INTRODUCTION. OF THE ARCTIC WORLD.

AKNOWLEGE of the geography, climate, and soil, and a general view of the productions of the countries, whose Zoologic History is to be treated of, are points so necessary, that no apology need be made for introducing them into a prefatory discourse.

It is worthy human curiosity to trace the gradual increase of the animal world, from the scanty pittance given to the rocks of Spitzbergen, to the swarms of beings which enliven the vegetating plains of Senegal: to point out the causes of the local niggardness of certain places, and the prodigious plenty in others. The Botanist should attend the fancied voyage I am about to take, to explain the scanty herbage of the Arctic regions; or, should I at any time hereafter descend into the lower latitudes, to investigate the luxuriancy of plants in the warmer climates.

The Fossilist should join company, and point the variations of primaeval crea­tion, from the solid rock of Spitzbergen through all the degrees of terrestrial matter: the steps it makes to perfection, from the vilest earth to the precious diamond of Golconda. The changes in the face of the globe should be attended to; the de­structions by vulcanoes; the ravages of the sea on some coasts, and the recom­pence it may have made to others, by the retreat of its waters.

The pursuit of these enquiries will also have a farther and more important object. History should be called in, and a brief account given of the population of the more remote countries—the motives which induced mankind to seek re­treats in climates seemingly destitute of incitements to migration. Particular attention should be paid to the means of peopling the new world, and of stocking it with animals, to contribute to the support of mankind, after the first coloniza­tion—the increase of those animals, and their cessation, and giving place in a certain latitude to genera entirely different.

[Page II]Here the fine study of Geography should step in to our assistance. The outline of the terrestrial globe should be traced; the several approximations between part and part should be attended to; the nature of the oceans observed; the various islands pointed out, as the steps, the baiting-places where mankind might have rested in its passage from an overcharged continent.

The manners of the people ought not less to be attended to; and their changes, both mental and corporeal, by comparison of the present state of remote people with nations with whom they had common ancestors, and who may have been discovered still to retain their primaeval seats. Some leading customs may still have been pre­served in both; or some monuments of antiquity, proofs of congenial habitudes, possibly no longer extant in the savage than in the cultivated branches of the common stock.

Let me take my departure northward, from the narrow streights of Dover, STREIGHTS OF DOVES. the site of the isthmus of the once peninsulated Britain. No certain cause can be given for the mighty convulsion which tore us from the continent: whether it was rent by an earthquake, or whether it was worn through by the continual dashing of the waters, no Pythagoras is left to solve the Fortuna locorum:

But it is most probable, that the great philosopher alluded to the partial destruction of the Atlantica insula, mentioned by Plato as a distant tradition in his days^*. It was effected by an earthquake and a deluge, which might have rent asunder the narrow isthmus in question, and left Britain, large as it seems at present, the mere wreck of its original size^†. The Scilly isles, the Hebrides, Orknies, Schet­lands, and perhaps the Feroe islands, may possibly be no more than fragments of the once far-extended region. I have no quarrel about the word island. The little isthmus, compared to the whole, might have been a junction never attend­ed to in the limited navigations of very early times. The peninsula had never been wholly explored, and it passed with the antients for a genuine island. The correspondency of strata on part of the opposite shores of Britain and France, leaves no room to doubt but that they were once united.CHALKY STRATA. The chalky cliffs of Blanc-nez, between Calais and Bologne, and those to the westward of Dover, ex­actly tally: the last are vast and continued; the former short, and the termina­tion of the immense bed. Between Bologne and Folkstone (about six miles from [Page III] the latter) is another memorial of the junction of the two countries; a narrow submarine hill, called the Rip-raps, RIP-RAPS. about a quarter of a mile broad, and ten miles long, extending eastwards towards the Goodwin Sands. Its materials are boulder-stones, adventitious to many strata. The depth of water on it, in very low spring-tides, is only fourteen feet. The fishermen from Folkstone have often touched it with a fifteen feet oar; so that it is justly the dread of navigators. Many a tall ship has perished on it, and sunk instantly into twenty-one fathoms water. In July 1782, the Belleisle of sixty-four guns struck, and lay on it during three hours; but, by starting her beer and water, got clear off.

These celebrated streights are only twenty-one miles wide in the narrowest part.WIDTH OF THE STREIGHTS. From the pier at Dover to that at Calais is twenty-four. It is conjectured, that their breadth lessens, and that they are two miles narrower than they were in antient times. An accurate observer of fifty years, remarks to me, that the encreased height of water, from a decrease of breadth, has been apparent even in that space. The depth of the channel, at a medium, in highest spring-tides, is about twenty-five fathoms. The bottom, either coarse sand or rugged scars, which have for ages unknown resisted the attrition of the currents.DEPTH. From the streights, both eastward and westward, is a gradual increase of depth thorough the channel to a hundred fathoms, till soundings are totally lost or unattend­ed to.

The spring-tides in the streights rise, on an average, twenty-four feet; the neap-tides fifteen. The tide flows from the German sea, passes the streights, and meets, with a great rippling, the western tide from the ocean, between Fairleigh, near Hastings, and Bologne ^*; a proof, that if the separation of the land was ef­fected by the seas, it must have been by the overpowering weight of those of the north.

It is most certain, that Britain was peopled from Gaul. Similar customs,BRITAIN, WHENCE PEOPLED. as far as can be collected, evince this fact. The period is beyond the reach of history.

If, after the event by which our island was torn from the continent, the migra­tion over so narrow a streight might, in the earlier ages, have been very readily effected in the vitilia navigia or coracles, or the monoxyla or canoes in use in the remote periods; but the numerous species of Quadrupeds never could have swam into our island, even over such a contracted water, which at all times must have been possessed by tides so rapid, as to baffle their utmost efforts: their passage, therefore, must have been over the antient isthmus; for it is contrary to common sense to suppose, that our ancestors would have been at the trouble of transporting such guests as wolves and bears, and the numerous train of lesser rapacious ani­mals, even had it been practicable for them to have introduced the domestic and useful species.

Men and beasts found their way into Great Britain from the same quarter.QUADRUPEDS. We have no Quadrupeds but what are also found in France; and among our lost animals may be reckoned the Urus, p. 2; Wolf, N^o 9; Bear, N^o 20; Wild Boar; and the Beaver, N^o 40: all which were once common to both countries. The Urus continued among us in a state of nature as late at lest as the year 1466^*: and I have seen some of their descendants, scarcely to be called tame, in confinement in the parks of Drumlanrig and Chilling­ham ^†. The Caledonian Bears were exported to Rome, and esteemed for their fierceness^‡. They continued in Scotland till the year 1057. They existed in Wales, perhaps, till the same period; for our antient laws ranked them among the beasts of chace^§. Wolves infested even the middle counties of England as late as the year 1281, and continued their ravages in North Britain in the reign of Queen Elizabeth; nor were they wholly extirpated till the year 1680. The Wild [Page V] Boars were common in the neighborhood of London in the reign of Henry II. and continued in our kingdom, in a wild state, till 1577: they were then only to be found in the woods of Lord Latimer, who, we are informed by Doctor Mou­fet, took great delight in their chace^*. Let me add, from the same authority, that Roebucks were found at the same period in Wales, and among the Cheviot hills; they are now confined to the Highlands of Scotland. Finally, Beavers in­habited Wales in 1188, when our historian, Giraldus, made his progress through the principality. Every one of these animals are at this time to be found in France, the Urus excepted. Theodebert, king of France, perished in the chace of one about the year 548^†; but it is probable that the species must have existed in that vast kingdom long after that event.

The Elk, N^o 3; Genet, Hist. Quad. N^o 224; Lynx, N^o 150; Fat Dormouse, Hist. Quad. N^o 287; Garden Dormouse, Hist. Quad. N^o 288; and the Bats Serotine, Pipistrelle, and Barbastelle, Hist. Quad. N^ris 408, 409, 410, either never reached our island, or if they did, perished so early, that even their very names in the British tongue, have perished with them. The Ibex, Hist. Quad. N^o 13, and the Chamois, Hist. Quad. N^o 17, inhabitants only of the remote Gaulish Alps and Pyreneans, probably never reached us. France, therefore, possesses forty-nine species of Quadrupeds; we only thirty-nine. I exclude two species of Seals ^‡ in both reckonings; being animals which had at all times powers of making themselves inhabitants of the coasts of each kingdom.

Birds,BIRDS. which have the ready means of wafting themselves from place to place, have notwithstanding, in numbers of instances, their limits. Climate confines some within certain bounds, and particular sorts of food induce others to remain within countries not very remote from us; yet, by wonderful instinct, birds will follow cultivation, and make themselves denizens of new regions. The CROSS­BILL has followed the apple into England. Glenco, in the Highlands of Scotland, never knew the Partridge, till its farmers of late years introduced corn into their lands: nor did Sparrows ever appear in Sibiria, till after the Russians had made arable the vast wastes of those parts of their dominions. Finally, the Rice Bunt­ings, p. 360, natives of Cuba, after the planting of rice in the Carolinas, annually quit the island in myriads, and fly over sea and land, to partake of a harvest intro­duced there from the distant India.

[Page VI]FRANCE, as it exceeds in variation of climate, so it exceeds us in the number of species of birds. We can boast of only one hundred and thirty-one kinds of land-birds, and one hundred and twenty-one of water-fowl. France, on the contrary, has one hundred and fifty-six of the first, and one hundred and thirteen of the last. This computation may not be quite accurate; for no one has as yet attempted its Fauna, which must be very numerous, in a kingdom which extends from Calais, in about lat. 51, to Collioure in the south of Roussillon, on the Mediterranean sea, in about lat. 42. The northern parts possess the birds in common with England: and in all probability the provinces in the Mediterranean annually are visited by various species from northern Africa.

COASTS OF BRI­TAIN.Stupendous and precipitous ranges of chalky cliffs attend the coast, from Dover eastward, and, from their color, gave the name of Albion to our island. Beneath one of them anchored Cesar, fifty-five years before CHRIST, and so near as to be capable of being annoyed by the darts of the Britons. After weighing anchor, he sailed up a bay, now occupied by meadows, and landed at Rutupium, Richborough, opposite to the present Sandwich. The walls of the former still evince its antient strength; and the vestiges of a quay, now bounded by a ditch, points out the anchorage of the Roman commerce. The adjacent Thanet, the Thanatos of the antients, at pre­sent indistinguishable from the main land, was in old times an island, separated by a deep channel, from a mile and a half to four miles in width, the site of Roman settlements; and, in 449, celebrated for having been the first landing-place of the invading Saxons; to whom it was assigned as a place of security by the imprudent Vortigern. But such a change has time effected, that Thanet no more exists as an island; and the Britanniarum Portus, in which rode the Roman navies, is now filled with marshy meads.

After passing the lofty chalky promontory, the North Foreland, opens the estuary of the Thames, bounded on each side by low shores, and its channels divided by numerous sand-banks; securely passed, by reason of the perfection of navigation, by thousands of ships frequenting annually London, our emporium, envied nearly to impending decline.

On the projecting coasts of Suffolk and Norfolk, SUFFOLK AND NORFOLK. arise, in certain intervals, emi­nences of different matter. Loamy cliffs appear about Leostoffe, Dunwich, &c. The Crag-pits about Woodbridge, are prodigious pits of sea-shells, many of them perfect and quite solid; an inexhaustible fund of manure for arable lands. About Yarmouth, and from thence beyond Wintertoness, the coast is low, flat, and com­posed of shingle, backed by sand. From Hapsburgh to Cromer are a range of lofty clayey precipices, rising from the height of forty to a hundred feet perpendicular; a prey to the ocean, which has effected great changes in these parts. About Sherringham and Cley, it rises into pretty and gentle hills, sloping down into a [Page VII] rough shore, of little rocks and stones. At Holkham, Wells, and Wareham, the sandy shores terminate in little hillocks of sand, kept together by the Arundo Are­naria, or Bent, the great preservative against the inundations of sand, which would otherwise destroy whole tracts of country, and in particular soon render useless the range of salt-marshes which these are backed with. Hunstanton cliff rises a distin­guished feature in this flat tract. The surface is the usual vegetable mould, about a foot deep; beneath that are two feet of small broken pieces of chalk: the solid stratum of the same, after having been lost for numbers of miles, here again makes its appearance, and forms a solid bed thirty feet in thickness, resting on a hard red stone four feet deep, which is often ground and made into a red paint. Seven feet of loose friable dirty yellow stone succeeds, placed on a base of iron-colored plumb-pudding-stone, projecting into the sea, with vast fragments scattered over the beach. This cliff is about eighty feet high, lies on the entrance of the washes, the Metaris Estuarium of Ptolemy. From hence, all the coast by Snettisham to Lynn is low, flat, and shingly.

From Holm, the northern promontory of Norfolk, the sea advances deeply west­ward, and forms the great bay called the Washes, filled with vast sand-banks, the summits of which are dry at low water; but the intervening channels are the means of prodigious commerce to Lynn in Norfolk, seated on the Ouze, which is circulated into the very inland parts of our island, through the various rivers which fall into its long course. Lynn is mentioned in the Doomsday Book; but became considerable for its commerce with Norway as early as the year 1284.

The opposite shore is that of Lincolnshire. LINCOLNSHIRE. Its great commercial town, Boston, stands on the Witham, a few miles from the head of the bay. Spring-tides rise at the quay fourteen feet, and convey there vessels of above a hundred tons; but greater ships lie at the Scap, the opening of the estuary. Such is the case at Lynn; for the sluggish rivers of these tame tracts want force to form a depth of water.

Lincolnshire, and part of six other counties, are the Pais-bas, the Low Countries of Britain; the former bounded on the western part by a range of elevated land, which, in this humble county, overlooks, as Alps would the ocean, the remaining part. This very extensive tract, from the Scap to the northern headland opposite to Hull, presents to the sea a bow-like and almost unindented front; and so low as to be visible from sea only at a small distance; and churches, instead of hills, are the only landmarks to seamen. The whole coast is fronted with salt-marshes or sand-hills, and secured by artificial banks against the fury of the sea. Old Holins­head gives a long list of ports on this now inhospitable coast. Waynfleet, once a noted haven, is at present a mere creek. Skegness, once a large walled town, with a good harbour, is now an inconsiderable place a mile from the sea: and the port of [Page VIII] Grimesby, which in the time of Edward III. furnished him with eleven ships, is now totally choaked with sand.

The Great Level, which comprehends Holland in this county, with part of Northamptonshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridge, and Huntingdon, a tract of sixty com­puted miles in length, and forty in breadth, had been originally a wooded country. Whole forests of firs and oaks have been found in digging, far beneath the moor, on the solid ground; oaks fifteen feet in girth, and sixteen yards long, mostly burnt at the bottoms, the antient method of falling them: multitudes of others entirely rooted up, as appears, by the force of the sea bursting in and overwhelming this whole tract, and covering it with silt, or the mud which it carried with it from time to time. Ovid's beautiful account of the deluge was here verified; for under Conington Down, in Huntingdonshire, was found the skeleton of a whale near twenty feet long, which had once swam secure to this distance from its native residence.

In process of time this tract underwent another revolution. The silt or mud gained so considerably as to leave vast spaces dry, and other parts so shallow as to encourage the Romans to regain these fertilized countries from the sea. Those sen­sible and indefatigable people first taught us the art of embanking, and recovered the valuable lands we now possess. It was the complaint of Galgacus, that they ex­hausted the strength of the Britons, in sylvis et paludibus emuniendis ^*, 'in clearing woods and draining marshes.' After the Romans deserted our island, another change took place. Neglect of their labors succeeded: the drains were neglected, and the whole became fen and shallow lake, resembling the present east fen; the haunt of myriads of water-fowl, or the retreat of banditti. Ely and many little tracts which had the advantage of elevation, were at that period literally islands. Several of these in early times became the retreat of religious. Ely, Thorney, Ramsey, Spiney, and others, rose into celebrated abbies, and by the industry of their inhabi­tants first began to restore the works of the Romans. The country above Thorney is represented by an old historian ^† as a paradise. Constant visitations, founded on wholesome laws, preserved this vast recovered country: but on the rapid and ra­pacious dissolution, the removal of numbers of the inhabitants, and the neglect of the laws of the Sewers, the drains were filled, the cultivated land overflowed, and [Page IX] the country again reduced to a useless morass^*. In the twentieth of Elizabeth the state of the country was taken into consideration^†; no great matters were done till the time of Francis, and William his son, earls of Bedford, who attempted this Herculean work, and reclamed this vast tract of more than three hundred thousand acres; and the last received, under sanction of parlement, the just reward of ninety thousand acres. I speak not of the reliques of the antient banks which I have seen in Holland, Lincolnshire, now remote from the sea, nor yet of the Roman tumuli, the coins, and other evidences of the residence of that nation in these parts; they would swell a mere preface to too great a length: and, it is to be hoped, will be under­taken by the pen of some native, who will perform it from his actual survey.

The vast fenny tracts of these counties were in old times the haunts of multi­tudes of water-fowl; but the happy change, by attention to draining, has substitut­ed in their place thousands of sheep; or, instead of reeds, made those tracts laugh with corn. The Crane, which once abounded in these parts, has even deserted our island. The Common Wild Duck still breeds in multitudes in the unreclamed parts; and thousands are sent annually to the London markets, from the numerous decoys. The Grey Lag Goose, Br. Zool. ii. N^o 266, the origin of the Tame, breeds here, and is resident the whole year: a few others of the Duck kind breed here. Ruffs, Redshanks, Lapwings, Red-breasted Godwits, and Whimbrels, are found here during summer; but, with their young, in autumn, disperse about the island. The Short-eared Owl migrates here with the Woodcock, and is a welcome guest to the farmer, by clearing the fields of mice. Knots swarm on the coasts in winter: are taken in numbers in nets: yet none are seen during summer^‡. The most distant north is probably the retreat of the multitude of water-fowl of each order which stock our shores, driven southward by the extreme cold: most of them regularly, others, whose nature enables them to brave the usual winters of the frigid zone, are with us only accidental guests, and in seasons when the frost rages in their native land with unusual severity.

From Clea Ness, the land retires westward, and, with the opposite shore of Yorkshire, bounds the great estuary of the Humber, which, winding deep into the country, is the receptacle of the Trent, and all the considerable rivers of that vast province; some of which arise in its most remote parts. All these coasts of Lincolnshire are flat, and have been gained from the sea. Barton and Barrow have not at present the least appearance of ports; yet by Holinshed were styled good ones^§. Similar [Page X] accidents have befallen the upper part of the low tract of Holderness, which faces the congruent shores. Hedon, a few miles below Hull, several hundred years ago a port of great commerce, is now a mile and a half from the water, and has long given way to the rising fortune of the latter (a creation of Edward I. in 1296) on account of the excellency of its port. But in return, the sea has made most ample reprisals on the lands of this hundred: the site, and even the very names of several places, once towns of note upon the Humber, are now only recorded in history: and Ravensper was at one time a rival to Hull ^*; and a port so very considerable in 1332, that Edward Baliol and the confederated English barons sailed from hence with a great fleet to invade Scotland; and Henry IV. in 1399, made choice of this port to land at, to effect the deposal of Richard II. yet the whole of it has long since been devoured by the merciless ocean: extensive sands, dry at low water, are to be seen in their stead; except Sunk Island, which, till about the year 1666, appeared among them like an elevated shoal, at which period it was regained, by embankments, from the sea; and now forms a considerable estate, probably restored to its pristine condition.

Spurn Head, SPURN HEAD. the Ocelum Promontorium of Ptolemy, terminates this side of the Hum­ber, at present in form of a sickle, near which the wind-bound ships anchor securely. The place on which the lighthouses stand is a vast beach near two miles long, mixed with sand-hills flung up by the sea within the last seventy years.

The land from hence for some miles is composed of very lofty cliffs of brown clay, perpetually preyed on by the fury of the German sea, which devours whole acres at a time, and exposes on the shores considerable quantities of beautiful amber. Fine wheat grows on the clay, even to the edge of the cliffs. A country of the same fertility reaches from Kilnsey, near this place, as far as the village of Sprottly, ex­tending, in a waved form, for numbers of miles; and, when I saw it, richly cloathed with wheat and beans.

From near Kilnsey the land bends very gently inward, as far as the great promon­tory of Flamborough; and is a continuance of high clayey cliff, till about the village of Hornsey. Near it is a mere, noted for its Eels and Pikes, at present sepa­rated from the sea by so small a space as to render its speedy destruction very proba­ble. A street, called Hornsey Beck, has long since been swallowed: and of Hide, a neighboring town, only the tradition is left.

The country grows considerably lower; and, near the base of the promon­tory, retires so far in as to form Bridlington bay,BRIDLINGTON BAY. antiently called Gabrantovicorum Sinus, to which the Geographer adds [...], on account of the excellency and [Page XI] safety of its port, where vessels ride in full security under the shelter of the lofty head-land. Smithie sand, the only one between Flamborough and Spurn Head, stretches across the entrance into Bridlington bay, and, in hard gales from the north and north-east, adds to the security of that noble asylum for the coasting vessels. Sureby, an adjacent village, seems no more than a translation from the old appellation. The Romans, in all probability, had a naval station here; for here ends the road, visible in many places between this place and York, and named, from its founders, the Roman ridge.

The head is formed of lime-stone, of a snowy whiteness^*,FLAMBOROUGH HEAD. of a stupendous height, and vast magnificence, visible far at sea. If we may depend on Richard of Cirencester, the Romans named it Brigantum Extrema, and the bay Portus Felix. The Saxons styled the cape Fleamburg, perhaps from the lights which directed the great Ida, founder of the Northumberland kingdom, to land here, in 547, with a great body of their countrymen.

The vast height of the precipices, and the amazing grandeur of the caverns which open on the north side, giving wide and solemn admission, through most exalted arches, into the body of the mountain; together with the gradual decline of light, the deep silence of the place unless interrupted by the striking of the oar, the collision of a swelling wave against the sides, or the loud flutter of the pigeons affrighted from their nests in the distant roof; afford pleasures of scenery which such formations as this alone can yield. These also are wonderfully diversified. In some parts the caverns penetrate far, and end in darkness; in others are per­vious, and give a romantic passage by another opening equally superb. Many of the rocks are insulated, of a pyramidal form, and soar to a great height. The bases of most are solid; but in some pierced through and arched. All are covered with the dung of the innumerable flocks of migratory birds which resort here annually to breed, and fill every little projection, every hole, which will give them leave to rest. Multitudes were swimming about; others swarmed in the air, and stunned us with [Page XII] the variety of their croaks and screams. Kittiwakes and Herring Gulls, Guille­mots and Black Guillemots, Auks, Puffins, Shags, and Corvorants, are among the species which resort hither. The notes of all sea-fowl are most harsh and inhar­monious. I have often rested under rocks like these, attentive to the various founds over my head; which, mixed with the deep roar of the waves slowly swelling, and retiring from the vast caverns beneath, have produced a fine effect. The sharp voice of the Gulls, the frequent chatter of the Guillemots, the loud notes of the Auks, the scream of the Herons, together with the deep periodical croak of the Corvorants, which serves as a bass to the rest, have often furnished me with a con­cert; which, joined to the wild scenery surrounding me, afforded in an high degree that species of pleasure which results from the novelty and the gloomy majesty of the entertainment.

ROCKY COASTS BEGIN.At Flamborough head commence the hard or rocky coasts of this side of Great Bri­tain, which continue, with the interruption of a few sandy bays and low land, to the extremity of the kingdom. It often happens, that the bottom of the sea partakes of the nature of the neighboring element: thus, about the head, and a few miles to the northward (in places) the shores are rocky, and the haunts of lobsters and other crustaceous animals. From these strata a tract of fine sand, from one to five miles in breadth, extends sloping eastward, and from its edge to that of the Dogger-bank is a deep bottom, rugged, rocky, and cavernous, and in most parts overgrown with corallines and submarine plants.

This disposition of shore gives to the inhabitants of this coast the advantageous fishery which they possess; for the shore on one hand, and the edges of the Dogger-bank on the other, like the sides of a decoy, give a direction to the im­mense shoals of the Cod genus, which annually migrate from the northern ocean, to visit, reside, and spawn, in the parts adjacent to our coasts. They find plenty of food from the plants of the rocks, and the worms of the sand, and secure shelter for their spawn in the cavernous part of the scarry bottom. It is in the channel between the banks and the shores, in which the Cod are taken, or in the hollows between the Doggers and Well-bank; for they do not like the agita­tion of the water on the shallows. On the contrary, the Skates, the Holibuts, Flounders, and other flat fish, bury themselves in the sand; and secure themselves from the turbulence of the waves.

An amazing shoal of Haddocks visit this coast periodically, generally about the tenth of December, and extend from the shore near three miles in breadth, and in length from Flamborough head to Tinmouth castle, perhaps further north. An army of a small species of Shark, the PICKED, Br. Zool. iii. N^o 40, flanks the outside of this shoal to prey upon it; for when the fishermen cast their lines [Page XIII] beyond the distance of three miles from land, they never catch any but those vo­racious fish.^*

Between Flamborough head and Scarborough projects Filey Brig, FILEY BRIG. a ledge of rocks running far into the sea, the cause of frequent shipwrecks. Scarborough castle, seated on a vast rock projecting into the water, succeeds. The spring-tides, at the time of the equinoxes, rise here twenty-four feet; but at other times only twenty: the neap-tides from twelve to sixteen. Then Whitby, noted for its neighboring allum-works, and more for its fine harbour, the only one on the whole coast: the admittance into which is a narrow channel between two high hills: it expands largely within, and is kept clean by the river Esk. From hence to the mouth of the Tees, the boundary between this county and that of Durham, is a high and rude coast, indented with many bays, and varied with little fishing villages, built strangely among the cliffs, filling every project­ing ledge, in the same manner with those of the peasants in the picturesque and rocky parts of China.

The Tees, TEES. the northern limit of this great county, opens with a wide mouth and mudded bottom into the sea. This was the Dunum Estuarium of Ptolemy; and serves as a brief entrance for navigators into the country. Almost all the northern rivers descend with a rapid course, from their mountanous rise and sup­ply; and afford but a short navigation. From hence the lead of the mineral parts of Durham, and the corn of its more level parts, are imported. In the mud of this estuary, more particularly, abounds the Myxine Glutinosa of Linnaeus, the Hag of the neighboring fishermen; a worm, which enters the mouths of the fish taken on hooks, that remain a tide under water, and devours the whole, leaving only the skin and bones. This also is the worm which converts water into a sort of glue.

From Seaton Snook, in the bishoprick of Durham, DURHAM. to Hartlepool, is a series of sand-banks, and the shore a long-continued sandy shallow. From the Ness Point of Hartleppol to Blackhalls is a rocky lime-stone coast, with frequent inter­vals of sand-bank, and a stony beach; but Seham and Hartlepool is so very rugged, that no enemy could land, or even stand off the shore, without the most imminent danger: in particular, the coasts about Hawthorn Hive are bold, excavated, and formed into grotesque figures, for several miles, and the shores rough with a broken and heavy sea, by reason of the hidden rocks and spits of sands which run out far [Page XIV] from land. From Seham to Sunderland are sand-hills and shallow sandy beaches. From Weremouth to near Cleadon, low rocks of lime-stone form the coast, here and there intersected with sand-hills and stony beaches. From thence to the mouth of the Tyne, and even to Dunstanbrough in Northumberland; NORTHUMBER­LAND. the shore is sandy, and the land in a few places rocky; but from thence to Bamborough, the coasts are high and rocky, in many places run far into the sea, and at low tides shew their heads above water.

Bamborough castle stands on the last of the range of rocky cliffs. This fortress was founded by the Saxon monarch Ida. After various fortunes it, has proved in its dismantled state of more use to mankind than when it boasted some potent lord and fierce warders. A charitable prelate of the fee of Durham purchased the estate, and left it for the use of the distressed seamen who might suffer ship­wreck on this dangerous coast, and to unconfined charitable purposes, at the dis­cretion of certain trustees. The poor are, in the dearest seasons, supplied with corn at a cheap rate; the wrecked, found senseless and benumbed with cold, are taken instantly into these hospitable walls, and restored to life by the assistance of food, medicine, and warm beds; and if the ship is capable of relief, that also is saved, by means of machines always ready for the purpose^*.

The Farn islands, FARN ISLES. or rather rocks, form a group at no great distance from shore; the nearest a mile and sixty-eight chains; the farthest about seven. These probably, at some remote period, have been convulsed from the land, but now divided from it by a furious tide, rushing through a channel from five to twelve fathoms in depth. The original sea, to the east of the Staples, the remotest rocks, suddenly deepens to forty or fifty^†. St. Cuthbert first made these rocks of note: he occasionally made the largest of them the seat of his devotion and seclusion from the world; expelling, says superstition, the malignant spirits, the pre-oc­cupants. Some remains of a chapel are still to be seen on it. For ages past, the sole tenants are a few cows, wafted over from the main land in the little cobles, or boats of the country; and the Eider Ducks, Arct. Zool. ii. N^o 480, still distinguished here by the name of the Saint. Numberless sea-fowls, and of great variety of kinds, possess the remoter rocks, on which they find a more secure retreat than on the low-cliffed shores. To the marine feathered tribe the whole coast from Flamborough head to that of St. Ebb's is inhospitable. They seek the loftiest promontories. Where you hear of the haunts of the Razor-bills and Guillemots, Corvorants and Shags, you may be well assured, that [Page XV] the cliffs soar to a distinguished height. Where those are wanting, they retire to sea-girt rocks, as spots the lest accessible to mankind. The five species of Auks and Guillemots appear in spring, and vanish in autumn: the other birds preserve their native haunts, or spread along the neighboring shores.

From Bamborough to the mouth of the Tweed is a sandy shore, narrowing as it approaches our sister kingdom. Lindesfarn, or the Holy island, with its ruined cathedral and castle, lie remote from shore, accessible at every recess of tide, and possibly divided from Northumberland by the power of the waves in distant ages. The tides do not swell over this tract in the usual manner of apparent flow­ing and gradual approach; but ooze gently out of every part of the sand, which at first appears a quaggy extent, then, to the terror of the traveller, surrounds him with a shining plain of smooth unruffled water, reflecting the varied land­scapes of the adjoining shores^*.

The Tweed, the antient Alaunus, SCOTLAND. a narrow geographical boundary between us and our fellow-subjects the Scottish nation, next succeeds. After a short conti­nuance of low land, St. Ebb's head, ST. EBB'S HEAD. a lofty promontory, projects into the sea (frequented in the season by Razor-bills, Guillemots, and all the birds of the Bass, excepting the Gannet) and its lower part is hollowed into most august caverns. This, with Fifeness, about thirty miles distant, forms the entrance into that magnificent estuary the firth of Forth, FIRTH OF FORTH. which extends inland sixty miles; and, with the canal from Carron to the firth of Clyde, intirely insulates the antient Caledonia. The isle of May appears near the northern side of the entrance; the vast towering rock, the Bass, lies near the southern. This lofty island is the summer resort of birds innumerable, which, after discharging the first duty of nature, seek, with their young, other shores or other climates. This is one of the few spots in the northern hemisphere on which the Gannets nestle. Their size, their snowy plumage, their easy flight, and their precipitate plunge after their prey, distinguish them at once from all the rest of the feathered tenants of the isle, the Corvorants and Auks, the flights of whom are rapid, and the Gulls, which move with sluggish wing.

Near the Bass the entrance narrows, then opens, and bending inwards, forms on each side a noble bay. The Firth contracts to a very narrow streight at Queensferry; then winds beautifully, till it terminates beyond Alloa, in the river to which it owes its name. The shores are low, in part rocky, in part a plea­sant beach; but every where of matchless beauty and population. Edinburgh, the capital, rises with true grandeur near the shore, with its port, the great em­porium, [Page XVI] Leith, beneath, where the spring-tides sometimes rise fifteen and sixteen feet, and to seventeen or eighteen when the water is forced up the firth by a violent wind from the north-east. Almost every league of this great estuary is terminated with towns or villages, the effects of trade and industry. The ele­gant description of the coast of Fife, left us by Johnston ^*, is far from being ex­aggerated; and may, with equal justice, be applied to each shore.

FIFESHIRE, bounded by the firths of Forth and Tay, projects far into the sea; a country flourishing by its industry, and happy in numbers of ports, natural, artificial, or improved. Coal and lime, the native productions of the county, are exported in vast quantities. Excepting the unimportant colliery in Suther­land, those at Largo Wood, midway between the bay and St. Andrews, are the last on this side of North Britain. The coasts in general of this vast province are rocky and precipitous; but far from being lofty. The bays, particularly the beautiful one of Largo, are finely bounded by gravelly or sandy shores; and the land, in most parts, rises high to the middle of the county. Towards the northern end, the river Edin; and its little bay, by similarity of sound point out the Tinna of the old geographer.

FIRTH OF TAY.The estuary of the Tay limits the north of Fifeshire. Before the mouth extends the sand retaining the British name of Aber-tay, or the place where the Tay dis­charges itself into the sea. The Romans preserved the antient name, and Latinized it into Tava. The entrance, at Brough-tay castle, is about three quarters of a mile wide; after which it expands, and goes about fourteen miles up the coun­try before it assumes the form of a river. At the recess of the tides there ap­pears a vast extent of sands, and a very shallow channel; but the high tides waft, even as high as Perth, vessels of a hundred and twenty tons. The shores are low, and the ground rises gently inland on the southern side: on the north it continues low, till it arrives at the foot of the Grampian hills, many miles distant. In some remote age the sea extended on the north side far beyond its present bounds. At a considerable distance above the flourishing port of Dundee, and remote inland, anchors have been found deep in the soil^†. When these parts were deserted by the sea, it is probable that some opposite country was devoured by an inundation, which occasioned this partial desertion.

From thence to Aberbrothic, in the shire of Angus, noted for the venerable re­mains of its abbey, is a low and sandy shore. From Aberbrothic almost to Mon­trose, arises a bold rocky coast, lofty and precipitous, except where interrupted by the beautiful semicircular bay of Lunan. Several of the cliffs are penetrated by [Page XVII] most amazing caverns; some open into the sea with a narrow entrance, and in­ternally instantly rise into high and spacious vaults, and so extensively meandring, that no one as yet has had the courage to explore the end. The entrance of others shame the work of art in the noblest of the Gothic cathedrals. A mag­nificent portal appears divided in the middle by a great column, the basis of which sinks deep in the water. Thus the voyager may pass on one side in his boat, survey the wonders within, and return by the opposite side.

The cavern called the Geylit-pot, almost realises in form a fable in the Persian Tales. The hardy adventurer may make a long subterraneous voyage, with a picturesque scenery of rock above and on every side. He may be rowed in this solemn scene till he finds himself suddenly restored to the sight of the heavens: he finds himself in a circular chasm, open to the day, with a narrow bottom and extensive top, widening at the margin to the diameter of two hundred feet. On attaining the summit, he finds himself at a distance from the sea, amidst corn­fields or verdant pastures, with a fine view of the country, and a gentleman's seat near to the place from which he had emerged. Such may be the amusement of the curious in summer calms! but when the storms are directed from the east, the view from the edge of this hollow is tremendous; for, from the height of above three hundred feet, they may look down on the furious waves, whitened with foam, and swelling from their confined passage.

Peninsulated rocks often jut from the face of the cliff's, precipitous on their sides, and washed by a great depth of water. The isthmus which joins them to the land, is often so extremely narrow as to render it impassable for more than two or three persons a-breast; but the tops spread into verdant areas, containing vestiges of rude fortifications, in antient and barbarous times the retreat of the neighboring inhabitants from the rage of a potent invader^*.

Montrose, MONTROSE. peninsulated by the sea, and the bason its beautiful harbour, stands on a bed of sand and gravel. The tide rushing furiously through a narrow en­trance twice in twenty-four hours, fills the port with a depth of water sufficient to bring in vessels of large burden. Unfortunately, at the ebb they must lie dry; for none exceeding sixty tons can at that period float, and those only in the chan­nel of the South Esk, which, near Montrose, discharges itself into the sea.

A sandy coast is continued for a small distance from Montrose. Rude rocky cliffs re-commence in the county of Merns, and front the ocean. Among the highest is Fowls-heugh, noted for the resort of multitudes of sea-birds. Bervie and Stonehive are two small ports overhung with rocks; and on the summit of a [Page XVIII] most exalted one, are the vast ruins of Dunnoter, once the property of the warlike family of the Keiths. The rocks adjacent to it, like the preceding, assume various and grotesque forms.

A little farther the antient Deva, or Dee, opens into the sea, after forming a harbour to the fine and flourishing town of Aberdeen. A sandy coast continues for numbers of miles, part of which is so moveable as almost totally to have over­whelmed the parish of Furvie: two farms only exist, out of an estate, in 1600, va­lued at five hundred pounds a year.

A majestic rocky coast appears again. The Bullers of Buchan, BULLERS OF BUCHAN. and the noble arched rock, so finely represented by the pencil of the Reverend Mr. Cordiner ^*, are justly esteemed the wonders of this country. The former is an amazing harbour, with an entrance through a most august arch of great height and length. The inside is a secure bason, environed on every side by mural rocks: the whole projects far from the main land, and is bounded on each side by deep creeks; so that the traveller who chuses to walk round the narrow battlements, ought first to be well assured of the strength of his head.

A little farther is Peterhead, PETERHEAD. the most eastern port of Scotland, the common retreat of wind-bound ships; and a port which fully merits the attention of go­vernment, to render it more secure. Kinnaird-head, the Taizalum promontorium, lies a little farther north, and, with the north-eastern extremity of Cathness, forms the firth of Murray, the Tua Aestuarium, a bay of vast extent. Troup-head is an­other vast cape,CAVERNS AND SINGULAR ROCKS: to the west of the former. The caverns and rocks of that pro­montory yield to none in magnificence and singularity of shape: of the latter, some emulate the form of lofty towers, others of inclining pyramids with central arches,HOW FORMED. pervious to boats. The figures of these are the effect of chance, and owing to the collision of the waves, which wearing away the earth and crumbly parts, leave them the just subjects of our admiration. Sea-plants, shells, and va­rious sorts of marine exsanguious animals, cloath their bases, washed by a deep and clear sea; and their summits resound with the various clang of the feathered tribe.

From hence the bay is bounded on the south by the extensive and rich plains of Murray. The shore wants not its wild beauties. The view of the noble cavern, called the rocks of Caussie, on the shore between Burgh-head and Lossie mouth, drawn by Mr. Cordiner, fully evinces the assertion. The bottom of the bay closes with the firth of Inverness, from whence to the Atlantic ocean is a chain of rivers, lakes, and bays, with the interruption only of two miles of land between Loch-oich and Loch­lochy. Unite those two lakes by a canal, and the rest of North Britain would be completely insulated.

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[Page XIX]To the north the firth of Cromartie, and the firth of Tayne, the Vara Aestua­rium, penetrate deep into the land. From Dornoch, the coast of Sutherland is low and sandy, except in a few places: one, at the water of Brora, is distinguish­ed by the beauty of the rocky scenery; in the midst of which the river precipi­tates itself into the sea, down a lofty precipice. The Scottish Alps, which hereto­fore kept remote from the shore, now approach very near; and at the great pro­montory, the Ripa Alta of Ptolemy, the Ord, i. e. Aird of Cathness, ORD OF CATH­NESS. or the Height of Cathness, terminate in a most sublime and abrupt manner in the sea. The upper part is covered with gloomy heath; the lower is a stupendous precipice, ex­cavated into vast caverns, the haunt of Seals and different sea-fowl. On the eastern side of the kingdom, this is the striking termination of the vast mountains of Scotland, which form its Highlands, the habitation of the original inhabitants,HIGHLAND ALPS. driven from their antient seats by the ancestors of Lowland Scots, descendants of Saxons, French, and Normans, congenerous with the English, yet absurdly and invidiously distinguished from them. Language, as well as striking natural boundaries, mark their place. Their mountains face on the west the Atlantic ocean; wind along the west of Cathness; among which Morvern and Scaraben, Ben-Hop and Ben-Lugal arise pre-eminent. Sutherland is entirely Alpine, as are Ross-shire and Inverness-shire. Their Summae Alpes are, Meal Fourvounich, the Cory­arich, Benewish, and Benevish near Fort William; the last of which is reported to be fourteen hundred and fifty yards in height. Great part of Aberdeenshire lies in this tract. It boasts of another Morvern, soaring far beyond the others: this is in the centre of the Grampian hills, and perhaps the highest from the sea of any in Great Britain. They again comprehend the eastern part of Perth­shire, and finish on the magnificent shores of Loch-lomond, on the western side of which Ben-lomond rises, distinguished among its fellows. From hence the rest of North Britain forms a chain of humbler hills; but in Cumberland, ENGLISH. part of West­moreland, Yorkshire, Lancashire, and Derbyshire, CAMBRIAN. the Alps resume their former ma­jesty. A long and tame interval succeeds. The long sublime tract of Wales arises, the antient possession of the antient British race. From the Ord, the great mountains recede inland, and leave a vast flat between their bases and the sea, fronting the waves with a series of lofty rocky precipices, as far as the little creek of Staxigo; the whole a bold, but most inhospitable shore for shipping. Wick and Staxigo have indeed their creeks, or rather chasms, which open between the cliffs, and may accidentally prove a retreat, unless in an eastern gale.

Sinclair and Freswick bays are sandy, and afford safe anchorage: from the last the country rises into lofty cliffs, many composed of small strata of stones, as re­gular as a mason could lay them; and before them rise insulated stacks or co­lumns [Page XX] of similar materials, some hollowed into arches; others, pillar-like, aspire in heights equal to the land^* These are animated with birds. All their oeco­nomy may be viewed with ease from the neighboring cliffs; their loves, incuba­tion, exclusion, and nutrition.

Dungsby-head, the antient Berubium, terminates the eastern side of this kingdom, as Far-out-head, the old Tarvedum, does the western. Strathy-head, the Verve­drum of Ptolemy, lies intermediate. The whole tract faces the north, and con­sists of various noted headlands, giving shelter to numerous bays, many of which penetrate deep into the country. Let me make this general remark,—that nature hath, with a niggardly hand, dealt out her harbours to the eastern coasts of the British isles; but shewn a profusion on their western sides. What numberless lochs, with great depth of water, wind into the western counties of Scotland, over-shadowed and sheltered by lofty mountains! and what multitudes of noble har­bours do the western provinces of Ireland open into the immense Atlantic ocean!

GERMAN OR NORTH SEA.The sea which washes the shores of Britain, which have passed under my re­view, was originally called, by one of the antients^†, Oceanus Britannicus, form­ing part of that vast expanse which surrounds our islands. Pliny confined that title to the space between the mouth of the Rhine and that of the Seine; and be­stowed on this sea the name of Septentrionalis ^‡; and Ptolemy called it Germa­nicus: both which it still retains. Its northern extremity lies between Dungsby-head, in lat. 58, 35 north, and the same latitude in the south of Norway. Be­fore the separation of Britain from Gaul it could only be considered as a vast bay;TIDES, THEIR DIRECTION; but that period is beyond the commencement of record. The tides flow into it from the north-east to the south-west, according to the direction of the coast; but in mid-sea the reflux sets to the north, to discharge itself through the great channel between the Schetland isles and Norway ^§. The depth of water,DEPTHS. at highest spring-tides, in the streights of Dover, is twenty-five fathoms: it deepens to thirty-one, between Lowstoff and the mouth of the Maes: between the Wells-bank and Doggers-bank gains, in one place only, a few fathoms. Be­yond the Dogger it deepens from forty-eight to seventy-two: between Buchan-ness and Schutness in Norway, within the Buchan deeps, it has from eighty-six to a hundred fathoms; then decreases, towards the Orkney and Schetland isles, from seventy-five to forty; but between the Schetlands and Bergen, the northern end of this sea, the depth is from a hundred and twenty to a hundred and fifty fathoms. [Page]

[Page XXI] The coasts from Dungsby-head to Flamborough-head are bold and high,NAVIGATION. and may be seen at sea from seven to fourteen leagues: from the last to Spurn-head is also a clear coast; but the rest of the coast of Norfolk and Suffolk is low, visible at small distance, and rendered dangerous by the number of sand-banks projecting far to sea. After passing the Spurn-head, navigators steer between the inner and outer Dousings, for the floating light kept on board a small vessel (constructed for that purpose) always anchored at the inner edge of a sand called Dogshon's Shoal, about eight leagues from the coast of Lincolnshire, in about fifteen fathom water. From thence they make for Cromer in Norfolk; and from that point, till they arrive at the Nore, their track is all the way through a number of narrow chan­nels near the most dangerous sands: to which, if we add foggy weather, dark nights, storms, contrary winds, and very near adjacent lee-shores, it may be very fairly reckoned the most dangerous of the much-frequented navigations in the world.

But fortunately, to the north of these,SAND-BANKS. this sea is much more remarkable for sand-banks of utility than of danger, and would never have been observed but for the multitudes of fishes which, at different seasons, according to their species, resort to their sides, from the great northern deeps, either for the sake of variety of food which they yield, or to depose their spawn in security. The first to be taken notice of does not come within the description, yet should not be passed over in silence, as it comes within the natural history of the North sea. An anonymous sand runs across the channel between Buchan-ness and the north end of Juts-riff: the left depth of water over it is forty fathoms; so that it would scarcely be thought of, did not the water suddenly deepen again, and form that place which is styled the Buchan deeps.

The Long Bank, or the Long Fortys, LONG FORTYS. bears E. S. E. from Buchan-ness, about forty-five miles distant, and extends southward as far as opposite to Newcastle; is about fifty leagues in length, and seven in breadth; and has on it from thirty-two to forty-five fathoms of water. The ground is a coarse gravel, mixed with marine plants, and is esteemed a good fishing bank.

The Mar Bank lies between the former and the shore opposite to Berwick; is oval, about fifteen miles long, and has about twenty-six fathom of water, and round it about forty.

The bank called Montrose Pits lies a little to the east of the middle of the Long Fortys. It is about fifty miles long,MONTROSE PITS. and most remarkable for five great pits or hol­lows, from three to four miles in diameter: on their edges is only forty fathom water; yet they suddenly deepen to seventy, and even a hundred fathom, on a soft muddy bottom: the margins on the contrary are gravelly. I enquired whether the [Page XXII] surface of this wonderful bank appeared in any way agitated, as I had suspicion that the pits might have been productive of whirlpools; but was informed, that the sea there exhibited no uncommon appearance.

The noted Doggers Bank next succeeds.DOGGERS BANK. It commences at the distance of twelve leagues from Flamborough Head, and extends across the sea, nearly east, above seventy-two leagues, joining Horn-riff, a very narrow strip of sand which ends on the coast of Jutland. The greatest breadth is twenty leagues; and in parts it has only on it ten or eleven fathoms of water, in others twenty-four or five. To the south of the Dogger is a vast extent of sand-bank, named, in different parts, the Well Bank, WELL BANK. the Swart Bank, and the Brown Bank, all covered with sufficient depth of water; but between them and the British coasts are the Ower and the Lemon, dreaded by mariners, and numbers of others infamous for shipwrecks. The channel between the Dogger Bank and the Well Bank deepens even to forty fa­thoms. This hollow is called the Silver Pits, and is noted for the cod-fishery which supplies the London markets. The cod-fish love the deeps: the flat-fish the shallows. I will not repeat what I have, in another place, so amply treated ofSee Br. Zool. iii. Articles Haddock, Ling, and Turbot.. I must only lament, that the fisheries of this bank are only subservient to the pur­poses of luxury. Was (according to the plan of my humane friend, Mr. Travis of Scarborough) a canal formed from any part of the neighboring coast to that at Leeds, thousands of manufacturers would receive a cheap and wholesome food; insurrec­tions in times of scarcity of grain be prevented; our manufactures worked at an easy rate; our rivals in trade thereby undersold; and, in defiance of the probably ap­proaching decrease of the Newfoundland fishery (since the loss of America) contri­bute to form a nursery of seamen sufficient to preserve the small remnant we have left of respect from foreign nations.

