and the quantity of huts which furround their quarters, inhabited by their wives, children, and flaves.

The Tungufians form one of the most numerous nations of Siberia. They are of a middle ftature, well made, and of a good mien. Their fight and hearing are of a degree of acuteness and delicacy that is almoft incredible; but their organs of fmélling and feeling are confiderably more blunt than ours. They are acquainted with almost every tree and ftone within the circuit of their ufual perambulation; and they can even defcribe a courfe of fome hundred miles by the configurations of the trees and ftones they meet with, and can enable others to take the fame route by fuch defcriptions. They alfo difcover the tracks of the game by the compreffion of the grafs or mofs. They learn foreign languages with eafe, are alert on horfeback, good hunters, and dexterous at the bow.

The Kalmucs are a courageous tribe, and numerous; for the most part raw-boned and ftout. Their vifage is fo flat, that the skull of a Calmuc may be eafily known from others. They have thick lips, a small nofe, and a fhort chin, the complexion a reddish and yellowish brown. Their cloathing is oriental, and their heads are exactly Chinese. Some of their women wear a large golden ring in their noftrils. Their principal food is animals, tame and wild, and even their chiefs will feed upon cattle that have died of diflemper or age, and though the flesh be putrid; fo that in every horde the flesh-market has the appearance of a lay-stall of carrion; they eat likewife the roots and plants of their deferts. They are great eaters, but can endure want for a long time without complaint. Both fexes smoke continually during the fummer they remain in the northern, and in the winter in the fouthern deferts. They fleep upon felt or carpeting, and cover themselves with the fame.

The Kamtfchadales have a lively imagination, a strong memory, and a great genius for imitation. Their chief employments are hunting and fifhing. The chafe furnishes them with fables, foxes, and other game. They are very expert at fishing, and are well acquainted with the proper feafons for it. They eat and drink great quantities; but as what they eat is always cold, their teeth are very fine. Dogs are their only do meftic animals, and they put a high value upon them. Some of them travel in small carriages drawn by dogs; and a complete Kamtfchadalian equipage, dogs, harness, and all, cofts in that country near twenty rubles, or 41. 10s. The Kamtíchadales believed the immortality of the foul, before they were prevailed upon to embrace the Chriftian religion. They are fuperftitious to extravagance, and extremely fingular and capricious in the different enjoyments of life, particularly their convivial entertainments.

The manners of the Siberians were formerly fo barbarous, that Peter the Great thought he could not inflict a greater punishment upon his capital enemies, the Swedes, than by banishing them to Siberia. The effect was, that the Swedish officers and foldiers introduced European ufages and manufactures into the country, and thereby acquired a comfortable living. In this forlorn region, fo long unknown to Europe, fome new mines have lately been difcovered, which, upon their first opening, have yielded 45,000 pounds of fine filver, faid to have been obtained with little difficulty or expenfe. But Kamtschatka is now confidered as the most horrid place of exile in the vaft empire of Ruffia; and here some of the greateft criminals are fent.

RELIGION.] The established religion of Ruffia is that of the Greek church, the tenets of which are by far too numerous and complicated to

be difcuffed here; but the great article of faith by which that church has been fo long separated from the Latin or Catholic church, is the doctrine that the Holy Spirit does not proceed from the Father and the Son, but from the Father only. They deny the pope's fupremacy; and though they difclaim image-worship, they retain many idolatrous and fuperftious cuftoms. Their churches are full of pictures of faints, whom they confider as mediators. They observe a number of fafts and lents, so that they live half the year very abftemioufly: an inftitution which is extremely convenient for the foil and climate. They have many peculiar notions with regard to the facraments. They oblige their bishops, but not their priests, to celibacy. Peter the Great showed his profound knowledge in government in nothing more than in the reformation of his church. He broke the dangerous powers of the patriarch and the great clergy. He declared himself the head of the church, and preferved the fubordinations of metropolitans, archbishops, and bishops. Their priests have no fixed income, but depend, for subfiftence, upon the benevolence of their flocks and hearers. Peter, after eftablishing this great political reformation, left his clergy in full poffeffion of all their idle ceremonies; nor did he cut off their beards: that impolitic attempt was reserved for the em peror Peter III. and greatly contributed to his fatal catastrophe. Before his time, an incredible number of both fexes were that up in convents: nor has it been found prudent entirely to abolish thofe focieties. The abuses of them, however, are in a great measure removed; for no male can become a monk till he is turned of thirty; and no female a nun till she is fifty; and even then not without permiffion of their fuperiors.

