DESERT OF; a tract of land in Siberia, lying between the rivers Irtis and Oby, in the province of Tobolsk. It is uninhabited, but not through any deficiency of the soil; for that is excellent for tillage, and part of it might also be laid out in meadows and pastures. It is interfered with a great number of lakes, which abound with a species of carp called by the neighbouring people karasychen; and the country produces great numbers of elks, deer, foxes, ermine, and squirrels. Between the Irtis and Oby are some rich copper mines; particularly on a mountain called Pietowu, from the pieta or white firs that grow upon it. Every hundred weight of the ore found here yields 12 pounds of pure copper; and there is no occasion for digging deep in order to come at it. Most of these ores, besides being very rich in copper, yield a great deal of silver, which affords so much gold as makes rich returns for the trouble and expence of extracting it.