I have, to the best of my abilities, enumerated the British fish, in the third volume of the British Zoology. The Faunula which I have prefixed to Mr. Light-foot's Flora Scotica, contains those which frequent the northern coasts of Great Britain; in which will be found wanting many of those of South Britain. The Reverend Mr. LIGHTFOOT, in that work, hath given a most elaborate account of the submarine plants of our northern sea.

I will now pursue my voyage from the extreme shores of North Britain through a new ocean.CALEDONIAN OCEAN. Here commences the Oceanus Caledonius, or Deucaledonius, of Ptolemy; a vast expanse, extending to the west as far as Greenland, and northward to the ex­treme north. This I should call the NORTHERN OCEAN, distinguishing its parts by other names suitable to the coasts. From Dungsby Head the Orkney islands [Page XXIII] ‘appear spreading along the horizon, and yield a most charming prospect.ORKNEY ISLANDS. Some of them are so near as distinctly to exhibit the rocky fronts of those bold promon­tories which sustain the weight of the vast currents from the Atlantic. Others shew more faint: their distances finely expressed as they retire from the eye, until the mountains of the more remote have scarcely a deeper azure than the sky, and are hardly discernible rising over the surface of the ocean^*.’

Between these and the main land, about two miles from the Cathness shore, lies Stroma, STROMA. the Ocetis of Ptolemy, a little island, an appertenance to that county, fertile by the manual labor of about thirty families; pleasant, and lofty enough for the resort of the Auk tribe. The noted mummies are now lost, occasioned by the doors of the caverns in which they were deposited being broken down, and admission given to cattle, which have trampled them to pieces. This catacomb stands on a neck of land bounded by the sea on three sides. The salt air and spray expels all insects, and is the only preservation the bodies have; some of which had been lodged here a great number of years. In many of the isles, the inhabitants use no other method for preserving their meat from putrefaction than hanging it in caves of the sea, and the method is vindicated by the success.

This island lies in the Pentland Firth, noted for the violence of the tides;TIDES. tre­mendous to the sight, but dangerous only when passed at improper times. They set in from the north-west: the flood, on the contrary, on the coasts of Lewis, pours in from the south^†. The tide of flood upon Stroma (and other islands similarly situated in mid-stream) divides or splits before it reaches it. A current runs with great violence on both sides, then unites, at some distance from the opposite end, and forms a single current, running at spring-tides at the rate of nine knots an hour; at neap, at that of three only. The space between the dividing tides, at different ends of an island, is quite stagnant, and is called the eddy. Some of them are a mile or two long, and give room for a ship to tack to and fro, till the tides are so far spent as to permit it to pursue its voyage.

The most boisterous parts of the streams are at the extremities of the island,THE SWELCHIE OF STROMA. and a little beyond the top of the eddy, where they unite. The collision of these oppo­site streams-excite a circular motion, and, when the tide is very strong, occasion whirlpools in form of an inverted bell, the largest diameter of which may be about three feet. In spring-tides they have force enough to turn a vessel round, but not to do any damage: but there have been instances of small boats being swallowed up. These whirlpools are largest when first formed; are carried away with the stream, and disappear, but are quickly followed by others. The spiral motion or suction [Page XXIV] does not extend far beyond the cavity: a boat may pass within twenty yards of these whirlpools with safety. Fishermen who happen to find themselves within a dangerous distance, fling in an oar, or any bulky body, which breaks the con­tinuity of the surface, and interrupts the vertiginous motion, and forces the water to rush suddenly in on all sides and fill up the cavity. In stormy weather, the waves themselves destroy this phaenomenon. A sunk rock near the concourse of these rapid tides occasions a most dreadful appearance. The stream meeting with an interruption, falls over with great violence, reaches the bottom, and brings up with it sand, shells, fishes, or whatsoever else it meets with; which, with boats, or whatsoever it happens to meet, is whirled from the centre of the eruption towards the circumference with amazing velocity, and the troubled surface boils and bubbles like a great cauldron, then darts off with a succession of whirlpools from successive ebullitions. These are called Rousts, ROUSTS. and are attended with the utmost danger to small boats, which are agitated to such a degree, that (even should they not be overset) the men are flung out of them, to perish without any chance of re­demption. It is during the ebb that they are tremendous, and most so in that of a spring-tide with a west wind, and that in the calmest weather; for during flood they are passed with the greatest safety. Vessels in a calm are never in danger of touching on an island or visible rock, when they get into a current, but are always carried safe from all danger.

Swona, SWONA. a little island, the most southern of the Orknies, is about four miles beyond Stroma, and is noted for its tremendous streams, and in particular the whirlpools called the Wells of Swona, which in a higher degree exhibit all the appearances of the former. What contributes to encrease the rage of the tides, besides their con­finement between so many islands, is the irregular position of the sounds, and their little depth of water.DEPTH OF WATER. The same shallowness extends to every side of the Orknies; an evidence that they had once been part of the mother isle, rent from it by some mighty convulsion. The middle of the channel, between Stroma and the main land, has only ten fathom water: the greatest depth around that island is only eighteen. The sounds are from three to forty-six fathom deep: the greater depths are between South Ronaldsha and South Wales; for in general the other sounds are only from three to thirteen; and the circumambient depth of the whole group very rarely exceeds twenty-five.

TIDES.About these islands commences a decrease of the tides. They lie in a great ocean, in which the waters have room to expand; therefore never experience that height of flood which is constant in the contracted seas. Here ordinary spring-tides do not exceed eight feet; and very extraordinary spring-tides fourteen, even when acted on by the violence of the winds^*.

[Page XXV]The time of the discovery and population of the Orknies is unknown. Pro­bably it was very early; for we are told that they owe their name to the Greeks. ‘Orcades has memorant dictas a nomine Graeco ^*.’ Mela and Pliny take notice of them; and the last describes their number and clustered form with much accuracy^† The fleet of Agricola sailed round them, and made a conquest of them; but the Romans probably never retained any part of Caledonia. I found no marks of them beyond Orrea or Inchtuthel ^‡, excepting at Fortingal ^‖ in Breadalbine, where there is a small camp, possibly no more than a temporary advanced post. Notwithstanding this, they must have had, by means of shipping, a communicated knowlege of the coasts of North Britain even to the Orcades. Ptolemy hath, from information collected by those means, given the names of every nation, considerable river, and head-land, on the eastern, northern, and western coast. But the Romans had forgotten the navigation of these seas, otherwise the poet would never have celebrated the courage of his countrymen, in sailing in pursuit of the plundering Saxons through unknown streights, and a naval victory obtained off these islands by the forces sent to the relief of the distressed Britons by Honorius.

The Orkney isles in after times became possessed by the Picts; and again by the Scots. The latter gave way to the Norwegian pirates, who were subdued by Harold Harfargre about the year 875^¶, and the islands united to the crown of Norway. They remained under the Norwegians till the year 1203, accepted their laws, and used their language. The Norse, LANGUAGE. or Norwegian language was generally used in the Orkney and Schetland islands even to the last century: but, except in Foula, where a few words are still known by the aged people, it is quite lost. The English tongue, with a Norwegian accent, is that of the islands; but the appearance of the people, their manners and genius, evidently shew their northern origin. The islands vary in their form and height. Great part of Hoy is mountanous and lofty. The noted land-mark, the hill of Hoy, ROCKS OF THE ORKNIES. is said to be five hundred and forty yards high. The sides of all these hills are covered with long heath, in which breed multitudes of Curlews, Green Plovers, Redshanks, and other Waders. The Short-eared Owl is also very frequent here, and nestles in the ground. It is [Page XXVI] probable that it is from hence, as well as from Norway, that it migrates, in the beginning of winter, to the more southern parts of Britain. Most of the Waders migrate; but they must receive considerable reinforcements from the most distant parts of the north, to fill the numbers which cover our shores. The cliffs are of a most stupendous height, and quite mural to the very sea. The Berry Head is an exalted precipice,BIRDS. with an august cave at the bottom, opening into the sea. The Ern Eagles possess, by distant pairs, the upper part of the rocks: neither these nor any other Falcons will bear society; but, as Pliny elegantly expresses it, Adultos per­sequitur parens et longè fugat, aemulos scilicet rapinae. Et alioquin unum par aquilarum magno ad populandum tractu, ut satietur, indiget ^*. Auks, Corvorants, and all the tribes which love exalted situations, breed by thousands in the other parts. The Tyste, or Black Guillemot, N^o 236, secures itself in a crack in the rock, or by scraping a burrow in the little earth it may find; there it lays a single egg, of a dirty olive blotched with a darker. This species never migrates from the Orknies. The Foolish Guillemot, N^o 436, continues till November. The Little Auk, N^o 429, a rare bird in other parts of Britain, breeds in the holes of the lofty precipices. And the Lyre, or the Sheerwater, N^o 462, burrows in the earth among the rocks of Hoy and Eda, and forms an article of com­merce with its feathers, and of food with its flesh, which is salted and kept for the provision of the winter. In that season they are seen skimming the ocean at most surprizing distances from land. The Stormy Petrel, N^o 464, breeds fre­quently among the loose stones; then takes to sea and affrights the superstitious sailor with its appearance. Woodcocks scarcely ever appear here. Fieldfares make this a short baiting-place: and the Snow Bunting, N^o 122, often alights and covers whole tracts of country, driven by the frost from the farthest north.

A few Wild Swans breed in some lochs in Mainland; but the greatest part of these birds, all the Bernacles, Brent Geese, and several other palmated birds, retire in the spring to more northern latitudes. But to the Swallow-tailed Duck, the Pintail, and a few others, this is a warm climate; for they retire here to pass their winters in the sheltered bays. Any other remarks may be intermixed with those on Schetland; for there is great similiarity of subjects in both the groups.

The last lie about sixty miles to the north-east of the most northern Orkney. Mid­way is Fair Island, FAIR ISLE. a spot about three miles long, with high and rocky shores, in­habited by about a hundred and seventy people: an industrious race; the men fishers; the women knitters and spinners. The depth of water round varies to twenty-six fathoms. The tide divides at the north end, runs with great velocity, and forms on the east side a considerable eddy.

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[Page XXVII] Schetland consists of several islands. Mainland, SCHETLAND. the principal, extends from south to north twenty-eight leagues, and is most singularly formed; consisting of an infinite number of peninsulae connected by very narrow isthmuses. That called Mavisgrind, which unites the parish of North Maven, is only eighty yards broad. But the irregular shape of this island occasions it to abound with the finest and most secure ports, called here voes; a most providential dispensation in a sea which swarms with fishes of the most general use. The adjacent islands are in general so near to the mother island, and their headlands point so exactly to its corresponding capes, that it is highly probable that they once made a part of the Mainland. The rocks and stacks assume great variety of forms, such as steeples and Gothic cathe­drals rising out of the water, fleets of ships, and other fancied shapes. The Dore­holm, in the parish of North Maven, is very singular: part is rounded, the rest seems a ruin, composed of a single thin fragment of rock, with a magnificent arch within, seventy feet in height.

To use the words of Captain Thomas Preston, to whom we are indebted for an excellent chart of this group, ‘the land is wild, barren, and mountanous; nor is there so much as a bush or a tree to be seen. The shores are difficult, and in many parts inaccessible; rude, steep, and iron-like; the sight of which strikes the mind with dread and horror; and such monstrous precipices and hideous rocks as bring all Brobdingnag before your thoughts. These islands lie between lat. 60 to 61. In winter the sun sets soon after it rises, and in summer rises soon after it sets; so that in that season the nights are almost as light as the day; as on the contrary, in December the day is nearly as dark as the night. About the solstice, we see every night the aurora borealis, or, as they are called by the natives, the merry dancers, which spread a broad glaring appearance over the whole northern hemisphere^*.’

They are the constant attendants of the clear evenings in all these northern islands, and prove great reliefs amidst the gloom of the long winter nights.AURORA BORE­ALIS. They commonly appear at twilight near the horizon, of a dun color, approaching to yellow: sometimes continuing in that state for several hours without any sensible motion; after which they break out into streams of stronger light, spreading into columns, and altering slowly into ten thousand different shapes, varying their colors from all the tints of yellow to the obscurest russet. They often cover the whole hemisphere, and then make the most brilliant appearance. Their motions at these times are most amazingly quick; and they astonish the spectator with the rapid change of their form. They break out in places where none were seen before, skimming [Page XXVIII] briskly along the heavens: are suddenly extinguished, and leave behind an uniform dusky tract. This again is brilliantly illuminated in the same manner, and as sud­denly left a dull blank. In certain nights they assume the appearance of vast co­lumns, on one side of the deepest yellow, on the other declining away till it becomes undistinguished from the sky. They have generally a strong tremulous motion from end to end, which continues till the whole vanishes. In a word, we, who only see the extremities of these northern phoenomena, have but a faint idea of their splendor, and their motions. According to the state of the atmosphere they differ in colors. They often put on the color of blood, and make a most dreadful ap­pearance. The rustic sages become prophetic, and terrify the gazing spectators with the dread of war, pestilence, and famine. This superstition was not peculiar to the northern islands; nor are these appearances of recent date. The antients called them Chasmata, and Trabes, and Bolides, according to their forms or colors^*. In old times they were extremely rare, and on that account were the more taken notice of. From the days of Plutarch to those of our sage historian Sir Richard Baker, they were supposed to have been portentous of great events: and timid imagination shaped them into aerial conflicts.

After, I suppose, a very long intermission, they appeared with great brilliancy in England, on March 6rh, 1715-16. The philosophers paid a proper attention^†. The vulgar considered them as marking the introduction of a foreign race of princes. The novelty is now ceased, and their cause perhaps properly attributed to the greater abundance of electrical matter.

STORMS.The tempests which reign over these islands during winter is astonishing. The cold is moderate; the fogs great and frequent; but the storms agitate the water even to the bottom of these comparatively shallow seas.HERRINGS. The fish seek the bottom of the great deeps: and the Herrings, which appear off the Schetlands in amazing columns in June, perform the circuit of our island, and retire beyond the know­lege of man. When the main body of these fish approaches from the north, it alters the very appearance of the ocean. It is divided into columns of five or six miles in length, and three or four in breadth, and they drive the water before them with a sort of rippling current. Sometimes they sink for a small space, then rise again; and in bright weather reflect a variety of splendid colors, like a field of most [Page XXIX] precious gems. Birds and fish of prey attend and mark their progress. The Whales of several kinds keep on the outside, and, deliberately opening their vast mouths, take them in by hundreds. Gannets and Gulls dart down upon them; and the diving tribe aid their persecution, with the cetaceous fishes^*. Mankind joins in the chace; for this useful species gives food to millions, medi­ately and immediately. Dutch, French, Flemings, Danes, and English, rendezvous in Brassa sound to meet these treasures of the ocean: and return to distribute their booty even to the distant Antilles.

Cod, Ling, and Torsk ^† furnish cargoes to other adventurers.COD-FISH. I wish I could speak with the same satisfaction of this as of the free fishery of the Herring; but in these distant islands, the hand of oppression reigns uncontrolled. The poor vassals (in defiance of laws still kept in bondage) are compelled to slave, and hazard their lives in the capture, to deliver their fish to their lords for a trifling sum, who sell them to adventurers from different parts at a high price.

Among other scarcer fishes the Opah,OPAH. Br. Zool. iii. N^o 101. is found in abundance. It seems a fish of the north as well as the Torsk; the last is not found south of the Orknies; the former extends even to the banks of Newfoundland.

The birds of these islands are the same with those of the Orknies, BIRDS. except the Skua, p. 531, which breeds only in Foula and Unst. Among the few land-birds which migrate to them in summer, is the Golden-crested Wren, N^o 153. Its shortest flight must be sixty miles, except it should rest midway on Fair island; a surprising flight for so diminutive a bird!

Multitudes of the inhabitants of each cluster of islands feed, during the season,FOWLING. on the eggs of the birds of the cliffs. The method of taking them is so very hazardous, as to satisfy one of the extremity to which the poor people are driven for want of food. Copinsha, Hunda, Hoy, Foula, and Noss head, are the most celebrated rocks; and the neighboring natives the most expert climbers and adventurers after the game of the precipice. The height of some is above fifty fathoms; their faces roughened with shelves or ledges, sufficient only for the birds to rest and lay their eggs. To these the dauntless fowlers will ascend, pass in­trepidly from one to the other, collect the eggs and birds, and descend with the same indifference. In most places, the attempt is made from above: they are lowered from the slope contiguous to the brink, by a rope, sometimes made of straw, sometimes of the bristles of the hog: they prefer the last, even to ropes of hemp, as it is not liable to be cut by the sharpness of the rocks; the former is apt to untwist. They trust themselves to a single assistant, who lets his companion down, and holds the rope, depending on his strength alone; which [Page XXX] often fails, and the adventurer is sure to be dashed to pieces, or drowned in the subjacent sea. The rope is often shifted from place to place, with the impend­ing weight of the fowler and his booty. The person above receives signals for the purpose, his associate being far out of sight; who, during the operation, by help of a staff, springs from the face of the rocks, to avoid injury from the pro­jecting parts.

In Foula, they will trust to a small stake driven into the ground, or to a small dagger, which the natives usually carry about them; and which they will stick into the ground, and, twisting round it a fishing cord, descend by that to climbing places, and, after finishing their business, swarm up by it without fear. Few who make a practice of this come to a natural death. They have a common saying, ‘Such a one's Gutcher went over the Sneak; and my father went over the Sneak too.’ It is a pity that the old Norwegian law was not here in force. It considered this kind of death as a species of suicide. The next of kin (in case the body could be seen) was directed to go the same way; if he refused, the corpse was not to be admitted into holy ground^*.

But the most singular species of fowling is on the holm of Noss, a vast rock severed from the isle of Noss by some unknown convulsion, and only about sixteen fathoms distant. It is of the same stupendous height as the opposite precipice^†, with a raging sea between; so that the intervening chasm is of matchless horror. Some adventurous climber has reached the rock in a boat, gained the height, and fastened several stakes on the small portion of earth which is to be found on the top: correspondent stakes are placed on the edge of the correspondent cliffs. A rope is fixed to the stakes on both sides, along which a machine, called a cradle, is contrived to slide; and, by the help of a small parallel cord fastened in like manner, the adventurer wafts himself over, and returns with his booty, which is the eggs or young of the Black-backed Gull, N^o 451, and the Herring Gull, N^o 452.

QUADRUPEDS.The number of wild Quadrupeds which have reached the Orkney and Schet­land islands are only five; the Otter, Brown Rat, Common Mouse, Fetid Shrew, and Bat. Rabbets are not of British origin, but naturalized in every part. In the sandy isles of Orkney, they are found in myriads, and their skins are a great article of commerce; but the injury they do in setting the unstable soil in motion, greatly counter-vales the profit.

THESE ISLES ONCE WOODED.In many parts of these islands are evident marks of their having been a wooded country. In the parish of St. Andrew in the Orknies, in North Maven, and even in Foula in the Schetlands, often large tracts are discovered filled with the remains of large trees, which are usually found after some violent tempest hath [Page]

[Page XXXI] blown away the incumbent strata of sand or gravel with which they have been covered. They are lodged in a morassy ground, and often ten feet beneath the peat. Some stand in the position in which they grew; others lie horizontally, and all the same way, as if they had either been blown down, or overturned by a partial deluge. Yet at present no kind of wood can be made to grow; and even the lowest and most common shrub is cultivated with the greatest difficulty. The hazel, the herbaceous, reticulated, creeping, and common willow, are the only shrubs of the island, and those are scattered with a sparing hand. I shall, in an­other place, consider the decrease of vegetation in this northern progress.

The great quantity of turf which Providence hath bestowed on all these islands, excepting Sanda, is another proof of the abundance of trees and other vegetables, long since lost from the surface. The application of this humus vegetabilis for the purpose of fuel, is said to have been first taught the natives by Einar, a Nor­wegian, surnamed, from that circumstance, Torf einar, Einar de Cespite ^*. Had he lived in Greece, he could not have escaped deification for so useful a dis­covery.

Before I quit the last of British isles, I shall,ANTIQUITIES. as supplemental to the antiquities mentioned in my Tours in Scotland, give a brief account of others found in these groups.

The Orknies, the Schetlands, Cathness, Sutherland, and Ross-shire, with the He­brides, were, for centuries, possessed by the Norwegians; and, in many instances, they adopted their customs. Of the antient monuments still remaining, several are common to Scandinavia and the old inhabitants of Britain: others seem peculiar to their northern conquerors. Among those are the circular buildings, known by the names of Pictish houses, Burghs, and Duns: the first are of mo­dern date, and to be exploded, as they never were the work of the Picts; the second are assuredly right, and point out the founders, who at the same time bestowed on them their natal name of Borg, a defence or castle^†, a Sueo-Gothic word; and the Highlanders universally apply to these places the Celtic name Dun, signifying a hill defended by a tower^‡. This also furnishes the proof of their use, was there no other to be discovered. They are confined to the coun­ties once subject to the crown of Norway. With few exceptions, they are built within sight of the sea, and one or more within sight of the other; so that on a signal by fire, by flag, or by trumpet, they could give notice of ap­proaching danger, and yield a mutual succour. In the Schetland and Orkney [Page XXXII] islands, they are most frequently called Wart or Wardhills, which shews that they were garrisoned. They had their wardmadher ^*, or watchman, a sort of centinel, who stood on the top, and challenged all who came in sight. The gackman ^† was an officer of the same kind, who not only was on the watch against surprize; but was to give notice if he saw any ships in distress. He was allowed a large horn of generous liquor, which he had always by him, to keep up his spirits^‡. Along the Orkney and Schetland shores, they almost form a chain; and by that means not only kept the natives in subjection, but were situated commodiously for covering the landing of their countrymen, who were perpetually roving on piratical expeditions. These towers were even made use of as state-prisons; for we learn from Torfaeus, that after Sueno had surprized Paul, count of Cathness, he carried him into Sutherland, and confined him there in a Norwegian tower^§. So much has been said on this subject by the Reverend Mr. Cordiner and myself, that I shall only refer to the pages, after saying, that out of our kingdom, no buildings similar to these are to be found, except in Scandinavia. On the mountain Swalberg ^‖ in Norway is one; the Stir-biskop ^¶, at Upsal in Sweden, is another; and Umseborg, in the same kingdom, is a third^**.

These towers vary in their inner structure; but externally are universally the same; yet some have an addition of strength on the outside. The burgh of Culs­wick in Schetland, notwithstanding it is built on the top of a hill, is surrounded with a dry ditch thirteen feet broad; that of Snaburgh in Unst, has both a wet and a dry ditch; the first cut, with great labor, through the live rock. The burgh of Moura is surrounded by a wall, now reduced to a heap of stones, and the inside is cylindrical, not taper, as usual with others. The burgh of Hogscter, upon an isle in a loch of the same name, has also its addition of a wall; a pecu­liarity in a causeway, to join it to the main land, and a singular internal structure. Numbers of little burghs, with single cells, are scattered about these islands, in the neighborhood of the greater; and which probably were built by the poorer sort of people, in order to enjoy their protection. A multitude of places in these islands have the addition of burgh to their names, notwithstanding there is not a vestige of a tower near them; the materials having long since been carried away, and applied to various uses. One was, by way of pre-eminence, called Conings­burgh, or the burgh of the king. I lament its loss the more, as it might have proved similar to its namesake in Yorkshire, and furnished additional materials to [Page]

[Page XXXIII] my worthy friend, Edward King, Esq for his most elaborate history of English castles^*. The plates, with explanatory accounts, shall supply what farther can elucidate these curious antiquities.

After the expulsion of the Norwegians, the coasts of Scotland, which they possessed, were still protected by castles; many of which, such as Oldwick, ex­hibit very small improvements on the model left by the antient Scandinavian architects: a few deviated from the original manner, were square, had great thick­ness of wall, furnished with cells like those in the round towers or burghs. Borve castle,BORVE CASTLE. in Cathness, is a little more advanced. This was the residence of Thorkel, a famous freebooter in the tenth century. It is a small square building, on a rock projecting into the sea, adjoined to the main land by an isthmus not ten feet wide; and beneath the castle is a magnificent passage for boats, which pierces the rock from side to side, and is covered by a matchless natural arch.

I cannot but revert to the former subject, to mention the Snaburgh in Tet­lor, one of the most remote of the Schetland isles. It is in the form of a Roman camp;ROMAN CAMP: and when entire, had in the middle a rectangular area surrounded by a wall, and that by an earthen rampart of the same figure, at some distance from it. Two sides of the walled area have the additional defence of another rampart of earth; which commences on the inside of one of the narrower sides, and, preserving the same distance from the lesser area as the two other sides of the outward fence do, terminates at the latter, near an artificial well. That this was Roman, I greatly suspect. The care for water was a peculiar object with that wise nation; but neglected by barbarians. This is inclosed within the rampart, and at a small distance on the outside, had the protection of a mount, which once probably had its castellet, garrisoned for the further security^†. The regular portae are wanting; in other respects it resembles a Roman camp. The sea, over which it impends, has destroyed one half: the entire part is given in the plate, and the rest supplied with dotted lines.

I know but of two periods in which the Romans visited these islands: one at the time when the fleet of Agricola subdued them; the other, when the fleet of Honorius defeated the Saxons in the seas of Orkney. A copper medal of Ves­pasian, with Judaea devicta ^‡ on the reverse, was found on the south side of Main-land, probably lost there by the first invaders, who might venerate Vespasian, under whom many of them had served, and who might naturally carry with them such honorable memorials of his reign. The only antiquities found near [Page XXXIV] this place, were six pieces of brass, cast into a form the nearest resembling fet­ters. They were wrapped in a piece of raw hide; but we cannot pretend to say that they belonged to the occupiers of the camp.

STONE WEAPONS.Flint heads of arrows, flint axes, swords made of the bones of a whale, stones, beads, and antiquities, must be referred to the earliest inhabitants, at a period in which these kingdoms were on a level with the natives of new-discovered islands in the South Sea. CIRCLES. Druidical circles of stones, the temples of primaeval religion of our island, are not uncommon. The finest and most entire are those at Stennis, in one of the Orkney isles. The diameter of the circle is about a hundred and ten yards. The highest stone fourteen feet. The whole is singularly surrounded with a broad and deep ditch, probably to keep at a distance the unhallowed vulgar.

SEMICIRCLES.At the same place is a noble semicircle, consisting of four vast stones entire, and one broken. The highest are twenty feet high above ground. Behind them is a mound of earth, conformable to their position. If there never was a num­ber of stones to complete a circle, this antiquity was one of the kind which the learned Doctor Borlase calls a theatre, and supposes was designed for the exhi­bition of dramatical performances^*. I suspect them to have been either for the purposes of religion, or judicial transactions; for the age was probably not suf­ficiently refined for the former amusements. Upright stones, either memorials of the dead,PLAIN COLUMNS. or victories obtained on the spot, are very numerous. The most re­markable is the stone of Sator, in the isle of Eda. It is a flag, fifteen feet high, five and a half broad, and only nine inches thick. Its story is quite unknown; but it probably rests over a hero of that name. Notwithstanding the long resi­dence of the Norwegians in these islands, I find only one stone with a Runic in­scription, which runs along the sides. The rest of the stone is plain, and desti­tute of the sculptures so frequent on those found in Scandinavia.

SCULPTURED CO­LUMNS.In the wall of the church at Sandness, is a stone with three circles, a semi­circle, and a square figure, engraven on it. This is the only one which bears any resemblance to the elegant carved columns at Meigle and Glames, and which extend, after a very long interval, as far as the church-yard of Far, on the ex­treme northern coast of Cathness. Several of these have been before attended to. I can only remark, that they are extremely local, and were, by their similarity, only the work of a short period. We imagine that the first, about which we can form any conjecture, was erected in 994, on the defeat of Camus, the Dane: the last in 1034, on the murder of Malcolm the Second.

[Page XXXV]In the isle of Unst are two singular circles, near each other.SEPULCHRAL ANTIQUITIES. The largest is fifty feet in diameter, to the outmost ring; for it consists of three, concentrical; the outmost is formed of small stones, the two inner of earth; through all of which is a single narrow entrance to a tumulus which rises in the centre. The other circle is only twenty-two feet in diameter, and has only two rings, formed of earth:CIRCULAR. in the centre is a barrow, the sides of which are fenced with stones. No marks of their having been places of interment have been found, yet most probably that was their use.

The links or sands of Skail, in Sandwich, one of the Orknies, abound in round barrows. BARROWS. Some are formed of earth alone, others of stone covered with earth. In the former was found a coffin, made of six flat stones. They are too short to receive a body at full length: the skeletons found in them lie with the knees pressed to the breast, and the legs doubled along the thighs. A bag, made of rushes, has been found at the feet of some of these skeletons, containing the bones, most probably, of another of the family. In one were to be seen multitudes of small beetles. Whether they were placed there by design, or lodged there by acci­dent, I will not determine; but, as I have discovered similar insects in the bag which inclosed the sacred Ibis, we may suppose that the Egyptians, and the nation to whom these tumuli did belong, might have had the same superstition respecting them. On some of the corpses interred in this island, the mode of burning was observed. The ashes, deposited in an urn which was covered on the top with a flat stone, have been found in the cell of one of the barrows. This coffin or cell was placed on the ground, then covered with a heap of stones, and that again cased with earth and sods. Both barrow and contents evince them to be of a dif­ferent age from the former. These tumuli were in the nature of family vaults: in them have been found two tiers of coffins^*. It is probable, that on the death of any one of the family, the tumulus was opened, and the body interred near its kindred bones.

The violence of the winds have,GRAVES OF WESTRA. by blowing away the sands in a certain part of Westra, one of the Schetlands, discovered an extensive burying-place, once covered with the thickness of twenty feet. This seems to have belonged to different na­tions. One is marked by the tumuli consisting of stones and rubbish; some rounded, others flat at top like truncated cones. Near them are multitudes of graves, which are discoverable only by one, two, three, four, and sometimes even more short upright stones, set in the level sand. The corpse was interred a few feet deep, and covered with a layer of fine clay, to keep the sand from touching it. [Page XXXVI] Not only human bones, but those of oxen, horses, dogs, and sheep, have been found in these graves. Besides, were several sorts of warlike instruments, battle-axes, two-handed swords, broad swords, brazen daggers and scull-caps, and swords made of the bones of the whale: knives and combs: beads, brotches, and chains of ornament: a metal spoon, and a neat glass cup greatly corroded: small flat cir­cular pieces of marble: stones shaped like whetstones, and spherical stones per­forated, such as were in former use in Scotland for turning of spindles: but the most singular thing was a thigh-bone closely incircled by a ring of gold. The tumuli seem to have been the places of sepulture of the inhabitants of the isles: the graves, those of some foreign nation who had landed here, had a conflict, and prov­ed victorious. I found my conjecture on the arms and other matters found in them. The brass were Norwegian ^*, the iron belonging to the natives; but the weapons of conquerors and conquered were, with ceremonies resembling those at the funeral of Pallas, flung into the graves of the victorious party.

The antiquities of this class found in Scandinavia are very numerous,IN SCANDINAVIA. and of a magnitude which evince the extreme population of the country. I discover only three kinds. The first may be exemplified in the vast rounded earthen tumulus in Smaland, with a rude monumental upright stone at top; and near it a spherical stone, beautifully carved, flung up in honor of Ingo King of Sweden, in the latter end of the ninth century^†: others in honor of Humblus, and Laudur brother to King Angantyr; the last surrounded at its base with a circle of rude stones^‡. The Rambora Rolle is a mount of earth, with three upright pillars, placed so as to form a triangular space^‖. Other tumuli consist entirely of vast heaps of stones. Several of the sepulchral memorials are formed of stones disposed in a circular form: some of low stones, like that of the Danish King Harald Hyldeland, placed round the edge of the flat area of a low mount. He was slain in battle by Ringo King of Sweden ^§, who paid him all funeral honors, burnt his body with great pomp, and placed around his tumulus the numerous bodies of his faithful fol­lowers who were slain around their prince; and their places of rest are marked by multitudes of small earthen barrows, with a single stone at the top of each. On [Page XXXVII] the regal mount is a flat stone, with five hollows in it, basons to receive the blood of the victims^*. Others consist of small stones with Maen-hirion, as the Welsh style them, lofty rude pillars, intermixed. In some the lesser stones depart from the circu­lar form, are oval or oblong: their edges are often contiguous, and those parts are often marked with a lofty pillar^†. Two pillars are sometimes found, with an enor­mous stone set from top to top, so as to form the resemblance of a gateway^‡. Co­lumns of great height are also found, surrounded at their base with two circles of small stones^¶. Finally, the stones are disposed so as to form wedges, squares, long rows, as well as circles. The first denoted that armies of foot and horse had prevaled: the second, troops of warriors: the third, duels of champions: and the last, the burials of families^§. Multitudes of single obeliscs are scattered over the country: some quite plain; others inscribed with Runic characters, memorial of the dead, intermixed with well-fancied ornaments^‖.

In many of the tumuli are found the weapons and other matters which had been deposited with the burnt bones of the deceased. In those of the earliest ages are the stone weapons, such as axes and spears heads made of flint. In others have been met with a small lamp, a key, and swords of brass of the same form with some of the Roman swords^**. A superstition attending the swords was singular: those of highest temper were supposed to have been made by Duergi, dwarfs or fairies, and were thought to have been irresistible. The reader will not be displeased with the elegant version ^†† of a Runic poem, describing the in­cantations of a fair heroine, to obtain the magical sword out of the tomb of her deceased father.

I shall just mention, that the antient Scandinavians had also their Cromlehs ^*. I can trace but one instance, and that on the top of a tumulus in Zealand; which, with two other barrows, is included in a square of stones.

Circles, for the purpose of religious rites, were not wanting here. The Ettestupa, or circle of lofty rude columns in West Gothland, was celebrated for the sacrifices of the heathens^†; and the great stones at Finstad, disposed in form of a cell, and called St. Birgitta's Oratory ^‡, was no other than a temple of worship, ana­logous, probably, to that of the Druids.

The next step is to the FEROE islands,FEROE ISLES. a group about two hundred and ten miles to the north-west of the northern Schetland, between lat. 61, 15. and 62, 30. There are seventeen which are habitable, each of which is a lofty mountain arising out of the waves, divided from the others by deep and rapid currents. Some of them are deeply indented with secure harbours; providence seeming to have favored mankind with the safest retreats in the most boisterous seas. All are very steep, and most of [Page XL] them faced with most tremendous precipices. The surface of the mountains con­sists of a shallow soil of remarkable fertility; for barley, the only corn sown here, yields above twenty for one; and the grass affords abundant pasturage for sheep. The exports are salted mutton and tallow, goose quils, feathers, and Eider down; and, by the industry of the inhabitants, knit woollen waistcoats, caps, and stock­ings. No trees beyond the size of juniper, or stunted willows, will grow here: nor are any wild quadrupeds to be met with, except rats and mice, originally escaped from the shipping.

The list of land birds is very small:LAND BIRDS.—The Cinereous Eagle, p. 214. B; the Lanner, p. 225. K; the Sparrow Hawk, p. 226. N^*; a species of Owl; the Raven, N^o 134; and Hooded Crow, p. 251. B. are the pernicious species. Ravens were so destructive to the Lambs and Sheep, that in old times every boat­man was obliged to bring into the sessions-house, on St. Olaus's day, the beak of one of those birds, or pay one skin, which was called the Raven-fine, in case of neglect. The remaining land fowl are Wild Pigeons and Stares, White Wagtails, Wrens, and sometimes the Swallow. The Snow Bunting only rests here in spring, on its passage northward. The Heron is sometimes met with. The Spoon-Bill is Common^†. The Sea Pie, Water Rail, and Lapwing, are seen here. The birds of the rocks, such as Puffins, Razor Bills, and Little Auks, Foolish and Black Guillemots, swarm here; and the Geyir-fugl, or Great Auk, at certain periods visits these islands. The last, by reason of its short wing incapable of flight, nestles at the foot of the cliffs. The Skua, Arctic, Black-backed, and Herring Gulls, Fulmars, Manks, Stormy Petrels, Imber and Northern Divers, Wild Swans and Geese, (the Swans only vernal passengers towards the north) Eider Ducks, Havelda or Long-tailed Ducks, Corvorants, and the Sula Gannet, form the sum of the palmated fowl of these inhospitable spots.

FOWLING.The manner of fowling is so very strange and hazardous that the description should by no means be omitted. Necessity compels mankind to wonderful attempts. The cliffs which contain the objects of their search are often two hundred fathoms in height,FROM ABOVE. and are attempted from above and below. In the first case, the fowlers provide themselves with a rope eighty or a hundred fathoms in length. The fowler fastens one end about his waist and between his legs, recommends himself to the protection of the Almighty, and is lowered down by six others, who place a piece of timber on the margin of the rock, to preserve the rope from wearing against the sharp edge. They have besides a small line fastened to the body of the ad­venturer, by which he gives signals that they may lower or raise him, or shift him [Page XLI] from place to place. The last operation is attended with great danger, by the loosening of the stones, which often fall on his head, and would infallibly destroy him, was it not protected by a strong thick cap; but even that is found unequal to save him against the weight of the larger fragments of rock. The dexterity of the fowlers is amazing; they will place their feet against the front of the preci­pice, and dart themselves some fathoms from it, with a cool eye survey the places where the birds nestle, and again shoot into their haunts. In some places the birds lodge in deep recesses. The fowler will alight there, disengage himself from the rope, fix it to a stone, and at his leisure collect the booty, fasten it to his girdle, and resume his pendulous seat. At times he will again spring from the rock, and in that attitude, with a fowling net placed at the end of a staff, catch the old birds which are flying to and from their retreats. When he hath finished his dreadful employ, he gives a signal to his friends above, who pull him up, and share the hard-earned profit. The feathers are preserved for exportation: the flesh is partly eaten fresh: but the greater portion dried for winter's provision.

The fowling from below has its share of danger.FROM BELOW. The party goes on the expe­dition in a boat; and when it has attained the base of the precipice, one of the most daring, having fastened a rope about his waist, and furnished himself with a long pole with an iron hook at one end, either climbs, or is thrust up by his companions, who place a pole under his breech, to the next footing spot he can reach^*. He, by means of the rope, brings up one of the boats crew; the rest are drawn up in the same manner, and each is furnished with his rope and fowling-staff. They then continue their progress upwards in the same manner, till they arrive at the region of birds; and wander about the face of the cliff in search of them. They then act in pairs; one fastens himself to the end of his associate's rope, and, in places where birds have nestled beneath his footing, he permits himself to be lowered down, depending for his security to the strength of his companion, who is to haul him up again; but it sometimes happens that the person above is overpowered by the weight, and both inevitably perish. They fling the fowl down to the boat, which attends their motions, and receives the booty. They often pass seven or eight days in this tremendous employ, and lodge in the crannies which they find in the face of the precipice.

The sea which surrounds these islands is extremely turbulent. The tides vary greatly on the western and eastern sides. On the first, where is received the un­interrupted flood of the ocean from the remote Greenland, the tide rises seven fa­thoms: on the eastern side it rises only three. Dreadful whirlwinds, called by the Danes, oes, agitate the sea to a strange degree; catch up a vast quantity of water, [Page XLII] so as to leave a great temporary chasm in the spot on which it falls, and carries away with it, to an amazing distance, any fishes which may happen to be within reach of its fury. Thus great shoals of Herrings have been found on the highest moun­tains of Feroe. It is equally resistless on land, tearing up trees, stones, and animals, and carrying them to very distant places. We must no longer laugh at the good archbishop^*, who gravely tells us, that at times, the Rats called Lemming are poured down from the clouds in great showers on the Alps of Norway. We assent to the fact; but must solve the phoenomenon by ascribing it to a whirlwind, as he does in one place; yet immediately supposes they may be bred in the upper regions out of feculent matter.

Among the numerous whirlpools of these seas, that of Suderoe, near the island of the same name, is the most noted. It is occasioned by a crater, sixty-one fathoms in depth in the centre, and from fifty to fifty-five on the sides. The water forms four fierce circumgirations. The point they begin at is on the side of a large bason, where commences a range of rocks running spirally, and terminating at the verge of the crater. This range is extremely rugged, and covered with water from the depth of twelve to eight fathoms only. It forms four equidistant wreaths, with a channel from thirty-five to twenty fathoms in depth between each. On the outside, beyond that depth, the sea suddenly sinks to eighty and ninety. On the south border of the bason is a lofty rock, called Sumboe Munk, noted for the multitude of birds which frequent it. On one side, the water is only three or four fathoms deep; on the other fifteen. The danger at most times, especially in storms, is very great. Ships are irresistibly drawn in: the rudder loses its power, and the waves beat as high as the masts; so that an escape is almost miraculous: yet at the reflux, and in very still weather, the inhabitants will venture in boats, for the sake of fishing. Mr. Debes omits the times of greatest danger. It is to be hoped that attention will be paid to the various periodical appearances of a phoenomenon, the cause of which is very satisfactorily explained by the worthy pastor^†.

Mankind found their way to these islands some time before the discovery of Iceland. Naddodd, a Norwegian pirate, had retired here, as the only place of security he could find^‡. About this time, Harold Harfagre possessed himself of Norway, and flung off the Danish yoke. A party was formed against him; but it was soon subdued, and the malecontents quitting the kingdom, retired to the Hebrides, Orknies, Schetland, and Feroe, and gave rise to the Norwegian reign in all those islands.

ICELAND.From the Feroe islands, the hardy Scandinavians made the next step, in their nor­thern migrations, to ICELAND. I must premise, that there is the highest pro­bability that this island was discovered in an age most remote to theirs: and that it was the Thule of Pytheas, an illustrious Marseillian, at lest cotemporary with [Page XLIII] Aristotle ^*, and who pushed his discoveries towards the north, as his countryman Euthymenes did beyond the line. Pytheas arrived at Thule, an island, says he, six days sailing northward from Britain, where, he informs us, was continual day and night for six months alternately^†. He does not exactly hit on the length of day and night; but he could have been at no other, at that distance from Britain, but Iceland, in which there was a most remarkable absence of light. As to Naddodd, in 861, he was accidentally driven by a tempest to the eastern side of Iceland, to a place now called Reidarfiall. He found the country covered with snow, and therefore named it Snoeland; yet he returned home full of its praises. Soon after, Gardar, a Swede, experienced the same fortune. On a voyage to the Hebrides, he was tempest-driven to the same island; on which, by the advice of his mother, who was a sort of diviner, he landed at Horn. At this period Iceland was cloathed with wood from the shore to the very tops of the mountains. He wintered there, and likewise returned full of its praises^‡.

FLOKE, a celebrated pirate, was the next adventurer. He took with him three Ravens, and, like another Noah, made them the augury of the land. Before he sailed, he performed a great sacrifice for the success, upon a vast pile of stones, which he raised for the purpose. This points out another origin of the vast tumuli we so frequently see. He made the Schetland and the Feroe isles his first steps; and loosed from the last for Iceland, the nearest point of which is about five hundred and forty miles distant. His first Raven returned to Feroe: the second flew back to the ship: the third directed him to the wished-for land^§. He wintered there. The cattle he brought with him perished through want. The spring proved unusually cold, and the sea appeared full of ice; for which reason he bestowed on the island the name it at present bears. Floke was sick of his voyage: returned full of dispraises of the country. This did not discourage other adventurers, all of them Scandi­navians, thrust out of the exuberant northern hive. The rest of the world, which their countrymen ravaged, was assuredly too small for them, otherwise they never would have colonized almost the most wretched spot in the northern hemisphere. Ambition possibly actuated the leaders, who might think it ‘Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven.’ Colony after colony arrived. They confederated, and formed a republic, which existed near four hundred years; but with as many feuds and slaughters as could [Page XLIV] happen in a climate where luxury might pamper and corrupt the inhabitants. In 1261, wearied with their dissensions, they voluntarily re-united themselves to their mother-country, Norway, under the reign of its monarch Haquin. It is re­markable, that the poetic genius of their aboriginal country flourished with equal sublimity in every climate. The Scalds, or bards, retained their fire in the inhos­pitable climate of Iceland, as vigorously as when they attended on their chieftains to the mild air of Spain, or Sicily, and sung their valiant deeds.

Every thing which furnished topics to the poets of other countries, was, in the most remote period, wanting here. Groves, verdant meadows, purling streams, and gentle zephyrs, were totally unknown; and in their stead, stunted shrubs, a thin herbage, rude torrents, and fierce gales, reign in every part. We admit the apology of the learned Torfoeus for the present state of his country^*. Violent tempests might cover whole tracts with the unstable sand, eruptions of water from the mountains desolate some parts, earthquakes bury vast extents of fertile land with fragments of rocks, and inundations of the sea change the face of others. But soft scenery was not requisite to inspire poets who were to sing only the pre­parations for warlike exploits, the slaughter of a battle, the deeds of their heroes, and the magic solemnities of superstitions.

The island, at present, exhibits to the traveller amazing slopes of lava, which once streamed from the vulcanoes, and terminated in the sea. Such is the appear­ance, about three miles from Hafnaifoird, in lat. 64. 4. of vast masses of lava piled to a montanous height upon each other, broken, vitrified, sharp, rude, and black. In parts, sandy tracts intervene: in others, a soil peculiar to the place, a tufa, originated from the violent eruptions of impure water which rush from the moun­tains, attendant on the fiery eruptions. Vallies composed of a very thin soil, afford grass for a numerous breed of cattle and sheep. Here is found variety of species of the best grasses; of the aira, poa, festuca, and carex. Part is harvested against winter; but not in such plenty, but that the farmer is obliged often to feed his stock with the wolf-fish, or the heads of cod-fish beaten small, and mixed with a quarter part of hay. To what food will not necessity compel both man and beast to recur!

