remedy. He confiders, too, Siberia as an immenfe gulph, which swallows up a very confiderable number of its inhabitants; and the defarts of that vaft province as draining Ruffia much more than Spain has been depopulated by Peru, without furnishing a fimilar, or proportional equivalent. With regard to the political force of this empire, or its military establishments, and the finances which are to fupport them, i he rates them exceedingly low, if we compare his eftimates,, which feem to be founded on authentic papers, with the opinion which the rest of Europe generally entertain on this head. Hp afterwards minutely traces the military operations of the Ruf-, fians, in the late war against the King of Pruffia, as an additional proof of the juftice of his calculations and reafonings: but we do not apprehend that the whole power of Ruffia either was, or was meant to be, exerted on this occafion. We fhall add, that. the power of this empire, according to the Author's geometrical manner of confidering it, is not to be eftimated by the dire, but by the inverfe ratio of its very great extent; in which very, circumftance confifts a great part of its political weakness: that the high idea entertained of its power, and particularly the apprehenfions of his countrymen, who have fuppofed that it is capable, at a moment's warning, of fending forth fwarms, who, like the Scythians and Huns of old, may ravage and fwallow up our little Europe, are founded on the moft groundless prejudices; as where he paffed, instead of people, he found only, marshes and defarts: and to be more particular, that Ruflia, with a military establishment of 330,oco men, principally fubfifting upon the people, who furnish the greatest part of their fubfiftence upon the fpot, in kind, cannot bring an army of more than 60 or 70,000 regular troops into the field; where, from the scantiness of its revenue, it cannot maintain them in a foreign war, or beyond the bounds of the empire, without a foreign fubfidy. He defcribes, at the fame time, the marine of this country as in a very deplorable ftate; and upon the whole, looks upon this power as formidable only to its immediate neighbours. But does not the Author undervalue and confine the importance of Ruffia, as much as his countrymen have over-rated and extended it? Surely, taking his own eftimate for granted, a power which, when fubfidifed, can furnish 70,000 troops, and which can at the fame time maintain 260,000 at home, may be formidable to other powers befides its immediate neighbours. Such is the unfavourable account which the Author gives of the military establishment in this country. He defcribes the Ruffian generals as almoft totally ignorant of tactics; and the order, the diforder rather, of a Ruffian march, as much more refembling the emigration of a people, than the march of a reREV. Dec. 1769. Fi gular 4 gular army. Their cavalry he reprefents as abfolutely the worst in Europe; and though he acknowledges that their regular infantry is exceedingly well difciplined, he allows them no real courage. A Ruffian foldier, according to him, fights not for honour, but for felf-prefervation. When hard-preffed, andthere is no retreat, then, and then only, he gives aftonishing proofs of apparent valour: but when he finds flight practicable, he flies; and he becomes truly formidable only when it is not in his power to retreat. In fhort, whether he flies or fights, it is merely to safe his life. In the following fection the Author gives an account of a remarkable revolution, which happened in the year 1757, in the country of the Calmuck Zougore Tartars, who live to the fouth of Siberia, and whofe country extends from the 90th to the 120th degree of longitude, and from the 35th to the 48th degree of latitude. This populous nation, who on different occafions have brought armies of 150,000 men into the field, was, after a war of ten years, totally extirpated by the Chinese; the small and miferable remains of it, to the amount of 20,000 families, having fled into Siberia, and fettled on the borders of the Volga, under the protection of Ruffia. The Author gives an account of their religion, collected with great pains from conversations which he had with two of their ambafladors, whom he reprefents as of an amiable and communicative difpofition, and who were foliciting the affiftance of Ruffia at the very time when their country was no more. The information which he received from them was afterwards authenticated by one of their Lamas or priests, whom he found at Petersburgh. He collected feveral of their idols, fome of which are formed of copper, brass, bronse or earth, and others painted on cloth. Thefe he has depofited in the Royal Obfervatory at Paris, as monuments of an extinct people, and of their mythology, and as fpecimens, fo far as they go, of the state of the arts among them. Several plates of these idols are here given, accompanied with a particular description. One of these represents the female divinity, Bourfa, whom we lately mentioned as having a power afcribed to her of curing the venereal difeafe. The two Calmuck ambaffadors, on their return from Peterburgh, found themselves in a condition to folicit her affiftance, and, in full confidence of her power, applied to the Author for a little of the powder rafped from her earthen idol in his poffeffion. The Anti-fyphilick divinity, we find, was not propitious to them on this occafion. Towards the end of our Author's aftronomical operations at Tobolfk, he was feized with a spitting of blood, which induced him to haften his departure from a country where no other re Review for October, p. 286. medies are used or known, except ftoves and vapour-baths. He had indeed brought with him a medicine-cheft excellently stored, together with a paper particularly fpecifying the virtues of its contents and as, according to Pope, Ward tried on puppies; and the poor, his drop; our Author had made the firft eflay of his medical powers on a rugged Ruffian, who had a flight indifpofition, and very nearly poifoned him. He was little difpofed, after this, to practife upon himself; but fhut up his medicine cheft, and left Tobolfk on the 28th of Auguft 1761, taking his route by Ekateringbourg, through the fouthern parts of Siberia, very much to the fatisfaction of the people of Tobolfk, who attributed to him the overflowing of the river Irtizs, which, juft at the time of his arrival, drowned the whole plain, as far as the eye could reach, on which the city ftands, and which they were convinced would not return into its bed till after his departure. At Sowialova the Author was ftruck with the fingular appearance and drefs of the people who inhabit that place, who are called Wotiakes. Their height does not in general exceed four feet and a few inches. The females add a foot to their height by a very fingular head-drefs, not much unlike a bee-hive, covered with a fringed cloth, embroidered with thread and wool of various colours. The Ruffians have long been employed in converting this people to Chriftianity: the Author did not find however that they had the least idea of that religion, but that they retain all their old fuperftitions. He found a Ruffian miffionary among them, who did not understand a word of their language, but who was nevertheless Chriftianifing them at a very great rate; that is, baptizing them, and teaching them, we fuppofe, to bawl hallelujah precifely three times, which muft improve them mightily. In his approach towards Cafan, in the latitude of 55°. 