungusians, who live in the province of Jakutsk, go almost naked. Here is scarcely any night during that season; and towards the Frozen Ocean the sun appears continuously above the horizon. The vegetables and fruits of the earth are here extremely quick in their growth.

The whole tract of land beyond the 60th degree of north latitude is a barren waste; for the north part of Siberia yields neither corn nor fruits; though barley is known frequently to come to perfection in Jakutsk.—For this reason, the inhabitants of the northern parts are obliged to live on fish and flesh, but the Ruthenians are supplied with corn from the southern parts of Siberia, where the soil is surprisingly fertile. The countries beyond the lake of Baikal, especially towards the east, as far as the river Argun, are remarkably fruitful and pleasant; but such is the indolence of the inhabitants, that several fine tracts of land, which would make ample returns to the peasant for cultivating them, lie neglected. The pastures are excellent in this country, which abounds in fine horned cattle, horses, goats, &c., on which the Tartars chiefly depend for subsistence. However, there are several steppes, or barren wastes, and unimproveable tracts in these parts; and not a single fruit tree is to be seen. There is great variety of vegetables, and in several places, particularly near Krafnaia Sloboda, the ground is in a manner overrun with asparagus of an extraordinary height and delicious flavour. The bulbs of the Turkish bundes, and other sorts of lilies, are much used by the Tartars instead of bread. This want of fruit and corn is richly compensated by the great quantities of wild and tame beasts, and fowls, and the infinite variety of fine fish which the country affords.

In that part of Siberia which lies near the Ice Sea, as well as in several other places, are woods of pine, larch, and other trees; besides which, a considerable quantity of wood is thrown ashore by the waves of the Ice Sea; but whence it comes is not yet ascertained.

Besides the wild fowl with which Siberia abounds, there is a prodigious number of quadrupeds, some of which are eatable, and others valuable for their skins or furs.

The animals most valued for their skins are the black fox,

Some distance from the river Argun, for which purpose they thawed the earth by degrees, and dug some fathoms till they had penetrated a fathom and half below the level of the river, but found no spring. Hence perhaps we may venture to assert, that besides the great elevation of the earth in these countries, there is another cause, perhaps latent in the earth itself, of this extraordinary cold, naturally suggested to us by considering the cavity of an old silver mine at Argun, which being exhausted of its ore, now serves the inhabitants in summer time for a cellar to keep their provisions; this place is so extremely cold as to preserve flesh meats from putrefaction in the hottest summers, and to sink the mercury in de Lisle's thermometer to 146 and 147. The author travelling from Nerchchoi towards Argun, to visit the works of the silver mines in that place, August 1735, came to the river Orkija, near Solonichaia, on July the 1st, from whence he arrived a little before dark at the village of Sentventa, distant from the river 27 leagues. In this journey he and his fellow travellers for more than four leagues felt it vastly cold; soon after they came into a warm air, which continued some leagues; after which the cold returned; and thus are travellers subjected to perpetual vicissitudes of warmth and cold. But it is observed, in general, that the eastern parts are colder than the western, though situated in the same latitude; for as in those eastern regions some tracts of land are much colder than the rest, their effects must be felt by the neighbouring parts. And this conjecture is favoured by the thermometrical observations made with M. de L'Isle's instrument in all parts of Siberia, in which the mercury was depressed to the 26th degree, even in those parts that lie very much towards the south, as in the territory of Selenga, which said degree answers in Fahrenheit's thermometer to about 55.5 below 0, but the same thermometer sometimes indicated a much greater cold. At the fort of Kirinaga, on Feb. 10, 1738, at 8 in the morning, the mercury stood at 240, which answers nearly to 72 below 0 in Fahrenheit's. On the 23d of the same month it was a degree lower. At the same place, December 11, at three in the afternoon, it stood at 254 in De Lisle's thermometer, and very near 90 in Fahrenheit's; on December 29, at four in the afternoon, at 263; on November 27, at noon, at 270; January 9, at 275, which several depressions answered in Fahrenheit's to 99.44, 107.73, and 113.65; on January 5, at 5 in the morning, at 262, an hour after at 281, but at eight o'clock it returned to 250, and there remained till 6 in the afternoon, and then rose by degrees till an hour before midnight, when it stood at 202. So that the greatest depression of the mercury answered in Fahrenheit's thermometer to 120.76 degrees below 0, which is indeed very surprising, and what no body ever imagined before. While this cold lasted at Jenisea, the sparrows and magpies fell to the ground, struck dead, as it were, with the frost, but revived if they were soon brought into a warm room. The author was told also that numbers of wild beasts were found in the woods dead and stiff with the frost, and several travellers had their blood and juices quite frozen in their vessels. The air itself at that time was so dismal, that you would think it changed to ice, as it was a thick fog, which was not dissipated by any exhalations, as in the spring and autumn, and the author could scarce stand three minutes in the porch of his house for the cold.

(b) The oak, though frequent in Russia, it is said, is not to be found through this vast region nearer than the banks of the Argun and Amur, in the dominions of China. The white poplar, the aspen, the black poplar, the common fallow, and several species of the willow, are very common. The Norway and silver fir form great forests; but the former does not grow beyond the 60th degree of north latitude, and the latter not beyond 58 degrees. To this dreary region of Siberia, Europe is indebted for that excellent species of oats called Avena Sibirica, and our gardens are enlivened with the gay and brilliant flowers brought from the same country. fox, the sable, the hyaena, the ermine, the squirrel, the beaver, and the lynx. The skin of a real black fox is more esteemed than even that of a table. In the country near the Frozen Ocean are also blue and white foxes. The finest fables come from Nertshinsk and Jakutsk, the inhabitants of which places catch them in the mountains of Stanowoi Krebet. The tributary nations were formerly obliged to pay their taxes in the skins of foxes and fables only. But now the skins of squirrels, bears, rein-deer, &c., and sometimes money, are received by way of tribute; and this not only from those who live near the Lena, but also in the governments of Ilinisk, Irkutsk, Selenginsk, and Nertshinsk.