WOODS LONG LOST.The woods of Iceland have long since vanished, unless we except a few stunted birch, scarcely ten feet high, and four inches in diameter; and a few species of willow,DRIFT-WOOD. so small and so rare as scarcely to be of use to the inhabitants. But they are abundantly supplied with drift-wood from Europe and America, as appears by the species found on the shores, especially on all the northern coast, as Langaness on the north-east and Hornstrandt on the north-west. That woods were found here [Page XLV] in very remote periods, is very evident, from the quantity of suturbrand met with in several parts; which still retains traces of its vegetable origin; the marks of branches, and circles of the annual growth of the wood: some pieces are even capable of being planed. It is found in the fissures of the rocks, much compressed by their weight, and in pieces sometimes big enough to make a middle-sized table. This is sometimes used as fuel; but the want of it is sup­plied, in some measure, by the drift-wood, by peat, and by several strange substi­tutes, the effect of necessity. Smiths prefer the suturbrand to sea-coal in their business. The beds of this fossil strongly refute the notion of Iceland having been entirely formed by vulcanic violence, since the original creation; and raised out of the sea in later times, as others have been known to have done. Delos and Rhodos, in very remote ages; Thera, the modern Santorini, and Therasia, in the 135th Olympiad; Thia, in the time of Pliny ^*; and in the beginning of this century another sprung from the sea, by the force of subterraneous fires, near to Santorini ^†: and, while I am now writing, an island is forming by the same cause, not remote from the Reickenes, part of the very island in question. But these sutur or sorte brands are certainly the remains of antient forests, overturned and buried by earthquakes, after the golden age of the island. Let me add to this another proof, from the number of its vegetables:PLANTS, NUMBER OF. there being found on it not fewer than three hundred and nine perfect, and two hundred and thirty-three cryptogamous plants. On the isle of Ascension, which is totally and aboriginally vulcanic, a Flora of not more than seven plants is to be seen^‡.

THIS vast island extends from 63. 15. to about 67. 18. north latitude: is reckoned to be five hundred and sixty English miles long, and about two hundred and fifty broad^‖. It has a rugged coast, indented deeply with secure bays; but faced with very few isles. It lies in the Hyperborean ocean, divided from Greenland by a sea about thirty-five leagues wide^§. The whole is traversed with great ridges of mountains; the highest naked, and usually free from snow, by reason of the saline and sulphurous particles with which they abound. The lower, called Jok­keler, are cased with eternal ice and snow; and are the glacieres of Iceland. Of these, Snaefiaell Jokkel, which hangs over the sea in the west part of the island, is far the highest^¶. Out of these, at different periods, have been tremendous eruptions of fire and water, the burst of which is attended with a most terrific noise: flames and balls of fire issue out with the smoke: and showers of stones are vomited up; of which there has been an instance of one weighing near three hundred pounds being flung to the [Page XLVI] distance of four miles. The heights of the mountains have not been taken; but that of the Hecla-fiall is not far short of seventeen hundred yards. Of this species of mountain, Hecla has been most celebrated: the records of Iceland enumerate ten of its eruptions since the arrival of the Norwegians. It was the hell of the nor­thern nations; but they seem divided in their opinions, whether the pains of the damned arose from fire, or, what was more tremendous to the natives of these countries, from the cold^*.

Hecla has been known to have had only ten eruptions between the years 1104 and 1693; from the last to 1766, when it burst out in flames and lava. It emitted flames in 1771 and 1772; but did not overflow with Stenna, or a stone flood. But other vulcanoes have, in the present century, proved the spiracles to the internal fires of Iceland. The vallies between the mountains are in general sandy and sterile. Fiery eruptions are not confined to the mountains. Last year they burst out of the fulphure­ous soil of the low parts of Skaftafield Syssel or province; and the lava has overflown the country for the space of thirty miles, and has at last reached the sea, destroying every thing in its progress. It dries up the rivers, and fills their beds with lava. Moors in some places stop its course; but it totally changes their nature. It has taken to the deserts of the same province, and begins to spread to the east, or Mulé Syssel, the most populous and fruitful part of the island; nor were there any signs of its ceasing at the time when this account was sent to me^†.

HUERS, OR BOIL­ING JETS D'EAUX.THE FOUNTAINS of many of the vallies are of a most extraordinary nature; are called Huers, and form at times jets d'eaux of scalding water, ninety-four feet high, and thirty in diameter, creating the most magnificent gerbes in nature! especially when backed by the setting sun. They arise out of cylindrical tubes of unknown depths: near the surface they expand into apertures of a funnel shape, and the mouths spread into large extent of stalactitical matter, formed of suc­cessive scaly concentric undulations. The playing of these stupendous spouts is foretold by noises roaring like the cataract of Niagara. The cylinder be­gins to fill: it rises gradually to the surface, and gradually encreases its height, smoking amazingly, and flinging up great stones. After attaining its greatest height, it gradually sinks, till it totally disappears. Boiling jets d'eaux, and boiling springs, are frequent in most parts of the island. In many parts they are applied to the culinary uses of the natives. The most capital is that which is [Page XLVII] called Geyer, in a plain rising into small hills, and in the midst of an amphi­theatre, bounded by the most magnificent and various-shaped icy mountains; among which the three-headed Hecla soars pre-eminent.

These Huers are not confined to the land. They rise in the very sea,IN THE SEA. and form scalding fountains amidst the waves. Their distance from the land is unknown; but the new vulcanic isle, twelve-miles off the point of Reickenes, emitting fire and smoke, proves that the subterraneous fires and waters extend to that space; for those aweful effects arise from the united fury of these two elements^*. The depth of water between this new creation and the Geir-fugl Skier, is forty-four fathoms; ten leagues to the west, two hundred and five: and the bottom composed of black sand^†; doubtless no other than the Pumex arenaceus, the frequent evomition of vulcanoes. How much past human comprehension must the powers have been, that could force up materials for an island, even from the medium depth I have given! and how deep beneath the bottom of the ocean must have been the causes which could supply stone, or pumice, or lava, to fill the space which this island oc­cupies, many miles in circumference, and possibly above a hundred fathoms in depth!

If some islands spring out of these seas, others are swallowed by the force of earthquakes. Their foundations are undermined by the fury of the subterraneous elements, which carries off the materials of their basis, and discharges it in lava, or different forms, through the vulcanic spiracula. The earthquakes shatter the crust on which they stand, and they tumble into the great abyss. Such was the fate of the nine isles of Gouberman, which lay about four leagues from Sandaness, between Patrixfiord and Cape Nort, all which suddenly disappeared. Their names still exist in several maps; but their place is only distinguishable by the superior depth of water in the spot on which they stood^‡.

The number of inhabitants in Iceland is computed not to exceed sixty thousand.PEOPLE, NUMBER OF. Considering the ungenial surface of this vast island, probably the number is equal to the means of support. Writers apologize for the fewness of inhabi­tants, by attributing it to the almost depopulation of the place by the sorte diod, PESTILENCE. or black death, a pestilence which commenced in Cathay, or China, in 1346, spread over all Asia, and Africa, reached the south of Europe in 1347, and in 1348 spread itself over Britain, Germany, and northern Europe, even to the extremity of the inhabited north. The small-pox, and other epidemics, are mentioned as contributing to thin the island. During the time of the plague, tradition relates, [Page XLVIII] in terms most graphically horrid, that the persons who escaped to the moun­tains, saw the whole low country covered with a thick pestiferous fog. A guess may be made at the number of inhabitants in the eleventh century; for a bishop of Schalholt caused, in 1090, all who were liable to pay tribute to be numbered: four thousand of that rank were found; so that, giving five to a family, the sum is twenty thousand^*. Much of the labor in the northern world falls to the female part of the family; and in those patriarchal times, the sons also shared the toil. I cannot therefore under-rate the number of commonalty, or untaxable people, heads of families, at ten thousand; which, by the same rule, will give fifty thousand of the lower rank. Besides the dearth of food in this rude island, other causes contribute to prevent the increase of inhabitants. Necessity forces the men to seek from the sea subsistence, denied by their niggardly land. Con­stant wet, cold, and hard labor, abridge the days of thousands; and that labor is in­creased tenfold, to supply the rapacity of their masters. Incredible as it may seem, a late king of Denmark sold the whole island, and its inhabitants, to a company of merchants, for the annual rent of one thousand pounds. This company en­slave the poor natives; who are bound to sell their fish, the staple of the island, at a low price to these monopolizers; who, dreading resistance, even have taken from them the use of fire-arms! Here is given a stronger cause of depopulation, perhaps, than the others; for Hymen can have but faint votaries in the land from whence liberty is banished. But for these causes, here ought to be found the genuine species of the Norman race, unmixed with foreign blood; as must be the case with every place remote from the rest of the world. Here are to be sought the antient customs and diet of their original stock, which are now pro­bably worn out in the land of their distant ancestors. The luxury of food has so little crept in among them, that their meat and drink in general is peculiar to themselves; and much of the former composed of herbs neglected in other places.

DRESS.The dress of the natives seems unchanged for a very considerable time: that of the men is simple, not unlike that of the Norwegian peasants^†; that of the fe­males is graceful, elegant, and peculiar to them, and perhaps some very old-fashioned Norwegian lady. They ornament themselves with silver chains and rich plates of silver, beautifully wrought. On their head is a lofty slender dress, not unlike a Phrygian bonnet. I cannot compare this to any antient European fashion. Isabel of France, queen to Edward II. wore a head-dress of an enor­mous [Page XLIX] height, of a slender conic form^*; but which, for want of the flexure at top, gave place in elegance to the taste of the Icelandic fair.

Mr. Troil awakens our curiosity about the Icelandic antiquities; speaks of castles, and heathen temples, and burying-places, and upright stones, and mounts. Of the first I am solicitous to gain some further knowlege, for possibly they might direct to the origin of the round buildings in the Hebrides, Orknies, Schet­land, and the north of Scotland ^†: others seem to me the various Scandinavian antiquities, admirably exemplified in Baron Dahlberg's Suecia Antiqua et Moderna.

The species of quadrupeds of this island are very few.DOMESTIC QUA­DRUPEDS. Small horses of a hardy kind; cows in great abundance, and mostly hornless, the flesh and hides of which are considerable articles of exportation. Sheep are met with in great flocks in every farm; the wool is manufactured at home, the meat salted, and, with the skins, much of it is sold to the Company, at the twenty-two ports al­lotted for the purposes of traffic. It is remarkable, that the climate disposes their horns to grow very large, and even to exceed the number of those of the sheep of other countries; examples of three, four, and five, being extremely frequent. Goats and swine are very scarce; the first, for want of shrubs to brouze, the last through deficiency of their usual food, and the supply which the farm-yards of other countries afford.

The dogs are sharp-nosed, have short and sharp upright ears, bushy tails, and are full of hair. Here are domestic cats; but numbers are grown wild, and multiply among the rocks, so as to become noxious. The reader need not be reminded, that these, and every species of domestic animals, were originally in­troduced into Iceland by the Norwegians.

An attempt has been made to introduce the Rein Deer, Arct. Zool. N^o 4. Those which survived the voyage have bred frequently. There can be little doubt of their succeeding, as Iceland has, in common with Lapland, most of the plants for their summer food^‡, and abundance of the Rein Deer lichen for their winter provision.

Rats and Mice seem to have been involuntarily transported.RATS. Both the domestic species are found here; and the white variety of the Mouse, called in the Icelandic, Skogar Mys, is common in the bushes. I suspect that there is a native species, allied, as Doctor PALLAS imagines, to the Oeconomic, Arct. Zool. p. 134, A.; for, like that, it lays in a great magazine of berries by way of winter-stores. This species is particularly plentiful in the wood of Husafels. In a country where [Page L] berries are but thinly dispersed, these little animals are obliged to cross rivers to make their distant forages. In their return with the booty to their magazines, they are obliged to repass the stream; of which Mr. Olaffen gives the following account:— "The party, which consists of from six to ten, select a flat piece of dried cow-dung, on which they place the berries in a heap in the middle; then, by their united force, bring it to the water's edge, and after launching it, embark, and place themselves round the heap, with their heads joined over it, and their backs to the water, their tails pendent in the stream, serving the purpose of rudders^*." When I consider the wonderful sagacity of Beavers, and think of the management of the Squirrel, which, in cases of similar necessity, make a piece of bark their boat, and tail their sail^†, I no longer hesitate to credit the relation.

FOXES.The Common Fox, Arct. Zool. N^o 11, and the Arctic, N^o 10, are frequent; are proscribed, and killed for the sake of a reward, in order to prevent the havock they would make among the sheep.

BEARS.The Polar Bear, N^o 18, is often transported from Greenland, on the islands of ice; but no sooner is its landing discovered, than a general alarm is spread, and pursuit made till it is destroyed. The Icelanders are very intrepid in their attack on this animal; and a single man, armed only with a spear, frequently enters the lists with this tremendous beast, and never fails of victory. A person who lived near Langeness, the extreme northern point, where the Bears most frequently land, is still celebrated for having slain not fewer than twenty in single combat. There is a reward for every skin, which must be delivered to the next magistrate.

The Common Bat, p. 185, A. is sometimes found in this island, and finishes the list of the land-animals of the country.

The amphibious quadrupeds, or Seals, are very numerous. Iceland, being blessed with domestic animals, has less use of this race than other Arctic coun­tries; yet they are of considerable advantage. The skins are used for cloathing; a good one is equal in value to the skin of a sheep, or the hide of a cow; and the fat supplies the lamps in the long nights with oil. The Common, during winter, is excessively fat, and will yield sixty pounds.

SEALS. The Icelanders have two species of native Seals: the Common, N^o 72, called by them Land Saelur, because it keeps near the coast; the other, the Great, N^o 73, or Ut-Saelur. They are taken in nets placed in the creeks and narrow bays, which they pass through to get on shore. When it begins to grow dark the hunters make a fire, and fling into it the shavings of horns, or any thing that smells strong; this allures the Seals, who strike into the nets, and are taken. [Page LI] At other times, a koder or lure is tied to a rope, and placed before the nets; to which the Seals, supposing it to be some strange animal, will eagerly swim, and strike into the nets, paying with their lives for their curiosity. This carries them sometimes so far, that they will stray to a considerable distance inland, attracted by a candle, or the fire in a smith's forge. If they are taken young, they are capable of being tamed: they will follow their master, and come to him like a dog, when called by the name which is given them. The Icelanders have a strange superstition about these animals: they believe they resemble the human species more than any other, and that they are the offspring of Pharaoh and his host, who were converted into Seals when they were overwhelmed in the Red Sea.

Other species of Seals are migratory. Among them is the Harp, N^o 77, or Vade-Selur. These quit the seas of Iceland in March, and swim through the streights of Davies, by some unknown opening, to the farthest north; bring forth their young, and return, by the north of Greenland, in May, extremely lean, to the north of Iceland; continue their route, and return to that island about Christ­mas, chiefly upon the drift-ice, on which they are either shot, or harpooned. The Hooded Seal, N^o 76, or Bladru Seal, is rarely taken here. The Walrus, N^o 71, or Rost-unger, is sometimes wafted here from Greenland on the ice.

It cannot be expected,BIRDS. that many of the feathered tribe should inhabit an island so very severe in its climate, and so remote from the more southern continent and islands. It is, like all other Arctic countries, the asylum to water-fowl, to breed and educate their young; but, being an inhabited place, fewer resort here than to the untrodden wastes of the more distant north. The Guland Duck, p. 572. E. may possibly be a local bird. The rest, whether land or water, are common to Norway, and many other parts of Europe. The Great Auks, N^o 428, are found here in greater numbers than elsewhere: they inhabit and breed on the rocks, called from them Geir-fugl Skier, off the point of Raekenes, the most southern part of the island. Notwithstanding they are surrounded with a swelling sea, and tremendous breakers, the Icelanders venture there annually, in order to collect the eggs, to contribute to the provision of the year. I can only reckon sixteen land-birds^*: twenty cloven-footed water-fowl; four with pinnated [Page LII] feet, and forty-three with webbed feet, natives or frequenters of the island. I have omitted, in the Zoologic part, the Lesser Guillemot, Br. Zool. ii. N^o 235, which is a native of Iceland, and called there Ringuia. It ought to have had a place in an appendage to the Guillemots, p. 517.

The Raven holds the first rank among the land-birds in the Scandinavian mythology. We see the use made of them by the chieftain Floke. The Bards, in their songs, give them the classical attribute of the power of presage. Thus they make Thromundr and Thorbiorn, before a feudal battle, explain the foreboding voice of this bird, and its interest in the field of battle^*.

The Raven had still higher honors in the northern nations. It was sacred to Odin, the hero and god of the north. On the sacred flag of the Danes was em­broidered this bird. Odin was said to have been always attended by two, which sate on his shoulders; whence he was called the God of Ravens: one was styled Huginn, or Thought; the other Muninn, or Memory. They whispered in his ear all they saw or heard. In the earliest dawn, he sent them to fly round the world, and they returned before dinner, fraught with intelligence. Odin thus sang their importance:

I have already spoken of the excellent Falcons of this island: let me add, that Falcons were among the animals sacrificed to Odin ^‡, being birds of the first courage, and which delighted in blood.

[Page LIII]The sea which surrounds Iceland is said to be more salt than usual in other countries. It leaves great saline incrustations on the rocks,SEA. which the natives scrape off and use. I can, with no certainty, give the depth of the water, ex­cept where Mr. Kerguelin sounded, ten leagues to the west of Geir-fugl Skier, where he found it to be two hundred and five fathoms^*. The equinoctial tides rise as high as sixteen feet: the ordinary tides twelve^†. The coasts almost universally bold, those of the inlets excepted, where there appears a small strand.

The bays, especially those of the south,BAYS FROZEN. which lie under the influence of the cold of Greenland, are annually frozen over; that of Patrixfiord was shut up even as late as the 14th of May ^‡: but the sea near the coasts never feels the influence of the frost. It is in those places deep, and agitated by a most turbulent motion. The dreaded ice is what floats from Greenland and Spitzbergen, and often fills,FLOATING ICE. during the whole summer, the streight between the former and this island^‖, and even extends along the northern coast, covering the sea to a vast distance from land. It consists of the two species, the mountanous ice, called Fiael-jakar; and the smooth ice of inconsiderable thickness, styled Hellu-is. These arrive generally in Ja­nuary, and go away in March. Sometimes it does not touch the land till April, when it fixes for a considerable time, and brings to the Icelanders the most tre­mendous evils; a multitude of polar bears, which spread their ravages far and wide among the cattle; and a cold of incredible violence, which chills the air for many miles, and even causes the horses and sheep to drop down dead^§. To this is attributed the stunted state of the miserable woods of the country; which cause must have existed from the commencement of its iron age; for there seems to have been a period in which there had been considerable wooded tracts^¶.

The bottom of the sea is probably rocky; for it abounds with greater variety of fuci than Great Britain, which give shelter to fishes innumerable; a source of wealth to the natives (were they permitted the free use) as they are of food to distant nations, the vessels of which annually resort here to fish, but without any com­merce with the Icelanders, which is strictly prohibited. In 1767, two hundred Dutch, and eighty French doggers, of about a hundred tons each, were employ­ed, those of each nation under the orders and protection of a frigate. They keep from four to six leagues from shore, and fish with hooks baited commonly with large mussels, in forty or fifty fathoms water. Others go to the distance of fifteen leagues, and fish in the depth of a hundred fathoms. The great cap­ture [Page LIV] is Cod. As soon as the fishermen take one, they cut off the head, wash, gut, and salt it in casks, with either rock-salt or that of Lisbon. The fishery commences in March, and ends in September. It begins at the point of Breder­wick, and extends round the North Cape, by the isle of Grim, to the point of Langeness.

The English have entirely deserted this fishery since they have been in possession of Newfoundland. It had been, in very early times, the resort of our vessels, as is evident by the proclamation of Henry V. in order to give satisfaction for the ill conduct of some of his subjects, in 1415, on the coasts of this island^*, in which he forbids them to resort to the isles of Denmark and Norway, especially to Iceland, otherwise than had been antiently customary. In 1429, the English parlement enforced this order, by making it penal for any of our subjects to trade in the Danish ports, except in North Earn or Bergen. At length, the Danish monarch wisely resolved to reserve the benefits of the fisheries to his own subjects; and in 1465 made it capital for any Englishman to trade in the ports of Iceland ^†. Even those of Helgeland and Finmark were shut against them, unless they were driven in by a storm. I imagine that this severity must have arisen from some glaring insolence of our countrymen. But the antient treaties were revived, which were renewable by a fresh grant every seven years^‡. In later times, even Queen Elizabeth deigned to ask leave of Christian IV. to fish in those seas; but afterwards instructed her ambassador to insist on the right of a free and universal fishery. The answer does not appear: but in the reign of her successor, we had not fewer than a hundred and fifty vessels employed in this fishery. Possibly we might comply with the regulations insisted on by the king of Denmark; or perhaps a greater indulgence was given, by reason of the marriage of James with his sister Anne. I observe, that the Danish prince excepts the port of Westmony, it being reserved for the peculiar supply of the royal court^‖.

The oppressed natives fish in the bays in boats, containing one, and never more than four men. If they venture to sea, which they seldom do to above eight miles distance, they have larger boats, manned with twelve or sixteen hands; in these they slave for the benefit of the monopolists, to whom they are com­pelled to sell their fish at a trifling price. How weak must be the feelings of that government which can add misery to misery; and not attempt rather to be­stow comforts on subjects condemned to such a dreadful abode!

The species of fish in these seas are few; but the multitudes, under several of the most useful kinds, are amazing; those of Cod in particular. Herrings pass by [Page LV] this island in their annual migrations from the north, and for a short space fill every bay. Poverty and want of salt make these riches of other nations a tantalizing appearance to the unfortunate natives. This is the most northern place in which the Herring is seen: they are not found in the shallow water of Spitzbergen; neither is it probable that they double Greenland, and retire to the frozen ocean, equally wanting in depth of water;VAST DEPTHS OF WATER.—are they not rather lost in the vast profundity of these very seas, in the depth of six hundred and eighty-three fathoms, in lat. 65, between this island and the north of Norway; or in the un­fathomable depths a little farther north, where the water was found bottomless with seven hundred and eighty fathoms^*? The other fishes of Iceland are in general common to Greenland: my remarks respecting them shall be deserred till I treat of that icy region.

In order to view the correspondent shores of the tract I have passed over,STREIGHTS OF DOVER. I shall return to the streights of Dover. Calais is seated in a low wet tract; and the whole coast, from thence to the extremity of Holland, is sandy, and fronted with sand-hills; providentially highest in that lowest of countries, in which the strongest protection against the fury of the sea is necessary. The coast of Flanders, SAND-BANKS OFF FLANDERS AND HOLLAND. the rich bait of ambi­tion, stained with blood, is dangerous by reason of frequent narrow sand-banks, disposed in parallel rows, according to the direction of the land. The coasts of Holland are also greatly infested with sands; but between them and the land is a clear channel. From between Dunkirk and Calais, even to the Scar, at the extremity of Jutland, is low land, not to be seen but at a small distance, unless at Camperden in Holland; Heilegeland, off the mouths of the Elbe and Weser; and Robsnout, and Hartshal, in Jutland. While the opposite coasts of England are comparatively high, and the channel deep, these are universally obstructed with sand: the great German rivers bring down by their floods amazing quantities of sand and mud, the course of which is impeded at sea by the violence of the winds, blowing at south and west two-thirds of the yearYarranton's England's Improvement, 4, 5.. These, with the help of the tides, arrest the progress of the sand into the open sea, and form the numerous banks which, fatal as they may be to mariners, are the security of Holland, in particular, from naval invasions. The spring-tides at Calais rise twenty feet; at the pier head at Dover, TIDES. to twenty-five; the cause of the variation is supposed, by Mr. Cowley, to be the different dis­tances of the two piers from low-water mark, the first being half a mile, the last only a hundred yards; at Ostend it rises to eighteen; at Flushing, sixteen and a half; at Helvoetsluys and the Texel, twelve; and on the coasts of Holstein and Jut­land, where the sea expands to a more considerable breadth, the tides grow more irregular, and weaken both in height and strength; at the Elbe they do not ex­ceed [Page LVI] seven or eight feet; on the coast of Jutland only two or three; a singular phoenomenon, as they are so greatly higher on the correspondent eoasts of England. The flood on the west coast of Holland sets to the northward, contrary to the course of the tides on the east coasts of England and Scotland.

ANTIENT FLAN­DERS AND HOL­LAND. Flanders and Brabant formed part of the Gallia Belgica of Cesar; and Holland the Batavorum Insula. The rivers are the Scaldis, Mosa, and Rhenus, the modern Scheld, Maese, and Rhine. The two first probably do not vary greatly in their dis­charge into the sea: the last has experienced a most considerable change. The right branch of this river runs, for some space, as it did in antient times, when it formed the lake Flevo, then resumed the form of a stream, and discharged itself into the sea at a place still called the Flie-stroom, between the isles of Flie-landt and Schelling, at the mouth of the Zuyder-zee. Long after that period the country was dry, firm, and well inhabited; a mighty inundation totally changed the face of it, and enlarged the Flevo lacus into the present Zuyder-zee, and broke the coast into the chain of islands which now front the shore, even as far as the mouth of the Weser. The Dutch historians date this accident in 1421: it seems to have been the operation of a length of time; for the passage through the Texel was forced open in 1400, and gave rise to the prosperity of Amsterdam ^*. This country was first peopled by the Catti, a German nation; these were thinned almost to extirpation by the swarms from the great northern hive, in their expeditions by land to other parts of Europe. For a very long space Flanders and Holland were a seat of banditti: the vast forest of Ardennes gave protection to them in one country; the morasses secured them in the other. Government at length took place, in Holland under its counts, in Flanders under its foresters. These provinces fell at last under the dominion of the dukes of Burgundy; from them to the house of Austria and crown of Spain. The revolutions from that are well known. Holland received its second popula­tion from Germany, happily (for a country whose existence depends on industry) a most industrious race. The Rhine annually brings down multitudes of people, to repair the loss of men occasioned by distant voyages, and by the most unwholesome colonies in the East and West Indies. Holland is, from its climate, unfavorable to the encrease of mankind: it cannot depend on itself for the reparation of the loss of people, but must look elsewhere for supplies.

ANIMALS.FLANDERS has many of the same species of animals with Great Britain; but, from the nature of its coast, wants most of the water-fowl, a few cloven-footed birds excepted, which breed on sandy shores. Holland has still fewer quadrupeds and birds. Of the quadrupeds which we want, are a few Beavers in the Rhine and Maese. The Wolf is common in Flanders, and is found [Page LVII] in the parts of Holland bordering on Germany. Both countries have a few birds which never appear in Britain, except forced by the violence of weather or pursuit of some bird of prey.

The antient Germany next succeeds. Holland was a sort of neutral country, a retreat of the German Catti, and not Germany itself. As at present, the bordering parts were divided into petty states. The rivers which derive their origin far up the country, are the Ems, the Weser, and the Elb, the antient Amisius, Visurgis, and Albis.

Opposite to the mouth of the estuary of the Weser and the Elb, INSULA SACRA, OR is the remnant of the Insula, Castum Nemus, celebrated by Tacitus, with his usual elegance, for the worship of HERTHUM, or MOTHER Earth, by the neighboring nations. Est in insula oceani, CASTUM NEMUS, dicatum in eo vehiculum veste contectum, attingere uni sacerdoti concessum. Is adesse penetrali DEAM intelligit, vectamque bubus feminis multa cum veneratione prosequitur. Laeti tunc dies, festa loca, quaecumque adventu hospitioque dignatur. Non bella ineunt, non arma sumunt, clausum omne ferrum. Pax et quies tunc tantùm nota, tunc tantùm amata. Donec idem sacerdos satiatam conversa­tione mortalium Deam templo reddat. Mox vehiculum et vestes, et, si credere velis, numea ipsum, secreto lacu abluitur. Servi ministrant, quos statim idem lacus haurit. Arcanus hinc terror, sanctaque ignorantia, quid sit illud quod tantum perituri vidit ^*. The worship was continued very long after that period, and the island was distinguished by the name of Fostaland, Farria, Insula Sacra, or Heilgeland, HEILGELAND. or the Holy isle, from the sacrifices made there to the goddess Fosta, or Foseta, the same with Vesta, Herthum, or the EARTH. She was called by the Scandinavians, Goya. The victims to her were precipitated into a pit: if they sunk at once, the sacrifice was thought to be accepted: the reverse if they swam any time on the surface^†. This island was visited, out of respect to the goddess, by people of high rank. Radbo­thus I. king of the Frisians, was here in 690, when Winbertus, and other Chri­stian missionaries, landed, overthrew the temples, and put an end to the pagan rites^‡. It had been an island of great extent; but by different inundations, be­tween the years 800 and 1649, was reduced to its present contemptible size^§. The great island of Nordstrandt (one of the Insulae Saxonum) not remote from this, in 1634 was reduced, by the same cause, from twenty parishes to one: fifty thousand head of cattle, and between six and seven thousand souls, were swept away. Such are the calamities to which these low countries are liable.

[Page LVIII] JUTLAND. Jutland and Holstein, the antient Cimbrica Chersonesus ^*, and Cartris ^†, terminat­ing in the low point called the Skagen, or Scaw, stretches out in form of a penin­sula, bounded by the North sea and the Kattegatte, the oblique approach into the Baltic. It is a very narrow tract, and only the resting-place of birds in their way from Scandinavia, and the farther north, the residence of numerous species. The rich marshes, in a climate mild from its situation between two seas, afford numbers of wholesome plants, the food of a remarkably fine breed of cattle. Be­sides the home consumption, these provinces send out annually thirty-two thousand head. The nobility do not think it beneath them to preside over the dairy: and their number of cows is princely. M. De Rantzau had not fewer than six hundred milch cows.

What the extent of this country might have been in very early times is un­known: it must have been prodigiously great, otherwise it never could have pour­ed out that amazing number of people it did, in their eruption into France, when they were defeated by Marius, in 101 before CHRIST. Their army was comput­ed to consist of three hundred thousand fighting men (including the Teutoni) be­sides women and children.CIMBRIAN DELUGE. About seven years before, they had suffered a great calamity from an inundation of the sea, which had destroyed great part of their country; and compelled the survivors, then crouded in the narrow Chersonesus, to apply to the Romans for other lands. Tacitus speaks of the vestiges of this once mighty people, in the lines, visible in his time, on each shore. I presume that the inundations to which this coast is subject from the sea, hath utterly destroyed every trace of them. The charts plainly point out their overwhelmed territories in Juts-riff, and the neighboring sand-banks. The first might have been the con­tinuation of land from the end of Jutland, beginning at the Skaw, and running out into the North sea in form of a scythe, not very remote from land, and ter­minating a little south of Bergen in Norway, leaving between its banks and that kingdom a deeper channel into the Baltic.

The Kattegatte lies between part of Jutland and the coast of Sweden: the last covered with isles innumerable. It is almost closed at the extremity, by the low Danish islands of Seland and Funen, which had in old times been (with Sweden) the seat of the Suiones. THE SOUND. Between the first and the coast of Sweden, is the famous Sound, the passage tributary to the Danes by thousands of ships. These isles were of old called Codonania ^§, and gave to the Kattegatte the name of Sinus Codanus. The proper Baltic seems to have been the Mare Suevicum of the antients; and the far­thest part, the Mare Sarmaticum, and part of the Mare Scythicum. As a na­turalist, [Page LIX] I must mention, that when LINNAEUS speaks of the Mare Occidentale, he intends the Kattegatte. Its greatest depth is thirty-five fathoms. It decreases as it approaches the Sound; which begins with sixteen fathoms, and near Copenhagen shallows to even four.

The Roman fleet, under the command of Germanicus, sailed, according to Pliny, VOYAGE OF THE ROMAN FLEET. round Germany, and even doubled the Cimbricum Promontorium, and arrived at the islands which fill the bottom of the Kattegatte ^*: either by observation or infor­mation, the Romans were acquainted with twenty-three. One they called Glessaria, from its amber, a fossil abundant to this day on part of the south side of the Baltic. A Roman knight was employed by Nero's master of the gladiators, to col­lect, in these parts, that precious production, by which he came perfectly ac­quainted with this country^†. I cannot suppose that the Romans ever settled in any part of the neighborhood, yet there was some commerce between them, either direct, or by the intervention of merchants. Many silver coins have been found at Kivikke, in Schonen in Sweden, of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Commodus, and Albinus ^‡. Among the islands, Pliny makes Norway one, under the name of Scandinavia incompertae magnitudinis, and Baltia another, immensae magnitudinis, probably part of the same, and which might give name to the Sounds called the Belts, and to the Baltic itself. The geographer Mela had the justest information of this great water, which he describes with great elegance, ‘Hac re mare (CODANUS SINUS) quod gremio littorum accipitur, nunquam latè patet, nec USQUAM MARI SI­MILE verum aquis passim interfluentibus ac saepe transgressis vagum atque diffusum facie amnium spargitur, qua littora attingit, ripis contentum insularum non longè dis­tantibus, et ubique poene tantundem, it angustum et par FRETO curvansque se subinde, longo supercilio inflexum est.’ The different nations which inhabited its coasts shall hereafter be mentioned.

I would, like Mela, THE BALTIC A GULPH. prefer giving to the Baltic the name of a gulph rather than a sea; for it wants many requisites to merit that title. It wants depth, having in no one place more than a hundred and ten fathoms.DEPTH. From the eastern mouth of the Sound to the isle of Bornholm it has from nine to thirty: from thence to Stockholm, from fifteen to fifty: and a little south of Lindo, sixty. It has in this course many sand-banks, but all in great depths of water. Between Alands Haff, amidst the great archipelago, the Aland isles, and the isle of Osel in the gulph of Riga, the depths are various, from sixty to a hundred and ten^‖. Many fresh-water lakes exceed it in that respect.

[Page LX] NO TIDES.It wants tides, therefore experiences no difference of height, except when the winds are violent. At such times there is a current in and out of the Baltic, ac­cording to the points they blow from; which forces the water through the Sound with the velocity of two or three Danish miles in the hour. When the wind blows violently from the German sea, the water rises in the several Baltic harbours, and gives those in the western part a temporary saltness:NOT SALT. otherwise the Baltic loses that other property of a sea, by reason of the want of tide, and the quantity of vast rivers it receives, which sweeten it so much as to render it, in many places, fit for domestic uses. In all the Baltic, Linnaeus enumerates but three fuci ^*, plants of the sea: in the gulph of Bothnia, which is beyond the reach of salt water, not one^†.

FEW SPECIES OF FISH.The fewness of species of fish in the Baltic is another difference between it and a genuine sea. I can enumerate only nineteen ^‡ which are found in this vast ex­tent of water: and may add one cetaceous fish, the Porpesse. No others venture beyond the narrow streights which divide the Baltic from the Kattegatte; yet the great Swedish Faunist reckons eighty-seven belonging to his country, which is washed only by those two waters. Let me mention the Herring as a species which has from very early times enriched the neighboring cities. There was, between the years 1169 and 1203, a vast resort of Christian ships to fish off the isle of Rugen, the seat of the antient Rugii, insomuch that the Danes cloathed themselves with scarlet and purple, and fine linen.

The Hornsimpa, or COTTUS QUADRICORNIS, Faun. Suec. N^o 321, and the SYNGNATHUS TYPHLE, or Blind Pipe-fish, N^o 377, are unknown in the British seas: the first seems peculiar to the gulph of Bothnia, and is a fish of singular figure, with four flat hornlike processes on the head^‖.

LENGTH AND BREADTH OF THE BALTIC.The extent of the Baltic in length is very great. From Helsingor, where it properly begins, to Cronstadt, at the end of the gulph of Finland, is eight hundred and ten English sea miles. Its breadth, between Saltwic, in Smaland, and the oppo­site shore,OF THE GULPH OF BOTHNIA. two hundred and thirty-seven. The gulph of Bothnia, which runs due north, forms an extent almost equal to the first, being, from Tornea in Lapland, to [Page LXI] the shore near Dantzic, not less than seven hundred and seventy-eight: an amazing space, to be so ill stocked with fishy inhabitants.

From the isle of Rugen, the course of the Baltic is strait and open, except where interrupted by the famous isle of Gottland, ISLE OF GOTT­LAND. the place of rendezvous from whence the Goths made their naval excursions. In 811, on this island, was founded the famous town of Wisbuy, the great emporium of the north: it was, for ages, the resort of every Christian nation. The English long traded here, before they ventured on the distant voyage of the Mediterranean. It became an independent city, and made its maritime laws the standard of all Europe to the north of Spain. In 1361, Walde­mar III. of Denmark, attacked, ravaged, and plundered it of immense riches; all which perished at sea after they were shipped^*. Its present inhabitants are hus­bandmen and fishermen, secure from the calamities of war by the happy want of exuberant wealth.

Beyond Stockholm the Baltic divides into the gulphs of Bothnia and Finland: the first runs deeply to the north, and the country is composed chiefly of granite rock, or strewed over with detached masses of the same. Its greatest breadth is between Gefle and Abo, in Finland, where it measures a hundred and sixty-two miles: its greatest depth a hundred and ninety-five yards^†. It terminates in Lapland, LAPLAND. a country divided by the river Tornea, which runs navigable far up between a continued mountanous forest. It is supposed to have been peopled in the eleventh century by the Finni: a fact not easy to be admitted; for the Finni, or Fennones, are a brawny race, with long yellow hair, and brown irides. The Laplanders are, on the contrary, small in body, have short black hair, and black irides. It is certain that a party of Fins deserted their native country, Finland, in the age before mentioned, rather than relinquish the brutality of heathenism. Their offspring remain converted, and in some measure reclamed, between Nor­way and Sweden ^‖; but are a most distinct race from the Laplanders, who possessed their country long before. In the ninth century, the hero Regner slew its king or leader in battle^§: at that period it was in a savage state; nor was its conquest at­tempted by Sweden till 1277, when Waldemar added it to his kingdom, and in vain attempted its conversion^¶. Scarcely two centuries have elapsed since it has sin­cerely embraced the doctrines of Christianity. In consequence of which, cultiva­tion and civilization have so well succeeded in the southern parts, that many deserts are peopled, morasses drained, and the reason of the natives so greatly improved, that they have united with the Swedes, and even sent their representatives to the [Page LXII] House of Peasants in the national diet^*. But these were at all times the most cultivated of this distinct race. They trained the Rein-deer to the sledge, domesti­cated it from its wild state, and made it the substitute for the Cow.

Their country, which penetrates even to the Northern ocean, consists of savage mountains, woods, vast marshes, rivers, and lakes, the haunts of myriads of water­fowl,BIRDS. which resort here in summer to breed, free from the disturbance of mankind. LINNAEUS, the great explorer of these deserts, my venerated example! mentions them as exceeding in numbers the armies of Xerxes; re-migrating, with him, in autumn, eight entire days and nights, to seek sustenance on the shores and waters of more favorable climates^†.

FISH.Their lakes and rivers abound in fish; yet the number of species are few. These are the Ten-spined Stickle-back, Br. Zool. iii. N^o 130; Salmon, N^o 143, in great abundance, which force their way to the very heads of the furious rivers of Tornea and Kiemi, to deposit their spawn; Char, N^o 149, are found in the lakes in great abundance; and Graylings, N^o 150, in the rivers; Gwiniads, N^o 152, are taken of eight or ten pounds weight; Pikes, N^o 153, sometimes eight feet long; and Perch, N^o 124, of an incredible size^§; and the Salmo Albula, Faun. Suec. N^o 353, closes the list of those of the Lapland lakes and rivers.

ALAND ISLES.The mouth of the gulph of Bothnia is filled with a prodigious cluster of little islands and rocks, dangerous to mariners. Aland is the chief, an island of sur­prising rockiness, and with all the other aspects as if torn from the continent by some mighty convulsion.GULPH OF FINLAND. The gulph of Finland extends from thence due east, and has, on its northern coast, a chain of similar islands, and a few sprinkled over the channel. All the coast and all its isles are composed of red or grey granite; and all the coasts of Sweden are the same, mixed in places with sand-stones. Fin­land and Carelia are the bounds of the gulph on this side: Livonia, the granary of the north, and Ingria, on the other. These countries, with Russia, made part of the European Scythia, or Sarmatia; and this part of the Baltic has been sometimes styled Mare Scythicum, and Mare Sarmaticum ^‖. The gulph decreases in depth from sixty to five fathoms, as you advance towards Cronstadt, the great naval arsenal of Russia. PETERSBURG. From thence is twelve miles of shallow water to Petersburg, that glorious creation of PETER the GREAT; the inlet of wealth and science into his vast dominions, before his time inaccessible to the rest of Europe, unless by the tedious voyage of the White sea; and a country unknown, but by the report of the splendid barbarism of its tyrants. Peter was formed with a singular mixture of [Page LXIII] endowments for the purpose of civilizing a rude and barbarous people: his mind was pregnant with great designs, obstinate perseverance, and unrelenting severity in the exertion of punishment on all who dared to oppose the execution of his system for the good of the whole. A mind filled with the milkiness of human nature, would never have been able to deal with the savage uninformed Russians. Peter hewed his work into shape: for the last polish, Heaven formed another CATHE­RINE, the admiration of Europe, the blessing of an empire which forms at lest one eleventh of the globe, extending from the northern point of Nova Zemlja, in the frozen latitude of near 78, to the influx of the Terek into the Caspian sea, in the warm latitude of about 43 and a half; or, to give it the shortest breadth, from the coast of the Frozen ocean, at the extremity of the country of the Tschutki, lat. 73, to the mouth of the Aimakan, in the gulph of Ochotz, in lat. 54. Its length is still more prodigious, from Petersburgh as far as the Asiatic side of the streights of Bering.

In the following work, I have, by the assistance of that celebrated naturalist Doctor PALLAS, given a description of the Quadrupeds and Birds of this vast em­pire, as far as was compatible with my plan, which was confined between the highest known latitudes of the northern hemisphere, as low as that of 60. The remainder will be comprehended in the great design formed by the Imperial Academy, and ex­ecuted by professors whose glory it is to prove themselves worthy of their illustri­ous and munificent patroness, under whose auspices they have pervaded every part of her extensive dominions in search of useful knowledge.

To Petersburg, this corner of the empire, is brought, as to a vast emporium, the commerce of the most distant parts; and from hence are circulated the European articles to supply even the remote China. The place of traffic is on the Chinese borders, at Kjackta, a town without women; for none are allowed to attend their husbands. By this route the furs of Hudson's-Bay find their way to warm the luxuri­ous inhabitants of Pekin, the animals of the neighboring Tartary and Sibiria being inadequate to the increased demand. The want of a maritime intercourse is no obstacle to this enterprising nation to the carrying on a trade with India. It has encouraged above a hundred Banians, all males, from Multan, to settle at Astracan; and their number is kept up by a supply of young unmarried relations from home. These support the most important trade of Astracan, by carrying through Astrabad to the inland parts of the Mogol empire. I stray a little from my plan; but it may be excused on account of the novelty of the relation, and because it points out a more southern inland road than was known in the middle ages, when the merchants went by the way of Bochara and Samarcand to the northern cities of India, Candahar and Cabul.

[Page LXIV] SAPMATAE.In my return to the German sea, let me review the antient inhabitants of the Baltic. The wandering Sarmatae, of Scythian descent, possessed all the country from lake Onega to the Vistula; and part of the vast Hercynian forest, famous of old for its wild beasts, occupied most of this country. Bisons with their great manes: Uri with their enormous horns, which the natives bound with silver and quaffed at their great feasts: the Alces, or Elk, then fabled to have jointless legs: and Wild Horses, were among the quadrupeds of this tract^*. I smile at the description of certain birds of the Hercynian wood, whose feathers shone in the night, and often proved the guide to the bewildered travellerSolinus, c. 32. Plin. x. c. 47.. The resplendent plumage of the Strix Nyctea, the Snowy Owl, N^o 121, might probably have struck the eye of the benighted wanderer, and given rise to the strange relation.

ENINGIA. Eningia was the opposite shore, and the same with the modern Finland, inhabited by people of amazing savageness and squalid poverty; who lived by the chace, headed their arrows with bones, cloathed themselves with skins, lay on the ground, and had no other shelter for their infants than a few interwoven boughs^‡. They were then, what the people of Terra del Fuego are now. There is no certainty respecting the Oonae; OONAE. islanders, who fed, as many do at present, on the eggs of wild fowl and on oats^‖; but most probably they were the natives of the isles of Aland, and the adjacent archipelago; for Mela expressly places them opposite to the Sarmatae. HIPPOPODAE. We may add, that the Hippopodae and Panoti might be the inhabitants of the northern part of the Bothnian gulph; the first fabled to have hoofs like horses, the last ears so large as to serve instead of cloaks. The Hippopodae were certainly the same sort of people as the Finni Lignipedes of Olaus, and the Skride Finnus of Ohthere. They wore snow-shoes, which might fairly give the idea of their being, like horses, hoofed and shod. As to the Panoti, they baffle my ima­gination.

The Bothnian and Finland gulphs seem to me to have been, in the time of Ta­citus, part of his Mare pigrum ac immotum, which, with part of the Hyper­borean ocean, really insulated Scandinavia, and which he places beyond the Suiones, or modern Sweden. Pliny gives, I suppose from the relation of British or other voyagers, to part of this sea, probably the most northern, the title of Mo­rimarusa, or Dead Sea, and Cronium. The learned Forster, with great ingenuity, derives the word from the Gaelic and Celtic language. The first, from the Welsh, môr, sea, and marw, dead; the other from the Irish, muir-croinn, the coagulated, i. e. congealed sea. Tacitus adds to his account, that it was believed to encir­cle [Page LXV] the whole globe, and that the last light of the setting sun continued so very vivid as to obscure the stars themselves. There is not a single circumstance of exag­geration in all this: every winter the gulph is frozen, and becomes motionless. Many instances may be adduced even of the Baltic itself being frozen^*. The stars are frequently lost in the amazing splendor and various colors of the aurora borealis. The Hilleviones, an antient people of Sweden, styled Scandinavia, al­terum orbem terrarum, and their descendants, long carolled the junction of the Bothnian gulph with the northern ocean, traditionally rehearsed in old Swedish songs. Tacitus uses the two last words to express the world surrounded by this sea. In the days of the geographer Mela, there certainly was a strong tide in this upper part of the Baltic; for, speaking of the islands off Finland, he says, ‘Quae Sarmatis adversa sunt, ob alternos accessus recursusque pelagi, et quod spatia queis distant, modò operiuntur undis, modò nuda sunt; aliàs insulae videntur, aliàs una et continens terra.’ With propriety, therefore, in another place, does he compare it to a streight, par freto, notwithstanding he was ignorant of its other entrance.ANTIENT STREIGHTS BE­TWEEN Doctor Pallas most justly ascribes the formation of not only the Baltic, but its former communication with the White Sea, to the effects of a deluge. The whole intermediate country is a proof; the foundation being what is called the old rock, and that covered with variety of matter; such as beds of pebble and gravel, and fragments of granite, torn from the great mass.THE BALTIC AND WHITE SEA. Parts of the channel which formed the insulation of Scandinavia, are the chain of lakes, from that of Ladoga to the White Sea, such as Onega, and others, often connected by rivers, and lying in a low country, filled with the proofs above-mentioned. This was the streight through which the tide poured itself from the Hyperborean ocean, and covered, at its flux, the islands described by Mela. This, like the other northern seas, was annually frozen over, and could be no obstacle to the stocking of Scandinavia with quadrupeds. There is no fixing the period in which this passage was ob­structed. An influx of sand, or an earthquake, might close it up. As soon as this event took place, the Baltic felt the want of its usual feed: it lost the pro­perty of a sea; and, by a constant exhalation, from that time decreased in the quantity of water. Modern philosophers have proved the great loss it has sus­tained, and that it decreases from forty to fifty inches in a century: that, near Pithea, the gulph of Bothnia has retired from the land half a mile in forty-five years; and near Lulea, a mile in twenty-eight. Notwithstanding its present state, when we consider the accounts given by the antients, the old Swedish tra­ditions, and the present vestiges of the former channel, we can, without any [Page LXVI] force of fancy, give full credit to the insulated form of Scandinavia, given in one of Cluverius's maps^*; which, he says, is drawn from the erroneous ac­counts of the antients.