47' the Author found the face of the country continually improving upon him. His eyes, hitherto accuftomed only to the fight of the fir-trees of Siberia, were captivated with the view of orchards containing fruit trees, and of oaks, the first which he had feen fince his arrival in Ruffia. He here enjoyed the luxury of eating white bread; and in a vifit which he made to the governor, a Tartar prince, was regaled with water-melons, which are not only common at this place, but in the Author's opinion are fuperior to any which he had before tafted. He was accordingly induced to procure fome of the feed, which he fowed at his return to Paris, but without fuccefs. When we confider the country which he had juft quitted, we doubt whether the Abbé's organs of tafte did not impose upon him, on this occafion. At Tobolfk the Author was invited to a magnificent dinner, at which a fingle apple, of the fize of a crab, the in Ff2 tire tire produce of a tree reared with great care in a stove, was ferved up, in ceremony, cut into a great number of flices, one of which, as to a favoured gueft, was prefented to the Author. It was fo execrably four and auftere that he could not bear to chew it. Through complaifance to his hoft, he found himself obliged to fwallow it whole, as if it had been a pill. The water melons of Cafan muft have appeared to great advantage, after the exotick crab apples of Tobolík. At this place the Author had the pleasure of finding the archbishop a man of fcience and of letters, and the only one of his order, whom he had yet met with in the Ruffian dominions, who did not exprefs fome aftonishment at his undertaking fo long a journey as that from Paris to Tobolfk, for fuch an object as that of obierving the paffage of Venus over the fun. On leaving this place the Author travelled along the banks of the Volga, for the fpace of a hundred leagues, till he came to Kuzmodemiansks, where he entered on the fame rout which he had taken in his journey to Tobolfk, and arrived at Petersburgh on the ift of November. In the fecond part of this first volume is given an itinerary of the Author's route from Paris to Tobolík, together with the determination of the latitudes and longitudes of the principal places through or near which he paffed. Those who delight in geographical precifion will meet with abundant gratification in this and the following part of the work: but there is nothing which we can extract that would not be equally unentertaining and unintelligible to the generality of our readers; as almost the whole of these two parts confifts of tables, calculations, &c. the product of the moft immenfe and unwearied application on the part of our Author. We fhall content ourselves with giving only a general idea of the third part; in which we have a detail of the Author's operations, in the execution of a moft extenfive and laborious enterprize: no less than that of taking a tolerably exact level of the furface of the globe, from one extremity to the other of this long route, including a diftance of at leaft 1600 leagues. No method of levelling hitherto practifed, with regard to places at a confiderable diftance from each other, could poffibly be employed upon this occafion. In the year 1754 the Author had fuccessfully applied the barometer to this purpose, among the mountains of Les Vogues, in an extent of country of about 20 leagues diameter; having determined the height of the different ftations above the level of the fea, by the reciprocal fall of the mercury in the barometer which he carried with him: while the errors which might arife from the temporary variations in the weight of the air, during the course of his obfervations, were known and corrected by means of an affiftant, placed in the center center of his operations, who attended to the state of the mercury in another barometer placed under his inspection. The attempt to employ this method, with any tolerable degree of accuracy, in fo long a courfe as that abovementioned, muft, we think, prefent to the mind of the Reader a feries of unfurmountable difficulties; were he even to fuppofe Russia and Siberia teeming with philofophical and barometrical obfervers, instead of being peopled with bears. The Author appears however to have got over all these difficulties: his various calculations correfponding much more accurately with each other than could be expected from the variable nature of his data. Thefe are, firft, (with regard to pla ces not at a great diftance from each other) his own fingle obfervations on the height of the barometer at one place, compared with its height obferved, not long before, at a place whofe level had been already determined. To render this determination accurate, the weight of the air must be fuppofed to have continued the fame at the time of the two obfervations. Hẹ fometimes takes the mean of feveral obfervations made at those places where he remained fome time; and, on other occafions, employs cotemporary obfervations made by other obfervers, as at Petersburgh, Vienna, &c.: and laftly, the Author makes confiderable ufe of the fall of rivers, which he occafionally eftimates, by methods independent of the foregoing obferva tions. Thefe different methods give rife to a perplexing number of combinations, out of which the Author appears to extricate himself very happily, by means of a long and complicated feries of difcuffions, evaluations, and reciprocal corrections, which gives us an high idea of his perfeverance, and make us wonder at his patience. For our own parts, we honeftly confefs (without meaning, however, to depreciate his labours,-though we do not perceive the ufe of all this exactnefs) he has fufficiently exercised ours, in the bare perufal only of this immenfe detail, which occupies above 230 pages; from whence we shall content ourselves with collecting into one point of view what the Author has determined concerning the fuppofed height of Siberia. From the mean of the Author's obfervations at Tobolfk, and that of profeffor Braun's cotemporary obfervations made at Petersburgh, it appears that the former city is elevated 68 toifes (or fathoms) 3 feet and 1 inch above the level of the ocean at Breft; or 47 toises above that of the Seine at Paris. The Author is the more fatisfied with this determination, as it differonly 12 toifes and a half from that refulting from his own fingle obfervations, as carried on from ftation to ftation, in which he regularly ascertains the level, in a courfe of 800 leagues:-a Ff3 coin |