When the Tartars first became tributary to Russia, they brought their furs indiscriminately as they caught them, and among them were often fables of extraordinary value; and formerly, if any trader brought with him an iron kettle, they gave him in exchange for it as many fables as it would hold. But they are now better acquainted with their value. They tell their fables to smugglers at a very high price, and pay only a ruble instead of a skin to the revenue officers, who now receive more ready money than fables, by way of tribute. The subjects plead the scarcity of furs, and indeed not without some appearance of truth.

Siberia has still other and more valuable treasures than those we have yet mentioned. The silver mines of Argun are extremely rich; the silver they produce yield some gold, and both of these are found among the copper ore of Koliwan. This country is also particularly rich in copper and iron ore. The former lies even upon the surface of the earth; and considerable mines of it are found in the mountains of Pietow, Koliwan, Ploskau, Wolkerefsk, Kuwi, Alepauk, and several others, and in the government of Krasnoiarsk (c). Iron is still more plentiful in all these places, and very good; but that of Kamenski is reckoned the best. Several hundred thousand puds of these metals are annually exported from the melting houles, which belong partly to the crown, and partly to private persons. Most of them lie in the government of Catharinenburg. The Tartars also extract a great quantity of iron from the ore.

The topazes of Siberia have a fine lustre, and in open sandy places, near the river Argun, as well as on the banks of other rivers and lakes, are found single small pieces of agate. Here are also cornelian and green jasper with red veins. The latter is chiefly met with in the deserts of Gobiitko.

The famous marienglas, or lapis specularis, great quantities of which are dug up in Siberia, is by some called Muffcovy or Russian glass; and by others, though with less propriety, isinglass. It is a particular species of transparent stone, lying in strata like so many sheets of paper. The matrix, or stone in which it is found, is partly a light yellow quartz, or marcasite, and partly a brown indurated fluid; and this stone contains in it all the species of the marienglas. To render the marienglas fit for use, it is split with a thin two-edged knife; but care is taken that the lamina be not too thin. It is used for windows and lanterns all over Siberia, and indeed in every part of the Russian empire, and looks very beautiful; its lustre and clearness surpassing that of the finest glass, to which it is particularly preferable for windows and lanterns of ships, as it will stand the explosion of cannon. It is found in the greatest plenty near the river Witim.

Siberia affords magnets of an extraordinary size, and even whole mountains of loadstone. Pit-coal is also dug up in the northern parts of this country. The kamennoe mallo, a yellowish kind of alum, unctuous and smooth to the touch, like topaz, is found in the mountains of Krasnoiarsk, Ural, Altaish, Jenisei, Baikal, Bargulik, Lena, and several others in Siberia.

In this country are not only a great number of fresh water lakes, but likewise several whose waters are salt; and these reciprocally change their nature, the salt sometimes becoming fresh, and the fresh changing into saline. Some lakes also dry up, and others appear where none were ever seen before. The salt lake of Yamusha, in the province of Tobolsk, is the most remarkable of all, for it contains a salt as white as snow, consisting entirely of cubic crystals. One finds also in Siberia saline springs, salt water brooks, and a hill of salt.

Siberia affords many other things which deserve notice. That useful root called rhubarb grows in vast quantities near the city of Seleghinsk. The curious mammoth's bones and horns, as they are called, which are found along the banks of the Obi, Jenisei, Lena, and Irtil, are unquestionably the teeth and bones of elephants. But whether these elephants' teeth and bones were conveyed to these northern regions by the general deluge, or by any other inundation, and were by degrees covered with earth, is a point which might lead us into long and very fruitless disquisitions; we shall therefore only observe, that such bones have likewise been found in Russia, and even in several parts of Germany. A kind of bones of a still larger size than these have also been dug up in Siberia, and seem to have belonged to an animal of the ox kind. The horn of the whale called narwhal has been found in the earth near the rivers Indigirka and Anadir; and the teeth of another species of whales, called Wolrofs, about Anadirsco. The latter are larger than the common sort, which are brought from Greenland, Archangel, and Kola.

The chain of Siberian mountains reaches from that of Werchoturie towards the south as far as the neighbourhood of the city of Orenburg, in a continued ridge, under the name of the Ugrian mountains; but from thence it alters its direction westward. These mountains are a kind of boundary between Russia Proper and Siberia. Another chain of hills divides Siberia from the country of the Calmucks and Mongolians. These mountains, between the rivers Irtil and Obi, are called the Attaic or Golden Mountains, which name they afterwards lose, particularly between the river Jenisei and the Baikal lake, where they are called the Sayanian mountains.

(c) The copper mines of Koliwan, from which gold and silver are extracted, employ above 45,000 people. The silver mines of Nertshinsk, beyond lake Baikal, employ above 14,000. The whole revenue arising from these mines, according to Mr. Coxe, is not less than £679,182. The inhabitants of Siberia consist of the Aborigines or ancient inhabitants, the Tartars, and Russians.

Some of these nations have no other religion but that of nature; others are Pagans or Mahometans, and some of them have been converted to Christianity, or rather only baptised by the Russian missionaries.