The conquered provinces, as already obferved, retain the exercise of their own religion; but fuch is the extent of the Ruffian empire, that many of its fubjects are Mahometans, and more of them no better than Pagans, in Siberia and the uncultivated countries. Many ill-judged attempts have been made to convert them by force, which have only tended to confirm them in their infidelity. On the banks of the river Sarpa is a flourishing colony of Moravian brethren, to which the founders have given the name of Sarepta; the beginning of the fettlement was in 1765, with diftinguished privileges from the imperial court.

LANGUAGE.] The common language of Ruffia is a mixture of the Polish and Sclavonian; their priefts, however, and the moft learned clergy, make use of what is called modern Greek and they who are acquainted with the ancient language in its purity, may eafily acquire the knowledge of it in its corrupted ftate. The Ruffians have thirty-fix letters, the forms of which have a strong resemblance to the old Greek alphabet.

LEARNING AND LEARNED MEN.] The Ruffians have hitherto made but an inconfiderable figure in the republic of letters: but the great encouragement lately given by their fovereigns, in the inftitution of academies and other literary boards, has produced fufficient proofs that they are no way deficient in intellectual abilities. The papers exhibited by them at their academical meetings have been favourably received all over Europe; efpecially thofe that relate to aftronomy, the mathematics, and natural philofophy. The fpeeches pronounced by the bishop of Turer, the metropolitan of Novgorod, the vice-chancellor, and the marshal, at the opening of the commiffion for a new code of laws, are elegant and claffical: and the progrefs which learning has made in that empire fince the beginning of this century, with the specimens of literature published both at Petersburg and Mofcow, is an evi dence that the Rhians are not unqualified to fhine in the arts and fei

ences. The efforts to civilife them did not begin with Peter the Great, but were much older. A fmall glimmering, like the first day-break, was feen under czar Iwan, in the middle of the 16th century. This became more confpicuous under Alexius Michaelowitz; but under Peter it burst forth with the fplendor of a rifing fun, and has continued ever fince to afcend towards its meridian.

UNIVERSITIES.] Three colleges were founded by Peter the Great at Mofcow; one for claffical learning and philofophy, the fecond for mathematics, and the third for navigation and aftronomy. To thefe he added a difpenfary, which is a magnificent building, and under the care of fome able German chemifts and apothecaries, who furnifh medicines not only to the army but all over the empire. And within thefe few years, Mr. de Shorealow, high-chamberlain to the empress Elizabeth, daughter to Peter the Great, has founded an univerfity in this city. The late emprefs Catharine II, alfo founded an univerfity at Petersburg, and invited fome of the most learned foreigners in every faculty, who are provided with good falaries; and alfo a military academy, where the young nobility and offcers' fons are taught the art of war. It ought alfo to be mentioned, to the honour of the fame royal benefactress, that the founded a number of fchools for the education of the lower claties of her subjects, throughout the beft-inhabited parts of the empire.

AND OTHER BUILDINGS.

CITIES, TOWNS, PALACES, Petersburg naturally takes the lead in this divifion. It lies at the junction of the Neva with the lake Ladoga already mentioned, in latitude 60; but the reader may have a better idea of its fituation by being informed that it ftands on both fides of the river Neva, between that lake and the bottom of the Finland gulf. In the year 1703, this city confifted of a few small fitling huts, on, a fpot fo waterifh and fwampy, that the ground was formed into nine iflands, by which its principal quarters are fill divided. Without entering into too minute a defcription of this wonderful city, it is futficient to say that it extends about fix miles every way, and contains every structure for magnificence, the improvement of the arts, revenue, navigation, war, commerce, ard the like, that is to be found in the most celebrated cities in Europe. But there is a convent which deferves particular notice, in which 440 young ladies are educated; 200 of them of fuperior rank, and the others daughters of citizens and tradefmen, who, after a certain time allotted to their education, quit the convent with improvements fuitable to their conditions of life; and those of the lower clafs are prefented with a fum of money, as a dowry if they marry, or to fecure to themfelves a proper livelihood. Near to this convent is a founding-hofpital, affiftant to that noble one eftablished at Mofcow, and where the mother may come to be delivered privately; after which the leaves the child to the ftate, as a parent more capable of promoting its welfare.