SUIONES.The Suiones possessed the modern Sweden, and extended even to the ocean, and were a potent naval power. Their ships were so constructed, with prows at each end, that they were always ready to advance. These people, in after times, proved, under the common name of Nortmans, the pest and conquerors of great part of southern Europe; their skill in maritime affairs fitting them for distant expeditions. In the sixth century they were called Suethans, and were famous for their cavalry. In their time, the Sable, N^o 30, was common in their country: Jornandes, therefore, observes, that notwithstanding they lived poorly, they were most richly cloathed: he also informs us, that they supplied the Romans with these precious furs, through the means of numbers of interven­ing nations^†. Scandinavia, in that period, had got the name of Scanzia; and as it was then called an island, and by Jornandes ^‡, a native of the country, there is all the reason to imagine, that the passage into the Hyperborean ocean was not in his time closed.

After repassing the Sound, appear Schonen, Halland, and Bohustand, Swedish pro­vinces, bounded by the Kattegatte. Halland, from some similitude of sound, is supposed to have been the seat of the Hilleviones, a most populous nation; perhaps the same with the Suiones of Tacitus; for beyond them he places the Sitones, or the country of Norway, NORWAY. who were a great naval people; as the historian says that they differed not from the Suiones, except in being under a female government. The pro­montory of the Naze, THE NAZE. visible at eight or ten leagues distance, with the low land of Bevenbergen in Jutland, forms the entrance into the German sea. The Bommel, and the Drommel, high mountains to the east of it; and the high land of Lest, a vast mountain, gradually rising from the shore, to the west, are noted guides to mariners. It is reasonably supposed, that Pliny intended this vast region by his island of Nerigon, from whence, says he, was a passage to Thule. He speaks also of Bergos, which, from agreement of sound, is thought to be the present province of Bergen. The promontorium Rubeas is guessed to be the North Cape, between which and the Cimbri, Philaemon ^§ places the Mare Morimarusa, or the Dead Sea, so called from the clouded sky that usually reigned there.

Our first certain knowlege of the inhabitants of this country, was from the desolation they brought on the southern nations by their piratical invasions. [Page LXVII] Their country had, before that period, the name of Nortmannaland, and the in­habitants Nortmans; NORTMANS. a title which included other adjacent people. Great Britain and Ireland were ravaged by them in 845; and they continued their invasion till they effected the conquest of England, under their leader, Canute the Great. They went up the Seine as far as Paris, burnt the town, and forced its weak monarch to purchase their absence at the price of fourteen thousand marks. They plun­dered Spain, and at length carried their excursions through the Mediterranean to Italy, and even into Sicily. They used narrow vessels, like their ancestors the Sitones; and, besides oars, added the improvement of two sails: and victualled them with salted provisions, biscuit, cheese, and beer. Their ships were at first small; but in after times they were large enough to hold a hundred or a hundred and twenty men. But the multitude of vessels was amazing. The fleet of Harold Blaatand consisted of seven hundred^*. A hundred thousand of these savages have at once sallied from Scandinavia, so justly styled Officina Gentium, aut certè velut vagina nationum ^†. Probably necessity, more than ambition, caused them to discharge their country of its exuberant numbers. Multitudes were destroyed; but multitudes remained, and peopled more favorable climes.

Their king, Olaus, was a convert to Christianity in 994; Bernard, an Eng­lishman, had the honor of baptizing him, when Olaus happened to touch at one of the Scilly islands. He plundered with great spirit during several years; and in 1006 received the crown of martyrdom from his pagan subjects. But reli­gious zeal first gave the rest of Europe a knowlege of their country, and the sweets of its commerce. The Hanse towns poured in their missionaries, and reaped a temporal harvest. By the year 1204, the merchants obtained from the wise prince Suer every encouragement to commerce; and by that means introduced wealth and civilization into his barren kingdom. England, by every method, cherished the advantages resulting from an intercourse with Norway; and Bergen was the emporium. Henry III. in 1217, entered into a league with its monarch Haquin, by which both princes stipulated for free access for their subjects into their respective kingdoms, free trade and security to their persons. In 1269, Henry entered into another treaty with Magnus, in which it was agreed, that no goods should be exported from either kingdom except they had been paid for; and there is besides a humane provision on both sides, for the security of the persons and effects of the subjects who should suffer shipwreck on their several coasts.

This country extends above fifteen hundred miles in length,COASTS. and exhibits a most wonderful appearance of coast. It runs due north to Cape Staff, the [Page LXVIII] western point of Sondmor, then winds north-east to its extremity at the North Cape. SEA. High and precipitous rocks compose the front, with a sea generally from one to three hundred fathoms deep washing their base^*. Multitudes of narrow creeks penetrate deep into the land, overshadowed by stupendous mountains. The sides of these chasms have depth equal to that of the adjacent sea; but in the middle is a channel called Dybrendes, DYBRENDES. i. e. deep courses, from fifty to a hundred fa­thoms broad, and of the disproportionable depth of four hundred^†, seemingly time-worn by the strength of the current from the torrent-rivers which pour into them. Fish innumerable resort to their edges. These creeks are, in many places, the roads of the country; for the vallies which traverse it are often so precipitous as to be impervious, unless by water. Some, which want these con­veniences, are left uninhabited by reason of the impossibility of conveying to and from them the articles of commerce.

CHAIN OF IS­LANDS.Millions of islands, large and small, skerries, or rocks, follow the greatest part of this wondrous coast. The islands are rude and mountanous, and soar corre­spondent to the Alps of the opposite continent. Those of Loeffort, on the north side of the dreadful whirlpool Maelstrom, engraven by Le Bruyn, give a full idea of the nature of the coasts^‡. The sea near the islands is so deep and rocky, that the Norwegian kings caused vast iron rings to be fastened with lead ^§ to the sides, to enable ships to moor in security, or to assist them in warping out. A few of the former give shelter to the fishermen and their small stock of cattle; the rest rise in columns of grotesque forms. On the outside of these natural counterscarps, are multitudes of haubroe, or sea-breakers, longitudinal banks of sand, running north and south, from the distance of four to sixteen leagues from the continent, and from ten to fifteen fathoms below the surface of the water; the haunts of myriads of useful fish.

TIDES.The tides off the Naze, and most of the coasts of Norway, are very inconsider­able. At the North Cape, the spring tides have been observed to rise to the height of eight feet one inch; the neap to six feet eight inches^‖. Mr. Wil­liam Ferguson, an able pilot, who had often the conduct of our fleets in the North sea, informed me, that on the Naze, and many other parts of Norway, the tides were hardly perceptible, except with strong westerly winds, when they rose two or three feet, and fell with the easterly winds.

RIVERS.Into the ends of most of the Dybrendes rush the furious rivers, or rather tor­rents, of the mountains; useless for navigation, but most singularly advantageous [Page LXIX] for the conveyance of the great article of commerce, the masts and timber of the country, from the otherwise inaccessible forests. The trees are cut down, and at present conveyed from some distance to the rivers, down which they are precipi­tated over rocks and stupendous cataracts,LENTZES. until they arrive at the Lentzes or booms^*, placed obliquely in the stream in fit places. To them the owners of the timber resort; and, on paying a certain rate to the proprietors, receive their pieces, which are all marked before they are committed to the water; but numbers are injured or destroyed in the rough passage.

The species which is of such great value to Norway, is the Fyr or Fare, our Scotch Pine, and the Pinus Sylvestris of Linnaeus. It grows in the driest places, and attains the vast age of four hundred years^†; and is of universal use in the northern world. Such trees as are not destined for masts are squared, and arrive in England under the name of Balk: the rest are sawed on the spot, in hundreds of mills, turned by the torrents, and reach us in form of planks. An immense quan­tity of tar is made from the trees, and even from the roots, very long after they have been divided from the trunk. The Gran, Pinus Abies, or what we call Nor­way Fir, is in little esteem. Thousands are cut down annually by the peasants, who feed their cattle with the tender shoots. It is the tallest of European trees, growing to the height of a hundred and sixty feet. In winter, the branches are depressed to the ground with snow, and form beneath them the dens of wild beasts.

I must here mention the adventitious fruits,EXOTIC FRUITS FOUND ON THE SHORES. such as nuts and other vegetable productions, which are brought by the waves to these shores, those of Feroe, and the Orknies, from Jamaica and other neighboring parts^‡. We must have re­course to a cause very remote from this place.GULPH-STREAM. Their vehicle is the gulph-stream from the gulph of Mexico. The trade-winds force the great body of the ocean from the westward through the Antilles into that gulph, when it is forced back­ward along the shore from the mouth of the Mississipi to Cape Florida; doubles that cape in the narrow sea between it and Cuba, and from Cape Florida to Cape Cannaveral runs nearly north, at the distance of from five to seven leagues from shore, and extends in breadth from fifteen to eighteen leagues. There are re­gular soundings from the land to the edge of the stream, where the depth is ge­nerally seventy fathoms; after that no bottom can be found. The soundings off Cape Cannaveral are very steep and uncertain, as the water shallows so quick, that from forty fathoms it will immediately lessen to fifteen, and from that to four, or less; so that, without great care, a ship may be in a few minutes on shore. It must be observed, that, notwithstanding the gulph-stream in general [Page LXX] is said to begin where soundings end, yet its influence extends several leagues within the soundings; and vessels often find a considerable current setting to the northward all along the coast, till they get into eight or ten fathom water, even where the soundings stretch to twenty leagues from the shore; but their current is generally augmented or lessened by the prevaling winds, the force of which, however, can but little affect the grand unfathomable stream. From Cape Cannaveral to Cape Hatteras the soundings begin to widen in the extent of their run from the shore to the inner edge of the stream, the distance being generally near twenty leagues, and the soundings very regular to about seventy fathoms near the edge of the stream, where no bottom can be afterwards found. Abreast of Savannah river, the current sets nearly north; after which, as if from a bay, it stretches north-east to Cape Hatteras; and from thence it sets east-north-east, till it has lost its force. As Cape Hatteras runs a great way into the sea, the edge of the stream is only from five to seven leagues distant from the cape; and the force and rapidity of the main stream has such influence, within that distance, over ships bound to the southward, that in very high foul winds, or in calms, they have frequently been hurried back to the northward, which has often occasioned great disappointment both to merchant ships and to men of war, as was often experienced in the late war. In December 1754, an exceeding good sailing ship, bound from Philadelphia to Charlestown, got abreast of Cape Hatteras every day during thirteen days, sometimes even with the tide, and in a middle distance be­tween the cape and the inner edge of the stream; yet the ship was forced back regularly, and could only recover its lost way with the morning breeze, till the fourteenth day, when a brisk gale helped it to stem the current, and get to the southward of the Cape. This shews the impossibility of any thing which has fallen into the stream returning, or stopping in its course.

On the outside of the stream is a strong eddy or contrary current towards the ocean; and on the inside, next to America, a strong tide sets against it. When it sets off from Cape Hatteras, it takes a current nearly north-east; but in its course meets a great current that sets from the north, and probably comes from Hudson's Bay, along the coast of Labrador, till the island of Newfoundland divides it; part setting along the coast through the streights of Belleisle, and sweep­ing past Cape Breton, runs obliquely against the gulph-stream, and gives it a more eastern direction: the other part of the northern current is thought to join it on the eastern side of Newfoundland. The influence of these joint cur­rents must be far felt; yet possibly its force is not so great, nor contracted in such a pointed and circumscribed direction as before they encountered. The prevaling winds all over this part of the ocean are the west and north-west, and con­sequently [Page LXXI] the whole body of the western ocean seems, from their influence, to have what the mariners call a set to the eastward, or to the north-east by east. Thus the productions of Jamaica, and other places bordering on the gulph of Mexico, may be first brought by the stream out of the gulph, inveloped in the sargasso or alga of the gulph round Cape Florida, and hurried by the current ei­ther along the American shore, or sent into the ocean in the course along the stream, and then by the set of the stream, and the prevaling winds, which generally blow two-thirds of the year, wafted to the shores of Europe, where they are found^*.

The mast of the Tilbury man of war, burnt at Jamaica, was thus conveyed to the western side of Scotland; and among the amazing quantity of drift-wood, or timber, annually flung on the coasts of Iceland, are some species which grow in Virginia and Carolina ^†. All the great rivers of those countries contribute their share; the Alatamaha, Santee, and Roanok, and all the rivers which flow into the Chesapeak, send down in floods numberless trees^‡; but Iceland is also obliged to Europe for much of its drift-wood; for the common pine, fir, lime, and willows, are among those enumerated by Mr. Troille; all which, probably, were wafted from Norway.

The mountains of Norway might prove a boundless subject of speculation to the traveller. Their extent is prodigious, and the variety of plants, animals,MOUNTAINS. and fishes of the lakes, are funds of constant amusement. The silver mines,METALS. wrought ever since 1623, are sources of wealth to the kingdom, and afford the finest specimens of the native kinds yet known. Gold was found in a consider­able quantity in 1697. Christian V. caused ducats to be coined with it; the in­scription was the words of Job, VON MITTERNACHT KOMT GOLD, out of the north comes GOLD^‖. Copper and iron are found in abundance; lead in less quantities: tin does not extend to this northern region. It is difficult to say which is the beginning of this enormous chain. In Scandinavia it begins in the great Koelen rock at the extremity of Finmark. It enters Norway in the diocese of Drontheim, bends westward towards the sea, and terminates at a vast precipice, I think, the Heirefoss, about three Norwegian miles from Lister. Another branch of this mountain divides Norway from Sweden, fills Lapland, and rises into [Page LXXII] the distinguished summits of Horrikalero, Avasaxa, and Kittis, and ends in scat­tered masses of granite, in the low province of Finland. It incloses Scandinavia in form of a horse-shoe, and divides it from the vast plains of Russia. The an­tient name of this chain was Sevo mons, to this day retained in the modern name Seveberg. Pliny compares it to the Riphaean hills, and truly says, it forms an immense bay, even to the Cimbrian promontory^*.

The mountains and islands break into very grotesque forms, and would furnish admirable subjects for the pencil. Among the desiderata of these days, is a tour into those parts by a man of fortune, properly qualified, and properly at­tended by artists, to search into the great variety of matter which this northern region would furnish, and which would give great light into the history of a race,ROMANTIC VIEWS. to which half Europe owes its population. Among the views, the moun­tains of the Seven Sisters in Helgeland ^†, and the amazing rock of Forg-hatten ^‡, rising majestically out of the sea, with its pervious cavern, three thousand ells ^‖ long, and a hundred and fifty high, with the sun at times radiating through it, are the most capital. Not to mention the tops of many, broken into imagi­nary forms of towers and Gothic edifices, forts, and castles, with regular walls and bastions.

HEIGHTS OF MOUNTAINS.I agree with the Comte De Buffon, in thinking that the heights of the Scan­dinavian mountains, given by Bishop Pontoppidan, and Mr. Browallius, are ex­tremely exaggerated^§. They are by no means to be compared with those of the Helvetian Alps, and less so with many near the equator. The sober accounts I have received from my northern friends, serve to confirm the opinion, that there is an increase of height of mountains from the north towards the equato­rial countries. M. Ascanius, professor of mineralogy at Drontheim, assures me, that from some late surveys, the highest in that diocese are not above six hun­dred fathoms above the surface of the sea; that the mountains fall to the western side from the distance of eight or ten Norwegian miles^¶; but to the eastern, from that of forty. The highest is Dovre-fiael in Drontheim, and Tille in Ber­gen. They rise slowly, and do not strike the eye like Romsdale-horn, and Horn­alen, which soar majestically from the sea. In Sweden, only one mountain has been properly measured to the sea. Professor Ritzius of Lund, acquaints me, that Kinnekulle in Westro-Gothia is only eight hundred and fifteen English feet [Page LXXIII] above the lake Wenern, or nine hundred and thirty-one above the sea. He adds, the following have been only measured to their bases, or to the next adjacent waters: Aorskata, a solitary mountain of Jaemtland, about four or five Swedish miles from the highest Alps, which separate Norway and Sweden, is said to be six thousand one hundred and sixty-two English feet above the nearest rivers: Swuckustol, within the borders of Norway, four thousand six hundred and fifty-eight above lake Famund; and that lake is thought to be two or three thousand above the sea: and finally, Sylfiaellen, on the borders of Jaemtland, is three thousand one hundred and thirty-two feet perpendicular, from the height to the base. Pontoppidan gives the mountains of Norway the height of three thousand fathoms: Browallius those of Sweden two thousand three hundred and thirty-three, which makes them nearly equal to the highest Alps of Savoy, or the still higher summits of the Peruvian Andes.

In Finmark, FINMARK. the mountains in some places run into the sea: in others recede far, and leave extensive plains between their bases and the water. Their extreme height is on the Fiaell-ryggen, dorsum Alpium, or back of the Alps, a name given to the highest course of the whole chain: the summits of which are clad with eternal snow. These are skirted by lower mountains, composed of hard sandy earth, destitute of every vegetable, except where it is mixed with fragments of rock,PLANTS. on which appear the Saxi­frages of several kinds; Diapensia Lapponica, Fl. Lapp. N^o 88; Azalea Procumbens, N^o 90; the Andromeda Caerulea, N^o 164; and Hypnoides, N^o 165, thinly scatter­ed. Lower down are vast woods of Birch, N^o 341, a tree of equal use to the Laplanders, and the northern Indians of America. On the lower Alps abound the Rein-deer Lichen, N^o 437, the support of their only cattle; the Dwarf Birch, N^o 342, the seeds of which are the food of the White Grous beneath the snow, during the long and rigorous winter; the Arbutus Alpina, N^o 161; and Arbutu [...] Uva Ursa, N^o 162; and, finally, the Empetrum Nigrum, or Black Heath Berries, used by the Laplanders in their ambrosial dish the Kappifiàlmas ^*.

The Scotch Pine, N^o 346, and Norway Fir, N^o 347, form the immense forests of Lapland, associated with the Birch: the Pine affects the dry, the Fir the wet places, and grow to a vast size; but, being inaccessible, are lost to the great uses of man­kind. On their northern sides they are almost naked, and deprived of boughs by the piercing winds; the wandering Laplander remarks this, and uses it as a compass to steer by, amidst these wilds of wood. Whole traits are oft-times fired by light­ning; then prostrated by the next storm. The natives make, of the under part of the wood (which acquires vast hardness by length of time) their snow-shoes; and [Page LXXIV] form their bows for shooting the squirrel with pieces united with glue, made from the skin of the perch. Their fragile boats are formed of the thinnest boards: their ropes of the fibrous roots: and finally, the inner bark, pulverized and baked, is the substitute for bread to a people destined to this rigorous climate. These three trees, the Dwarf Birch, N^o 341, the Alder, N^o 340, and not less than twenty-three species of Willows, form the whole of the trees of Lapland. Every other Swedish tree vanishes on approaching that country.

There is a great analogy between the plants of these northern Alps, and those of the Scottish Highlands. A botanist is never surprized with meeting similar plants on hills of the same height, be their distance ever so great. It may be remarked, that out of the three hundred and seventy-nine perfect plants which grow in Lapland, two hundred and ninety-one are found in Scotland; and of the hundred and fifty cryptogamous, ninety-seven are to be met with in North Britain.

QUADRUPEDS OF SCANDINAVIA.The Alps, the woods, and marshes of the vast region of Scandinavia (for I will consider it in the great) give shelter to numbers of quadrupeds unknown to Britain. Those which brave the severity of the extreme north of this country are distin­guished by the addition of the Lapland name. The Elk, N^o 3 of this Work, is found in many parts: the Rein, Godde, N^o 4, is confined to the chilliest places: the Wolf, Kumpi, N^o 9, is a pest to the whole: the Arctic Fox, Njal, N^o 10, skirts the shores of all the northern regions: the Cross Fox, Raude, N^o 11. β, and the Black Fox, N^o 11. α. is scattered every where: the Lynx, Albos ^*, N^o 15, inhabits the thickest woods: the Bear, Guouzhia, N^o 20, and Glutton, Gjeed'k, N^o 21, have the same haunts: the Sable, N^o 30, which continued in Lapland till the middle of the last century, is now extinct: the Lesser Otter, or Maenk, of the Swedes, is confined to Finland: the Beaver, Mejaeg, N^o 90, is still found in an un­sociable state in several parts: the Flying Squirrel, p. 124, the Orava of the Fin­landers, is found in their forests^†, and those of Lapland: the Lemmus, Lumenik, p. 136, is at seasons the pest of Norway, issuing like a torrent from the Koelen chain: The Walrus, Morsh, N^o 71, is sometimes found in the Finmark seas: the Harp Seal, Daelja, N^o 77, the Rough Seal, N^o 74, the Hooded, Oanide? N^o 76, and the Little Seal, Hist. Quad. ii. N^o 386, omitted by me in this Work, inhabit [Page LXXV] the same place^*. The last, says Bishop Gunner, is eaten salted, not only by the Laplanders, but by the better sort of people in Finmark.

Of animals found in Britain, the Fox, Ruopsok, N^o 11; Pine Martin, Naette, N^o 27; Ermine, Boaaid ^†, N^o 26; Weesel, Seibush, N^o 25; Otter, Zhieonares, N^o 34; Varying Hare, Njaumel, N^o 37; Common Squirrel, Orre, p. 122. A; Mouse, N^o 60; Field Mouse, N^o 61; Water Rat, N^o 59; and the Shrew, Vandes and Ziebak, N^o 67, are seen as high as Finmark: the Common Seal, Nuorrosh, N^o 72, and the Great Seal, N^o 73, also frequent the shores. All the other quadrupeds, common to Scandinavia, cease in Norway, and some even in Sweden. Scandinavia received its animals from the east; but their farther progress was prevented by the intervention of the North sea between that region and Britain. Our extinct species, the Bear, the Wolf, and the Beaver, came into this island, out of Gaul, before our separation from the continent. Some of the northern animals never reached us: neither did the north ever receive the Fallow Deer, Br. Zool. N^o 7; the Harvest Mouse, N^o 29; the Water Shrew, N^o 33; nor yet the Brown Rat, N^o 57, of this Work; notwithstanding it familiarly goes under the name of the Norway ^‡.

This great tract has very few birds which are not found in Britain. BIRDS. We may except the Collared Falcon, p. 222. G; the Scandinavian Owl, p. 237; Rock Crow, p. 252. F; Roller, p. 253; Black Woodpecker, p. 276; Grey-headed, p. 277; Three-toed, N^o 168; the Rehusak Grous, p. 316. B; and the Hazel Grous, p. 316. F. The Ortolan, p. 367. D; the Arctic Finch, p. 379. A; and the Lulean F. p. 380. B. The Grey Redstart Warbler, p. 417. C; the Blue Throat W. p. 417. E; Bogrush W. p. 419. I; Fig-eater, 419. K; and Kruka W. p. 422. U. All the cloven-footed water-fowl, except the Spoon-bill, p. 441. A; the Crane, p. 453. A; White and Black Storks, p. 455, 456. C. D; Finmark Snipe, p. 471. D; Striated Sandpiper, N^o 383; Selninger, p. 480. C; Waved, p. 481. E; Shore, p. 481. F; Wood, p. 482. G; Alwargrim Plover, N^o 398; and Alexandrine, p. 488. B. And all the web-footed kinds, except the Harle­quin Duck, N^o 490, and Lapmark, p. 576. M. are common to both countries; but during summer, Fieldfares, Redwings, Woodcocks, and most of the water-fowl, retire from Britain into Scandinavia, to breed in security: and numbers of both land and water-fowl quit this frozen country during winter, compelled, for want of food, to seek a milder climate.

[Page LXXVI]The fishes of this extensive coast amount to only one hundred and eleven, and are inferior in number to those of Britain by twenty-eight. The species of the North Sea which differ from the British, are not numerous. The depth of water, and the forests of marine plants which cover the bottom of the Norwegian seas, are assuredly the cause of the preference of certain kinds, in their residence in them. Infinite numbers of rare Vermes, Shells, Lithophytes, and Zoophytes, are found there,CURIOUS FISHES. several of which, before their discovery by Bishop Pontoppidan, were the supposed inhabitants of only the more remote seas^*. Among the fishes which have hitherto shunned our shores, are the Raia Clavata, Muller, N^o 309; Squalus Spinax, 312^†; Sq. Centrina, 313, which extends to the Mediterranean; Chimera Monstrosa, 320, a most singular fish; Sygnathus Typhle, and Aequoreus, 324, 328; the Regalecus Glesve, 335, Ascan. Icon. tab. xi.; Gadus Brosme, 341; G. Dypterygius, or Byrke-lange, 346; Blennius Raninus, & Fuscus, 359, 360; Echeneis Remora, 361; Coryphaena Novacula, & Rupestris, 362, 363; Gobius Jozo, 365; Plearonectes Cynoglossus, Limanda, & Linguatula, 372, 375, 377; Sparus Erythrinus, 380; Labrus Suillus, 381; Perca Norvegica, and Lucio-perca, 390, 391; Scomber Pelagicus, 398; Silurus Asotus, 404; Clupea Villosa, 425.

THOSE OF USE.These are not the fishes of general use. Providence hath, in these parts, bestow­ed with munificence the species which contribute to the support of mankind; and made thereby the kingdom of Norway a coast of hardy fishermen. The chain of islands, and the shores, are the populous parts. It is the sea which yields them a harvest; and near to it stand all the capital towns: the staples of the produce of the ocean on one hand, and of the more thinly inhabited mountains on the other. The farther you advance inland, the less numerous is the race of man.

The Herring,HERRINGS. the Cod, the Ling, and the Salmon, are the maritime wealth of this country. The Herring has two emigrations into this sea: the first is from Christmas to Candlemas, when a large species arrives, preceded by two species of Whales, who, by instinct, wait its coming. The fishermen post themselves on some high cliff, impatiently waiting for the cetaceous fish, the harbingers of the others. They look for them at the moon Torre, or the first new one after Christ­mas, and the moon Gio, which immediately follows.

These Herrings frequent the great sand-banks, where they deposit their spawn. They are followed by the Spring Herrings, a lesser fish, which approach much nearer to the shore; after which arrive the Summer Herring, which almost literally fill every creek: the whole fishery is of immense profit. From January to October, [Page LXXVII] 1752, were exported, from Bergen alone, eleven thousand and thirteen lasts; and it was expected that as many more would be shipped off before the expiration of the year. The Herrings which visit this coast are only part of the vast northern army which annually quits the great deeps, and gives wealth and food to numbers of European nations.

THE Cod yields another fishery of great profit.COD. They first arrive immediately after the earliest Herrings, and grow so pampered with their fry, that they reject a bait; and are taken in vast nets, which are set down in fifty or seventy fathom water, and taken up every twenty-four hours, with four or five hundred great fish entangled in them. As the Herrings retire, the Cod grows hungry; and after that is taken with hook and line, baited with Herring. In more advanced season, other varieties of Cod arrive, and are taken, in common with Turbot and other fish, with long lines, to which two hundred short lines with hooks are fastened: the whole is sunk to the bottom; its place is marked by a buoy fastened to it by another line of fit length. The extent of the Cod-fishery may be judged of on hearing that 40,000 tonder, of four bushels each, of French and Spanish salt, are annually im­ported into Bergen for that purpose only.

The Ling is taken on the great sand-bank during summer, by hook and line,LING. and, being a fish noted for being capable of long preservation, is much sought after for distant voyages.

The Salmon, SALMON. a most universal northern fish, arrive in the Norwegian rivers, and vast quanties are sent, smoke-dried or pickled, into various countries.

The praefecture of Nordland, NORDLAND. is the farthest part of the kingdom of Norway. In it is the district of Helgeland, remarkable for that uncommon genius, Octher, OF OCTHER. or Ohthere, who, in a frozen climate, and so early as the ninth century, did shew a passion for discovery, equal perhaps with that of the present. His country was at that time the last in the north which had the lest tincture of humanity. In the year 890 he was attracted by the same of our renowned ALFRED. He visited his court, and related to him his voyages. He told the monarch that he was deter­mined to prove if there was any land beyond the deserts which bounded his country. It appears that he sailed due north, and left, on his starboard side, a waste, the pre­sent Finmark, occasionally frequented by the Finnas, or wandering Laplanders, for the sake of fishing and fowling. He went as far as the Whale-fishers usually ven­tured: a proof that the men of Norway practised that fishery many centuries before the English. He doubled the North Cape, and entered the Cwen Sea, or White Sea, and even anchored in the mouth of the Dwina. He was to these parts what Columbus was to America: but the knowlege of this country was lost for centuries after the days of Octher. He mentioned the Seride Finnas, who lived to the north-west of [Page LXXVIII] the Cwen Sea, and who wore snow-shoes. The country about the Dwina was well inhabited by a people called Beormas, far more civilized than the Finnas. The map attending ALFRED's Orosius places them in the country of the Samoieds, a race at present as uncultivated as mankind can be: we therefore must suppose those Beormas to have been Russians. Octher says, that in this sea he met with Horse-Whales (Walruses) and produced to the prince specimens of their great teeth, and of thong-ropes made of their skins; a mark of his attention to every thing curious which occurred to him^*.

NORWEGIANS A FINE RACE.I must not leave Norway without notice of its chief of animals, Man. Scandi­navia, in the course of population, received its inhabitants by colonies of hardy Scythians, who, under the name of Sarmatians, extended themselves to the coasts of the Baltic. In after-times their virtue was exalted by the arrival of their coun­tryman, Odin, and the heroes he settled in every part of the country. The severity of the climate has not checked the growth, or distorted the human form. MAN here is tall, robust, of just symmetry in limbs, and shews strongly the human face divine. Their hair is light: their eyes light grey. The male peasants of the mountains are hairy on their breasts as Bears, and not less hardy: active in body: clear and intelligent in their minds.LONGEVITY. Theirs certainly is length of days; for out of six thousand nine hundred and twenty-nine, who died in 1761, in the diocese of Christiana, three hundred and ninety-four lived to the age of nintey; sixty-three to that of a hundred; and seven to that of a hundred and one^†. The Norwegians justly hold themselves of high value; and slightingly call their fellow-subjects, the the Danes, Jutes ^‡. The Danes tacitly acknowlege the superiority, by composing almost their whole army out of these descendants of the all-conquering Normans.

I shall here supply an omission in my account of the Scandinavian antiquities, p. xxxvi. by mentioning the famous tomb, about seven Swedish yards long and two broad, found at Kivike, a parish of Schonen in Sweden, in the centre of a vast tumu­lus of round stones. It was oblong, and consisted of several flat stones, the inside of which is carved with figures of men and animals, and the weapons of the age, axes and spears heads. A figure is placed in a triumphal car; cornets seem sound­ing: captives with their hands bound behind, guarded by armed men; and figures, supposed to be female, form part of the conquered people. It is supposed that the Roman fleet made an accidental descent here, had a successful skirmish with the natives, might have lost their leader, and left this mark of their victory amidst the [Page LXXIX] barbarous conquered. The tomb had been broken open by the country people, and whatsoever it might have contained was stolen away and lost^*.

Within the Arctic circle, begins Finmark, FINMARK. a narrow tract, which winds about the shores eastwards, and bends into the White Sea: a country divided between Nor­way and Russia. The view from the sea is a flat, bounded, a little inland, by a chain of lofty mountains covered with snow. The depth of water off the shore is from a hundred to a hundred and fifty fathoms^†. The inhabitants quit their hovels in winter, and return to them in the summer: and, in the middle of that season, even the Alpine Laplanders visit these parts for the sake of fishing; and, like the antient Scythians, remove with their tents, their herds, and furniture, and return to their mountains in autumn^‡. Some of them, from living near the sea, have long been called Siae Finni, and Soe Lappernes.

In this country begins instantly a new race of men. Their stature is from four to four feet and a half: their hair short, black, and coarse: eyes transversely nar­row: irides black: their heads great: cheek-bones high: mouth wide: lips thick: their chests broad: waists slender: skin swarthy: shanks spindle^‖. From use, they run up rocks like goats, and swarm trees like squirrels: are so strong in their arms that they can draw a bow which a stout Norwegian can hardly bend; yet lazy even to torpidity, when not incited by necessity; and pusillanimous and nervous to an hysterical degree. With a few variations, and very few exceptions, are the inhabitants of all the Arctic coasts of Europe, Asia, and America. They are nearly a distinct species in minds and bodies, and not to be derived from the ad­jacent nations, or any of their better-proportioned neighbors.

The seas and rivers of Finmark abound with fish. The Alten of West Finmark, SALMON FISH­ERIES. after a gentle course through mountains and forests, forms a noble cataract, which tumbles down an immense rock into a fine bason, the receptacle of numbers of vessels which resort here to fish or traffic for Salmon^§. The Tana, and the Kola of the extreme north swarm with them. In the Alten they are taken by the natives in weirs built after the Norwegian model; and form, with the merchants of Bergen, a great article of commerce. These fisheries are far from recent: that on the Kola was noted above two centuries ago for the vast concourse of English and Dutch, for the sake of the fish-oil and Salmon^¶.

The most northern fortress in the world, and of unknown antiquity^††, is Ward­huys, WARDHUYS. [Page LXXX] situated in a good harbour, in the isle of Wardoe, at the extremity of Finmark; probably built for the protection of the fishing trade, the only object it could have in this remote place.

SIR HUGH WIL­LOUGHBY.A little farther eastward, in Muscovitish Finmark, is Arzina, noted for the sad fate of that gallant gentleman, Sir Hugh Willoughby, who, in 1553, commanded the first voyage on the discovery by sea of Muscovia, by the north-east; a country at that time scarcely known to the rest of Europe. He unfortunately lost his passage, was driven by tempests into this port, where he and all his crew were found the fol­lowing year frozen to death. His more fortunate consort, Richard Chancellor captain and pilot major, pursued his voyage, and renewed the discovery of the White Sea, or Bay of St. Nicholas; a place totally forgotten since the days of Octher. The circumstances attending his arrival, exactly resemble those of the first discoverers of America. He admired the barbarity of the Russian inhabitants: they in return were in amaze at the size of his ship: they fell down and would have kissed his feet; and when they left him spread abroad the arrival of 'a strange nation, of singular gentlenesse and courtesie^*.' He visited in sledges the court of Basilowitz II. then at Moscow, and layed the foundation of immense commerce to this country for a series of years, even to the remote and unthought-of Persia.

I shall take my departure from the extreme north of the continent of Europe, or rather from its shattered fragments, the isle of Maggeroe, and other islands, which lie off the coast,NORTH CAPE. in lat. 71. 33. At the remote end of Maggeroe is the North Cape, high and flat at top, or what the sailors call Table-land ^†. These are but the con­tinuation of the great chain of mountains which divides Scandinavia, and sinks and rises through the ocean, in different places, to the Seven Sisters, in about lat. 80. 30, the nearest land to the pole which we are acquainted with.

Its first appearance above water, from this group, is at Cherie Island, CHERIE ISLAND. in lat. 74. 30. a most solitary spot, rather more than midway between the North Cape and Spitzbergen, or about a hundred and fifty miles from the latter. Its figure is nearly round: its surface rises into lofty mountanous summits, craggy, and covered with perpetual snow: one of them is truly called Mount Misery. The horror of this isle to the first discoverers must have been unspeakable. The prospect dreary, black, where not hid with snow, and broken into a thousand precipices. No sounds but of the dashing of the waves, the crashing collision of floating ice, the discordant notes of myriads of sea-fowl, the yelping of Arctic Foxes, the snorting of the Walruses, or the roaring of the Polar Bears.

[Page LXXXI]This island was probably discovered by Stephen Bennet in 1603^*, employed by Alderman Cherie, in honor of whom the place was named. The anchorage near it is twenty and thirty fathoms. He found there the tooth of a Walrus, but saw none of the animals, their season here being past: this was the 17th of August. Encouraged by the hopes of profit, Bennet made a second voyage the next year, and arrived at the island the 9th of July; WALRUSES. when he found the Walruses lying huddled on one another, a thousand in a heap. For want of experience, he killed only a few; but in succeeding voyages the adventurers killed, in 1606, in six hours time, seven or eight hundred; in 1608, nine hundred or a thousand in seven hours; and in 1610, above seven hundred. The profit, in the teeth, oil, and skins, was very considerable^†; but the slaughter made among the animals frightened the survivors away, so that the benefit of the business was lost, and the island no more frequented. But from this deficiency originated the commencement of the Whale-fishery by the English.

It is remarkable that this island produces excellent coals^‡;COALS. yet none are known nearer than the diocese of Aggerhuys, in the south of Norway, and there in very small quantities. Lead ore is also found,LEAD. both in Cherie Island and a little one adjacent, called Gull Island ^‖.

About a hundred and fifty miles almost due north, is South Cape, north lat. 76. 30, the extreme southern point of Spitzbergen, SPITZBERGEN. the largest of the group of frozen islands which go under that name, or New Groenland. From this to Ver­legan-hook, north lat. 80. 7, the northern extremity, is above three hundred miles; and the greatest breadth of the group is from Hackluyt's Headland to the extreme east point of North Eastland, comprizing from 9. to near 24. east longitude. The shores are ragged and indented. A very deep bay runs into the east side from south to north; and a large trifurcated one from north to south. Stat's Forland is a large island rent from the southern part of the east side. North Eastland is divided from the north-east side by the Waygat and Hinlopen straits, usually blocked up with ice, and so shallow as to be, in one part, only three fathoms deep^§. The long isle of King Charles lies parallel to the west side. At the southern end is Black Point; the coast high, black, and inaccessible; in parts seeming soaring above the clouds; and the interjacent vallies filled with ice and snow. Fair Foreland, or Vogel-hook, is the northern headland, made by sailors. And due north of it, at the western point of Spitzbergen, is the small lofty isle of Hackluyt's Headland, ano­ther object of the mariners search.

To the north of the great group is Moffen's Isle, MOFFEN'S ISLE. in lat. 80, opposite to the mouth of Leifde bay. This island is very low, and suspected to be a new creation, [Page LXXXII] by the meeting of the streams from the great ocean, rushing along the west side of Spitzbergen, and through the Waygat, and forcing up the gravelly bottom of this shallow part, where the lead touches the bottom at from two to five fathoms water, at half a mile from its western side^*.

LOW ISLAND.To the eastward of this is another low island, almost opposite to the mouth of the Waygat: it is remarkable for being part of the Basaltic chain,BASALTIC. which appears in so many places in the northern hemisphere. The columns were from eighteen to thirty inches in diameter, mostly hexagonal, and formed a most convenient pave­ment.PLANTS. The middle of the isle was covered with vegetables, Mosses, Sorel, Scurvy Grass,ANIMALS. and Ranunculuses in bloom on July 30th. Of quadrupeds, the Rein­deer fattened here into excellent venison; the Arctic Fox; and a small animal larger than a Weesel, with short ears, long tail, and spotted with black and white, were seen.BIRDS. Small Snipes, like Jack Snipes; Ducks, then hatching; and Wild Geese feeding, helped to animate this dreary scene^†.

The beach was formed of an antient aggregate of sand, whale-bones, and old timber, or drift-wood.DRIFT-WOOD. Fir-trees seventy feet long, some torn up by the roots, others fresh from the axe, and marked with it into twelve feet lengths, lay con­fusedly sixteen or eighteen feet above the level of the sea, intermixed with pipe-staves, and wood fashioned for use; all brought into this elevated situation by the swell of the furious surges.

The appearance of drift-wood is very frequent in many parts of these high lati­tudes: in the seas of Greenland, in Davis's streights, and in those of Hudson; and again on the coasts of Nova Zemlja. I have only two places from whence I can derive the quantity of floating timber which appears on the coast of Nova Zemlja and these islands: the first is from the banks of the Oby, and perhaps other great rivers, which pour out their waters into the Frozen ocean. In the spring, at the breaking up of the ice, vast inundations spread over the land, and sweep away whole forests, with the aid of the vast fragments of ice; these are carried off, rooted up, and appear entire in various places. Such as are found marked into lengths, together with pipe-staves, and other fashioned woods, are swept by the Norwegian floods out of the rivers, on the breaking of a lentze ^‡, a misfortune which sometimes happens, to the bankruptcy of multitudes of timber-merchants. At such times not only the trees which are floating down the torrents, but the saw-mills, and all other places in which business is carried on, undergo the same calamity; and the timber, in whatsoever form it happens to be, is forced into the ocean, and con­veyed by tides or tempests to the most distant parts of the north.

[Page LXXXIII]Let no one be staggered at the remoteness of the voyage: I have before shewn [...]nstances, but from a contrary course, from west to east. Part of the masts of the Tilbury, burnt at Jamaica, was taken up on the western coast of Scot­land; and multitudes of seed or fruits of the same island, and other hot parts of America, are annually driven on shore, not only on the western side of Scotland P. 21. of this Work. ^†, but even on those of more distant Norway ^‡, and Iceland.

The islands of the Seven Sisters, last of known land, lie due north from North-East­land: the extreme point of the most remote is in lat. 80. 42. They are all high primaeval isles: from a high mountain on the farthest, the hardy navigators of 1773 had a sight of ten or twelve leagues of smooth unbroken ice to the east and north-east, bounded only by the horizon; and to the south-east certain land laid down in the Dutch maps. Midway between these islands and North-Eastland, Lord Mulgrave, VOYAGE BY LORD MULGRAVE. IN 1773. after every effort which the most finished seaman could make to accomplish the end of his voyage, was caught in the ice, and was near experiencing the unhappy fate of the gallant Englishman, Sir Hugh Willoughby, who was frozen in 1553, with all his crew, in his unhappy expedition.

The scene, divested of the horror from the eventful expectation of change, was the most beautiful and picturesque:—Two large ships becalmed in a vast bason, surrounded on all sides by islands of various forms: the weather clear: the sun gilding the circumambient ice, which was low, smooth, and even; covered with snow, excepting where the pools of water on part of the surface appeared crystalline with the young ice^‖: the small space of sea they were confined in perfectly smooth. After fruitless attempts to force a way through the fields of ice, their limits were perpetually contracted by its closing; till at length it beset each vessel till they became immoveably fixed^§. The smooth extent of surface was soon lost: the pressure of the pieces of ice, by the violence of the swell, caused them to pack; fragment rose upon fragment, till they were in many places higher than the main-yard. The movements of the ships were tremendous and involuntary, in conjunction with the surrounding ice, actuated by the currents. The water shoal­ed to fourteen fathoms. The grounding of the ice or of the ships would have been equally fatal: the force of the ice might have crushed them to atoms, or have lifted them out of the water and overset them, or have left them suspended on the summits of the pieces of ice at a tremendous height, exposed to the fury of the winds, or to the risque of being dashed to pieces by the failure of their frozen dock^¶. An [Page LXXXIV] attempt was made to cut a passage through the ice; after a perseverance worthy of Britons, it proved fruitless. The commander, at all times master of himself, directed the boats to be made ready to be hauled over the ice, till they arrived at navigable water (a task alone of seven days) and in them to make their voyage to England. The boats were drawn progressively three whole days^*. At length a wind sprung up, the ice separated sufficiently to yield to the pressure of the full-sailed ships, which, after laboring against the resisting fields of ice^†, arrived on the 10th of August in the harbor of Smeeringberg, at the west end of Spitzbergen, be­tween it and Hackluyt's Headland.

It was the hard fortune of Lord Mulgrave, at this season, to meet with one of those amazing shoals of ice which cover, at times, these seas, for multitudes of leagues. He made the fullest trial, from long. 2 to 21 east, and from about lat. 80. 40, as low as about 78. 30, opposed by a face of ice without the least opening, and with all the appearance of a solid wall. It is well known, that the coasts of Sibiria are, after a northern tempest, rendered inaccessible for a vast extent, by the polar ice being set in motion. It is as well known, that a strong southern wind will again drive them to their former seats, and make the shores of the Frozen ocean as clear as the equatorial seas. A farther discovery on this side was denied to the noble navigator. His misfortune will for ever redound to his honor, as it proved his spirit, his perseverance, and a soul fertile in expedients among the greatest dif­ficulties!

That navigators have gone into higher latitudes I cannot deny: the authenticated instances only shew their accidental good fortune, in having the ice driven towards the pole, and in making a retreat before they were enveloped in the returning ice. The Russians, under vice-admiral Tshitshaghef, within these very few years, made an attempt to sail to the pole by the eastern side of Spitzbergen; but after suffering great hardships, returned without effecting any discovery. Curiosity has been amply satisfied: and I believe we may rest fully content with the common pas­sage to India, on the conviction of this tract being totally impracticable.

ICE.The forms assumed by the ice in this chilling climate, are extremely pleasing to even the most incurious eye. The surface of that which is congealed from the sea-water (for I must allow it two origins) is flat and even, hard, opake, resembling white sugar, and incapable of being slid on, like the British ice^‡. The greater pieces, or fields, are many leagues in length: the lesser, are the meadows [Page LXXXV] of the Seals, on which those animals at times frolic by hundreds. The motion of the lesser pieces is as rapid as the currents: the greater, which are sometimes two hundred leagues long, and sixty or eighty broad^*, move slow and majestically; often fix for a time, immoveable by the power of the ocean, and then produce near the horizon that bright white appearance, called by manners the blink of the ice ^†. The approximation of two great fields produces a most singular phaenomenon; it forces the lesser (if the term can be applied to pieces of several acres square) out of the water, and adds them to their surface: a second, and often a third succeeds; so that the whole forms an aggregate of a tremendous height. These float in the sea like so many rugged mountains, and are sometimes five or six hundred yards thick^‡; but the far greater part is concealed beneath the water. These are continually encreased in height by the freezing of the spray of the sea, or of the melting of the snow, which falls on them. Those which remain in this frozen climate, re­ceive continual growth; others are gradually wafted by the northern winds into southern latitudes, and melt by degrees, by the heat of the sun, till they waste away, or disappear in the boundless element.

The collision of the great fields of ice, in high latitudes, is often attended with a noise that for a time takes away the sense of hearing any thing else; and the lesser with a grinding of unspeakable horror.

The water which dashes against the mountanous ice freezes into an infinite variety of forms; and gives the voyager ideal towns, streets, churches, steeples, and every shape which imagination can frame^‖.

The Icebergs, ICEBERGS. or Glacieres of the north-east of Spitzbergen, are among the ca­pital wonders of the country; they are seven in number, but at considerable distances from each other: each fills the vallies for tracts unknown, in a region totally inaccessible in the internal parts. The glacieres of Switzerland seem con­temptible to these; but present often a similar front into some lower valley. The last exhibits over the sea a front three hundred feet high, emulating the emerald in color: cataracts of melted snow precipitate down various parts, and black spir­ing mountains, streaked with white, bound the sides, and rise crag above crag, as far as eye can reach in the back, ground^§.

At times immense fragments break off, and tumble into the water, with a most alarming dashing. A piece of this vivid green substance has fallen, and grounded in twenty-four fathoms water, and spired above the surface fifty feet^**. Simi­lar [Page LXXXVI] icebergs are frequent in all the Arctic regions; and to their lapses is owing [...] solid mountanous ice which infests those seas.

Frost sports also with these icebergs, and gives them majestic as well as other most singular forms. Masses have been seen, assuming the shape of a Gothic church, with arched windows and doors, and all the rich tracery of that style, composed o [...] what an Arabian tale would scarcely dare to relate, of crystal of the richest sap­phirine blue: tables with one or more feet; and often immense flat-roofed temples, like those of Luxxor on the Nile, supported by round transparent columns of cae­rulean hue, float by the astonished spectator^*.

These icebergs are the creation of ages, and receive annually additional height by the falling of snows and of rain, which often instantly freezes, and more than repairs the loss by the influence of the melting sun^†.

SNOW.The snow of these high latitudes is as singular as the ice. It is first small and hard as the finest sand^‡; changes its form to that of an hexagonal shield, into the shape of needles, crosses, cinquefoils, and stars, plain and with serrated rays. Their forms depend on the disposition of the atmosphere; and in calm wea­ther it coalesces, and falls in clusters^§.

SEASONS.Thunder and lightning are unknown here. The air in summer is generally clear; but the sky loaden with hard white clouds. The one night of this dread­ful country begins about October 20th, O. S.; the sun then sets, and never appears till about the 3d of February ^‖: a glimmering indeed continues some weeks after its setting: then succeed clouds and thick darkness, broken by the light of the moon, which is luminous as that in England, and shines without intermission during the long night^¶. Such also is the case in Nova Zemlja ^**. The cold, according to the English proverb, strengthens with the new year; and the sun is ushered in with unusual severity of frost. The splendor of that luminary on the snowy summits of the mountains was the most glorious of sights to the single party who survived to relate the account.BEARS. The Bears stalk forth at the same time from their dens,FOXES. attended by their young cubs. By the beginning of March, the chearful light grows strong:FOWLS. the Arctic Foxes leave their holes, and the sea-fowls resort in great multitudes to their breeding-places^††.

[Page LXXXVII]The sun, in the height of summer, has at times heat enough to melt the tar on the decks of ships. It sets no more after the third of May, DAY AND NIGHT. O. S. Distinc­tion of day and night is lost; unless it be fact what Fr. Marten alleges, that during the summer night of these countries, the sun appears with all the faint­ness of the moon^*. This is denied by Lord Mulgrave ^†. From August the power of the sun declines, it sets fast; in September day is hardly distinguishable; and by the middle of October takes a long leave of this country; the bays be­come frozen; and winter reigns triumphant.

Nature, in the formation of these islands,MOUNTAINS. preserves the same rule which she does in other places: the highest mountains are on the western side; and they gradually lower to the east. The altitude of the most lofty which has been taken by Lord Mulgrave, seems to have been one a little to the north of Black Point, which was found by the megameter to be fifteen hundred and three yards^‡: that of a hill on the little isle, the Norways, a small distance to the north-east of Spitzbergen, was two thousand four hundred feet: one on Vogel Sang, sixteen hundred and fifty; an­other, on the isle near Cloven Cliff, in about lat. 80, eight hundred and sixty-five; a third on that near Cook's Hole, seven hundred and eleven; and one on Hackluyt's Island, only three hundred and twenty-one^§. These are the most northern lands which ever were measured; and the experiments favor the system of the decrease of the heights of the mountains toward the poles.

Earth and soil are denied to those dreadful regions: their composition is stone, formed by the sublime hand of Almighty Power; not frittered into segments by fissures, transverse or perpendicular, but at once cast into one immense and solid mass; a mountain is but a single stone throughout, destitute of fissures, except in places cracked by the resistless power of frost, which often causes lapses, attend­ed with a noise like thunder, scattering over their bases rude and extensive ruins. The stone is granite, mostly grey and black; some red, white, and yellow. I strongly suspect, that veins of iron are intermixed; for the meltings of the snow tinge the rocks frequently with a ferruginous ochre. A potter's clay and a gypsum are to be met with on the eastern part of the islands^‖.

The vallies,VALLIES. or rather glens, of this country, are filled with eternal ice or snow; are totally inaccessible, and known only by the divided course of the mountains, or where they terminate in the sea in form of a glaciere. No streams water these dreary bottoms; even springs are denied; and it is to the periodical [Page LXXXVIII] cataracts of melted snow of the short summer, or to the pools in the middle of the fields of ice, to which the mariners are indebted for fresh water.

HARBOURS.The harbours on the west side are frequent; penetrate deep into the island of Spitzbergen; and are the only channels by which the slight knowlege of the interior parts is attained. North Harbour is a scene of picturesque horror, bounded by black craggy Alps, streaked with snow; the narrow entrance divided by an island; and at seasons affording a land-locked shelter to multitudes of ships.

TIDE AND SEA.The tide at the Vogel Sang flows only four feet, and the flood appears to come from the south. The depth of the sea is very irregular: near the shore it is generally shallow: off Low Island only from ten to twenty fathoms; yet sud­denly deepens to a hundred and seventeen: off Cloven Cliff from fourteen to twenty-eight, and deepens to two hundred. The shallows are usually on rock; the great depths on soft mud: the former I look on as submarine islands; but, from the small number of fish, the bottoms must be universally barren.

SOIL!The grit worn from the mountains by the power of the winds, or attrition of ca­taracts of melted snow, is the only thing which resembles soil, and is the bed for the few vegetables found here. This indeed is assisted by the putrefied lichens of the rocks, and the dung of birds, brought down by the same means.

PLANTS.Even here Flora deigns to make a short visit, and scatter over the bases of the hills a scanty stock. Her efforts never rise beyond a few humble herbs, which shoot, flower, and seed, in the short warmth of June and July; then wither into rest till the succeeding year.—Let me here weave a slender garland from the lap of the goddess, of such, and perhaps all, which she hath bestowed on a country so repug­nant to her bounty. Let the salubrious Scurvy Grass, the resource of distempered seamen, be remarked as providentially most abundant in the composition.

Let me first mention its only tree, the Salix Herbacea, or Dwarf Willow, de­scribed by Marten, p. 65, Phips, 202, which seldom exceeds two inches in height, yet has a just title to the name. The plants are, a new species of Grass, now named Agrostis Algida: Tillaea Aquatica, Sp. Pl. 186. Fl. Suec. 156: Juncus Campestris, Fl. Sc. i. 186: Sibbaldia Procumbens? Fl. Lap. 111.; Marten's Spitz. tab. H. fig. b: Polygonum Viviparum, Fl. Lap. 152; Marten's Spitz. tab. I. fig. a: Saxifraga Oppositafolia, Fl. Lap. 179, 222: Sax. Cernua, Sp. Pl. i. 577; Fl. Lap. 172: Sax. Rivularis, Sp. Pl. 577; Fl. Lap. 174: Sax. Caespitosa, Sp. Pl. 578; Fl. Suec. 376: Sedum Annuum? Sp. Pl. 620; Marten's Spitz. tab. F. fig. c. Cerastium Alpinum, Sp. Pl. 628; Fl. Lap. 192: Ranunculus Sulphureus, Phips Voy. 202; Mart. Spitz. 58: R. Lapponicus, Fl. Lap. 461, 503: R. Nivalis? 232; Mart. Spitz. tab. F. fig. a: Cochlearia Danica, Sp. Pl. 903; Fl. Suec. 578, 579: [Page LXXXIX] Cochl. Groenlandica, Sp. Pl. 904: Polytrichum commune, Fl. Lap. 395: Bryum Hypnoides, Fl. Lap. 396: Bryum Trichoides? Dill. 391; Musc. tab. 50, fig. 61: Bryum Hypnoides? Dill. Musc. 394, tab. 50, fig. 64, C: Hypnum Aduncum, Sp. Pl. 1592; Fl. Succ. 879, 1025: Jungermannia Julacea, Sp. Pl. 1601: Jung. like the Lichenastrum Ramosius, fol. trif. Dill. Musc. 489, tab. 70, fig. 15: Li­chen Ericetorum, Fl. Lap. 936, 1068: L. Islandicus, 959, 1085: L. Nivalis, 446: L. Caninus, 441: L. Polyrhizos, Sp. Pl. 1618; Fl. Suec. 1108: L. Pyxi­datus, Fl. Lap. 428: L. Cornutus, 434: L. Rangiferinus, 437: L. Globiserus, Lin. Mantiss. 133: L. Paschalis, Fl. Lap. 439: L. Chalybeiformis, Sp. Pl. 1623; Fl. Suec. 988, 1127: and the Fucus Saccharinus? Fl. Lap. 460; Mart. Spitz. tab. F. fig. 6.

It is matter of curiosity to trace the decrease of vegetables from our own island to this spot, where so few are to be found. They decrease with the numbers of herbivorous animals, and the wants of mankind. The following catalogue may not be quite just, but is probably pretty near the truth:

Those of Spitzbergen are given above.

The three terrestrial quadrupeds of these islands are confined here without possibility of migration.QUADRUPEDS. The Polar Bears pass the greatest part of the winter in a torpid state: appear in numbers at the first return of the sun, when, probably, they take to the ice, in quest of their prey, Seals, or dead Whales.

It is difficult to account for the means which the Foxes find for support, as the island is destitute of birds during the whole winter; and, the bays being totally frozen up, they can find no subsistence from the sea. Perhaps they lay up pro­vision for winter, on which they subsist till the arrival of the birds in March; at which season they have been observed first to quit their holes, and appear in multitudes^*. The Rein Deer have at all times their favorite lichen, which they can readily get at, by help of their palmated horns.

WALRUSES and Seals are found in great abundance; the latter are often the object of chace, for the sake both of oil and skins: the Russians make voyages on [Page XC] purpose. In 1743, four unhappy mariners of that nation were accidentally left on shore on North Eastland, called by the Russians Maloy Broun. Here three (the fourth died in the last year) lived till August 15th 1749; when they were providentially relieved by the arrival of a ship, after passing six years, realizing in ingenious contrivances the celebrated English fable of Robinson Crusoe ^*.

In the year 1633 seven Dutch sailors were left voluntarily on the western part of Spitzbergen, to pass the winter, and form their remarks. They were fur­nished with medicines, and every requisite to preserve life; but every one perished by the effects of the scurvy. In the next year, seven other unhappy men devoted themselves, and died in the same manner. Of the first set, it appeared by his journal, that the last was alive the 30th of April 1634; of the second, the life of the last survivor did not continue far beyond the 28th of February 1635^†. Yet eight Englishmen, left in 1630 in the same country, by accident, and unprovided with every thing, framed themselves a hut from some old materials, and were found by the returning ships, on May 28th 1631, in good health^‡. Thus Russian hardiness and British spirit braved a climate, which the phlegmatic constitution of a Dutchman could not resist.

BIRDS.To meet with the Snow Bunting, N^o 222, a bird whose bill, in common with the rest of that genus, is calculated for granivorous life, is a kind of miracle. The country has a very scanty provision of seeds; the earth yields no worms, the air no insects; yet these birds are seen in flocks innumerable, and that chiefly on the ice around Spitzbergen: as it breeds early, possibly the old and young may have quitted the land, and collected on the ice at the time of the arrival of the ships.

Of cloven-footed water-fowl, the Purre, N^o 390, alone is seen here.

Of web-footed, the Puffin Auk, N^o 427; the Razor Bill, N^o 425; the Little Auk, N^o 429; the Foolish Guillemot, N^o 436; the Black Guillemot, N^o 437; the Northern Diver, N^o 439; the Ivory Gull, N^o 457; the Herring Gull, N^o 452; the Arctic Gull, N^o 459; the Kittiwake, N^o 456; and the Greater Tern, N^o 448: these, with the Eider Duck, N^o 480, complete the short list of the feathered tribe of Spitzbergen. All these breed in the frost-rent cracks of the mountains, and appear even in these regions before the 16th of March ^§.

FISH.The Whale is lord paramount of these seas; and, like a monstrous tyrant, seems to have terrified almost every other species of fish away. A few Coal Fish, Br. Zool. iii. N^o 78, and two of the unctuous Suckers, N^o 58, were the whole which were taken by Lord Mulgrave, after several trials by hook and by net. [Page XCI] I can never imagine that the shallow, barren, and turbulent shores of the polar regions receive, as is popularly thought, the immense shoals of Herrings and Cod which annually repair to other more southern seas. Their retreat must be in the great depths before described^*, where they are secure from the greatest storms, and probably enjoy a bottom luxuriant in plants and vermes.

The Whale which inhabits these seas, and occasions the great resort of ship­ping, is the common species, Br. Zool. iii. N^o 16. I have in that Work given its history; therefore shall add no more, than that during spring these animals keep near Greenland and the island of John Mayen; and towards summer they ap­pear in the seas of Spitzbergen. The Fin Fish, Br. Zool. iii. N^o 18, is another species: on their appearance, the Common Whale makes its retreat. The Beluga or White Whale, p. 183 of this Work, is seen here in summer, and prognosti­cates a good fishery.

The insects, vermes, and shells, of Spitzbergen, are very few. The Prawn, Br. Zool. iv. N^o 28, and Sea Flea, N^o 33, are found there. The Cancer Boreas, Am­pulla, and Nugax, are three new species^†, added to the genus by the noble na­vigator.

Of the known species of vermes, the Ascidia Gelatinosa, Lin. Syst. 1087: the Ascidia Rustica, 1087, 5: the Lernea Branchialis, 1092: and the Clio Helicina, the small Slime Fish of Marten, p. 141, tab. Q. fig. e: and the Clio Limacina, the Sea May Fly of the same, p. 169, tab. P. fig. 5: the Sipunculus Lendix, a new species, Phips, 194, tab. xiii. are found here: the two last, the supposed food of the Com­mon Whale, are met with in vast abundance^‡: the Medusa Capillata, the Asterias Papposa, Lin. Syst. 1098: Ast. Rubens, 1099; Ast. Pectinata, 1101; Br. Zool. iv. N^o 70: Ast. Ophiura, 1100; Br. Zool. iv. N^o 62: and Ast. Caput Medusae, Lin. Syst. 1101; Br. Zool. iv. N^o 73. And of Shells, the Chiton Ruler, 1107; Lapes Tintinnabulum, 1168: the Mya Truncata, 1112; Br. Zool. N^o 14: and Mytilus Rugosus, 1156; Br. Zool. iv. N^o 72: the Buccinum Carinotum, a new species, Phips, 197, tab. xiii: Turbo Helicinus of the same, 198: the Serpula Spirorbis, Lin. Syst. 1265; Br. Zool. iv. N^o 155: Serpula Triquetra, 1265; Br. Zool. iv. N^o 156: and the Sabella Frustulosa, Phips, 198, complete the list of this class. Among the Zoophytes is the Millepora Polymorpha, Lin. Syst. 1285; and Millep. 1286; and a most curious new genus, discovered in the voyage, named the Synoicum Turgens, 199, tab. xiii: the Flustra Pilosa, Lin. Syst. and Fl. Membranacea, 1301, 3, 5: and, to conclude, that very curious Zoophyte, the foundation of the fossil Encrini, [Page XCII] the Vorticella Encrinus, Lin. Syst. N^o 1317, engraven in our Transactions, vol. xlviii. p. 305, and taken in lat. 79, off this coast: two of them being drawn up with the sounding-line, in 236 fathom water.

DISCOVERY OF SPITZBERGEN.The priority of discovery of these islands has been a great matter of controversy between the English and the Dutch. We clame it from the sight which Sir Hugh Willoughby is pretended to have had of it in his unfortunate voyage; but if what he saw, in lat. 72, was not a fog-bank, we must suppose it to have been either John Mayen's isle, or part of East Greenland. The absurd zeal of the English compilers makes Stephen Boroughs the second discoverer of this country, in 1556; but it is very certain, that he never got higher than lat. 70. 42, nor ever meant any discovery but a passage to the river Ob ^*. It doubt­lessly was first discovered by the Dutch Barentz; who, in his third voyage, in 1596, for the finding out the north-east passage, met with a land in lat. 79 ½, and anchored in a good road, in eighteen fathom water. He afterwards sailed as high as 80, and found two of the islands of which Spitzbergen is composed^†. Embar­rassed with ice, he took a southern course, and was soon after wreeked on the coast of Nova Zemlja: but the English and Dutch pursued the hint; and the Whale-fishery, which before was chiefly carried on by the Biscayeners in the bay of St. Laurence, was commenced here with great success. So active were we, that our ships frequented the place within two years after its discovery.

I now return to the North Cape on the coast of Finmark; and after passing by the several places mentioned in pages lxxix. and lxxx. enter a streight, bounded by Muscovitish Finmark, consisting of low hills, and the flat province of Mesen, on the east. This leads into the Biocle Mari, or White Sea, WHITE SEA. or, more pro­perly, gulph; for its waters are shallow, its bottom full of mud, brought by the great rivers which discharge themselves into it, which almost deprive it of saltness. This was the Cwen sea of Octher; but had been forgotten since his time. The Dwina, or Double River, is the greatest, which takes its name from being formed by the Suchona and the Yug, very remote from its mouth. It is navigable to a great distance, and brings the commodities of the interior parts of the empire to Archangel, ARCHANGEL. a city seated on its banks, about six miles from the sea. It rose from a castle built there by Basilowitz II. to protect the in­creasing [Page XCIII] trade brought here on the discovery of the White Sea by the English; for ships of all nations resorted to this port, even as far as from Venice. Its exports, in 1655, amounted to three hundred and thirty thousand pounds^*. Peter the Great, intent on aggrandizing his creation, Petersburg, prohibited all trade to Archangel, except from the neighboring provinces. Still its exports of tar were considerable: in 1730, to the amount of forty thousand lasts, of eleven barrels each^†. It sends, during winter, great quantities of the Nawaga, a small species of three-finned Cod^‡, to Petersburg, frozen, as Kola does Herrings in the same state.

The White Sea is every winter filled with ice from the Frozen ocean, which brings with it the Harp Seal, N^o 77; and the Leporine, N^o 75, frequent it during sum­mer. Whoever surveys the maps of the provinces between this sea and the gulphs of Bothnia and Finland, will observe them to be more occupied by lakes than land, and be at once satisfied of the probability of the once-insulated state of Scandinavia. As soon as these streights were closed, the White Sea lost its depth, and is at present kept open only by the force of its great rivers.

On the eastern side of the entrance into the streight is the isle of Kandinos, often spoken of by our early navigators in their way to the Waygatz, in their search for a north-east passage. Between it and the main land is a very narrow channel. After doubling the cape of Kandinos, the sea forms two great bays. A considerable part of the shore to the east consists of low sandy hills^‖. Into the most remote bay flows, in lat. 68. 30, by many mouths, the vast river Peczora, a place of great trade before the time of Peter I. Thousands of Samoieds and other savages resorted to the town, with feathers of White Grous, and other birds; Sables, and the most valuable furs; skins of Elks and other deer; the oil from the Walrus, N^o 71, from the Beluga, p. 182; and different sort of fish^§. Here was, in 1611, a great fishery of Beluga: above fifty boats, with three men each, were employed to harpoon them^¶. The entrance into the river is dangerous, by reason of a sandy shoal. The tide rises there only four feet.

The coasts east of Archangel, even as far as the river Ob, are inhabited by the Samoieds; SAMOIEDS. a race as short as the Laplanders, more ugly, and infinitely more brutalized; their food being the carcasses of horses, or any other animals. They use the Rein Deer to draw their sledges, but are not civilized enough to [Page XCIV] make it the substitute for the Cow. These are in fact the Hottentots of the north.

To the east of the Peczora commences the continent of ASIA,

Which has most natural and strongly-marked limits. Here appear the Wercho­turian mountains, or famous Urallian chain,URALLIAN CHAIN. which begins distinctly (for it may be traced interruptedly farther south) near the town of Kungur, in the government of Kasan, in lat. 57. 20, runs north, and ends opposite to the Waygatz streight, and rises again in the isle of Nova Zemlja. The Russians also call this range Semennoi Poias, or the Girdle of the World, from a supposition that it encircled the universe. These were the Riphaei montes: Pars mundi damnata a natura rerum, et densa mersa Caligine ^*, of which only the southern part was known to the antients, and that so little as to give rise to numberless fables. Beyond these were placed the happy Hyperborei, a fiction most beautifully related by Pomponius Mela ^†. Moderns have not been behind-hand in exaggerating several circumstances relative to these noted hills. Ysbrand Ides, who crossed them in his embassy to China, asserts that they are five thousand toises or fathoms high: others, that they are covered with eternal snow. The last may be true in their more northern parts; but in the usual passages over them, they are free from it three or four months.

ITS HEIGHT.The heights of part of this chain have been taken by M. l' Abbè d' Auteroche; who, with many assurances of his accuracy, says, that the height of the mountain Kyria, near Solikamskaia, in lat. 60, does not exceed four hundred and seventy-one toises from the level of the sea, or two hundred and eighty-six from the ground on which it stands^‡. But, according to M. Gmelin, the mountain Pauda is much higher, be­ing seven hundred and fifty-two toises above the sea^‖. From Petersburg to this chain [Page XCV] is a vast plain, mixed with certain elevations or platforms, like islands in the midst of an ocean. The eastern side descends gradually to a great distance into the wooded and morassy Sibiria, which forms an immense inclined plane to the Icy Sea. This is evident from all the great rivers taking their rise on that side, some at the amazing distance of lat. 46; and, after a course of above twenty-seven degrees, falling into the Frozen ocean in lat. 73. 30. The Yaik alone, which rises near the southern part of the eastern side, takes a southern direction, and drops into the Caspian sea. The Dwina, the Peczora, and a few other rivers in European Russia, shew the inclined plane of that part: all of them run to the northern sea; but their course is comparatively short. Another inclination directs the Dnieper and the Don into the Euxine, and the vast Wolga into the Caspian Sea.

The Altaic Chain, ALTAIC CHAIN. its southern boundary, which begins at the vast mountain Bogdo, passes above the head of the Irtisch, and then takes a course rugged, precipi­tous, cloathed with snow, and rich in minerals, between the Irtisch and Ob; HOW DISTRI­BUTED. then proceeds by the lake Telezkoi, the rise of the Ob; after which it retires, in order to comprehend the great rivers which form the Jenesei, and are locked up in these high mountains; finally, under the name of the Sainnes, is uninterruptedly con­tinued to the lake of Baikal ^*. A branch insinuates itself between the sources of the rivers Onon and Ingoda, and those of Ichikoi, accompanied with very high moun­tains, running without interruption to the north-east, and dividing the river of Amur, which discharges itself into the east, in the Chinese dominions, from the river Lena and lake Baikal. Another branch stretches along the Olecma, crosses the Lena below Jakoutsk, and is continued between the two rivers Tongouska to the Jenesei, where it is lost in wooded and morassy plains. The principal chain, rugged with sharp-point­ed rocks, approaches and keeps near the shores of the sea of Ockhozt, and passing by the sources of the rivers Outh, Aldan, and Maia, is distributed in small branches, which range between the eastern rivers which fall into the Icy Sea; besides two principal branches, one of which, turning south, runs through all Kamtschatka, and is broken, from the cape Lopatka, into the numerous Kurile isles, and to the east forms another marine chain, in the islands which range from Kamtschatka to America; most of them, as well as Kamtschatka itself, distinguished by fierce vul­canoes, or the traces of vulcanic fires. The last chain forms chiefly the great cape Tschutski, with its promontories and rocky broken shores.—I have so far pillaged the labors of my friend^†, to trace the boundaries of the vast region which has so amply furnished my Zoologic part.—To that, and the Table of Quadrupeds, I refer the several peculiarities of their situations.

[Page XCVI]At the northern end of the great Urallian chain, is the Waygatz streight, which cuts them from Nowyia Zemlja, Nova Zembla, or the New Land. The passage is narrow, obstructed by islands, and very frequently by ice. The flux and reflux is here uncertain, by reason of the winds; but the tide has been observed to rise only four feet^*: the depth from ten to fourteen fathoms. It was discovered by Stephen Boroughs, in 1556; and the navigation was often attempted by the Dutch, in hopes of a passage that way to China. Continual obstructions from the floating ice baffled their designs, and obliged them to return.

Nova Zemlja consists of five islands; but the channels between them are always filled with ice^†. It is quite uninhabited, but is occasionally frequented by the people of Mesen, who go there to kill Seals, Walruses, Arctic Foxes, and White Bears, the sole animals of the place, excepting a few Rein Deer. Attempts have been made to find a way to the East Indies to the north of it; but with equal bad success as through the Waygatz. Barentz just doubled the eastern end in 1596; suffered shipwreck there with his crew; and passed there a most miserable winter, continually besieged by the Polar Bears: several of the crew died of the scurvy or excess of cold; the survivors made a vessel of the remains of their ship, and ar­rived safe in Europe the following year; but their great pilot sunk under the fatigue^‡.

The southern coasts of these islands are in a manner unknown. Between them and the continent is the Kara sea, which forms a deep bay to the south, in which the tide has been observed to flow two feet nine inches. Fishing people annually come here from the Peczora through the Waygatz, for the sake of a smuggling trade in furs with the Samoieds of the government of Tobolski ^‖. In the reign of the Empress Anne attempts were made to double the great cape Jalmal, between the gulph of Kara and that of the Ob; one of which (in 1738) only succeeded, and that after encountering the greatest difficulties^§. Had the discovery of Sibiria depended on its approach by sea, it might have still remained unknown.

THE RIVER ON.The mouth of the Ob lies in a deep bay, which opens into the Icy Sea, in lat. 73. 30. This is the first and greatest of the Sibirian rivers: it rises from a large lake in lat. 52, has a gentle course through eight hundred leagues of country, navigable almost to its source^¶: is augmented by the vast river Irtisch, in lat. 61, which again receives on each bank a multitude of vast rivers in its extensive pro­gress. Tobolski, capital of Sibiria, lies on the forks, where it takes in the Tobol. The [Page XCVII] banks of the Irtisch and Ob, and other Sibirian rivers, are, in many places, covered with immense forests, growing on a soft soil; which being torn up by the resistless force of the vast fragments of ice brought down by the torrents occasioned by the melting of the snows, are conveyed into the Icy and other seas, and form the drift­wood I have before spoken of. The channel of the Ob, from its source to the Ket, is stony: from that river to the mouth it runs through a fat land. After it has been frozen some time, the water grows foul and fetid.ITS ANNUAL STENCH. This is owing to the vast morasses it in some places goes through, to the slowness of the current, and to the earth-salt (erdsaltz) with which some of the rivers which run into it are impregnated. The fish therefore shun the waters of the Ob, and resort in vast shoals to the mouths of those rivers which rush into it from stony countries, and in such places are taken in great abundance. This stench continues till the river is purified in the spring by the melting of the snow. The Taz, another river which empties itself into the east of the gulph of Ob, is liable to the same impurity.

The Jenesei next succeeds. Mr. Gmelin, as a naturalist,JENESEI RIVER. would consider this as the boundary between Europe and Asia. From its eastern banks every thing puts on a new appearance: a certain new and unusual vigour reigns in every thing. The mountains, which to the westward, as far as the Urallian chain, appeared only scattered, now take full possession, and are interspersed with most beautiful vallies. New animals, such as the Argali, p. 12, and Musk, p. 34, and several others, begin to shew themselves. Many European plants disappear, and others peculiar to Asia, gradually mark the alteration^*. This river is scarcely inferior to the Ob. It rises from the two rivers Ulu-kem and Bei-kem, in north lat. 51. 30, long. 111, and runs due north into the Icy Sea, forming a mouth filled with multitudes of islands: its channel for the most part stony or gravelly: its course swift: its fishes most delicate: its banks, especially the eastern, mountanous and rocky; but from the fort of Saiaenes to the river Dubtches, rich, black, and cultivated. It is fed by numbers of rivers. The Tungusca, and the lower Tungusca, are the most noted. The first rushes, near Irkutz, out of the great lake Baikal, LAKE BAIKAL. under the name of the Angara, between two vast rocks, natural, but with all the appearance of being cut through by art, and tumbling over huge stones in a bed a mile wide, and for a space nearly the same^†. The collision of the waters against the stones is attended with a most dreadful noise, which, with the magnificence of the scenery, forms the most awful approach imaginable to this sacred water. A deity presided over the lake; and no one dared call it by that degrading name, for fear of incurring the pe­nalty of the disrespect. Instead of lake, the borderers style it the Holy Sea; and its vast mountains, the Holy Mountains. St. Nicholas presides over them, and has [Page XCVIII] here his chapel. The mountains are cloathed with forests: of large trees on the lower parts; with fewer and lesser as they gain the heights. These are the retreat of the Wild Boar, and variety of game. Its depth of water is very great: its clearness perfect: free from islands, except the Olchon and Saetchia: navigable in all parts: and in storms, the waves like those of the sea. Its length is a hundred and twenty-five common leagues: its breadth from four to seven^*. The Com­mon Seal abounds in this lake.SEALS. It is a small variety, but so fat as to appear almost shapeless. These animals must have been here aboriginally; for, besides the vast distance from the sea, their passage must have been entirely obstructed by the cata­racts which intervene. I am got eight degrees beyond my plan; but I could not resist the description of this prince of lakes.

TOWN OF MAN­GAZEA.The Angara runs nearly due north for a great way; then assumes the name of Tungusca, turns westward, and joins the Jenesei in lat. 58. The lower Tungusca rises far to the south-west, approaches very near to the Lena, and falls into the Jenesei in lat. 65. 40. Above its junction stands the town of Mangazea, cele­brated for its great fair of furs of every kind, brought there by the surrounding pagans, who pass the long winter in the chace. Many Russians have also migrated, and settled here for the same purpose, and draw great profit from the spoils of the animals. This neighborhood is, during summer, the great resort of multitudes of species of water-fowl. About the feast of St. Peter, here Flora begins to disclose her beauties: the country is covered with the most beautiful Sibirian flowers; many of which enliven the gardens of our more southern climate. The fowls now exult, and unite in emitting their various notes; none particularly melodious in them­selves, but together form a concert far from disagreeable^†; perhaps from the hear­er being conscious that they are the notes of happiness, at the enjoyment of the reviving rays of the sun.

In antient times, Mangazea, or, as it was then called, Mongozey, and Mongolmy, was seated near the mouth of the Taz ^‡; but was removed by the inhabitants into a milder climate, i. e. just to the south side of the Arctic circle. Before that period it was a place of great trade, and was eagerly visited from Archangel, through a complication of difficulties, by sea, by rivers, by land, by rein-drawn sledges, and by drawing the vessels from river to river over frequent carrying-places^‖. These tracts were certainly Le pais presque inaccessible à cause de boües, & de glaces, and, Le pais de tenebres, spoken of by Marco Polo ^§, as the regions from whence the Chams of Tartary procured the richest furs.

CAPE TAIMURA.From the mouth of the Jenesei, the immense promontory Taimura stretches [Page XCIX] farthest north of all this region into the Icy Sea, nearly into lat. 78. To the east of it the Chatunga, Anabara, and Olenek, rivers little known, fall into the sea, and have before the mouth of each a considerable bay. Remarks have been made on the tide which flows into the Katanga, that at the full and new moon it rises two feet; at other times is much less^*. We may conclude, that if it flows no higher in this contracted place, and that of the gulph of Kara, its encrease must be very small on the open shores of the Icy Sea. The coasts are in general shallow, which has proved a safety to the few small vessels which have navigated this sea; for the shoalness of the water preserves them from the montanous ice, which grounds before it can reach them.

BEYOND the Olenek, the vast Lena, which rises near lake Baikal, RIVER LENA. after a gentle and free course over a sandy or gravelly bottom, discharges itself by five great mouths, the eastern and western most remote from each other. The middle, or most northerly, is in lat. 73. 20. To form an idea of the size of this river, I must remark, that at Iakutsk, in lat. 61, twelve degrees from its discharge, the breadth is near three leagues^†. Beyond this river the land contracts itself, and is bounded to the south by the gulph of Ochotz. The rivers Jana, Indigirska, and Kolyma or Kowyma, have a comparatively short course. The last is the most easterly of the great rivers which fall into the Icy Sea. Beyond it is a woodless tract,ARCTIC FLATS WOODLESS. which cuts off the Bea­ver, the Squirrels, and many other animals to whom trees are essential in their oeco­nomy. No forests can exist farther north than lat. 68; and at 70, brush-wood will scarcely grow. All within lat. 68, form the Arctic Flats, the summer haunts of water-fowl; a bare heath or moor, mixed with rocky mountains: and beyond the river Anadyr, which in lat. 65. falls into the Kamtschatkan Sea, the remainder of the tract between it and the Icy Sea has not a single tree^‡.

I shall now take a review of the vast extent of shore which borders on the Icy Sea. The Jouratzkaine coast, which lies between the Ob and the Jenesei, is high but not mountanous, and almost entirely composed of gravel or sand; but in many places there are low tracts. Not only on these, but on more elevated situations, are found great fragments of wood, and often entire trees, all of the same species; Fir, Larch, and Pine, green and fresh; in other places, elevated beyond the reach of the sea, are also great quantities of floated wood, antient, dried, and rotting^§. This is not the only proof of the loss of water in the Icy as well as other seas; for in these places is seen a species of clay, called by the Russians, Il, which is exactly like the kinds usually deposited by the water: and of this there is, in these parts, a bed about eight inches thick, which universally forms the upper stratum^‖. Still farther to [Page C] the east, it grows mountanous, covered with stones, and full of coal. On the summit of the chain, to the east of Simovie Retchinoïe, is an amazing bed of small Mussels, of a species not observed in the subjacent sea. I think them brought there by sea-fowl, to eat at leisure; for it is not wonderful that numbers of objects of natural history should escape the eye in such a sea as this. Many parts again are low; but in most places the sea near the shore is rugged with pointed rocks. The coast about the bay of cape Tschutski, the most eastern extremity of Asia, is in some places rocky, in others sloping and verdant; but within land rising into a double ridge of high mountains.

FREEZING OF THE ICY SEA.About the end of August, there is not a day in which this sea might not be frozen; but in general it never escapes later than the first of October. The thaw commences about the twelfth of June, at the same time with that of the mouth of the Jenesei ^*. From the great headlands, there is at all times a fixed, rugged, and mountanous ice, which projects far into the sea. No sea is of so uncertain and dangerous navi­gation: it is, in one part or other, always abundant in floating ice. During sum­mer, the wind never blows hard twenty-four hours from the north, but every part of the shore is filled for a vast distance with ice; even the streights of Bering are obstructed with it^†. On the reverse, a strong south wind drives it towards the pole, and leaves the coast free from all except the fixed ice. During winter, the sea is covered, to the distance of at lest six degrees from land. Markoff, a hardy Cossac, on March 15th, O. S. in the year 1715, attempted, with nine other persons, a journey from the mouth of the Jana, in 71 north lat. to the north, over the ice, on sledges drawn by dogs. He went on successfully some days, till he had reached lat. 77. or 78: he was then impeded by most mountanous ice. He climbed to the summit of one of the Icebergs; and seeing nothing but ice as far as his eye could reach, returned on April 3d, with the utmost difficulty: several of his dogs died, and served as food for the rest^‡.

I shall just mention some of the attempts made to pass through the Icy Sea to that of Kamtschatka. The first was in 1636, from the settlement of Yakutzk. The rivers from the Jana to the Kolyma were in consequence discovered. In 1646 a company of Russian adventurers, called Promyschleni, or Sable-hunters, made a voyage from the Kolyma to the country of the Tschutski, and traded with those peo­ple for the teeth of the Walrus. A second, but unsuccessful voyage was made in the next year; but in 1648 one Deschnew, on the 20th of June, began his memo­rable voyage, was fortunate in a season free from ice, doubled the Tschutski-noss, arrived near the river Olutora, south of the river Anadyr, where he suffered ship­wreck, [Page CI] but escaped to enjoy the honor of his discovery. Many other attempts were made, but the most which the adventurers have done was to get from the mouth of one great river to another in the course of a summer. I find very few names, ex­cept of rivers, in a tract so vast as it is, on account of its being so little frequented. To the east of the promontory Taimura, that of St. Transfigurationis bounds the east side of the bay of Chatanga, in lat. 74. 40, long. from Ferro 125. Swaitoi-noss, or the Holy Cape, in lat. 73. 15, is a far-projecting headland, and, with the isles of the Lena, and another intervening headland, forms two vast bays. Out of the most eastern, into which the river Yana discharges itself, one Schalourof, a broken Russian merchant, took his departure for an eastern discovery. He began his voyage in July 1760 from the Lena, but was so obstructed with ice that he was forced into the Yana, where he was detained the whole winter, by the same cause, till July 29th, 1761. He doubled the Swaitoi-noss September the 6th; according to some, saw to the north a montanous land, possibly an island. He was eight days in getting through the passage between the continent and the isle of St. Diomede, which lies a little to the south-east of the Noss. He passed with a favorable wind the mouths of the Indigirka and Alazeia, and getting entangled among the ice between the Medviedkie Ostrova, or Bear Islands, was obliged to lay up his vessel in one of the mouths of the Kolyma during winter, where he subsisted on rein-deer, which frequented those parts in great herds during the severe season; and on various species of salmon and trout, which were pushing their way up the river before it was frozen. After this he made two other attempts. In the year 1763 he passed the Peszcanoi-noss, and got into a deep bay, called Tschaoûn Skaja Goûba, with the isle of Sabedei at its mouth; the great Schalatskoi-noss to the east; and at its bottom the little river Tschaoûn, which discharges itself here out of the land of the Tschutski, some of whom he saw on the shore, but they fled on his appearance. He found no means of subsisting in this bay, therefore was obliged to return to the Lena, and was greatly assisted in his passage by the strength of the current, which uni­formly set from the east. In 1764 he made his last attempt, and was, as is conjectured, slain by the Tschutski; but whether he doubled the famous cape of that name, is left uncertain. A MS. map, which Doctor PALLAS favored me with, places the montanous isle before mentioned in lat. 75, opposite to the cape Schalatskoi ^*. Thus closes all the accounts I can collect of the voyages along [Page CII] this distant coast. Part is taken from Mr. Coxe's Russian Discoveries ^*, and part from a manuscript for which I am indebted to the learned Professor before men­tioned.

The wind which passes over the ice of this polar sea, has rendered Sibiria the coldest of inhabited countries: its effects may perhaps extend much farther. At Chamnanning, in Thibet, in lat. 30. 44. (according to Major Rennel's classical map) Mr. Bogle found, during winter, the thermometer in his room at 29° be­low the freezing point. In the middle of April the standing waters were all frozen, and heavy snows perpetually fell^†. I have heard of ice even at Patna, in lat. 25. 35; and of the Seapoys who had slept on the ground being found in the morning torpid. Near the fort of Argun, not higher than lat. 52, the ground seldom thaws deeper than a yard and a half^‡. At Iakutsk, in lat. 62, the soil is eternally frozen even in summer, from the depth of three feet below the surface. An inhabitant, who by the labor of two summers sunk a well to the depth of ninety-one feet, lost his labor, and found his farthest searches frozen^§. Birds fall down, overcome with the cold; and even the wild beasts sometimes perish. The very air is frozen, and exhibits a most melancholy gloom^‖.

AURORA BOREA­LIS.The Aurora Borealis is as common here as in Europe, and usually exhibits similar variations: one species regularly appears between the north-east and east, like a luminous rainbow, with numbers of columns of light radiating from it: beneath the arch is a darkness, through which the stars appear with some brilliancy. This species is thought by the natives to be a forerunner of storms. There is another kind, which begins with certain insulated rays from the north, and others from the north-east. They augment little by little, till they fill the whole sky, and form a splendor of colors rich as gold, rubies, and emeralds: but the attendant phaenomena strike the beholders with horror, for they crackle, sparkle, hiss, make a whistling sound, and a noise even equal to artificial fire-works. The idea of an electrical cause is so strongly impressed by this description, that there can remain no doubt of the origin of these appear­ances. The inhabitants say, on this occasion, it is a troop of men furiously mad which are passing by. Every animal is struck with terror; even the dogs of the hunters are seized with such dread, that they will fall on the ground and become immoveable till the cause is over^¶.

FISH.I am slightly acquainted with the fish of the Icy sea, except the anadromous kinds, or those which ascend from it into the Sibirian rivers. The Ob, and other [Page CIII] Sibirian rivers, are visited by the Beluga Whale, the common Sturgeon, and the Sterlet or Acipenser Ruthenus, Lin. Syst. 403; but I am informed by Doctor Pallas, that they have neither Carps, Bream, Barbels, nor others of that genus, nor yet Eels, Silurus Glanis, Lin. Syst. 501; Perca Lucioperca, 481; or common Trout: all which are found in the Amur, and other rivers which run into the eastern ocean: in the latter, our common Cray-fish is found. In return, the Si­birian rivers abound in vast variety of the Salmon kind, and many unknown to us in Europe, which delight in the chilly waters of these regions. The common Salmon, Br. Zool. iii. N^o 143, is one of the scarcer kinds: the Salmo Nelma, Pallas Itin. ii. 716, or Salmon Leucichthys of Guldenstaedt, Nov. Com. Petrop. xiv. 531, is a large species, growing to the length of three feet: the head greatly protracted: the lower jaw much the longest: the body of a silvery white: scales oblong: tail bifid. P. D. Rad. 14. The Salmo Taïmen, or Hucho, Pallas, ii. 716, grows to the weight of ten or fifteen pounds, and the length of a yard and a half: the color of the back is dusky; towards the sides silvery: the belly white: spotted with dusky on the back: anul fin of a deep red: tail bifurcated: flesh white: Salmo Lavaretus, iii. 705, or Gwiniad, Br. Zool. iii. N^o 152: Salmo Albula, Lin. Syst. 512: Salmo Schokur, Pallas Itin. iii. 705; a species about two feet long, not unlike the Gwiniad: the Salmo Pidschian, Pallas Itin. iii. 705; about two spans long, broader than the Gwiniad, and with a gibbous back: Salmo Wimba, Lin Syst. 512: and Salmo Nasus, Pallas Itin. iii. 705^*, are extremely common in the Ob. Others shun that still river, and seek the Jenesei, and other rapid streams with stony bottoms. Such are the Salmo Lenok, Pallas Itin. ii. 716^†: Salmo Oxyrhynchus, Lin. Syst. 512: and Salmo Autumnalis, or Omul, Pallas Itin. iii. 705; SURPRIZING MI­GRATIONS OF FISH. which annually force their way from the sea, from lat. 73. to lat. 51. 40, into lake Baikal, a distance of more than twenty-one degrees, or near thirteen hundred miles. The Omul even crosses the lake, and ascends in August the ri­ver Selinga, where it is taken by the inhabitants in great quantities, and is pre­served for the provision of the whole year. After dropping its spawn in the stony beds of the river, it again returns to the sea. The Salmo Arcticus, Pallas Itin. iii. 206; and S. Thymallus, or Grayling, Br. Zool. iii. N^o 150; may be added to the fish of the Sibirian rivers. The Salmo Cylindraceus, or Walok of the Russians, is a fish very slender, and almost cylindrical, with a very small mouth, large silvery scales, and the under fins reddish. This is found only in the Lena, the Kowyma, [Page CIV] and Indigirska. M. Gmelin and the Abbé D' Auteroche assure us, that Pikes, Perch, Ruffs, Carp, Bream, Tench, Crucians, Roach, Bleaks, and Gudgeons, are also met with in the Ob, and different rivers of this country^*. I cannot reconcile this to the former account given me by so able a naturalist, to whom I owe this history of the Arctic fish. The Salmo Kundsha, Pallas Itin. iii. 706, abounds in the gulphs of the Icy sea, but does not ascend the rivers; and the Pleuronectes Glacialis, Pallas Itin. iii. 706, is frequent on the sandy shores.

To review the inhabitants of the Arctic coasts, I shall return as far as Fin­mark. I refer the reader to p. LXXIX. for what I have said of the Laplanders. The Samoieds line the coasts from the east side of the White sea, as far (according to the Russian maps) as the river Ob, and even the Anabara, which falls into the Icy sea in lat. 73. 30; and possess the wildest of countries inland, as low as lat. 65. After them succeeds, to the east, a race of middle size; and, extraordinary to say, instead of degeneracy, a fine race of men is found in the Tschutski, in a climate equally severe, and in a country equally unproductive of the supports of life, as any part of these inhospitable regions. The manners of all are brutal, savage, and nearly animal; their loves the same; their living squalid and filthy beyond conception: yet on the site of some of these nations Mela hath placed the elegant Hyperborei: and our poet, Prior, giving free loose to his imagination, paints the manners of these Arctic people in the following beautiful fiction, after describing the condition of the natives of the torrid zone.

With greater reality speaks that just observer of nature, the naturalist's poet, of the inhabitants of this very country, as a true contrast to the foregoing lines:

This amazing extent of the Asiatic Russian dominions remained undiscovered to a very late period. The Czars, immersed in sensuality, or engaged in wars, had neither taste or leisure to explore new countries. A plundering excursion was made into it in the reign of Basilovitz I; a second was made under his suc­cessor: but a stranger, the celebrated Cossac, Yermac, driven from his country on the shores of the Caspian sea, pushed his way with a resolute band as far as Orel, near the head of the Kama, on the western side of the U [...]allian chain. There he met with one Strogonoff, a Russian merchant, recently settled in those parts for the sake of the traffic of furs. He continued in that neighborhood the whole winter, and was supplied by the Russians with all necessaries. In the spring he turned his arms against Kutchum Chan, one of the most powerful of the petty princes of the country which now forms part of the government of Tobolski. In 1581, he fought a decisive battle with the Chan, overthrew him, and seated himself on the throne. Finding his situation precarious, he ceded his conquests to Ba­filovitz, who seized on the opportunity of adding this country to his dominions. He sent Yermac a supply of men. But at length his good fortune forsook him. He was surprized by the Chan; and, after performing all that a hero could do, perished in attempting to escape.

[Page CVI]The Russians, on the death of their ally, retired out of Sibiria; but they soon returned, recovered the conquests made by Yermac, and, before the middle of the following century, added to their antient possessions a territory fourteen hundred and seventy leagues in length, and near seven hundred in breadth (without in­cluding the Russian colonies on the island of Oonalashka, on the coast of America ^*) yet is so thinly peopled, and with such barbarians, as to add no strength to the empire by any supplies to the army or navy. They are almost torpid with inaction; lazy to the highest degree, from their necessary confinement to their stoves during the long winter of the country. In that season, the ground is clad with deep snow, and the frost most tremendously severe. The spring, if so it may be called, is dis­tinguished by the muddied torrents of melting snows, which rush from the moun­tains, and give a sea-like appearance to the plains. Mists, and rain, and snow, are the variations of that season, and they continue even to the fourth of June. The short summer is hot, and favorable to vegetation. Corn may be seen a foot high by the 22d of June; and the grass is most luxuriant. Culinary plants will scarcely grow about Tobolski. Fruits of every kind, except a currant, are un­known. A single crab-like apple, raised in a hot-house, was once produced there, sliced in a large dish, at a great entertainment, and served up with as much ostentation as we would in England a pine-apple.

The animals of Sibiria, the furs of which were the original object of its conquest, are now so reduced, that the Russians are obliged to have recourse to England for a supply from North America, which they add to their own stock of furs exported into China. Metals seem the staple trade of the country. Those of iron and copper are abundant and excellent. Gold and silver are found in several places, and in such abundance, as to form a most important article in the revenues of Russia. The copper mines of Kolyvan, from which those pretious metals are extracted, employ above forty thousand people, mostly colonists. The silver mines of Nertschinsk, beyond lake Baikal, above fourteen thousand. The whole revenue arising from the mines of different metals, is not less than £. 679, 182. 13 s. ^†

PLANTS.Next to the discovery of the new world, no place has added more to the en­tertainment of naturalists than Sibiria. As has been before observed, nature there assumes a new appearance in the animal world: it does the same in the vegetable; at lest, very few trees are found common to Europe and Asia. Let me just mention the nobler kinds: the Oak, frequent as it is in Russia and in Casan, is not to be seen in this vast region nearer than the banks of the Argun [Page CVII] and Amur, in the Chinese dominions. The White Poplar, Populus alba; and the Aspen, Populus tremula, are extremely common. The Black Poplar, Populus nigra; the Common Sallow, Salix caprea; Sweet Willow, Salix pentandra; White Willow, Salix alba, are very frequent. The Hazel, Corylus Avellana, is circumstanced like the Oak. The Common Birch, Betula alba, is most abundant; and, as in all northern nations, of universal use. The Dwarf Birch, Betula nana, is confined to the neighborhood of lake Baikal. The Alder, Betula Alnus, is very frequent. The Pinaster, Pinus Pinea; the Pine with edible seeds, or Pinus Cembra; and Larch, Pinus Larix; all trees of the first use, medicinal or oecono­mical, cover many parts of the country. The Norway Fir, Pinus Abies, and the Silver Fir, Pinus Picea, form, in most parts of the country, great forests: the first grows in this country not farther north than lat. 60; the last not higher than lat. 58; yet the former flourishes in Europe, and composes in Lapmark, far beyond the Arctic circle, woods of great extent: a proof of the superior rigour of cold in the Asiatic north. These form the sum of European trees growing in Sibiria. Of other plants, common to both continents, M. Gmelin gives the reader, in p. xciv. of his Preface, a slender list of such which fell under his observa­tion.

The trees or shrubs peculiar to Sibiria and Tartary, are the Acer Tartaricum, Sp. Pl. ii. 1495: the Ulmus pumila, 327: Prunus Sibirica, Amman. Ruth. 272, tab. 29: Pyrus baccata, 274: Robinia Caragana, frutescens, and pygmaea, Sp. Pl. ii. 1044. I may also observe, that the Taccamahacca, or Populus balsa­mifera, 1463, common also to North America, abounds about the upper part of the Lena, the Angara, and Jenesei, and between the Onon and Aga. An infusion of its buds is used by the natives as an excellent remedy for an infa­mous disorder, frequent in this great country.

EUROPE is obliged to Sibiria for that excellent species of Oat, the Avena Sibirica, Fl. Sib. i. 113. tab. 22. Lin. Sp. Pl. i. 117; and our gardens are in a most peculiar manner enlivened with the gay and brilliant flowers introduced from that distant and severe climate. I shall only select a few out of the mul­titude^*. Veronica Sibirica, Iris Sibirica, Fl. Sib. i. 28. Eryngium planum, i. 185. Lilium bulbiferum, i. 41. L. pomponium, i. 42. L. Martagon, i. 44. Delphi­nium grandistorum, Sp. Pl. i. 749. Erythronium Dens canis, i. 39. tab. 7. Hemerocallis flava, i. 37. Saxifraga crossifolia, Sp. Pl. i. 573. Lychnis chalce­donica, Sp. Pl. i. 625. Pyrus baccata, Lythrum virgatum, Sp. Pl. 642. Amyg­dalus [Page CVIII] nana, Sp. Pl. 677. Poeonia tenuifolia, Sp. Pl. i. 748. Clematis integrifolia, Sp. Pl. i. 767. Adonis vernalis, Sp. Pl. i. 771. Astragalus alopecuroides, Sp. Pl. ii. 1064. Hypericum Ascyron, Sp. Pl. ii. 1102. Echinops Ritro, Fl. Sib. ii. 100. Veratrum nigrum, Fl. Sib. i. 76.

TSCHUTSKI.After the conquest of Sibiria, the Tschutski were the first people discovered by the Russians, who were indebted to the adventure of Deschnew for the knowlege of them. They are a free and brave race, and in size and figure superior to every neighboring nation; tall, stout, and finely made, and with long and agreeable countenances; a race insulated strangely by a lesser variety of men. They wore no beards. Their hair was black, and cut short, and covered either with a close cap, or hood large enough to cover the shoulders. Some hung beads in their ears, but none had the barbarism to bore either noses or lips. They wore a short and close frock, breeches, and short boots: some had trowsers. The materials of their cloathing was leather admirably dressed, either with or without the hair^*. It is said that at times they wear jackets made of the intestines of whales^†, like the Eskimaux; probably when they go to sea, for they excel their neighbors in fishing, and use open boats covered with skins^‡, and like the women's boats of the Greenlanders. They have also the lesser or kajak. They make use of sledges, and have large fox-like dogs of different colors, with long soft woolly hair, which are probably designed for the draught. Some say that they use rein-deer, of which they have vast abundance, but neither milk them nor kill them for food, preferring the flesh of sea animals, except one dies by chance, or is killed by the wolves. They are a brave and warlike people; are armed with bows and arrows; the last pointed with stone or bone. They had spontoons headed with steel, pro­cured by traffic from the Russians; these they usually slung over their right shoul­der; and a leathern quiver of most elegant workmanship hung over the left^§. The Russians have often gained dear-bought victories over this brave people, but never were able to effect their conquest. They retained an high sense of liberty, and constantly refused to pay tribute; and the ambitious European miscalled them rebels. They will not on any consideration part with their weapons: possibly a Tschutski may think a disarmed man dishonored. Captain COOK, in his three hours visit to them, found their attachment to their arms, notwithstanding they willingly parted with any thing else, and even without the prospect of exchange. They treated him with great civility, but prudent caution: saluted him by bow­ing [Page CIX] and pulling off their caps, possibly a piece of politeness they learned from the Russians. They treated him with a song and dance, and parted friends; but not without a most remarkable and consequential event:—A year after the interview between Captain COOK and the Tschutski, a party of those people came to the frontier post of the Russians, and voluntarily offered friendship and tribute. These generous people, whom fear could not influence, were overcome by the civility and good conduct of our illustrious commander: they mistook him and his people for Russians, and, imagining that a change of behaviour had taken place, tendered to their invaders a lasting league^*. Possibly the munificent empress may blush at the obligation conferred by means of British subjects, in procuring to her empire a generous ally, at the instant her armed neutrality contributed to deprive us of millions of lawful subjects.

From the shortness of the interview little knowlege could be gained of their customs. I shall only observe, that they bury their dead under heaps of stones,TUMULI. or carnedds: several were seen here with the rib of a whale on the top instead of a pillar^†; a proof of the universality of these memorials of the dead.

The country of the Tschutski forms the most north-easterly part of Asia. It is a peninsula, bounded by the bay of Tchaoûn, by the Icy Sea, the streights of BERING, and the gulph and river of Anadir, which open into the sea of Kamtschatka. It is a mountanous tract, totally destitute of wood, and consequently of animals which re­quire the shelter of forests. The promontory Schalotskoi, before mentioned, is the most westerly part. Whether it extends so far north as lat. 74, as the Russians place it, is very doubtful: there is the opinion of our great navigator against it. From his own reasonings he supposed that the tract from the Indigirska, eastward,CORRECTIONS IN GEOGRAPHY BY CAPT. COOK. is laid down in the maps two degrees to the northward of its true position^‡. From a map he had in his possession, and from information he received from the Russians, he places the mouth of the Kowyma, in lat. 68, instead of lat. 71. 20, as the Petersburg map makes it. It is therefore probable, that no part of Asia in this neighborhood extends further than lat. 70, in which we must place the Schalotskoi Noss; and after the example of Mr. Campbell, who formed his map of this country chiefly from the papers of Captain BERING^§, give the land which lies to the east of that promontory a very southern trend. As Captain COOK had cause to imagine that the former charts erred in longitude as well as latitude, it is probable that he reached within sixty miles of the Schalotskoi Noss ^‖. There we find him on August 29th, 1778, and from this period are enabled, from his remarks, to pro­ceed securely accurate.

[Page CX]After crossing the Icy Sea from the most extreme part of the coast of America which he could attain, he fell in with land. It appeared low near the sea, and high inland; and between both lay a great lake. To a steep and rocky point, nearly in lat. 68. 56, and long. 180. 51, his ne plus ultra on the Asiatic side, he gave the name of Cape North; CAPE NORTH. beyond which he could not see any land, notwith­standing the weather was pretty clear. The sea, at three miles distance from the shore, was only eight fathoms deep: this, with a rising wind, approaching fog, and apprehension of the coming down of the ice, obliging him to desist from farther attempts in these parts, he proceeded as near to the coast as he could with prudence,BURNEY'S ISLE. towards the south-east, and found it retain the same appearance. In lat. 67. 45, he discovered a small isle, about three leagues from the main, with steep and rocky shores, on which he bestowed the name of Burney, in honor of one of his officers; gratefully immortalizing the companions of his voyage, in this and other instances. After passing the island, the continent inland rose into mountains of considerable height, the termination of the great chain I before described.

In lat. 67. 3, long. 188. 11, he fell in with Serdze Kamen ^*,SERDZE KAMEN. a lofty promontory, faced towards the sea with a steep rocky cliff. To the eastward the coast continues high and bold, towards the North Cape low, being a continuation of the Arctic flats. This was the northern limit of the voyage of another illustrious navigator, Captain VITUS BERING,CAPT. BERING. a Dane by birth, and employed on the same plan of discovery in these parts as our great countryman was in the late voyage. He was in the service of PETER the GREAT; who, by the strength of an extensive genius, conceiving an opinion of the vicinity of America to his Asiatic dominions, laid down a plan of discovery worthy of so extraordinary a monarch, but died before the attempt was begun; but his spirit survived in his successor. BERING, after a tedious and fatiguing journey through the wilds of Sibiria, arrived in Kamt­schatka, attended with the scanty materials for his voyage, the greatest part of which he was obliged to bring with him through a thousand difficulties. Several of the circumstances of his adventures will be occasionally mentioned^†. I shall only say here, that he sailed from the river of Kamtschatka on July 15th, 1728; on the 15th of August saw Serdze Kamen, or the heart-shaped rock, a name be­stowed on it by the first discoverer.

From Serdze Kamen to a promontory named by Captain COOK East Cape ^‡,EAST CAPE. the land trends south-east. The last is a circular peninsula of high cliffs, projecting [Page CXI] far into the sea due east, and joined to the land by a long and very narrow isthmus, in lat. 66. 6. This is the Tschutski Noss of our navigators, and forms the beginning of the narrow streights or division of the old and new world.BERING'S STREIGHTS. The distance between Asia and America in this place is only thirteen leagues. The country about the cape, and to the north-west of it, was inhabited. About mid-channel are two small islands, named by the Russians the isles of St. Diomedes; neither of them above three or four leagues in circuit^{* †}. It is extremely extraordinary that BERING should have sailed through this confined passage, and yet that the object of his mission should have escaped him. His misfortune could only be attributed to the foggy weather, which he must have met with in a region notorious for mists^‡; for he says that he saw land neither to the north nor to the east^§. Our generous commander, determined to give him every honor his merit could clame, has dig­nified these with the name of BERING'S STREIGHTS.

The depth of these streights is from twelve to twenty-nine or thirty fathoms.DEPTH. The greatest depth is in the middle, which has a slimy bottom; the shallowest parts are near each shore, which consists of sand mixed with bones and shells. The current or tide very inconsiderable, and what there was came from the west.CURRENT.

From East Cape the land trends south by west. In lat. 65. 36, is the bay in which Captain COOK had the interview with the Tschutski. Immediately beyond is the bay of St. Laurence, about five leagues broad in the entrance, and four deep, bounded at the bottom by high land. A little beyond is a large bay, either bounded by low land at the bottom, or so extensive as to have the end invisible. To the south of this are two other bays; and in lat. 64. 13, long. 186. 36, is the extreme southern point of the land of the Tschutski. This formerly was called the Anadirskoi Noss. Near it BERING had conversation with eight men, who came off to him in a baidar, or boat covered with the skins of seals; from which BERING and others have named it the Tschutski Noss. A few leagues to the south-east of this point lies Clerke's island, in lat 63. 15, discovered by Capt. COOK;ISLES OF CLERKE AND ST. LAURENCE. and immediately beyond a larger, on which BERING bestowed the name of St. Laurence: the last, the resort of the Tschutski in their fishing parties^‖. Both of these consist of high cliffs, joined by low land. A small island was seen about nineteen leagues from St. Laurence's, in a north-east by east half east direction; I suspect it to be that which Capt. COOK named Anderson's, in memory of his surgeon, who died off it, and from his amiable character seems to have well [Page CXII] merited this memorial. It lies in lat. 63. 4, long. 192. An anonymous islet, imperfectly seen, and lying in lat. 64. 24, long. 190. 31, in mid-channel, com­pletes the sum of those seen remote from land between the streights and the isle of St. Laurence. As to those named in the chart given by Lieut. Synd, who in 1764 made a voyage from Kamtschatka towards BERING'S Streights, they seem to exist only in imagination, notwithstanding the Russian calendar has been exhausted to find names for them. St. Agathon, St. Titus, St. Myron, and many others, fill the space passed over by Capt. COOK, and which could not have escaped the notice of his successor^*.

The land from BERING'S Tschutski Noss trends vastly to the west, and bounds on that side the vast gulph of Anadir, into the bottom of which the river of the same name empties itself; and limits the territory of the Tschutski.

From thence is a large extent of coast trending south-west from Cape St. Thad­deus, in lat. 62. 50, long. 180, the southern boundary of the gulph of Anadir, to Oljutorskoi Noss, beyond which the land retires full west, and forms in its bosom a gulph of the same name. Off Thaddeus Noss appeared, on June 29th, abundance of walruses and great seals; and even the wandering albatross was seen in this high latitude^†. Between this and the Penginsk gulph, at the end of the sea of Ochotsk, is the isthmus which unites the famous peninsula of Kamtschatka to the main land, and is here about a hundred and twenty miles broad, and extends in length from 52 to 61, north lat. The coasts are often low: often faced with cliffs, in many parts of an extraordinary height; and out at sea are rude and spiring rocks, the haunts of leonine seals, whose dreadful roarings are frequently the preservation of mariners, warning them of the danger, in the thick fogs of this climate^‡. The coast has but few harbours, notwithstanding it juts frequently into great headlands. The most remarkable are, the North Head, with its needle rocks, at the entrance of the bay of Awatcha (Voyage, vol. iii. tab. 58); Cheepoonskoi Noss, still further north, engraven in vol. ii. tab. 84; and Kronotskoi Noss, with its lofty cliffs. The peninsula widens greatly in the middle, and lessens almost to a point at Cape Lopatka, which slopes into a low flat, and forms the southern ex­tremity of the country. The whole is divided lengthways by a chain of lofty rocky mountains, frequently covered with snow, and shooting into conic summits,VULCANOS. often smoking with vulcanic eruptions. They have broken out in numbers of places: the extinct are marked by the craters, or their broken tops. The vulcano near Awatcha ^§, that of Tolbatchick, and that of the mountain of Kamtschatka ^‖, are the modern. They burst out sometimes in whirlwinds of flames, [Page CXIII] and burn up the neighboring forests: clouds of smoke succeed, and darken the whole atmosphere, till dispersed by showers of cinders and ashes, which cover the country for thirty miles round. Earthquakes, thunder, and lightning, join to fill the horror of the scenery at land; while at sea the waves rise to an uncommon height, and often divide so as to shew the very bottom of the great deep^*. By an event of this kind was once exposed to sight the chain of submarine mountains which connected the Kuril isles to the end of this great peninsula. I do not learn that they overflow with lava or with water, like the vulcanos of Europe. There are in various parts of the country hot springs,HOT SPRINGS. not inferior in warmth to those of Iceland ^†: like them they in some places form small jets d'eaux, with a great noise, but seldom exceed the height of a foot and a half^‡.

The climate during winter is uncommonly severe; for so low as Bolcheretsk, CLIMATE. lat. 52,30, all intercourse between neighbors is stopped. They dare not stir out for fear of being frost-bitten. Snow lies on the ground from six to eight feet thick as late as May; and the storms rage with uncommon impetuosity, owing to the subterraneous fires, the sulphureous exhalations, and general vulcanic dispo­sition of the country. The prevaling winds are from the west, which passing over the frozen wilds of Sibiria and Tartary, add keenness and rigour to the winters of Kamtschatka. Winter continues till the middle of June: from that month to the middle of September may be called summer, if a season filled with rain, and mists, and ungenial skies, merits that name. Rye, barley, and oats, are committed to the earth, but seldom come to perfection. The subsistence of the Russians and Cossacks depends therefore on importation from Sibiria. In some parts grass grows to a great height, and hay of uncommon nutriment is harvested for the fattening of cattle^§. Grain is a luxury for the colonists only: the natives have other resources, the effects of necessity. Excepting in few places, this is a land of in­corrigible barrenness. As soon as the sea otters and other pretious furs are ex­hausted, Kamtschatka will be deserted by the Russians, unless they should think fit to colonize the continent of America, which the furs of that country, or the prospect of mineral wealth, may induce them to attempt.

Few ores have as yet been discovered in this peninsula:ORES. not that it wants either copper or iron; but every necessary in those metals is imported at so cheap a rate, that it is not worth while for a people ignorant in mining and smelting to search for them in the almost inaccessible mountains.

From the climate and the barren nature of Kamtschatka, PLANTS. the reader need not be [Page CXIV] surprized at the poverty of its Flora. It must not be supposed that the scanty enu­meration of its plants arises from a neglect of search, or the want of a botanist to explore its vegetable kingdom. STELLER, a first-rate naturalist of Germany, who attended BERING in his last voyage, resided here a considerable time after his escape from that unfortunate expedition, expressly to complete his remarks in natural history. The result of his botanical researches was communicated to Doctor Gmelin, another gentleman sent by the Russian government to examine into the natural history of its dominions. Europe has from time to time been ransacked for men of abilities to perform this meritorious mission, and the fruits of their labors have been liberally communicated to a public thirsting for knowlege. The names of MULLER, GMELIN, STELLER, DE L'ISLE, KRASHANINICOFF, GUILDENSTAEDT, LEPECHIN, and PALLAS, will ever be held in respect, for adding to the stock of natural knowlege. But how much is it to be lamented that England wants a patron to encourage the translation of their works, locked up at present in Russian or German, concealed from the generality of readers, to the great sup­pression of knowlege!

I here give a list of the plants of Kamtschatka in systematic order; and from it annex an account of the uses made of them by the natives of the peninsula. I must not omit my thanks to the Rev. Mr. Lightfoot, and the Rev. Mr. Hugh Davies of Beaumaris, for the great assistance I received from them. Let me premise, that the plants marked A. are common to America and Kamtschatka; with B. to BERING'S Isle; with E. to England or Scotland; and with Virg. those which extend to Virginia, or the eastern side of North America ^*. It is remarkable, that the European plants, which had deserted Sibiria about the Jenesei, appear here in great abundance.

• Veronica. Gmel. Sib. iii. 219. N^o 33.
• V. incana.
• V. serpyllifolia. E.
• Iris sibirica.
• Iris. Gm. Sib. i. 30. N^o 28.
• Dactylis. Gm. Sib. i. 130. N^o 68.
• Bromus cristatus. Amoen. Acad. ii. 312.
• Triticum. Gm. Sib. i. 119. N^o 56.
• Plantago major. A. E. Virg.
• Pl. asiatica.
• Sanguisorba canadensis. A.
• Cornus suecica.
• Pulmonaria virginica. A. Am. Acad. ii. 310.
• Cerinthe major. A.
• Cortusa Gmelini. Am. Acad. ii. 313.
• Anagallis. Gm. Sib. iv. 87, 37.
• Azalca procumbens. E.
• Phlox sibirica. Am. Acad. ii. 314.
• Convolvulus persicus. Ibid.
• [Page CXV]Polemonium caeruleum. A. E.
• Lonicera Xylosteum. A?
• L. caerulea.
• Ribes alpinum. A. E.
• R. rubrum. Virg.
• R. grossularia. A. Virg.
• Claytonia virginica. A. Am. Acad. ii. 310.
• Salsola prostrata 318.
• Anabasis aphylla. 319.
• Heuchera americana. 310.
• Swertsia dichotoma. 317.
• Sw. corniculata. ibid.
• Gentiana amarella. E.
• G. aquatica. Am. Acad. ii. 316.
• Heracleum panaces. A.
• Angelica archangelica.
• Ang. Sylvestris. E. Virg.
• Cicuta virosa.
• Chaerophyllum Sylvestre.
• Chaer, aureum?
• Sambucus racemosa.
• Tradescantia. Virg?
• Allium ursinum. E. Virg.
• Allium triquetrum.
• Lilium martegon.
• L. Camschatcense. A. Virg. Am. Acad. ii. 320.
• Uvularia perfoliata. 310.
• Convallaria bifolia.
• Juncus filiformis. E. Virg.
• J. campestris. E.
• Rumex acetosa. Virg.
• Melanthium sibiricum. Am. Acad. ii. 320.
• Trillium erectum. ii. 310.
• Alisma plantago aquatica. E.
• Alsinanthemos. Gm. Sib. iv. 116. N^o 86.
• Epilobium latifolium.
• Vaccinium myrtillus. A. E.
• Vaccinium uliginosum. E.
• Vac. vitis idaea. A. E.
• Vac. oxycoccos. E. Virg.
• Erica. Gm. Sib. iv. 130. N^o 21. B.
• Er. Gm. Sib. iv. 131. N^o 22. A.
• Bryanthus. Gm. Sib. iv. 133. N^o 23.
• Polygonum bistorta. E.
• Pol. viviparum. E.
• Adoxa moschatellina. A. E.
• Sophora Lupinoides. Am. Acad. ii. 321.
• Ledum palustre.
• Andromeda. Gm. Sib. iv. 121. N^o 9.
• Chamaerhododendros. Gm. Sib. iv. 126. N^o 13. B.
• Arbutus uva ursi. E. Virg.
• Pyrola rotundifolia. E. Virg.
• Tiarella trifoliata. Am. Acad. ii. 322.
• Sedum verticillatum. ii. 323.
• Prunus padus. E.
• Sorbus aucuparia. E. Virg.
• Crataegus oxyacantha. Voyage, iii. 334.
• Spiraea hypericifolia. Am. Acad. ii. 310.
• Sp. Sorbifolia. 324.
• Spiraea. Gm. Sib. iii. 192. N^o 55.
• Spiraea. 192. N^o 56.
• Sp. aruncus.
• Rosa alpina.
• Rubus Idaeus. A. E. Virg.
• R. Caesius. E.
• R. fruticosus. E. Virg.
• R. arcticus. Virg.
• R. chamaemorus. E.
• Fragaria vesca. A. E.
• Potentilla fruticosa. E.
• Dryas pentapetala.
• Actaea cimicifuga. Am. Acad. ii. 325.
• Papaver nudicaule.
• Aconitum napellus.
• [Page CXVI]Anemone narcissifolia.
• Anem. ranunculoides.
• Anem. Dichotoma. Am. Acad. ii. 310.
• Thalictrum flavum. E.
• Ranunculus.
• Troillius europeus. E.
• Helleborus trifolius. Am. Acad. ii. 327.
• Bartsia pallida. ibid.
• Pedicularis verticillata.
• Linnaea borealis. Virg.
• Myagrum sativum. E.
• Thlaspi bursa pastoris. E. Virg.
• Arabis grandiflora.
• Turritis hirsuta. E.
• Geranium pratense. E.
• Lathyrus. Gm. Sib. iv. 85.
• Astragalus alopecuroides. Am. Acad. ii. 330.
• Astr. alpinus.
• Astr. Gm. Sib. iv. 44. N^o 58.
• Astr. physodes. Am. Acad. ii. 329.
• Hypericum. Gm. Sib. iv. 279. N^o 3.
• Picris hieraciodes. E.
• Sonchus. Gm. Sib. ii. 13. N^o 13.
• Prenanthes repens. Am. Acad. ii. 331.
• Serratula noveboracensis. Virg.
• Circium. Gm. Sib. ii. 69. N^o 49.
• Cacalia suaveolens. Am. Acad. ii. 310.
• Artemisia vulgaris. A. E.
• Gnaphalium margaritaceum. E. Virg.
• Erigeron acre. A. E.
• Tussilago. B. Gm. Sib. ii. 145. N^o 125.
• Senecio. B. 136. N^o 118.
• Aster. A. B. Gm. Sib. ii. 175. N^o 145.
• Aster. 186. N^o 152.
• Solidago virga aurea. A. B. E.
• Solidago. Gm. Sib. ii. 170. N^o 190.
• Cineraria sibirica.
• Pyrethrum. A. B. Gm. Sib. ii. 203. N^o 170.
• Orchis bifolia. E. Virg.
• Orchis latifolia. E.
• Ophrys Camtscatca. Am. Acad. ii. 332.
• Drachontium Camtscatcense. Am. Acad. ii. 332.
• Carex panicea. E. Virg.
• Carex. Gm. Sib. i. 139. N^o 77.
• Betula alba. E.
• Betula nana. E. Virg.
• Betula alnus. A. E. Virg.
• Urtica dioica. E.
• Sagittaria latifolia. E.
• Pinus cembra.
• Pinus Larix. A. Virg.
• Pinus picea.
• Salix retusa.
• Salix viminalis. E.
• Empetrum nigrum A. E. Virg.
• Populus alba. E.
• Juniperus communis. E.
• Equisetum hyemale. E. Virg.
• Asplenium Rhyzophyllum. Am. Acad. ii.
• 311. Virg.
• Lycopodium rupestre. Virg. ibid.
• Lycop. Sanguinolentum. ii. 333.

USES.The Kamtschatkans boast of their skill in the knowlege of the application of the vegetable kingdom to the uses of mankind. The Sibirians cure the venereal disease by a decoction of the root of the Iris Sibirica, which acts by purging and vomiting. They keep the patient eight days in a stove, and place him in a bed of the leaves [Page CXVII] of the Arctium Lappa, or common Burdock, which they frequently change till the cure is effected.

The Heracleum Panaces, or Sweet grass, was a plant of the first use with the Kamts­chatkans, and formerly made a principal ingredient in all their dishes; but so powerful does the love of hot liquors sway with the Russians, that, since their ar­rival, it is entirely applied to distillation. The beginning of July the more suc­culent stalks and leaves are gathered; after the down is scraped off with shells, they are layed to ferment; when they grow dry, they are placed in bags, and in a few days are covered with a saccharine powder: only a quarter of a pound of powder is collected from a pood, or thirty-six pounds of the plant, which tastes like liquorice. They draw the spirit from it by steeping bundles of it in hot water; then promote the fermentation in a small vessel, by adding the berries of the Lonicera Xylosteum, Sp. Pl. i. 248, and Vaccinium uliginosum, 499. They con­tinue the process by pouring on more water, after drawing off the first: they then place the plants and liquor in a copper still, and draw off, in the common manner, a spirit equal in strength to brandy^*. Accident discovered this liquor. One year, the natives happening to collect a greater quantity of berries of several kinds, for winter provision, than usual, found in the spring that a great quantity had fermented, and become useless as a food. They resolved to try them as a drink, and mixed the juice with water. Others determined to experience it pure; and found, on trial, the Arctic beatitude, drunkenness^†. The Russians caught at the hint, introduced distillation, and thus are enabled to enjoy ebriety with the pro­duction of the country.

The Moucho-more of the Russians, the Agaricus muscarius, Sp. Pl. 1640, is an­other instrument of intoxication. It is a species of Toadstool, which the Kamts­chadales and Koriaks sometimes eat dry, sometimes immersed in a fermented liquor made with the Epilobium, which they drink notwithstanding the dreadful effects. They are first seized with convulsions in all their limbs, then with a raving such as attends a burning fever; a thousand phantoms, gay or gloomy (according to their constitutions) present themselves to their imaginations: some dance; others are seized with unspeakable horrors. They personify this mush­room; and, if its effects urge them to suicide, or any dreadful crime, they say they obey its commands. To fit themselves for premeditated assassinations, they take the Moucho-more. Such is the fascination of drunkenness in this country, that nothing can induce the natives to forbear this dreadful potion^‡!

[Page CXVIII]As a food, the Saranne, SARANNE. or Lilium Kamtschatcense, is among the principal. Its roots are gathered by the women in August, dried in the sun, and layed up for use: they are the best bread of the country; and after being baked are reduced to powder, and serve instead of flour in soups and several dishes. They are sometimes washed, and eaten as potatoes; are extremely nourishing, and have a pleasant bitter taste. Our navigators boiled and eat them with their meat. The natives often parboil, and beat it up with several sorts of berries, so as to form of it a very agreeable confection. Providentially it is an universal plant here, and all the grounds bloom with its flower during the season^*. Another happiness re­marked here is, that while fish are scarce, the Saranne is plentiful; and when there is a dearth of this, the rivers pour in their provisions in redoubled profusion. It is not to the labors of the females alone that the Kamtschatkans are indebted for these roots. The oeconomic Mouse, p. 134. A. saves them a great deal of trouble. The Saranne forms part of the winter provisions of that little animal: they not only gather them in the proper season, and lay them up in their ma­gazines, but at times have the instinct of bringing them out, in sunny weather, to dry them, least they should decay^†. The natives search for their hoards; but with prudent tenderness leave part for the owners, being unwilling to suffer such useful caterers to perish.

Let me add, that STELLER enumerates other species of the Lilly genus, which I believe are edible. Every species of fruit, except berries, is denied to this un­kind climate; but the inhabitants use various sorts of them as wholesome substi­tutes, which they eat fresh, or make into palatable jams, or dress with their fish, either fresh or when preserved for winter use: such are those of the Lonicera Xylo­steum or Gimolost, a sort of Honeysuckle: the Rubus Chamaemorus, Morochka, or Cloudberries: the Vaccinium Myrtillus, Uliginosum, Vitis Idaea, and Oxycoccos, or Bilberries, Marsh Bilberries, Red Bilberries, and Cranberries: the Empetrum Nigrum, or Heathberries: the Prunus Padus, or Bird Cherry: Crataegus Oxyacan­tha, or White Thorn with red and with black berries: the Juniperus Communis, or Common Juniper: and finally, of those of the Sorbus Aucuparia, or Common Service.

Of the Epilobium Latifolium, Sp. Pl. 494, or Kipri, is brewed a common beve­rage; and, with the assistance of the Sweet Plant, is made an excellent vinegar: the leaves are used as a tea, and the pith is mixed with many of the dishes, and served up green as a desert. When the infusion of it is mixed with the Sweet Herb in the distillation, much more brandy is procured than if water alone is used^‡.

[Page CXIX]The Polygonum Bistorta, Snake-weed, or Jikoum, is eaten fresh or dried, and often pounded with the Caviar. The Chaerophyllum Sylvestre, Wild Chervil, or Cow-weed, the Morkavai of the natives, is eaten green in the spring, or made into sour krout. The Solidago Itschitschu, Fl. Sib. ii. 170, is dried and boiled with fish; and the broth from it tastes as if the flesh of the Argali or wild sheep had been seethed in it. The root of Kotkonnia, a species of Tradescantia, is eaten either fresh, or used with the roes of fish: the berries have an agreable acidity, like an unripe apple, but will not keep, therefore they must be eaten as soon as they are gathered. Allium Ursinum, Tcheremcha, our Wild Garlic, is very common, and useful in medicine as well as food; both Russians and natives gather it in great quantities for winter service: they steep it in water, then mix it with cabbage, onions, and other ingredients, and form out of them a ragout, which they eat cold. It is also the principal remedy for the scurvy. As soon as this plant appears above the snow, they seem to put this dreadful disorder at defiance, and find a cure almost in its worst stages. The Potentilla fruticosa, Sp. Pl. i. 709, or Shrubby Cinquefoil, is very efficacious in the dysentery, or in fresh wounds. The Dryas pentapetala, Sp. Pl. i. 717, or Ichagban, is employed in swellings or pains of the limbs. That dreadful poison the Cicuta virosa, Sp. Pl. i. 366, Water Hemlock, the Omeg, is applied to use, by the bold practitioners of this country, in cases of pains in the back. They sweat the patient profusely, and then rub his back with the plant, avoid­ing to touch the loins, which, they say, would bring on immediate death.

The trees of use are a dwarf species of Pinus Cembra, TREES. or Pine with edible kernels; it grows in great quantities on both the mountains and plains, covered with moss. It never grows upright, but creeps on the ground, and is therefore called by the Russians, Slanetz. The natives eat the kernels, with even the cones, which brings on a tenesmus; but the chief use of the tree is as a sovereign medi­cine in the scurvy. BERING taught the Kamtschatkans to make a decoction of it: but they have neglected his instructions, notwithstanding they saw num­bers of his people restored to health in a short time, and snatched, as it were, from the jaws of death^*. Even at this time the Russian colonists perish miserably with the disorder, notwithstanding the remedy is before their eyes.

The Pinus Larix, or Larch-tree, grows only on the river of Kamtschatka, and the streams which run into it. This tree is of the first use in the mechanical services of the country: with it they build their houses, their fortifications, and boats. They make use of the Populus alba, or White Poplar, for the same pur­poses. [Page CXX] Of the Betula alba, or Common Birch, a tree so useful to these northern nations, they make their sledges and canoes; and cut the fresh bark into small slices like vermicelli, and eat it with their dried caviar: they also tap the trees, and drink the liquor without any preparation. With the bark of the alder they dye their leather; but that, and every tree they have near the coast, is stunted, so that they are obliged to go far inland for timber of proper size.

I must add, as a vegetable of use in oeconomics, the Triticum, Gm. Sib. i. 119, N^o 56, which grows in great quantities along the shores, which they mow, and work into mats, which serve for bed clothes and curtains; into mantles, smooth on one side, and with a pile on the other, which is water-proof. They also make with it sacks, and very elegant baskets; these, as well as the mats, they ornament with split whale-bones, and work into variety of figures^*. The Urtica dioica, or Common Nettle, is another plant of great use: this they pluck in August or September, tie in bundles, and dry on their huts: they tear it to pieces, beat, and clean it; then spin it between their hands, and twist the thread round a spindle. It is the only material they have to make their nets; which, for want of skill in the preparation, will rot, and last no longer than one season^†.

QUADRUPEDS.In respect to the quadrupeds of this country, I have reason to think, from the great assistance I have received from the Russian academists, or their labors, that my account of them, in my zoological part of this Work, can receive little addi­tion. I request that the Brown Bear, N^o 20, may be substituted instead of the Black, N^o 19, as the native of Kamtschatka. I was led into the mistake by the suspicions of a most able naturalist. I am since informed, by the best authority (that of Captain KING^‡) that it is the brown species which is found there; that they are carnivorous^§, and prey at times on the Argali or wild sheep; but do not attack man, except urged by extreme hunger, or provoked by wounds, or by the slaughter of their young; when nothing but their death can secure the safety of the persons who fall in their way. In the first case, they will hunt mankind by the scent, and sacrifice them to their want of food, which usually is fish or berries.—The Kamtschatkans never read Pope, but observe his advice: ‘Learn from the Beasts the physic of the field.’ The Bear is their great master; and they owe all their knowlege in medicine and surgery, and the polite arts, to this animal. They observe the herbs to which he has recourse when he is ill, or when he is wounded, and the same simples prove [Page CXXI] equally restorative to the two-legged Ursine race. The last even acknowlege the Bear as their dancing-master, and are most apt scholars in mimicking his attitudes and graces^*. I was informed by one of the gentlemen who was on the voyage, that the Sea Otter, N^o 36, was seen on the first arrival on the American coast; but, as it is not mentioned in that excellent and magnificent work till the arrival of the ships in Nootka sound, I will not insist on the accuracy of its latitude.

The Argali yields a dish of most excellent flavor.ARGALI. The natives work the horns into spoons, small cups, and platters; and have frequently a small one hang­ing at their belts, by way of a drinking horn, in their hunting expeditions^†.

The Dogs are like the Pomeranian, but vastly larger; the hair rather coarser,DOGS. and the usual color light dun, or dirty creme-color. Bitches are never used for the draught, but dogs alone; which are trained to it from their puppy-hood, by being tied with thongs to stakes, with their food placed at a small distance beyond their reach; so that by constant laboring and straining, they acquire both strength of limb and habit of drawing^‡.

The leonine and ursine Seals, and the Manati,SEALS. must have been on their mi­grations during the time the navigators visited this peninsula; for they saw not one of those curious animals. The common Seals, being stationary, were met with in great numbers. The bottle-nosed Seal, or Sea-Lion of Lord Anson, is totally unknown in these seas. I refer the reader, for a view of the quadrupeds and birds of Kamtschatka, to the catalogue which Captain KING honored with a place in the third volume of the Voyage^§. I shall only add, that the class of Auks is far the most numerous of any, and contains six species unknown to Eu­rope; that the only bird which has escaped me is a small Blue Petrel ^‖, seen in numbers in about lat. 59. 48, off the northern part of the peninsula.

Kamtschatka is destitute of every species of serpent and frog.REPTILES. Lizards are very frequent, and are detested by the natives, who believe them to be spies sent by the infernal gods to examine their actions, and predict their deaths. If they catch one, they cut it into small pieces, to prevent it from giving any account of its mission: if it escapes out of their hands, they abandon themselves to melancholy, and expect every moment their dissolution; which often happens through fear, and serves to confirm the superstition of the country^¶.INSECTS. The air is very unfavorable [Page CXXII] to insects, except lice and fleas, which are in all their quarters; and, filthy to relate! are eaten by these beastly people^*. Bugs are acquisitions of late years, imported into the bay of Awatcha.

FISH.The fish of Kamtschatka are with difficulty enumerated. There does not seem to be any great variety of genera; yet the individuals under each species are found in most astonishing abundance. Providence hath been peculiarly atten­tive to the natives of this peninsula, by furnishing them in so ample a manner, who for the greater part must for ever be deprived of support derived from grain and cattle. The vegetables they have are sufficient to correct the putrescent quality of the dried fish, and often form an ingredient in the dishes; which are prepared different ways. The Joukola is made of the salmon kind, cut into six pieces, and dried either in the open air or smoked: the roes are another dish in high esteem with them, either dried in the air, or rolled in the leaves of different plants, and dried before the fire. They can live along time on a small quantity of this food, and eat with it the bark of birch or willow trees, to assist them in swallowing a food so very viscid; but their ambrosial repast is the Huigul, or fish flung into a pit till it is quite rotten, when it is served up in the state of carrion, and with a stench unsupportable to every nose but that of a Kamtschatkan ^†.

The Fin Whale,WHALE. Br. Zool. iii. N^o 18, is very frequent, and is of singular use to the inhabitants. They eat the flesh; preserve the fat for kitchen use and for their lamps; with the corneous laminae they few the seams of their canoes, and make nets for the larger sort of fish; they form the sliders of their sledges with the under jaw-bones, and likewise work them into knives; with the blade-bones, worked down to a sharp edge, they form scythes, and most successfully mow the grass. The Tschutski verify the relation of Pliny ^‡, and, like the Gedrosi of old, frame their dwellings with the ribs^§; with the ligaments they make excellent snares for different animals; with the intestines dried, cleaned, and blown, they make bags for their grease and oil; and with the skins the soles of their shoes, and straps and thongs for various purposes. The Tschutski take these animals by har­pooning; the Oloutores, in nets made of thongs cut out of the skins of the Wal­rus; and the Kamtschatkans, by shooting them with darts or arrows, the points of which, having been anointed with the juice of the Zgate, a species of Anemone and Ranunculus ^‖, are so noxious as to bring speedy death from the slightest wound, like the celebrated poison of the Paragua Indians. The vast animals in question, [Page CXXIII] when struck with it, are infected with such agonies that they cannot bear the sea, but rush on shore, and expire with dreadful groans and bellowing.

The Kasatka or Grampus,GRAMPUS. Br. Zool. iii. N^o 26, is very common in these seas: they are dreaded by the natives, who even make offerings to them, and entreat their mercy, least they should overset their boats; yet, if these fish are thrown on shore, they apply them to the same uses as the Whale^*.

The Motkoïa or Akoul, or White Shark, Br. Zool. iii. N^o 42, is among the useful fish. They eat the flesh, and form of the intestines and bladder, bags to hold their oil. In the chase of this fish they never call it by its name, for fear of provoking it to burst its bladder^†.

Lampries, Br. Zool. iii. N^o 27; Eels, — 57; Wolf-fish, — 65; common Cod­fish? — 73; Hadock, — 74; and Hake, — 81, are found in the Kamtschatkan sea: and I also suspect, that the three-bearded Cod, — N^o 87, is also met with: it is called there Morskie Nalimi ^‡. An elegant species of Flounder, of excellent flavor, was taken here in abundance by our navigators: the back was studded with prickly tubercles, and marked longitudinally with lines of black on a brown ground. The Jerchei, possibly our Ruffe, — N^o 127, is among the fish of the country; as is a species of the English Sticklebacks.

But the fish of the first importance to the Kamtschatkans, SALMON. and on which they de­pend for subsistence, are the anadromous kinds, or those which at stated seasons ascend the rivers and lakes out of the sea. These are entirely of the Salmon genus, with exception to the common Herring, which in autumn quits the salt water. It is sayed, that every species of Salmon is found here. I may with certainty adjoin, that several of the Sibirian species, with variety peculiar to this country, ascend the Kamtschatkan rivers in multitudes incredible. The inhabitants dignify some of their months by the names of the fish. One is called Kouiche, or the month of Red Fishes; another, Ajaba, or that of Little White Fish; a third, Kaiko, or of the fish Kaiko; and a fourth, Kijou, or the month of the Great White Fish ^§. It is observable, that each shoal keeps apart from others of different species, and fre­quently prefers a separate river, notwithstanding the mouths may be almost con­tiguous. They often come up in such numbers as to force the water before them, and even to dam up the rivers, and make them overflow their banks; insomuch that, on the fall of the water, such multitudes are left on dry ground, as to make a stench capable of causing a pestilence, was it not fortunately dispersed by the violence of the winds; besides, the bears and dogs assist, by preying on them, to lessen the ill effects.

[Page CXXIV]Every species of Salmon dies in the same river or lake in which it is born, and to which it returns to spawn. In the third year, male and female consort together, and the latter deposits its spawn in a hole formed with its tail and fins in the sand; after which both sexes pine away, and cease to live. A fish of a year's growth continues near the place, guards the spawn, and returns to the sea with the new-born fry in November ^*. The Salmons of this country spawn but once in their lives: those of Sibiria and Europe, the rivers of which are deep, and abound with insect food, are enabled to continue the first great command of nature during the period of their existence. In Kamtschatka the rivers are chilly, shallow, rapid, full of rocks, and destitute of nourishment for such multitudes: such therefore which cannot force their way to the neighborhood of the tepid streams, or get back to the sea in time, universally perish; but Providence has given such resources, in the spawners, that no difference in numbers is ever observed between the returning seasons. It is singular, that neither the lakes or rivers have any species of fish but what come from the sea. All the lakes (for this country abounds with them) communicate with the sea; but their en­trance, as well as that of many of the rivers, is entirely barred up with sand brought by the tempestuous winds, which confine the fish most part of the winter, till they are released by the storms taking another direction.

The species which appears first is the Tshawytscha. TSHAWYTSCHA. This is by much the largest; it weighs sometimes between fifty and sixty pounds, and its depth is very great in proportion to the length. The jaws are equal, and never hooked: the teeth large, and in several rows: the scales are larger than those of the common Salmon;P. D. 12. P. 16. V. 10. A. 15. on the back dusky grey, on the sides silvery: the fins bluish white, and all parts unspotted: the tail is lunated: the flesh, during its residence in the sea, is red; but it becomes white in fresh waters. It is confined, on the eastern side of the peninsula, to the river of Kamtschatka and Awatcha; and on the western to the Bolchaia-reka, and a few others; nor is it ever seen beyond lat. 54. It enters the mouths of the rivers about the middle of May, with such impetuosity as to raise the water before it in waves. It goes in far less numbers than the other species; is infinitely more esteemed; and is not used as a common food, but re­served for great entertainments. The natives watch its arrival, which is an­nounced by the rippling of the water; take it in strong nets; and always eat the first they take, under a notion that the omission would be a great crime.Numbers of rays in the dorsal, pectoral, ventral, and anal fins.

[Page CXXV]The Naerka is another species, called by the Russians, Krasnaya ryba, NAERKA. from the intense purplish redness of the flesh. It is of the form of the common Salmon;P. D. 11. P. 16. V. 10. A. 15. but never exceeds sixteen pounds in weight. When it first enters the rivers it is of a silvery brightness, with a bluish back and fins: when it leaves the sea the teeth are small, and jaws strait; but after it has been some time in the fresh water, the jaws grow crooked (especially in the male) and the teeth large. It begins to ascend the rivers in vast numbers in June; penetrates to their very sources; and returns in September to the sea, first resting for some time in the deep parts of the intervening lakes. It is taken in nets, either in the bays, as it approaches the rivers, or in the rivers, after it has quitted the sea^*.

The Kysutch, KYSUTCH. or Bjelaya ryba, or White Fish of the Russians, ascends the rivers in July, particularly such as are discharged from the inland lakes, and remain till December, when all the old fish perish, and the fry take to the sea.P. D. 11. P. 14. V. 10. A. 14. The upper jaw of the male, in its last period, becomes crooked. This species has the form of a common Salmon, but never attains three feet in length. It is of a silvery glossy color, spotted about the back; but in the rivers acquires a reddish cast: the jaws are long and blunt: the teeth large: the flesh is reddish before it quits the sea; but in the fresh water grows white. It is reckoned the most excellent of the light-colored fish.

The Keta or Kayko, KETA. in form and size resembles the last; but the head is shorter and more blunt: the tail is lunated: the flesh white:P. D. 14. P. 15. V. 11. A. 18. the color of the scales a silvery white: the back greenish; and the whole free from spots. It ascends the rivers in July, and the fishery continues till October. This species is found in great abundance; and is so common, that the Joukola made with it is called houshold bread.

The Gorbuscha, GORBUSCHA. or Hunch-back, arrives at the same time with the last. In form it resembles the Grayling: never exceeds a foot and a half in length:P. D. 12. P. 15. V. 10. A. 15. is of a silvery color, and unspotted: the tail forked: the flesh white. After it has been some time in the fresh water it changes its shape (the male especially) in a most surprizing manner. The jaws and teeth grow prodigiously long, especially the upper, which at first is shortest, but soon shoots beyond the under, and grows crooked downwards; the body becomes emaciated, and the meat bad: but what is most characteristic, an enormous bunch rises just before the first dorsal fin, to which it owes its name. Its flesh is bad; so that this fish falls to the share of the dogs.

[Page CXXVI]The Malma, MALMA. or Golet of the Russians, grows to the weight of twenty pounds, and to the length of about twenty-eight inches.P. D. 12. P. 14. V. 8. A. 10. It is the most slender and cylindrical of all the genus. The head resembles that of a trout: the scales are very small: the back and sides bluish, with scattered spots of scarlet red: the belly white: ventral and anal fins red: tail slightly forked. This and the two following are sporadic, going dispersedly, and not in shoals. It ascends the rivers with the last, and at­tains their very sources. It feeds on the spawn of the other species, and grows very fat. The natives salt those they take in autumn, and preserve frozen those which are caught when the frosts commence^*.

MILKTSCHITSCH.The Milktschitsch is a scarce species, in form like a young Salmon; but the scales larger in proportion,P. D. 11. P. 14. V. 10. A. 13. and the body more flat: it never exceeds a foot and a half in length: is of a silvery white, with a bluish back: nose conical: jaws equal: tail slightly forked.

The Mykiss, MYKISS. appears at first very lean, but grows soon fat: it is very voracious: feeds not only on fish,P. D. 12. P. 14. V. 10. A. 12. but insects and rats, while swimming over the rivers; and is so fond of the berries of vaccinium vitis idaea, that it will dart out of the water, and snatch at both leaves and berries, which hang over the banks^†. In shape it re­sembles a common Salmon: seldom grows above two feet long: has large scales, blunt nose, and numerous teeth: the back is dusky, marked with black spots; and on each side is a broad band of bright red: the belly white. It is a species of excellent flavor; but is scarcer than the other kinds. Its time of arrival is not known: M. STELLER therefore suspects that it ascends the rivers beneath the ice^‡.

The Kunsha, KUNSHA. mentioned in page CIV, frequents the bays of this country, but never advances inland; and grows to the length of two feet: the nose is short and pointed: the back and sides dusky, marked with great yellowish spots, some round, others oblong: the belly white: the lower fins and tail blue: the flesh white, and excellent. It is a scarce fish in these parts; but near Ochotsk ascends the rivers in great shoals.

I conclude this division of the tribe with the common Salmon, which is frequent here, and, like the others, ascends the rivers, equally to the advantage of the natives of the country.

Of the Salmon which LINNAEUS distinguished by the title of Coregoni is the Inghaghitsh, INGHAGHITSH. P. D. 8, 9 P. 12. V. 10. A. 12. which has the habit of a small carp, with very large scales: the jaws nearly of equal length: the eyes very great, and silvery: the teeth very minute: the body silvery, bluish on the back: tail forked: it does not exceed five inches [Page CXXVII] in length. It arrives in spring and autumn, and in both seasons is full of spawn, and smells like a smelt.

The Innyagha is another small kind,INNYAGHA. about five inches long, and not unlike the S. Albula of LINNAEUS. It is a rare species, and found but in few rivers. P. D. 9. P. 11. V. 8. A. 16.

The most singular is the Ouiki, OUIKI. or Salmo Catervarius of STELLER. It belongs to the Osmeri of LINNAEUS. Swims in immense shoals on the eastern coast of Kamts­chatka, and the new-discovered islands, where it is often thrown up by the sea to the height of some feet, upon a large extent of shore: is excessively unwholesome as a food, and causes fluxes even in dogs. It never exceeds seven inches in length. Just above the side-line is a rough fascia, beset with minute pyramidal scales, standing upright, so as to appear like the pile of shag: their use is most curious— while they are swimming, and even when they are flung on shore, two, three, or even as many as ten, will adhere as if glued together, by means of this pile, inso­much that if one is taken up, all the rest are taken up at the same time.

To conclude this list of Kamtschatkan Salmon, I must add the Salmo Thymallus, or Grayling; the S. Cylindraceus, before described; the Salmo Albula, Lin. Syst. 512; and the Salmo Eperlanus, or common Smelt, to those which ascend the rivers.— For this account I am indebted to Doctor PALLAS, who extracted it from the papers of STELLER, for the use of this Work.

The Herring,HERRING. both the common and the variety, found in the gulph of Bothnia, called the Membras, and by the Suedes, Stroeming, Faun. Suec. p. 128, visit these coasts in shoals, perhaps equal to those of Europe. There are two seasons, the first about the end of May, the second in October. The first species are re­markably fine and large^*; they ascend the rivers, and enter the lakes: the autumnal migrants are closed up in them by the shifting of the sand at the mouths of the entrance, and remain confined the whole winter. The natives catch them in summer in nets; and in winter in most amazing numbers, by breaking holes in the ice, into which they drop their nets, then cover the opening with mats, and leave a small hole for one of their companions to peep through, and observe the coming of the fish; when they draw up their booty: and string part on pack-thread for drying; and from the remainder they press an oil white as the butter of Finland ^†.

The sea,SEA. on which these people depend for their very existence, is finely adapted for the retreat and preservation of fish. It does not consist of a level uniform bottom, liable to be ruffled with storms, but of deep vallies and lofty [Page CXXVIII] mountains, such as yield security and tranquillity to the finned inhabitants. We find the soundings to be most unequal: in some places only twenty-two fathoms, in others the lead has not found a bottom with a hundred and sixty fathoms of line. On such places the fish might rest undisturbed during the rage of the tempestuous winters. I do not find the least notice of shells be­ing met with in these seas: either there are none, or they are pelagic, and escape the eyes of the navigators. But nature probably hath made ample pro­vision for the inhabitants of the sea, in the quantity of sea-plants which it yields; STELLER, the great explorer of this region, enumerates the following, many of which are of uncommon elegance:

• Fucus peucedanifolius, Gm. Hist. Fucor. 76
• Fucus turbinatus 97
• Fucus corymbiferus, E. 124
• Fucus dulcis, E. 189
• Fucus tamariscifolius^*, E.
• Fucus bifidus 201
• Fucus polyphyllus 206
• Fucus clathrus 211
• Fucus myrica 88
• Fucus rosa marina 102
• Fucus crenatus 160
• Fucus fimbriatus 200
• Fucus angustifolius 205
• Fucus agarum 210
• Fucus quercus marina^†
• Fucus veficulosus, Sp. Pl. 1626, E.
• Ulva glandiformis 232
• Ulva Priapus 231

Of these the Quercus marina is used as a remedy in the dysentery; and the fe­males of Kamtschatka tinge their cheeks with an infusion of the Fucus tamarisci­folius in the oil of Seals.

TIDES.In the harbours of Sts. Peter and Paul the greatest rise of the tides was five feet eight inches at full and change of the moon, at thirty-six minutes past four, and they were very regular every twelve hours^‡. The Russian philosophers observed here a singular phaenomenon in the flux and reflux of the sea twice in the twenty-four hours, in which is one great flood and one small flood; the last of which is called Manikha. At certain times nothing but the water of the river is seen within its proper channel; at other times, in the time of ebb, the waters are observed to overflow their banks. In the Manikha, after an ebb of six hours, the water sinks about three feet, and the tide returns for three hours, but does not rise above a foot; a seven-hours ebb succeeds, which carries off the sea-water, and leaves the bay dry. Thus it happens three days before and [Page CXXIX] after the full moon; after which the great tide diminishes, and the Manikha, or little tide, increases^*.

The rivers of the country rise in the midst of the great chain of mountains, and flow on each side into the seas of Ochotsk, or that of Kamtsckatka. They fur­nish a ready passage in boats or canoes (with the intervention of carrying-places) quite across the peninsula. As has been mentioned, the waters yield no fish of their own, but are the retreat of myriads of migrants from the neighboring seas.

This peninsula, and the country to the west,NATIVES. are inhabited by two na­tions; the northern parts by the Koriacs, who are divided into the Rein-deer or wandering, and the fixed Koriacs; KORIACS. and the southern part by the Kamts­chatkans, properly so called: the first lead an erratic life,WANDERING. in the tract bounded by the Penschinska sea to the south-east; the river Kowyma to the west; and the river Anadir to the north^†. They wander from place to place with their Rein-deer, in search of the moss, the food of those animals, their only wealth^‡. They are squalid, cruel, and warlike, the terror of the fixed Koriacs, as much as the Tschutski are of them. They never frequent the sea, nor live on fish. Their habitations are jourts, or places half sunk in the earth: they never use ba­lagans, or summer-houses elevated on posts, like the Kamtschatkans: are in their persons lean, and very short: have small heads and black hair, which they shave frequently: their faces are oval: nose short: their eyes small: mouth large: beard black and pointed, but often eradicated.

The fixed Koriacs are likewise short, but rather taller than the others,FIXED. and strongly made: they inhabit the north of the peninsula: the Anadir is also their boundary to the north; the ocean to the east; and the Kamtschatkans to the south. They have few Rein-deer, which they use in their sledges; but neither of the tribes of Koriacs are civilized enough to apply them to the purposes of the dairy. Each speak a different dialect of the same language; but the fixed in most things resemble the Kamtschatkans; and, like them, live almost entirely on fish. They are timid to a high degree, and behave to their wandering brethren with the utmost submission; who call them by a name which signifies their slaves. These poor people seem to have no alternative; for, by reason of the scarcity of Rein-deer, they depend on these tyrants for the essential article of cloathing. I cannot trace the origin of these two nations; but from the features may pronounce them offspring of Tartars, which have spread to the east, and degenerated in size and strength by the rigour of the climate, and often by scarcity of food.

[Page CXXX] KAMTSCHAT­KANS.The true Kamtschatkans ^* posseses the country from the river Ukoi to the southern extremity, the cape Lopatka. They are supposed, by M. STELLER, to have been derived from the Mongalian Chinese, not only from a similarity in the termina­tion of many of their words, but in the resemblance of their persons, which are short. Their complexion is swarthy: their beard small: their hair black: face broad and flat: eyes small and sunk: eye-brows thin: belly pendent: legs small— circumstances common to them and the Mongalians. It is conjectured, that in some very remote age they fled hither, to escape the yoke of the eastern conque­rors, notwithstanding they believe themselves to be aboriginal, created and placed on the spot by their god Koutkou.

RELIGION.In respect to their deity, they are perfect minute philosophers. They find fault with his dispensations; blaspheme and reproach him with having made too many mountains, precipices, breakers, shoals, and cataracts; with forming storms and rains; and when they are descending, in the winter, from their barren rocks, they load him with imprecations for the fatigue they undergo. In their morals they likewise bear a great similitude to numbers among the most polished rank in the European nations—they think nothing vitious that may be accomplished with­out danger; and give full loose to every crime, provided it comes within the pale of security.

GENII.They have also their lesser deities, or genii. Each of them have their peculiar charge; to these they pay considerable veneration, and make offerings to them, to divert their anger or ensure their protection. The Kamouli preside over the mountains, particularly the vulcanic; the Ouchakthou, over the woods; Mitg, over the sea; Gaetch, over the subterraneous world; and Fouila is the author of earthquakes. They believe that the world is eternal; that the soul is immortal; that in the world below it will be reunited to the body, and experience all the pains usual in its former state; but that it never will suffer hunger, but have every thing in great abundance: that the rich will become poor, and the poor rich; a sort of just dispensation, and balance of former good and evil^†. But almost all these super­stitions are vanished by the attention of the Russians to their conversion. There are few who have not embraced the Christian religion. Churches have been built, and schools erected, in which they are successfully taught the language of their conquerors, which has already almost worn out that of the native people.

NUMBERS OF PEOPLE.The country was very populous at the arrival of the Russians; but, after a dread­ful visitation of the small-pox, which in 1767 swept away twenty thousand [Page CXXXI] souls^*, at present there are not above three thousand who pay tribute, the inha­bitants of the Kuril isles included. Here are about four hundred of the military Russians and Cossacks, besides a number of Russian traders and emigrants perpe­tually pouring in, who intermix with the natives ^† in marriage, and probably in time will extinguish the aboriginal race. The offspring is a great improvement; for it is remarked, that the breed is far more active than the pure Russian or Cossack. Sunk in lordly indolence, they leave all the work to the Kamtschatkans, or to their women; and suffer the penalty of their laziness, by the scurvy in its most frightful forms.

The Kamtschatkans seem to retain the antient form of their dress;DRESS. but during summer it is composed of foreign materials; in the warm season both sexes use nankeen, linen, and silk; in winter, the skins of animals well dressed: the dress of men and women resembles a carter's frock with long sleeves, furred at the wrists, the bottom, and about the neck. On their head is a hood of fur, some­times of the shaggy skin of a dog, and often of the elegant skin of the earless Marmot. Trousers, boots, and furred mittens, compose the rest. The habit of ceremony of a Toion or chieftain is very magnificent, and will cost a hundred and twenty rubels: in antient times it was hung over with the tails of animals, and his furred hood flowed over each shoulder, with the respectability of a full-bottomed perriwig in the days of Charles II. The figure given in the History of Kamtschatka, translated into French, exhibits a great man in all his pride of dress^‡; but so rapidly has the present race of natives copied the Russians, that possibly in so short a space as half a century, this habit, as well as numbers of other articles and customs, may be ranked among the antiquities of the country.

Bows and arrows are now quite disused.ARMS. Formerly they used bows made of larch-wood, covered with the bark of the birch. The arrows were headed with stone or bone, and their lances with the same materials. Their armour was either mats, or formed of thongs cut out of the skins of Seals, and sewed toge­ther, so as to make a pliable cuirass; which they fixed on their left side; a board defended their breast, and a high one on their back defended both that and the head.

Their savage and beastly hospitality is among the obsolete customs.HOSPITALITY. Former­ly, as a mark of respect to a guest, the host set before him as much food as would serve ten people. Both were stripped naked: the host politely touched no­thing, but compelled his friend to devour what was set before him, till he was [Page CXXXII] quite gorged; and at the same time heated the place, by incessantly pouring water on hot stones, till it became unsupportable. When the guest was crammed up to the throat, the generous landlord, on his knees, stuffed into his mouth a great slice of whale's fat, cut off what hung out, and cried, in a surly tone, Tana, or There! by which he fully discharged his duty; and, between heat and cramming, obliged the poor guest to cry for mercy, and a release from the heat, and the danger of being choaked with the noble welcome: oftentimes he was obliged to purchase his dis­mission with most costly presents; but was sure to retaliate on the first oppor­tunity^*.

DWELLINGS.From the birds they learned the art of building their balagans or summer-houses. They seem like nests of a conic form, perched on high poles instead of trees; with a hole on one side, like that of the magpie, for the entrance. Their jourts, or winter residences, are copied from the oeconomic Mouse, p. 134; but with less art, and less cleanliness. It is partly sunk under ground; the sides and top supported by beams, and wattled, and the whole covered with turf. In this they live gregariously, to the number of six families in each; in a state in­tolerable to an European, by reason of smoke, heat, and stench, from their store of dried or putrid fish, and from their laziness, in never going out to perform their offerings to Cloacina ^†.

Instigated by avarice, the Russians made a conquest of this savage country; and found their account in it, from the great value of its furry productions. They have added to their dominions this extremity of Asia, distant at least four thousand miles from their capital.ROADS TO KAMTS­CHATKA. The journey to it is still attended with great difficulties, through wild and barren regions, over dreadful mountains; and possibly impracticable, but for the multitude of Sibirian rivers, which, with short intervals of land, facilitate the passage. Travellers usually take their de­parture out of Sibiria from Jakutz, on the river Lena, in lat. 62: they go either by water along the river, to its conflux with the Aldun, along the Aldun to the Mai, and from that river up the Judoma; and from near the head of that river to Ochotsk, the port from whence they embark, and cross the sea of Ochotsk to Bolschaia-reka, the port of the western side of Kamtschatka. The whole journey usually takes up the short summer: that over the hills to Ochotsk (and which is most convenient) was performed by STELLER in thirty-four days, excluding seven of rest^‡.

The Kuril or Kurilski isles,KURIL ISLES. which probably once lengthened the peninsula of Kamtschatka, before they were convulsed from it, are a series of islands running [Page CXXXIII] south from the low promontory Lopatka, in lat. 51; between which and Shoomska, the most northerly, is only the distance of one league. On the lofty Paramouser, the second in the chain, is a high-peaked mountain, probably vulcanic^*:VULCANIC. on the fourth, called Araumakutan, is another vulcano^†; on Uruss is another; on Storgu two; and on Kunatir, or Kaunachir, one. These three make part of the group which pass under the name of the celebrated land of Jeso ^‡. Japan abounds with vulcanoes^§; so that there is a series of spiracles from Kamtschatka to Japan, the last great link of this extensive chain. Time may have been, when the whole was a continuation of continent, rent asunder before the labor­ing earth gave vent to its inward struggles, through the mouths of the frequent vulcanoes. Even with these discharges, Japan has suffered considerably by earth­quakes^‖. Vulcanoes are local evils, but extensive benefits.

The Russians soon annexed these islands to their conquests. The sea abound­ed with Sea Otters, and the land with Bears and Foxes; and some of them sheltered the Sable. Temptations sufficient for the Russians to invade these islands; but the rage after the furs of the Sea Otters has been so great, that they are become extremely scarce, both here and in Kamtschatka.

The islands which lie to the east of that peninsula, and form a chain be­tween it and America, must now engage our attention. They lie in the form of a crescent, and are divided into three groupes; the Aleutian, the Andreanoffskie, and the Fox isles: but mention must first be made of BERING'S isle, and that of Mednoi, and one or two small and of little note. These lie about two hundred and fifty versts to the east of the mouth of Kamtschatka river.BERING'S ISLE. BERING'S is in lat. 55, where that great seaman was shipwrecked in November 1741, on his return from his American discoveries; and, after enduring great hardships, perished misera­bly. Numbers of his people died of the scurvy, with all the dreadful symptoms at­tendant on those who perished by the same disease in Lord Anson's voyage^¶; the survivors, among whom was the philosopher STELLER, reached Kamtschatka in August 1742, in a vessel constructed out of the wreck of their ship. The isle is about seventy or eighty versts long; consists of high granitical mountains, craggy with rocks and peaks, changing into free-stone towards the promontories. All the vallies run from north to south: hills of sand, formed by inundations of the sea, floated wood, and skeletons of marine animals, are found at great distances from the shore, at thirty fathoms perpendicular height above the high-water level; which serve as a monument of the violent inundations that the vulcanoes before mentioned [Page CXXXIV] produce in these seas. Farther, the effect of the meteoric waters, and of the frosts, causes the rocks very sensibly to shiver and fall down, and precipitates every year some great mass into the sea, and changes the form of the island. The others are in the same case; so nothing is more probable than their gradual diminution, and, by consequence, the more easy communication formerly from one continent to the other, before the injuries of time, the effects of vulcanoes, and other catastrophes, had insensibly diminished the size, and perhaps the number of these isles, which form the chain; and had eaten in the coasts of Asia, which every where exhibit traces of the ravages they have undergone^*.

The island swarmed with Sea Otters, which disappeared in March. The Ursine Seal succeeded them in vast numbers, and quitted the coast the latter end of May. The Leonine Seal, the Lachtach or Great Seal, and the Manati, abounded, and proved the support of the wrecked during their stay. Arctic Foxes were seen in great multitudes, and completed the list of Quadrupeds. The same species of water-fowl haunt the rocks, and the same species of fish ascend the rivers, as do in Kamtschatka. The tides rise here seven or eight feet. The bottom of the sea is rocky, correspondent with the island.

The few plants of this island, which have not been discovered in Kamtschatka, are as follow:

• Campanula, Gm. Sib. iii. 160, 28.
• Leontodon taraxacum, A. E. Virg.
• Hieracium murorum, β. E.
• Tanacetum vulgare, E.
• Gnaphalium dioicum, A.
• Senecio, Gm. Sib. ii. 136, N^o 118.
• Arnica montana.
• Chrysanthemum leucanthemum, A. Virg.

These, with a few creeping Willows, added to those in the Kamtschatkan Flora, form the sum of those observed in Bering's island.

Mednoi, MEDNOI. or the copper island, lies a little to the south-east. A great quantity of native copper is found at the foot of a ridge of calcareous mountains on the eastern side, and may be gathered on the shores in vast masses, which seems originally to have been melted by subterraneous fires. This island is full of hillocks, bearing all the appearance of vulcanic spiracles; which makes it pro­bable, that these islands were rent from the continent by the violence of an earth­quake. [Page CXXXV] Among the float-wood off this island is camphor, and another sweet wood, driven by the currents from the isle of Japan.

The Aleutian group lies in the bend of the crescent,ALEUTIAN ISLES. THE NEAREST. nearly in mid-channel be­tween Asia and America, lat. 52. 30, and about two hundred versts distant from Mednoi. It consists of Attok, Schemija, and Semitchi. The first seems to sur­pass in size Bering's isle; but resembles it in its component parts, as do the other two. Attok seems to be the island which Bering called Mount St. John. These are inhabited by a people who speak a language different from the northern Asiatics; they seem emigrants or colonists from America, using a dialect of the neighboring continent. They were discovered in 1745, by Michael Nevodtsikoff, a native of Tobolski, who made a voyage, at the expence of certain merchants, in search of furs, the great object of these navigations, and the leading cause of discoveries in this sea. This voyage was marked with horrid barbarities on the poor natives. The marine animals must have swarmed about this period, and for some time after. Mention is made of adventurers who brought from hence to Kamtschatka the skins of 1,872 Sea Otters, 940 females, and 715 cubs. Another, on a small adjacent isle, killed 700 old, and 120 cub Sea Otters, 1,900 blue Foxes, 5,700 black Ursine Seals, and 1,310 of their cubs^*. The blue Foxes abound in these islands, brought here on floating ice, and multiply greatly. The blue variety is ten times more numerous here than the white; but the reverse is ob­served in Sibiria. They feed on fish, or any carrion left by the tide. The natives bore their under lips, and insert in them teeth cut out of the bones of the Walrus; and they use boats covered with the skins of sea animals.

At a great distance from the first group is the second, or farthest Aleutian isles:ALEUTIAN ISLES. THE FARTHEST. of those we know no more than that the natives resemble those of the first. By the vast space of sea which Doctor PALLAS allows between the two groups, Captain COOK is fully vindicated for omitting, in his chart, the multitude of islands which, in the Russian maps, form almost a complete chain from BERING'S isle to America. Dr. PALLAS'S information must have been of the best kind; and he and our illustrious navigator coincide in opinion, that they have been needlessly multiplied, by the mistake of the Russian adventurers in the reckoning, or, on seeing the same island in different points of view, putting it down as a new discovery, and imposing on it a new name. The Andreanoffskie, ANDREAN ISLES. so called from their discoverer (in 1761) Andrean Tolstyk, succeed. On two of them are vulcanoes. Eastly, are the Fox islands, so called from the number of black, grey,FOX ISLES. and red Foxes found on them; the skins of which are so coarse, as to be of little [Page CXXXVI] value. The natives bore their noses and under lips, and insert bones in them by way of ornament. Among the last in this group is Oonolascha, which was visited by Captain COOK. This lies so near to the coast of America, as to clame a right to be considered as an appurtenance to it. I shall therefore quit these de­tached paths for the present, and, in pursuance of my plan, trace the coasts of the northern division of the great continent, from the place at which it is di­vided from South America.

CALIFORNIA.After traversing obliquely the Pacific Ocean, appears California, the most southerly part of my plan on this side of the new world. This greatest of pen­insulas extends from Cape Blanco, lat. 32, to Cape St. Lucas, lat. 23; and is bounded on the east by a great gulph, called the Vermillion sea, receiving at its bottom the vast and violent river Colerado. The west side is mountanous, sandy, and barren^*, with several vulcanoes on the main land and the isles^†: the eastern, varied with extensive plains, fine vallies watered with numbers of streams, and the country abounds with trees and variety of fruits. The natives, the most in­nocent of people, are in a state of paradisaical nature, or at lest were so before the arrival of the European colonists among them. The men went nearly naked, without the consciousness of being so. The head is the only part they pay any attention to; and that is surrounded with a chaplet of net-work, ornamented with feathers, fruits, or mother of pearl. The women have a neat matted apron falling to their knees: they fling over their shoulders the skin of some beast, or of some large bird, and wear a head-dress like the other sex. The weapons of the country are bows, arrows, javelins, and bearded darts, calculated either for war or the chace. In the art of navigation, they have not got beyond the bark-log, made of a few bodies of trees bound parallel together; and in these they dare the turbulent element. They have no houses. During summer they shelter themselves from the sun under the shade of trees; and during nights sleep under a roof of branches spread over them. In winter they burrow under ground, and lodge as simply as the beasts themselves: such however was their condition in 1697; I have not been able to learn the effect of European refinement on their manners. Numbers of settlements have, since that time, been formed there, under the auspices of the Jesuits. The Order was of late years supported by the Marquis de Valero, a patriotic and munificent nobleman^‡, who favored their attempts, in order to extend the power and wealth of the Spanish [Page CXXXVII] dominions; and I believe with success. The land and climate, particularly Monterey, in lat. 36, is adapted for every vegetable production; and a good wine is made from the vines introduced by the colonists.

The natives are a fine race of men, tall, brawny, and well made;NATIVES. with black hair hanging over their shoulders, and with copper-colored skins. We have a most imperfect account of the animals of this peninsula. It certainly possesses two wool-bearing quadrupeds. As to birds, I doubt not but the Jesuits are right, when they say, that it has all that are found in New Mexico and New Spain. The capes of Florida and cape St. Lucas lie nearly under the same lati­tudes, and form the southern extremities of North America; but our ignorance of the productions of the vast provinces of New Mexico, will leave ample subject to a future naturalist to supply my deficiencies.

This country was discovered under the auspices of the great Cortez, and Don Antonio de Mendoça, cotemporary viceroy of the new conquests: each, actuated by a glorious spirit of emulation, sent out commanders to advance the welfare of their country to the utmost; and Francisco Ulloa, in 1539, and Fernando Alarchon, in 1540, soon discovered this peninsula, and other adjacent regions, sources of im­mense wealth to their country^*. The Spanish adventurers of these early times sailed as high as lat. 42; and named, in honor of the viceroy, the farthest point of their discovery Cabo di Mendoça.

Our celebrated navigator, Sir Francis Drake, SIR FRANCIS DRAKE. on June 5th 1578, touched on this coast, first in lat. 43; but was induced, from the severity of the cold, to sail to lat. 38, where he anchored in a fine bay. He found the natives to be a fine race of men, naked as the Californians, with the same kind of head-dresses; and the females habited like their southern neighbors. He was treated like a deity. The chief of the country, by the resignation of his crown or chaplet, his sceptre, i. e. calumet, and other insignia of royalty, vested in Sir Francis the whole land; which he named New Albion, from its white cliffs, and took formal posses­sion [Page CXXXVIII] of in the name of his royal mistress. We may be thankful that we never clamed the cession: it forms at present part of New Mexico; and probably is re­served for future contests between the Spaniards and the offspring of our late colonists. Sir Francis found this country a warren of what he calls, ‘a strange kind of Conies, with heads as the heads of ours; the feete of a Want, i. e. a Mole, and the tail of a Rat, being of a great length: under her chinne is on either side a bag, into the which she gathereth her meat when she hath filled her bellie abroad.’ The common people feed on them, and the king's coat was made of their skins^*. This species is to be referred to the division of Rats with pouches in each jaw; and has never been observed from that period to this.

CAPTAIN COOK.Exactly two hundred years from that time the coast was again visited by an Englishman, who in point of abilities, spirit, and perseverance, may be compared with the greatest seaman our island ever produced. Captain JAMES COOK, on March 7th 1778, got sight of New Albion, in lat. 44. 33 north, and long. 235. 20 east, about eight leagues distant. The sea is here (as is the case the whole way from California) from seventy-three to ninety fathoms deep. The land is mode­rately high, diversified with hills and vallies, and every where covered with wood, even to the water's edge. To the most southern cape he saw he gave the name of Cape Gregory, its latitude 43. 30: the next, which was in 44. 6, he called Cape Perpetua; and the first land he saw, which was in 44. 55, Cape Foul-weather. The whole coast, for a great extent, is nearly similar, almost strait, and harborless, with a white beach forming the shore. While he was plying off the coast, he had a sight of land in about lat. 43. 10, nearly in the situation of Cape Blanco de St. Sebastian, discovered by Martin d' Aguilar in 1603. A little to the north, the Oregon, or great river of the West, discharges itself into the Pacific Ocean. Its banks were covered with trees; but the vio­lence of the currents prevented D'Aguilar from entering into it^†. This, and the river of Bourbon, or Port Nelson, which falls into Hudson's Bay; that of St. Laurence, which runs to the east; and the Missisipi, which falls into the bay of Mexico, are said to rise within thirty miles of each other. The intervening space must be the highest ground in North America, forming an inclined plane to the discharges of the several rivers. An ill-fated traveller, of great merit, places the spot in lat. 47, west long. from London 98, between a lake from which the Oregon flows, and another called White Bear lake, from which the Missisipi ^‡.

[Page CXXXIX]This exalted situation is part of the Shining Mountains, CHAIN OF ALPS IN AMERICA. which are branches of the vast chain which pervades the whole continent of America. It may be fairly taken from the southern extremity, where Staten Land and Terra del Fuego rise out of the sea, as insulated links, to an immense height, black, rocky, and mark­ed with rugged spiry tops, frequently covered with snow. New Georgia may be added, as another, horribly congenial, rising detached farther to the east. The mountains about the streights of Magellan soar to an amazing height, and infi­nitely superior to those of the northern hemisphere, under the same degree of la­titude. From the north side of the streights of Magellan, they form a continued chain through the kingdoms of Chili and Peru, preserving a course not remote from the Pacific Ocean. The summits, in many places, are the highest in the world. There are not less than twelve which are from two thousand four hun­dred toises high, to above three thousand. Pichincha, which impends over Quito, is about thirty-five leagues from the sea, and its summit is two thousand four hundred and thirty toises above the surface of the water; Cayambé, imme­diately under the equator, is above three thousand; and Chimborazo higher than the last by two hundred. Most of them have been vulcanic, and in different ages marked with eruptions far more horrible than have been known in other quarters of the globe. They extend from the equator, through Chili; in which kingdom is a range of vulcanoes, from lat. 26 south, to 45. 30^*, and possibly from thence into Terra del Fuego itself, which, forming the streights of Magellan, may have been rent from the continent by some great convulsion, occasioned by their laborings; and New Georgia, forced up from the same cause. An un­paralleled extent of plain appears on their eastern side. The river of Amazons runs along a level cloathed with forests, after it bursts from its confinement at the Pongo of Borjas, till it reaches its sea-like discharge into the Atlantic Ocean.

In the northern hemisphere, the Andes pass through the narrow isthmus of Darien, into the kingdom of Mexico, and preserve a majestic height and their vulcanic disposition. The mountain Popocatepec made a violent eruption during the expedition of Cortez, which is most beautifully described by his historian, Antonio de Soils ^†. This, possibly, is the same with the vulcano observed by the Abbé d' Auteroche, in his way from Vera Cruz to Mexico, which, from the na­kedness of the lavas, he conjectured to have been but lately extinguished^‡. From the kingdom of Mexico, this chain is continued northward, and to the east of California; then verges so greatly towards the west, as to leave a very [Page CXL] inconsiderable space between it and the Pacific Ocean; and frequently detached branches jut into the sea, and form promontories; which, with parts of the chain itself, were often seen by our navigators in the course of their voyage. Some branches, as we have before observed, extend towards the east, but not to any great distance. A plain, rich in woods and savannas, swarming with Bisons or Buffaloes, Stags, and Virginian Deer, with Bears, and great variety of game, occupies an amazing tract, from the great lakes of Canada, as low as the gulph of Mexico; and eastward to the other great chain of mountains, the Apalachian, which are the Alps of that side of northern America. I imagine its commencement to be about lake Champlain and lake George, with branches pointing obliquely to the river St. Laurence eastward, and rising on its opposite coasts: others extending, with lowering progress, even into our poor remnant of the new world, Nova Scotio. The main chain passes through the province of New York, where it is distinguish­ed by the name of the Highlands, and lies within forty miles of the Atlantic. From thence it recedes from the sea, in proportion as it advances southward; and near its extremity in South Carolina is three hundred miles distant from the water. It consists of several parallel ridges^*, divided by most enchanting vallies, and generally cloathed with variety of woods. These ridges rise gradually from the east one above the other, to the central; from which they gradually fall to the west, into the vast plains of the Missisipi. The middle ridge is of an enormous bulk and height. The whole extends in breadth about seventy miles; and in many places leaves great chasms for the discharge of the vast and numerous rivers which rise in the bosoms of the mountains, and empty themselves into the Atlantic ocean, after yielding a matchless navigation to the provinces they water. In p. XCV, I have given a view of the immense elevated plain in the Russian em­pire. Beyond the branch of the Apalachian mountains, called The Endless, is another of amazing extent, nearly as high as the mountains themselves^†. This plain, (called the Upper Plains) is exceedingly rich land; begins at the Mohock's river; reaches to within a small distance of lake Ontario; and to the westward forms part of the extensive plains of the Ohio, and reaches to an unknown distance beyond the Missisipi. Vast rivers take their rise, and fall to every point of the compass; into lake Ontario, into Hudson's river, and into the Delawar and Sus­quehanna. The tide of the Hudson's river flows through its deep-worn bed far up, even to within a small distance of the head of the Delawar; which, after a [Page CXLI] furious course down a long descent, interrupted with rapids, meets the tide not very remote from its discharge into the ocean^*.

Much of the low grounds between the base of the Apalachian hills and the sea (especially in Virginia and Carolina) have in early times been occupied by the ocean. In many parts there are numbers of small risings, composed of shells, and in all the plains incredible quantities beneath the surface. Near the Missisipi again, in lat. 32. 28, from the depth of fifty to eighty feet, are always found, in digging, sea-sand and sea-shells, exactly similar to what are met with on the shores near Pensacola ^†. This is covered with a stratum of deep clay or marle, and above that with a bed of rich vegetable earth. All this proves the propriety of applying the epithet of NEW to this quarter of the globe, in a sense different to that intended by the novelty of its discovery. Great part of North America at lest became but recently habitable: the vast plains of the Missisipi, and the tract between the Apalachian Alps and the Atlantic, were once possessed by the ocean. Either at this period America had not received its population from the old world, or its inhabitants must have been confined to the mountains and their vallies, till the waters ceased to cover the tracts now peopled by millions.

The composition of the northern mountains agrees much with those of the north of Asia, and often consists of a grey rock stone or granite,COMPONENT PARTS. mixed with glimmer and quartz; the first usually black, the last purplish. Near the river St. Lau­rence, a great part of the mountains rests on a kind of slaty limestone. Large beds of limestones, of different colors, are seen running from the granitical mountains, and are filled with Cornua Ammonis, and different sorts of shells, par­ticularly with a small species of scallop, together with various sorts of corals, branched as well as starry. The strata of limestone also appear near the base of different parts of the Apalachian chain^‡. Without doubt, the schistous band, consisting of variety of stone, split and divided by fissures horizontal and perpen­dicular (in Asia the repository of metallic veins) is also found attendant on the granitical mountains of North America, and like them will be found rich in ores^§: but that country has not yet been surveyed by a philosophical eye. The labor will be amply repayed to the proprietors, by the discovery of mineral sources of wealth, perhaps equal to those already discovered in the similar secondary chains of mountains in the Russian empire^‖.

Captain COOK continued his voyage to the northward; but, by reason of squally weather and fogs for a few degrees, or from lat. 50 to 55. 20, was deprived [Page CXLII] of the opportunity of making the observations he wished. In lat. 48. 15, he in vain looked for the pretended streights of Juan de Fuca, DR FUCA'S PAS­SAGE. who imposed on a Michael Lock, an Englishman he met with at Venice, an account of having found, in 1592, an entrance in this latitude, and sailed through it, till he arrived in the North sea, i. e. Hudson's Bay ^*. Of equal credibility is the pretended passage of Ad­miral de Fontes, in 1640, which is placed in lat. 50. 1; and, according to one map, falls into that of De Fuca: according to another, into a vast inland sea, called Mer de l'Ouest ^†. Diligent search was also made after this in the Spanish expedition of 1775; which ended in disproving these strange fictions^‡. It had likewise the farther importance of filling up the gap in the charts, by furnishing us with a survey of that tract of coast which Captain COOK was obliged to quit.

NOOTKA SOUND.In lat. 49, Captain COOK found a secure shelter in an harbor called by him King George's Sound; by the natives, Nootka. The shores are rocky^§; but within the Sound appears a branch of the range I before mentioned. It is here divided into hills of unequal heights, very steep, with ridged sides, and round blunted tops; in general cloathed with woods to the very summits. In the few exceptions, the nakedness discovers their composition, which is rocky, or in parts covered with the adventitious soil of rotten trees or mosses.

The trees were the Pinus Canadensis, or Canada Pine; the P. Sylvestris, or Scotch Pine, and two or three other sorts; Cupressus Thyoides, or the White Cedar. The Pines of this neighborhood are of a great size: some are a hundred and twenty feet high, and fit for masts or ship-building^‖; but the dimensions of some of the canoes in Nootka Sound best shew their vast bulk—they are made of a single tree, hollowed so as to contain twenty persons; and are seven feet broad, and three deep. They are the same with the monoxyla of the antient Germans and Gauls ^¶, but constructed with much more elegance. The old Europeans were con­tent if they could but float. They probably were formed on the same rude model as those of the old Virginians ^**, or of the antient Britons, similar to one I have seen dug up in a morass in Scotland, as artless as a hog-trough^††. Those of Nootka Sound are at the head tapered into a long prow, and at the stern they decrease in breadth, but end abrupt.

The day-tides rise here, two or three days after the full and new moon, eight [Page CXLIII] feet nine inches. The night-tides, at the same periods, rise two feet higher. Pieces of drift wood, which the navigators had placed during day out of the reach (as they thought) of the tides, were in the night floated higher up, so as to demonstrate the great increase of the nocturnal flux^*.

I have described, to the best of my power, the quadrupeds and birds of the Ame­rican part of this voyage. In p. 12 I have given my suspicions of certain animals of the Sheep kind being natives of this neighborhood and California; but am not sufficiently warranted to pronounce them to be the same with the Argali or wild Sheep. Woollen garments are very common among the people of this Sound, and are manufactured by the women. The materials of many of them seem taken from the Fox and the Lynx; others, I presume, from the exquisite down of the Musk Ox, N^o 2. The only peculiar animal of these parts is the Sea Otter, N^o 36: it extends southward along the coast, as far as lat. 49, and as high as 60^†. The other quadrupeds observed by the navigators are common to the eastern side of North America.

I may mention, that small Perroquets, and Parrots with red bills, feet, and breasts, were seen by M. Maurelle about Port Trinidada, in lat. 41. 7; and great flocks of Pigeons in the same neighborhood^‡. This was in June: BIRDS. possibly they were on their migration when our navigators reached the coasts, which was on March 29th. As to the Parrots, it is possible that those birds may not extend so far north as Nootka; for on the eastern side of the continent they do not inhabit higher, even in summer, than the province of Virginia, in lat. 39; or, in the mid­land parts, than lat. 41. 15, where they haunt in multitudes the southern sides of the lakes Erie and Michigam, and the banks of the rivers Illinois and Ohio. Another delicate species of bird was seen here in plenty, a kind of Honey-sucker or Humming-bird, a new species; which I have described, N^o 177, under the title of the Ruffed. Among the water-fowl were seen the Great Black Petrel, p. 536. A. or the Quebrantahuessos, or Bone-breaker of the Spaniards, which seems to be found from the Kuril isles to Terra del Fuego; the Northern Diver, N^o 439; a great flock of Black Ducks with white heads; a large species of White Ducks with red bills; and Swans flying northward to their breeding-places: common Corvorants were also very frequent.

The inhabitants of this Sound alter in their appearance from those who live more southern. They are in general below the middle stature; plump,MEN. but not muscular: their visage round, full, and with prominent cheeks; above which the face is compressed from temple to temple: the nostrils wide: nose flat, with a rounded point; through the septum narium of many is introduced a ring of iron, [Page CXLIV] brass, or copper: eyes small, black, languishing: mouth round: lips large and thick: hair of the head thick, strong, black, long, and lank; that on the eye­brows very thin: neck short and thick: limbs small and ill-made: skin a pallid white, where it can be viewed free from dirt or paint. The women are nearly of the same form and size as the men, but undistinguishable by any feminine soft­ness. Many of the old men have great beards, and even mustachios; but the younger people in general seem to have plucked out the hair, except a little on the end of the chin.

Their dress consists of mantles and cloaks, well manufactured among themselves, and either woollen, matting, or some material correspondent to hemp. Over their other cloaths the men frequently throw the skin of some wild beast, which serves as a great cloak. The head is covered with a cap made of matting, in form of a truncated cone, or in that of a flower-vase, with the top adorned with a pointed or round knob, or with a bunch of leathern tassels. Their whole bodies are incrusted with paint or dirt, and they are a most squallid offensive race; silent, phlegmatic, and uncommonly lazy; easily provoked to violent anger, and as soon appeased. The men are totally destitute of shame: the women behave with the utmost modesty, and even bashfulness^*. I shall not repeat what has been said of the infinite variety of hideous masques this nation possesses, and seems particularly fond of, was not the ingenious Editor of the Voyage at a loss for their intent, whether for religious or for masquerading purposes^†. Mr. Bartram ^‡ proves that these masques extend to the eastern side of the continent, and that their use was sportive; for he was plagued part of a night with the buffoonery of a fellow, who came into his lodgings while he was on his travels, and, after playing a thousand antic tricks, vanished in a manner as if he meant to be taken for a hobgoblin. The Ostiaks have exactly the same custom^§.

These people have made some progress in the imitative arts; for, besides their skill in the sculpture of their masques, which they cut into the shape of the heads of various species of beasts and birds, they are capable of painting with tolerable exactness: accordingly, they often represent on their caps the whole progress of the Whale-fishery. I have seen a small bow made of bone, which was brought by the navigators from this side of North America, on which was engraven, very intel­ligibly, every object of the chace. I have caused this singular bow to be engraven, and in the same plate, that most terrific Tomahawk of Nootka Sound, called the Taaweesh, or Tsuskeeah. The offensive part is a stone projecting out of the mouth of a sculpture in wood, resembling a human face, in which are stuck human and other teeth: long locks of scalped hair are placed on several parts of the head, [Page]

[Page CXLV] waving when brandished in a most dreadful manner. I could distinguish the Elk, the Rein, the Virginian Deer, and the Dog; birds, probably of the Goose kind; the Whale-fishery, the Walrus, and the Seal.—With what facility might be reclamed and civilized a people so strongly possessed with a disposition towards the liberal arts!

From lat. 55. 20, towards the north, the country increases in height, especially inland, where a range of very lofty mountains, mostly covered with snow, is seen nearly parallel with the coast, a branch of those I have before mentioned. Above lat. 56 the coast is broken into bays and harbours.RUSSIAN VOYAGE. In this neighborhood Captain Tschirikow, consort to the great navigator BERING, who was separated from his commander by a storm, was so unfortunate as to touch on an open part of the coast, in about lat. 55, in which he anchored in a most dangerous situation, full of rocks. Having lost his shallop, and after that his small boat, with part of his crew, which he had sent on shore to water, and which were destroyed by the na­tives, he was obliged to return from his ineffectual voyage^* A vast conic moun­tain, called by Captain COOK Mount Edgecumbe ^†,MOUNT EDGECUMBE. rises pre-eminent above all the others. This is in lat. 57. 3, long. 224. 7. Not remote from hence is the Bay of Islands, the same as the Port los Remedios, nearly the ne plus of the Spanish ex­pedition of 1775. The adventurers comforted themselves with having reached lat. 58, and having attained the highest latitude ever arrived at in these seas^‡. This coast, as well as the rest, continued covered with woods.

A high peaked mountain, Mount Fair-weather, and the inlet Cross Sound, next appear. The first is the highest of a chain of snowy mountains, which lie inland about five leagues, in lat. 58. 52. The land between them and the sea was very low, for the trees seemed to arise out of the water. Several sea-birds, with a black ring round the head; the tip of the tail, and upper part of the wings, marked with black; the body bluish above, white beneath, came in view; and on the water sat a brownish Duck, with a deep blue or black head^§.

In lat. 59. 18, is a bay, with a wooded isle off its south point, named by Captain COOK, BERING'S; in honor of the illustrious Dane who first discovered this part of America, and, as was conjectured, anchored there for a small space. The appearance of the country was terrific; it consisted of lofty mountains (in July) covered with snow: but the chain is interrupted near this port by a plain of a few miles in extent; beyond which the view was unlimited, having behind it a con­tinuance of level country, or some great lake. He had not leisure to make obser­vations; he only named a cape, which advanced into the sea, Cape Elias ^‖: this is not at present known; but the name of Mount Elias was bestowed by Captain [Page CXLVI] COOK on a very conspicuous mountain^*, which lay inland to the north-west of the bay, in lat. 60. 15.

BERING, during the short stay he made on the coast, sent his boat on shore to procure water. That great naturalist, Steller, companion of the voyage, took the opportunity of landing. The whole time allotted him was only six hours; during which he collected a few plants, and shot that beautiful species of Jay, N^o 139, to which I have given his name. He returned on board with the regret a man of his zeal must feel at the necessity of so slight an examination in so ample a field, What he could have done, had circumstances permitted, is evident from the ex­cellent collection he formed of natural history respecting Kamtschatka, and some of its islands^†.

PLANTS.Among the plants found by him on the American continent were, Plantago ma­jor, Sp. Pl. i. 163; Great Plantane, Fl. Scot. i. 117. K. Virg.: Plantago Asiatica, Sp. Pl. i. 163. K.: Polemonium Caeruleam, Sp. Pl. i. 230: Greek Valerian, Hud­son, i. 89. K.: Lonicera Xylosteum, Fl. Sib. iii. 129. K.: Ribes Alpinum, Sp. Pl. i. 291. Fl. Scot. i. 146. K.: Ribes grossularia, Sp. Pl. i. 291; Gooseberries, K. Virg.: Claytonia Virginica? Sp. Pl. i. 294. K. Virg.: Heuchera Americana? Sp. Pl. i. 328. K.: Heracleum Panaces, Sp. Pl. i. 358; or Cow Parsnep, K. which he found in one of the habitations of the natives, tied up in bundles ^‡ ready for use. (I have mentioned, at p. CXVII. the application of it in Kamtschatka, for the purposes of dis­tilling an intoxicating liquor; but the Americans are fortunate enough to be ignorant of that art, and only use it as a food.) Vaccinium Myrtillus, Sp. Pl. i. 498; Bilberries, Fl. Scot. i. 200. K.: Vaccinium Vitis Idaea, Virg. Sp. Pl. i. 500; Red Whortle-berries, Fl. Scot. i. 202. K.: Erica, Fl. Sib. 131, N^o 22. K.: Adoxa Moschatellina, Sp. Pl. i. 527; tuberous Moschatel, Fl. Scot. i. 209. K.: Rubus Idaeus, Sp. Pl. i. 706; Rasberry-bush, Fl. Scot. i. 263. K.: Fragaria Vesca, Sp. Pl. i. 708; Wood Strawberry, Fl. Scot. i. 267. Virg. K.: the Leontodon Ta­raxicum, Virg. B. Sp. Pl. ii. 1122; or common Dandelion, Fl. Scot. i. 433: Ab­sinthium, Sp. Pl. ii. 1188; or common Wormwood, Fl. Scot. i. 467: Artemisia Vulgaris, Sp. Pl. ii. 1188; or Mugwort, Fl. Scot. i. 468: Gnaphalium Dioicum, Sp. Pl. ii. 1199; Mountain Cudweed, or Cat's-foot, Fl. Scot. i. 470. K.: Aster seu potiùs Helenium fruticosum, Fl. Sib. ii. 175, B. K. with beautiful yellow flowers: Erigeron acre, Sp. Pl. ii. 1211; Blue Fleabane, Fl. Scot. i. 474. K.: Chrysanthemum Leucanthemum, ii. 1251; Great Daisy, or Ox-eye, Fl. Scot. i. 488. B. K. Virg.: Pyrethrum, Fl. Sib. ii. 203, N^o 170. B. K.: Achillea Millefolium, [Page CXLVII] Sp. Pl. ii. 1267; Milfoil or Yarrow, Fl. Scot. i. 490. K. Virg.: Empetrum nigrum, Sp. Pl. ii. 1450; Black-berried Heath, Crow-berries, Fl. Scot. ii. 612. K. Virg.: Menispermum Canadense? Sp. Pl. ii. 1468. K. Virg.—I retain the mark of British vegetables, to shew the vast dilatation of plants; and that of Virg. to shew those which spread to the eastern side of America.

To these may be added a few trees and plants observed by our navigators; such as the Pinus Strobus, Sp. Pl. ii. 1490, the white or Weymouth Pine, which grows to an enormous size; Pinus Canadensis, Sp. Pl. ii. 1421, the Canada Pine; three or four other Pines, which we cannot determine; the Cupressus Disticha? Sp. Pl. ii. 1422, the deciduous Cypress; Cupressus Thyoides, Sp. Pl. ii. 1422, or white Cedar; some Birch, Alders, and Willows; wild Rose-bushes; and several plants, the species of which are unknown to us. Probably that useful Lily, the Lilium Kamtschatchense, or Saranne, extends to the continent, for it is found in abun­dance in the adjacent island Oonalaschka, where it serves as a food, as it does in Kamtschatka ^*.

In this neighborhood, in lat. 59. 49, about Kaye's island^†,KAYE'S ISLAND. off Cape Suckling, Captain COOK observed variety of birds; among them some Albatrosses, the snowy Gulls, and the common Corvorant: and in the poor woods which encircled the island like a girdle, were seen a Crow, the white-headed Eagle, and another species equally large, of a blacker color, with a white breast, which proves to be the kind described by Mr. Latham, i. p. 33. N^o 72, under the name of the white-bellied Eagle ^‡.

After doubling a cape, called by our great navigator, Hinchinbroke ^§,PRINCE WILLIAM'S SOUND. he anchored in a vast sound, named by him Prince William's, in lat. 61. 30, secured by a long island, called Mountague's, stretching obliquely across from north-east to south-west. The land round this harbour rose to a vast height, and was deeply covered with snow^‖. Vegetation in these parts seemed to lessen. The principal trees were the Canadian and Spruce Firs, and some of them moderately large.

Besides the quadrupeds found at Nootka, QUADRUPEDS. there is a variety of Bear of a white color; I will not call it the Polar, as that animal inhabits only the severest cli­mates, where it can find dens of snow and isles of ice. An animal of the er­mine kind, varied with brown, but the tail scarcely tipt with black. Wolve­renes were here, of a very brilliant color; and the earless Marmot, N^o 47, was very common. None of these were seen living, but their skins were brought [Page CXLVIII] in abundance as articles of commerce. The skin of the head of the male leonine Seal was also offered to sale: in the Voyage it is called the Ursine; but from the great shagginess of the hair I presume I am not wrong in my conjecture. This is the only place in the northern hemisphere in which it was found by the navi­gators^*.

BIRDS.Among the birds were the black Sea Pies with red bills, observed before in Van Diemen's Land and New Zealand. A Duck, equal in size to our Mallard, with a white bill tinged with red near the point, and marked with a black spot on each side near the base: on the forehead a large white triangular spot, and a larger on the hind part of the neck: the rest of the plumage dusky: the tail short and pointed: the legs red. The female was of duller colors, and the bill was far less gay. Another species resembled the small one found at Kerguellen's Land. A Diver (Grebe?) of the size of a Partridge; with a black compressed bill: head and neck black: upper part of the body deep brown, obscurely waved with black; the lower part dusky, speckled minutely with white. Honey-suckers, probably migratory in this high latitude, frequently flew round the ships^†.

To give all the additions I am able to my zoologic part, I shall here mention certain species of Petrels, observed on the western coast of North America: such as numberless brown Petrels near the entrance of COOK'S river, flying round a remarkable sugar-loaf hill^‡. A species seen near Nootka Sound, about eleven inches long, with the nostrils scarcely tubular: bill and plumage above dusky, beneath white: legs back. This is common to Turtle Isle, lat. 19. 48, south, long. 178. 2, west; and Christmas Isle, lat. i. 59, north, long. 202. 30, east. Another, about thirteen inches long, with the forehead, space between the eyes and bill, the chin, and throat, of a greyish white, varied with specks of dusky: crown and upper part of the body dusky: under parts hoary lead-color: legs pallid^§. I may add a fourth, seen off the coast of Kamtschatka, which Mr. Ellis mentions as being small, and of a bluish color^‖.

MEN.MANKIND here shew a variation from the last described. The natives are ge­nerally above the common stature, but many below it: square-built or strong-chested; their heads most disproportionably large; their faces flat, and very broad: their necks short and thick: their eyes small, in comparison to the vast breadth of their faces: their noses had full round points, turned up at the end: their hair long, thick, black, and strong: their beards either very thin, or extirpated; for several of the old men had large, thick, but strait beards: their countenances generally full of vivacity, good-nature, and frankness, not unlike the Cristinaux, [Page CXLIX] a people who live far inland, between the little and the great lakes Ouinepique. On the contrary, the inhabitants of Nootka in their dulness resemble the Assinibouels, who live on the western side^*: and these two nations may have been derived from a common stock with the maritime tribes whom we have had occasion to mention. The skins of the natives of this sound were swarthy, possibly from going often naked; for the skins of many of the women, and the children, were white, but pallid. Many of the women were distinguishable from the men by the delicacy of their features, which was far from the case with those of Nootka.

In these parts, within the distance of ten degrees, is a change of both dress and manners. The cloak and mantle are here changed for a close habit, made of the skins of different beasts, usually with the hair outwards; or of the skins of birds, with only the down remaining; some with a cape, others with a hood: over which, in rainy weather, is worn a garment like a carter's frock, with large sleeves, and tight round the neck, made of the intestines probably of the whale, and as fine as gold-beater's leaf. On the hands are always worn mittens, made of the paws of a bear; and the legs are covered with hose, reaching to midway the thigh. The head is generally bare; but those who wear any thing, use the high truncated conic bonnet, like the people of Nootka ^†. In this place only was observed the Calumet; a stick about three feet long, with large feathers, or the wings of birds, tied to it. This was held up as a sign of peace.

I leave the reader to amuse himself in the Voyage, by the account of the strange custom of the natives in cutting through their under lip, and giving themselves the monstrous appearance of two mouths^‡: in the orifice they place a bit of bone or shell by way of ornament. This custom extends to the distant Mosquitos, and even to the Brasilians^§, but seems unknown in other parts of America.—I endeavour to confine myself to passages which may lead to trace the origin of the people. These paint their faces, and puncture or tattow their chins. They are most remarkably clean in their food, and in their manner of eating it, and even in the keeping of their bowls and vessels. In their persons they are equally neat and decent, and free from grease or dirt^‖: in this they seem an exception to all other savages.

They have two kinds of boats; one large, open,BOATS. and capable of containing above twenty people. It is made of the skins of marine animals, distended on ribs of wood, like the vitilia navigia of the Britons, at the time in which they were on a level with these poor Americans; or like the woman's boat of the Green­landers and Eskimaux. The canoes are exactly of the same construction with those of the latter; and the difference of both is very trivial. The canoes of these [Page CL] Americans are broader than those of the eastern side of the continent; and some have two circular apertures, in order to admit two men^*. Every weapon which these people have for the chace of quadrupeds or fish, is the same with those used by the Greenlanders: there is not one wanting.

From Prince William's found the land trends north-west, and terminates in two headlands, called Cape Elizabeth and Cape Bede; CAPT BEDE. these, with Cape Banks on the opposite shore, form the entrance into the vast estuary of COOK'S river; in the midst of which are the naked isles, distinguished by the name of the Barren. Within, to the west, is a lofty two-headed mountain, called Cape Douglas; which is part of a chain of a vast height, in which was a vulcano, at the time this place was visited, emitting white smoke: and in the bottom of a bay, opposite to it, is an island, formed of a lofty mountain, on which was bestowed the name of Mount St. Augustine ^†.MOUNT ST. AU­GUSTINE. The estuary is here of a great breadth, owing to a bay running opposite to Mount Augustine deeply to the east.

COOK'S RIVER.The estuary of COOK'S river is of great length and extent. The river begins between Anchor Point and the opposite shore, where it is thirty miles wide: the depth very considerable, and the ebb very rapid. Far within, the channel con­tracts to four leagues, through which rushes a prodigious tide, agitated like breakers against rocks. The rise of the tide in this confined part was twenty-one feet. It was examined seventy leagues from the entrance, as far as lat. 61. 30, long. 210, and its boundaries were found to be flat, swampy, and poorly wooded, till they reached the foot of the great mountains. Towards the north, it divides into two great branches, or perhaps distinct rivers. That to the east is distin­guished by the name of Turn-again river. The first is a league wide, and navi­gable, as far as was tried, for the largest ships, and continued very brackish; there is therefore the greatest probability of its having a very long course, and be­ing, in after times, of considerable use in inland navigation: that it is of some even at present is very certain; for here, as well as in Prince William's sound, the Indians were possessed of glass beads and great knives of English manufacture, which the Hudson's bay company annually send in great quantities, and exchange for furs with the natives, who travel to our settlements very far from the west. The company also send copper and brass vessels; but neither copper or iron in bars. There does not seem to be any direct dealings with the Indians of this coast: the traffic is carried on by intermediate tribes, who never think of bringing furs to a people so amply supplied as the Indians are who deal with our factories. Nations who use the most pretious furs merely as a defence from the cold, make no distinction of kinds: if they could get more beads or more knives for the skins of Sea Otters [Page CLI] than any other, they would instantly become articles of commerce, and find their way across the continent to the European settlements.

From Turn-again river to the nearest part of Hudson's bay, is fifty-five degrees, or about sixteen hundred miles; but from the most western part of Arapathescow lake (which is intermediate) is only twenty-six degrees, or about seven hundred and fifty miles. There is no discharge out of that vast water but what runs into Hudson's bay. We have some obscure accounts of rivers ^* which take a western course from the countries east of this coast: some of which may be those which have been seen by our navigators, and which, by means of lakes or other rivers falling into them, may prove a channel of intercourse between these Indians and the Hudson's bay company, as soon as our friendly Indians become acquainted with the value of these maritime furs.

The inhabitants of Cook's river differed very little from those of Prince William's found. They had Dogs, which were the first seen on the coasts; Sea Otters,DOGS. Martins, and white Hares: and they were plentifully supplied with Salmon and Holibut.

After leaving the entrance into the river, appears Cape St. Hermogenes, CAPE ST. HERMO­GENES. disco­vered first by BERING. It proved a naked lofty island, about six leagues in cir­cuit, and divided from the coast by a channel a league broad. This lies in lat. 58. 15, off the vast peninsula Alaschka, ALASCHKA, CON­TINENT OF AME­RICA. which begins between the estuary of Cook's river and Bristol bay, which bound its isthmus. It points south-west, and continues the crescent formed by the islands which cross the sea from Kamtschatka. Alaschka is the only name given by the natives to the continent of America. The land to the west of COOK'S river rises into mountains, with conoid tops thickly set together. The coast is frequently bold, and the rocks break into pinnacles of picturesque forms: the whole is fronted by groups of isles and clusters of small rocks. In a word, the country and shores are the most rugged and disjointed imaginable, and bear evident marks of having undergone some extraordinary change.

Among the isles, those of Schoumagin are the most important, which received their name from having been the place of interment of one of Bering's crew, the first which he lost in these seas. The principal lies the farthest to the west, and is called Kadjak: it is about a hundred versts long,KADJAK. and from twenty to thirty broad; and, from the account of Demetrius Bragin, who visited it from Oonalashka in 1776, is very populous. The inhabitants spoke a language different from those [Page CLII] of that island: it seemed a dialect of the Greenlanders. They called their wooden shields Kuyaky, probably because they resemble a kaiak, or a little canoe, a Green­land word for that species of boat; and themselves Kanagist, as the others style themselves Karalit. They have likewise the woman's boat, like the people of Prince William's sound: in fact, they seem to be the same people, but more refined. They were armed with pikes, bows and arrows, and wooden shields. Their shirts were made of the skins of birds; also of the earless Marmot (Arct. Zool. i. N^o 47), Foxes, and Sea Bears, and some of fishes skins. Dogs, Bears, common Otters, and Ermines, were observed here. Their dwellings were made with timber, and were from fifteen to twenty fathoms long, covered with a thatch and dried grass. Within they were divided into compartments for every family, and every com­partment lined neatly with mats. The entrance was on the top, covered with frames, on which were stretched the membranes of dried intestines instead of glass^*. These people seemed to have made far greater progress in the arts than their neigh­bors. They worked their carpets in a very curious manner; on one side close set with beaver wool. The Sea Otters skins which they brought for sale were in some parts shorn quite close with sharp stones, so that they glistened and appeared like velvet. They shewed strong proofs of genius in their invention to preserve themselves from the effects of the Russian fire-arms. They had the spirit to make an attack, and formed skreens with three parallel perpendicular rows of stakes, bound with sea-weeds and osiers; their length was twelve feet, and thickness three: under the shelter of these they marched; but their success was not cor­respondent to their plan^†: a sally of the Russians disconcerted them, and put them to the rout.

The island consists of hills mixed with lowlands. It abounds with bulbs, roots, and berries, for food; with shrubs, and even trees sufficiently large to be hollowed into canoes capable of carrying five persons^‡. In this kind of boat they differ from those of the Greenlanders.

Off the extremity of the peninsula of Alaschka is Holibut island,HOLIBUT ISLE. in lat. 54, rising into a lofty pyramidal mountain, lying opposite to the narrow shallow streight which lies between the isle Oonemaka and Alaschka. The chain on the continent is seen to rise into stupendous heights, covered with snow: among them several of the hills appear to rise insulated, and of a conic form. One [Page CLIII] was a vulcano, flinging up volumes of black smoke to a great height^*, then streaming before the wind with a tail of vast length and picturesque appearance. It often took a direction contrary to the point the wind blew from at sea, not­withstanding there was a fresh gale. It lies in lat. 54. 48 north, long. 195. 45 W. and is evidently a link in the vulcanic chain, which extends, in the southern he­misphere, as low at lest as that of St. Clement in Chili, in lat. 45. 30.

The extremity of Alaschka ends abrupt, and has opposite to it an island called Oonemak or Unmak, OONEMAK. of nearly a correspondent breadth, separated from it by a very narrow and shallow channel, situated in lat. 54. 30, and leading into Bristol bay, pervious only by boats or very small vessels. The isle is a hundred versts long, and from seven to fifteen broad; and has in the middle a vulcano. In the low parts several hot springs burst forth, to which the islanders carry the fish or flesh they want to boil; and they are also fond of bathing in the temperate parts^†.

To the west are the small isles of Oonella and Acootan: at a small distance from them is Oonalashka or Aghôun-alaiska ^‡,OONALASHKA. a name evidently referring to the continent. My MS. calls its length a hundred and twenty versts, its breadth from ten to eighteen. It is the most remote of the Russian colonies, who have now made set­tlements on most of the isles between Asia and America; all under the care of pri­vate adventurers. The voyage from Ochotsk or Kamtschatka lasts three or four years; and is solely undertaken for the sake of the skins of Sea Otters. Possibly other reasons will, in a little time, induce them to attempt the colonization of the continent. Timber may be one; for their northern Asiatic dominions and their islands yield none. I foresee docks and timber-yards in all convenient places. At present, the natives of these isles have only the skin-covered canoes^§,NATIVES. and even for the ribs they are obliged to the chance of drift-wood. In these, in dress, and in weapons, they resemble the Eskimaux. The language is a dialect of the Eskimaux. They are rather of low stature. They have short necks, swarthy chubby faces, black eyes, and straight long black hair. The fashion of wearing fea­thers or bits of sticks in their noses is used in Oonalashka. Both sexes cut their hair even over their foreheads: the men wear theirs loose behind; the females tie theirs in a bunch on the top of their head: the first wear long loose frocks, of the skins of birds; the last of the skins of Seals. The men fling over their frocks another, of the guts of the cetaceous animals, dried and oiled, to keep out the water^‖; and, to [Page CLIV] defend their faces from the weather, they wear a piece of wood, like the front of the bonnet of an English lady^*. Some use the bonnet in the form of the trun­cated cone. The women slightly tattow their faces, and often wear a string of beads pendent from their noses; both sexes perforate their under lip, but it is very uncommon to see any except the females stick in it the ornamental bone. The nose-ornaments extend far inland on the continent; for the Americans, who trade with the Hudson's bay company, use them: but from the figures given by De Brie, they do not seem ever to have reached the people of Virginia and Florida. They inhabit jourts, or subterraneous dwellings, each common to many families, in which they live in horrible filthiness: but they are remarkably civilized in their behaviour; and have been taught by the Russians to pull off their caps, and to bow, in their salutations.

BARROWS.They bury their dead on the summits of hills, and raise over the spot a barrow of stones^†, in the manner customary in all the north of Europe in very early days.

On the north side of the promontory Alaschka, the water decreases considerably in depth, and the mountains recede towards the bottom far inland, and leave a large tract of low land between them and the sea. Here it forms a great bay, called Bristol; BRISTOL BAY AND RIVER. with a vast river at the end, with an entrance a mile broad, seated in lat. 58. 27. Cape Newenham, lat. 58. 42, a rocky promontory, is the northern horn of the bay, eighty-two leagues from Cape Oonemak, its southern: an uni­versal barrenness, and want of vegetation, appeared in the neighborhood of the former. The Walruses (N^o 71) began, the 15th of July, to shew themselves in great numbers about this place: a proof that ice is not essential to their existence. The inhabitants of this coast were dressed much more squalidly than those before seen; but, like the others, deformed their noses and lips. They shaved their head or cut the hair close, and only left a few locks behind or on one side, some­what in the Chinese fashion. From Cape Newenham, the continent runs due north. To the west is Gore's island,GORE'S ISLE. distinguished by a vast cliff, in lat. 60. 17, long. 187. 30, called Point Upright; and near it a most rugged, high, rocky islet, named the Pinnacles ^‡. Myriads of the Auk tribe haunted these precipices. This seems the extreme northern resort of the Sea Otter. SEA OTTERS.

From Shoal-ness, in lat. 60, long. 196, there is a gap in the American geography, as far as Point Shallow Water, lat. 62. 50; and not far from thence were the symp­toms of the discharge of some great river, from the uninvestigated part. Be­yond [Page CLV] Point Shallow, in lat. 63. 33, is Cape Stephens; CAPE STEPHENS. and before it, at a small distance, Stuart's isle. These make the southern points of Norton's Sound, formed by a vast recess of the land to the east. All the land near the sea is low and bar­ren, bounded inland by mountains. The trees, which were Birch, Alder, Wil­low, and Spruce, very small; none of the last above six or eight inches in diameter: but the drift-wood, which lay in plenty on the shore, much larger; having been brought down the rivers from land more favorable to its growth. Towards the bottom of the sound, Cape Denbigh juts far to the west into the water, and forms a peninsula. It has been an island; for there are evident marks on the isthmus, that the sea had once possessed its place: a proof of the loss of the element of water in these parts, as well as in other remote parts of the globe.

The sound, from Cape Denbigh, is suddenly contracted, and is converted into a deep inlet, seemingly the reception of a large river. The continent, in these parts, consists of vast plains, divided by moderate hills; the former watered by several rivers meandering through them. Vegetation improves in proportion to the dis­stance from the sea, and the trees increase in bulk. A promontory, called Bald Head, bounds the northern entrance into this inlet. Farther to the west Cape Darby, CAPE DARBY. in lat. 64. 21, makes the northern horn of this great sound.

Numbers of people inhabit this coast.NATIVES. The men were about five feet two inches high; and in form and features resembled all the natives seen by the navi­gators since they left Nootka Sound. They had, in their under lip, two perfora­tions. The color of their skin was that of copper: their hair short and black: the beard of the men small: their language a dialect of the Eskimaux. Their clothing is chiefly of Deer skins, with large hoods, made in the form of loose jackets, scarcely reaching lower than half the thigh; where it was almost met by a great wide-topped boot. The Eskimaux occasionally stick their children in the top: the women of this country place them more commodiously within the upper part of the jacket, over one shoulder^*. In language there seems considerable con­formity. They had, like them, the woman's boat, and the Kaiack: the first they sometimes made use of as a protection from the weather, by turning it upside down, and sheltering beneath. But their hovels were the most wretched of any yet seen; consisting of only a sloping roof (without any side walls) composed of logs; a floor of the same; the entrance at one end, and a hole to permit the escape of the smoke.THEIR SENSIBI­LITY. These poor people seem very susceptible of feelings for the misfortunes of each other, which would do honor to the most polished state. A family ap­peared, one of which was a most distorted figure, with scarcely the human form: [Page CLVI] another, seemingly the chief, almost blind: the third, a girl: the last, the wife. She made use of Captain KING to act as a charm to restore her blind husband to his sight^*. He was first directed to hold his breath; then to breathe on, and af­terwards to spit on his eyes. We are not without similar superstitions. The Ro­mans ^† applied the same remedy to diseases of the same part: but I doubt whether they, or our polished nation, ever expressed the same feelings as this poor woman did. She related her story in the most pathetic manner; she pressed the hands of the Captain to the breast of her husband, while she was relating the calamitous history of her family; pointed sometimes to the husband, sometimes to the crip­ple, and sometimes to the poor child. Unable to contain any longer, she burst into tears and lamentation. She was followed by the rest of her kindred in an unison, which, I trust, filled the eyes of the civilized beholders, as their relation has mine.

From Cape Darby the land trends to the west, and ends in Point Rodney; low land, with high land far beyond, taking a northerly direction inland. Off this point, in lat. 64. 30, is Sledge island, so called from a sledge being found on it, resembling those which the Russians use in Kamtschatka to carry goods over the snow. It was ten feet long, twenty inches broad, with a rail on each side, and shod with bone; all neatly put together, in some parts with wooden pins, but mostly with thongs of whalebone: a proof of the ingenuity of the natives. Whe­ther it was to be drawn with dogs or rein-deer, does not appear; for the island was deserted, and only the remains of a few jourts to be seen. In lat. 64. 55, long. 192, is KING'S island, named in honor of the able and worthy continuator of the voyage. The continent opposite to it bends towards the east, and forms a shallow bay; then suddenly runs far into the sea, and makes the most western extremity yet known, and probably the most western of all. On it were several huts; and stages of bone, such as had been observed in the Tschutski country. This cape forms one side of BERING'S streights, and lies nearly opposite to East Cape, on the Asiatic shore, at the small distance of only thirty-nine miles. This lies in lat. 65. 46; is named Cape Prince of Wales; is low land, and the heights, as usual, appeared beyond; among which is a remarkable peaked hill. It would be unjust to the memory of past navigators, not to say, that there is the greatest probability that either this cape, or part of the continent adjacent to it, was dis­covered, in 1730, by Michael Gwosdew, a land surveyor attendant on the Cossack, [Page CLVII] Colonel Schestakow, in the unfortunate expedition undertaken by him to render the Tschutski tributary^*.

Here begins the Icy Sea or Frozen Ocean. The country trends strongly to the east, and forms, in lat. 67. 45, long. 194. 51, Point Mulgrave; POINT MUL­GRAVE. the land low, backed inland with moderate hills, but all barren, and destitute of trees. From hence it makes a slight trend to the west. Cape Lisburn lies in lat. 69; and Icy Cape, the most extreme land seen by any navigators on this side, was observed in lat. 70. 29, long. 198. 20, by our illustrious seaman, on August 18th 1778. The preceding day he had made an advance as high as 70. 41; but, baffled by impenetrable ice, upon the justest reasoning was obliged to give up all thoughts of the north-east passage: which reasons were confirmed, in the following year, by his successor in command, Captain CLERKE. All the trials made by that persevering commander could not attain a higher latitude than 70. 11, long. 196. 15. He found himself laboring under a lingering disease, which he knew must be fatal, unless he could gain a more favorable climate; but his high sense of honor, and of his duty to his orders, determined him to persist, till the impossibility of success was determined by every officer. He gave way to their opinion, sailed towards the southward on July 21st, and on August 22d honorably sunk, at the age of thirty-eight, under a disorder contracted by a continued scene of hardships, endured from his earliest youth in the services of his country^†.

To such characters as these we are indebted for the little we know, and pro­bably all that can be known, of the ICY SEA.OF THE ICY SEA. The antients had some obscure notion of its coasts, and have given it the name of Scythicum Mare; a cape jutting into it was styled Scythicum Promontorium; and an island at the bottom of a deep bay to the west of it, Scythica Insula. It is following the conjectures of the inge­nious to say, that the first may be the Cape Jalmal, and the last, Nova Zemlja, which some will make the Insula Tazata of Pliny, as it resembles in name the ri­ver Tas, which flows almost opposite to it into the gulph of Ob ^‡. The know­lege which the antients had of these parts must have been from traffic. The old Ladoga was, in very early times, a place of great commerce, by assistance of rivers and seas, even from the farthest parts of the Mediterranean; the coins of Syria, Arabia, Greece, and Rome, having been found in the burial-places adjoining to that antient city^§. Another channel of knowlege was formed from the great traffic carried on by the merchants, from even the remote India, up the Volga and the Kama, and from thence to Tscherdyn, an emporium on the river Kolva, [Page CLVIII] seated in the antient Permia or Biormia, and not far south of the river Peczora. From thence the Biormas, who seem to have been the factors, embarked with the merchandize on that river, went down with it to the coasts of the Frozen Sea; and, after obtaining furs in exchange, they returned and delivered them, at Tscherdyn, to the foreign merchants^*: and from them the antients might pick up accounts.

The ICY SEA extends from Nova Zemlja to the coast of America. We have seen how unable even the Russians have been to survey its coasts, except by in­terrupted detail, notwithstanding it formed part of their own vast empire. To our navigators was given the honor not only of settling parts of its geography with precision, but of exploring the whole space between the most northern pro­montory of Asia and the farthest accessible part of America. This was a tract of one hundred leagues^†. The traversing it was a work of infinite difficulty and danger.DEPTH. The sea shallow; and the change from the greatest depth, which did not exceed thirty fathoms, to the lest, which was only eight, was sudden: the bottom muddy, caused by the quantity of earth brought down from the vast ri­vers which pour into it from the Asiatic side. We suspect that it receives but few from the American, their general tendency being east and west. The Icy Sea is shallow, not only because its tides and currents are very inconsiderable; but its outlet through the streights of Bering very narrow, and even obstructed in the middle by the islands of St. Diomedes: both which circumstances impede the carrying away of the mud. The current, small as it is, comes chiefly from the south-west, and is another impediment. The land of each continent is very low near the shores, and high at a small distance from them: the former is one instance of a correspondent shallowness of water. The soundings off each continent, at the same distances from the shore, were exactly the same.

ICE.The ice of this sea differs greatly from that of Spitzbergen. It probably is en­tirely generated from the sea-water. The Icy Sea seems to be in no part bounded by lofty land, in the valleys of which might have been formed the stupendous icebergs, which, tumbling down, form those lofty islands we had before occasion to mention. The ice here is moveable, except about the great headlands, which are beset with a rugged mountanous ice. It is notorious, that a strong gale from the north in twenty-four hours covers the whole coast, for numbers of miles in breadth; will fill the streights of BERING, and even the Kamtschatkan seas; and in smaller pieces extend to its islands. In the Icy Sea it consists chiefly of field ice. Some fields, very large, and surrounded with lesser, from forty [Page CLIX] to fifty yards in extent, to four or five; the thickness of the larger pieces was about thirty feet under water; and the greatest height of others above, about sixteen or eighteen. It was transparent, except on the surface, which was a little porous, and often very rugged: the rest compact as a wall. At times it must pack; for the mountanous ice which the Cossack Morkoff ascended (see p. c.) must have been of that nature. The destruction of the ice is not effected by the sun, in a climate where fogs reign in far greater proportion than the solar beams; neither will the streights of BERING permit the escape of quantity sufficient to clear the sea of its vast load. It must, in a little time, become wholly filled with it, was it not for the rage of the winds, which dashes the pieces together, breaks and grinds them into minute parts, which soon melt, and resolve into their ori­ginal element.

The animals of this sea are very few, and may be reduced to the Polar Bear, ANIMALS. N^o 18; the Walrus, N^o 71; and Seals. The first does not differ from those of other arctic countries: it is beautifully engraven in tab. LXXIII. of the Voyage. Amidst the extraordinary scenery in tab. LII. is given the only accurate figure of the Walrus I have ever seen. I cannot but suspect it to be a variety of the species found in the Spitzbergen seas. The tusks are more slender, and have a slight dis­tinguishing flexure: the whole animal is also much less. The length of one (not indeed the largest) was only nine feet four inches; its greatest circumference seven feet ten; weight, exclusive of the entrails, about eleven hundred pounds. They lay on the ice by thousands; and in the foggy weather cautioned our navi­gators, by their roaring, from running foul of it. They are usually seen sleeping, but never without some centinels to give notice of approaching danger: these awa­kened the next to them, they their neighbors, till the whole herd was roused. These animals are the objects of chace with the Tschutski, who eat the flesh, and cover their boats and hovels with the skins. Whales abound in this sea. Fish,FISH. the food of Seals, and partly of the polar Bears, must be found here, notwith­standing they escaped the notice of the navigators. Shells and sea-plants, the food of the Walrus, cannot be wanting.

Many species of birds (which will occur in their place) were seen traversing this sea. Geese and Ducks were observed migrating southward in August; BIRDS. whether from their breeding-place in a circum-polar land, or whether from the probably far-extending land of America, is not to be determined. Drift-wood was very seldom seen here. Two trees, about three feet in girth, with their roots, were once observed, but without bark or branches; a proof that they had been brought from afar, and left naked by their contest with the ice and elements.

The sea, from the south of BERING'S streights to the crescent of isles between [Page CLX] Asia and America, is very shallow. It deepens from these streights (as the British seas do from those of Dover) till soundings are lost in the Pacific Ocean; but that does not take place but to the south of the isles. Between them and the streights is an increase from twelve to fifty-four fathom, except only off St. Thaddeus Noss, where there is a channel of greater depth. From the vulcanic disposition I am led to believe not only that there was a separation of the continents at the streights of BERING, but that the whole space, from the isles to that small opening, had once been occupied by land; and that the fury of the watery element, actuated by that of fire, had, in most remote times, subverted and overwhelmed the tract, and left the islands monumental fragments.

Whether that great event took place before or after the population of America, is as impossible, as it is of little moment, for us to know. We are indebted to our navigators for settling the long dispute about the point from which it was effected. They, by their discoveries, prove, that in one place the dis­tance between continent and continent is only thirty-nine miles, not (as a celebrated cavilist ^* would have it) eight hundred leagues. This narrow streight has also in the middle two islands, which would greatly facilitate the migration of the Asiatics into the New World, supposing that it took place in canoes, after the convulsion which rent the two continents asunder. Besides, it may be added, that these streights are, even in the summer, often filled with ice; in winter, often frozen: in either case mankind might find an easy passage; in the last, the way was extremely ready for quadrupeds to cross, and stock the continent of America. I may fairly call in the machinery of vulcanoes to tear away the other means of transit farther to the south, and bring in to my assistance the former supposition of solid land between Kamtschatka and Oonalascha, instead of the crescent of islands, and which, prior to the great catastrophe, would have greatly enlarged the means of migration; but the case is not of that difficulty to require the solution. One means of passage is indisputably established.

But where, from the vast expanse of the north-eastern world, to fix on the first tribes who contributed to people the new continent, now inhabited almost from end to end, is a matter that baffles human reason. The learned may make bold and ingenious conjectures, but plain good sense cannot always accede to them. As mankind encreased in numbers, they naturally protruded one another forward. Wars might be another cause of migrations. I know no reason why the Asiatic north might not be an officina virorum, as well as the European. The overteeming country, to the east of the Riphaean mountains, must find it necessary to discharge its inhabitants: the first great wave of people was forced forward by the next to [Page CLXI] at, more tumid and more powerful than itself: successive and new impulses con­tinually arriving, short rest was given to that which spread over a more eastern tract; disturbed again and again, it covered fresh regions; at length, reaching the farthest limits of the Old World, found a new one, with ample space to occupy unmolested for ages; till Columbus cursed them by a discovery, which brought again new sins and new deaths to both worlds.

The inhabitants of the NEW do not consist of the offspring of a single nation: different people, at several periods, arrived there; and it is impossible to say, that any one is now to be found on the original spot of its colonization. It is impossible, with the lights which we have so recently received, to admit that America could receive its inhabitants (at lest the bulk of them) from any other place than eastern Asia. A few proofs may be added, taken from customs or dresses common to the inhabitants of both worlds: some have been long extinct in the old, others remain in both in full force.

The custom of scalping was a barbarism in use with the Scythians, CUSTOMS COMMON TO AMERICA AND THE NORTH OF ASIA. who carried about them at all times this savage mark of triumph: they cut a circle round the neck, and stripped off the skin, as they would that of an ox^*. A little image, found among the Kalmues, of a Tartarian deity, mounted on a horse, and sitting on a human skin, with scalps pendent from the breast, fully illustrates the custom of the Scythian progenitors, as described by the Greek historian. This usage, as the Europeans know by horrid experience, is continued to this day in America. The ferocity of the Scythians to their prisoners extended to the remotest part of Asia. The Kamtschatkans, even at the time of their discovery by the Russians ^†, put their prisoners to death by the most lingering and excruciating inventions; a practice in fell force to this very day among the aboriginal Americans. A race of the Scythians were styled Anthropophagi ^‡, from their feeding on human flesh. The people of Nootka Sound still make a repast on their fellow creatures^§: but what is more wonderful, the savage allies of the British army have been known to throw the mangled limbs of the French prisoners into the horrible cauldron, and devour them with the same relish as those of a quadruped^‖.

The Scythians were sayed, for a certain time, annually to transform themselves into wolves, and again to resume the human shape^¶. The new-discovered Ame­ricans about Nootka Sound, at this time disguise themselves in dresses made of the skins of wolves and other wild beasts, and wear even the heads fitted to their [Page CLXII] own^*. These habits they use in the chace, to circumvent the animals of the field. But would not ignorance or superstition ascribe to a supernatural meta­morphosis these temporary expedients to deceive the brute creation?

In their marches the Kamtschatkans never went abreast, but followed one another in the same track^†. The same custom is exactly observed by the Americans.

The Tungusi, the most numerous nation resident in Sibiria, prick their faces with small punctures, with a needle, in various shapes; then rub into them char­coal, so that the marks become indelible^‡. This custom is still observed in se­veral parts of America. The Indians on the back of Hudson's bay, to this day perform the operation exactly in the same manner, and puncture the skin into various figures; as the natives of New Zealand do at present, and as the antient Britons did with the herb Glastum, or Woad^§; and the Virginians, on the first dis­covery of that country by the English ^‖.

The Tungusi use canoes made of birch-bark, distended over ribs of wood, and nicely sewed together^¶. The Canadian, and many other American nations, use no other sort of boats. The paddles of the Tungusi are broad at each end; those of the people near Cook's river, and of Oonalascha, are of the same form.

In burying of the dead, many of the American nations place the corpse at full length, after preparing it according to their customs; others place it in a sitting posture, and lay by it the most valuable cloathing, wampum, and other matters. The Tartars did the same: and both people agree in covering the whole with earth, so as to form a tumulus, barrow, or carnedd^**.

Some of the American nations hang their dead in trees. Certain of the Tungusi observe a similar custom.

I can draw some analogy from dress: conveniency in that article must have been consulted on both continents, and originally the materials must have been the same, the skins of birds and beasts. It is singular, that the conic bonnet of the Chinese should be found among the people of Nootka. I cannot give into the no­tion, that the Chinese contributed to the population of the New World; but I can readily admit, that a shipwreck might furnish those Americans with a pattern for that part of the dress.

SIMILAR FEA­TURES.In respect to the features and form of the human body, almost every tribe found along the western coast has some similitude to the Tartar nations, and still retain the little eyes, small noses, high cheeks, and broad faces. They vary in size, [Page CLXIII] from the lusty Calmucs to the little Nogaians. The internal Americans, such as the Five Indian nations, who are tall of body, robust in make, and of oblong faces, are derived from a variety among the Tartars themselves. The fine race of Tschutski seem to be the stock from which those Americans are derived. The Tschutski again, from that fine race of Tartars, the Kabardinski, or inhabitants of Kabarda.

But about Prince William's Sound begins a race,ESKIMAUX. chiefly distinguished by their dress, their canoes, and their instruments of the chace, from the tribes to the south of them. Here commences the Eskimaux people, or the race known by that name in the high latitudes of the eastern side of the continent. They may be divided into two varieties. At this place they are of the largest size. As they advance northward they decrease in height, till they dwindle into the dwarfish tribes which occupy some of the coasts of the Icy Sea ^*, and the maritime parts of Hudson's bay, of Greenland, and Terra de Labrador. The famous Japanese map ^† places some islands seemingly within the streights of BERING, on which is bestowed the title of Ya Zue, or the kingdom of the dwarfs. Does not this in some manner authenticate the chart, and give us reason to suppose that America was not unknown to the Japanese, and that they had (as is mentioned by Kaempfer and Charlevoix ^‡) made voyages of discovery, and, according to the last, actually wintered on the continent? That they might have met with the Eskimaux is very probable; whom, in comparison of themselves, they might justly distinguish by the name of dwarfs. The reason of their low stature is very ob­vious: these dwell in a most severe climate, amidst penury of food; the former in one much more favorable, abundant in provisions; circumstances that tend to prevent the degeneracy of the human frame. At the island of Oonalascha a dialect of the Eskimaux is in use, which was continued along the whole coast, from thence north­ward. I have before mentioned the similarity in the instruments between the Americans of this side of the coast and the Eskimaux, which is continued even to Greenland.

I cannot think the accounts well supported,WELSH. that America received any part of its first inhabitants from Europe, prior to the fifteenth century. The Welsh fondly imagine that our country contributed, in 1170, to people the New World, by the adventure of Madoc, son of Owen Gwynedd, who, on the death of his father, sailed there, and colonized part of the country. All that is advanced in proof is, a quo­tation from one of our poets, which proves no more than that he had distinguished himself by sea and land. It is pretended that he made two voyages: that sailing west, he left Ireland so far to the north, that he came to a land unknown, where [Page CLXIV] he saw many strange things: that he returned home, and, making a report of the fruitfulness of the new-discovered country, prevaled on numbers of the Welsh of each sex to accompany him on a second voyage, from which he never returned. The favorers of this opinion assert, that several Welsh words, such as gwrando, to hearken or listen; the isle of Croeso or welcome; Cape Bre­ton, from the name of our own island; gwynndwr, or the white water; and pengwin, or the bird with a white head; are to be found in the American lan­guage^*. I can lay little stress on this argument, because likeness of sound in a few words will not be deemed sufficient to establish the fact; especially if the meaning has been evidently perverted: for example, the whole Pinguin tribe have unfor­tunately not only black heads, but are not inhabitants of the northern hemisphere; the name was also bestowed on them by the Dutch, a Pinguedine, from their excessive fatness^†: but the inventor of this, thinking to do honor to our country, inconsiderately caught at a word of European origin, and unheard of in the New World. It may be added, that the Welsh were never a naval people; that the age in which Madoc lived was peculiarly ignorant in navigation; and the most which they could have attempted must have been a mere coasting voyage.

NORWEGIANS.The Norwegians put in for share of the glory, on grounds rather better than the Welsh. By their settlements in Iceland and in Greenland, they had arrived within so small a distance of the New World, that there is at lest a possibility of its having been touched at by a people so versed in maritime affairs, and so adventurous, as the antient Nortmans were. The proofs are much more numerous than those produced by the British historians; for the discovery is mentioned in several of the Icelandic manuscripts. The period was about the year 1002, when it was visited by one Biorn; and the discovery pursued to greater effect by Leif, the son of Eric, the discoverer of Greenland. It does not appear that they reached farther than Labrador; on which coast they met with Eskimaux, on whom they bestowed the name of Skraelingue [...], or dwarfish people, from their small stature. They were armed with bows and arrows, and had leathern canoes, such as they have at present. All this is pro­bable; nor should the tale of the German, called Turkil, one of the crew, inva­lidate the account. He was one day missing; but soon returned, leaping and singing with all the extravagant marks of joy a bon vivant could shew, on disco­vering the inebriating fruit of his country, the grape^‡: Torfaeus even says, that he returned in a state of intoxication^§. To convince his commander, he brought several bunches, who from that circumstance named the country Vinland. I do [Page CLXV] not deny that North America produces the true vine^*; but it is found in far lower latitudes than our adventurers could reach in the time employed in their voyage, which was comprehended in a very small space. I have no doubt of the discovery; but, as the land was never colonized, nor any advantages made of it, it may be fairly conjectured, that they reached no farther than the barren country of Labrador.

The continent which stocked America with the human race, poured in the brute creation through the same passage. Very few quadrupeds continued in the peninsula of Kamtschatka. I can enumerate only twenty-five which are inhabitants of land; for I must omit the marine animals, which had at all times power of changing their situation: all the rest persisted in their migration, and fixed their resi­dence in the New World. Seventeen of the Kamtschatkan quadrupeds are found in America: others are common only to Sibiria or Tartary, having, for unknown causes, entirely evacuated Kamtschatka, and divided themselves between America and the parts of Asia above cited. Multitudes again have deserted the Old World, even to an individual, and fixed their seats at distances most remote from the spot from which they took their departure; from mount Ararat, the resting-place of the ark, in a central part of the Old World, and excellently adapted for the dispersion of the animal creation to all its parts. We need not be startled at the vast journies many of the quadrupeds took to arrive at their present seats: Might not numbers of species have found a convenient abode in the vast Alps of Asia, instead of wandering to the Cordilleras of Chili? or might not others have been contented with the boundless plains of Tartary, instead of tra­velling thousands of miles, to the extensive flats of Pampas?—To endeavour to elucidate common difficulties is certainly a trouble worthy of the philosopher and of the divine; not to attempt it would be a criminal indolence, a neglect to ‘Vindicate the ways of God to man.’ But there are multitudes of points beyond the human ability to explain, and yet are truths undeniable: the facts are indisputable, notwithstanding the causes are concealed. In such cases, faith must be called in to our relief. It would certainly be the height of folly to deny to that Being who broke open the great fountains of the deep to effect the deluge—and afterwards, to compel the dispersion of mankind to people the globe, directed the confusion of languages—powers in­ferior in their nature to these. After these wondrous proofs of Omnipotency, [Page CLXVI] it will be absurd to deny the possibility of infusing instinct into the brute creation. DEUS est anima brutorum; GOD himself is the soul of brutes: His pleasure must have determined their will, and directed several species, and even whole genera, by impulse irresistible, to move by slow progression to their destined re­gions. But for that, the Llama and the Pacos might still have inhabited the heights of Armenia and some more neighboring Alps, instead of laboring to gain the distant Peruvian Andes; the whole genus of Armadillos, slow of foot, would never have absolutely quitted the torrid zone of the Old World for that of the New; and the whole tribe of Monkies would have gambolled together in the forests of India, instead of dividing their residence between the shades of Indostan and the deep forests of the Brasils. Lions and Tigers might have infested the hot parts of the New World, as the first do the deserts of Africa, and the last the provinces of Asia; or the Pantherine animals of South America might have re­mained additional scourges with the savage beasts of those antient continents. The Old World would have been overstocked with animals; the New remained an unanimated waste! or both have contained an equal portion of every beast of the earth. Let it not be objected, that animals bred in a southern climate, af­ter the descent of their parents from the ark, would be unable to bear the frost and snow of the rigorous north, before they reached South America, the place of their final destination. It must be considered, that the migration must have been the work of ages; that in the course of their progress each generation grew hardened to the climate it had reached; and that after their arrival in America, they would again be gradually accustomed to warmer and warmer climates, in their removal from north to south, as they had in the reverse, or from south to north. Part of the Tigers still inhabit the eternal snows of Ararat, and mul­titudes of the very same species live, but with exalted rage, beneath the Line, in the burning soil of Borneo or Sumatra; but neither Lions or Tigers ever mi­grated into the New World. A few of the first are found in India and Persia, but they are found in numbers only in Africa. The Tiger extends as far north as western Tartary, in lat. 40. 50, but never has reached Africa. I shall close this account with observing, that it could be from no other part of the globe except Asia, from whence the New World could receive the animal creation.

The late voyage of the illustrious COOK has reduced the probable conjectures of philosophers into certainty. He has proved that the limits of the Old and New World approach within thirteen leagues of each other. We know that the intervening streights are frequently frozen up; and we have great reason to suppose, that the two continents might have been once united, even as low as the Aleutian islands, or lat. 52. 30. Thus are discovered two means of passage from Asia to America; the last [Page CLXVII] in a climate not more rigorous than that which several animals might very well endure, and yet afterwards proceed gradually to the extreme of heat.

In fact, every other system of the population of the New World is now over­thrown. The conjectures of the learned, respecting the vicinity of the Old and New, are now, by the discoveries of our great navigator, lost in conviction. The strained systems of divines, laudably indeed exerted in elucidating SACRED WRIT, appear to have been ill-founded; but, in the place of imaginary hypothe­ses, the real place of migration is uncontrovertibly pointed out. Some (from a passage in Plato) have extended over the Atlantic, from the streights of Gibraltar to the coast of North and South America, an island equal in size to the continents of Asia and Africa; over which had passed, as over a bridge, from the latter, men and animals; wool-headed Negroes, and Lions and Tigers^*, none of which ever existed in the New World. A mighty sea arose, and in one day and night engulphed this stupendous tract, and with it every being which had not com­pleted its migration into America. The whole Negro race, and almost every Quadruped, now inhabitants of Africa, perished in this critical day. Five only are to be found at present in America; and of these only one, the Bear^†, in South America. Not a single custom, common to the natives of Africa and America, to evince a common origin. Of the Quadrupeds, the Bear, Stag, Wolf, Fox, and Weesel, are the only animals which we can pronounce with certainty to be found on each continent. The Stag^‡, Fox, and Weesel, have made also no farther progress in Africa than the north; but on the same continent the Wolf is spread over every part, yet is unknown in South America, as are the Fox and Weesel. I suspect, besides, that the Stag hath not advanced farther south than Mexico. In Africa and South America the Bear is very local, being met with only in the north of the first, and on the Andes in the last. Some cause unknown arrested its progress in Africa, and impelled the migration of a few into the Chilian Alps, and induced them to leave unoccupied the vast tract from North America to the lofty Cordilleras.—My promised Table of Quadrupeds will at once give a view of those which inhabit North America, and are either peculiar to it, or are met [Page CLXVIII] with in other countries. It certainly will point out the course they have taken in their migration; and, in case misnomers are avoided, will reduce to the single continent of Asia the original country from whence they sprung. Men of the first abilities, and first in learning, who have neglected the study of natural history, will give Lions and Tigers to America, misled by the ignorance of tra­vellers, who mistake the Puma, N^o 14 of this Work, for the first; and the spotted wild beasts, allied to the Pantherine race, for the second.