As Peterburg is the emporium of Ruffia,, the number of foreign fhips trading to it in the fummer-time is furprifing. In winter 3000 one-horfe fledges are employed for paffengers in the firects. It is fuppofed that there are 150,000 inhabitants in this city; and it is ornamented with thirty-five great churches; for in it almoft every fect of the Chriftian religion is tolerated. It alfo contains five palaces, fome of which are fuperb, particularly that which is called the New Summer-Palace, near the Triumphal Port, which is an elegant piece of architecture. This magnificent city is defended on the fide next the fea by the fortrefs of Cronstadt, which, confidering the difficulty and danger of navigating a large naval force through the gulf of Finland, is futh

cient to guard it on that fide from the attempts of any enemy. Petersburg is the capital of the province of Ingria, one of Peter the Great's conqueits from the Swedes. In the neighbourhood of this city are numerous country-houfes and gardens.

The city of Mofcow was formerly the glory of this great empire, and it ftill continues confiderable enough to figure among the capitals of Europe. It ftands, as has been already mentioned, on the river from which it takes its name, in lat. 55-45, and about 1414 miles northeaft of London. Though its ftreets are not regular, it presents a very picturefque appearance; for it contains fuch a number of gardens, groves, lawns, and ftreams, that it seems rather to be a cultivated coun try than a city. The ancient magnificence of this city would be incredible, were it not attefted by the most unquestionable authors: but we are to make great allowances for the uncultivated fate of the adjacent provinces, which might have made it appear with a greater luftre in a traveller's eyes. Neither Voltaire nor Bufching gives us any fatisfactory account of this capital; and little credit is to be given to the authors who divide it into regular quarters, each quarter inhabited by a different order or profeffion. Bufching fpeaks of it as the largest city in Europe: but that can be only meant as to the ground it ftands on, computed to be fixteen miles in circumference. It is generally admitted, that Moscow contains 1600 churches and convents, and forty-three places or fquares. The merchants' exchange, according to Bufching, contains about 6000 fine fhops, which difplay a vaft parade of commerce, especially to and from China. No city exhibits a greater contrast than Mofcow, of magnificence and meannefs in building. The houfes of the inhabitants in general are miferable timber booths; but their palaces, churches, convents, and other public edifices, are fpacious and lofty. The Kremlin, or grand imperial palace, is mentioned as one of the most superb ftructures in the world: it ftands in the interior circle of the city, and contains the old imperial palace, pleasure-house, and tables, a victualling-house, the palace which formerly belonged to the patriarch, nine cathedrals, five convents, four parish churches, the arfenal, with the public colleges, and other offices. All the churches in the Kremlin have beautiful fpires, most of them gilt or covered with filver; the architecture is in the Gothic tafte: but the infides of the churches are richly ornamented; and the pictures of the faints are decorated with gold, filver, and precious ftones. The cathedral has nine towers, covered with copper, double-gilt, and contains a filver branch with forty-eight lights, faid to weigh 2800 pounds. A volume would fcarcely fuffice to recount the other particulars of the magnificence of this city. Its fumptuous monuments of the great-dukes and czars, the magazine, the patriarchal palace, the exchequer, and chancery, are noble ftructures. They have a barbarous anecdote, that the czar John Bafilides ordered the architect of the church of Jerufalem to be deprived of his eye-fight, that he might never contrive its equal. The jewels and ornaments of an image of the Virgin Mary, in the Kremlin church, and its other furniture, can be only equalled by what was feen at the famous Holy Houfe of Loretto in Italy. M. Voltaire fays, that Peter, who was attentive to every thing did not neglect Mofcow at the time he was building Petersburg; for he caused it to be paved, adorned it with noble edifices, and enriched it with manufactures.

The foundling-hofpital at Moscow is an excellent inftitution, and appears to be under very judicious regulations. It was founded by the late emprefs, and is fupported by voluntary contributions, legacies, and

other charitable endowments. It is an immenfe pile of building, of a quadrangular shape, and contains 3000 foundlings: when completed, it is intended to contain 8000. They are taken great care of; and at the age of fourteen have the liberty of choofing any trade; for which purpose there are different fpecies of manufactures established in the hospital. When they have gone through a certain apprenticeship, or have arrived at the age of twenty, they are allowed the liberty of fetting up for themfelves; a fum of money is beftowed upon each foundling for that purpose, and they are permitted to carry on trade in any part of the Ruffian empire. This is a very confiderable privilege in Ruffia, where the peasants are flaves, and cannot leave their villages without the permiffion of their mafters.

Nothing can be faid with certainty as to the population of Moscow. When lord Carlisle was the English embaffador there, in the reign of Charles II. this city was twelve miles in compafs, and the number of houfes was computed at 40,000. When Voltaire wrote, Mofcow was twenty miles in circumference, and its inhabitants amounted to 500,000. Mr. Coxe confirms the account of the circumference of this city, but thinks the cftimate of its population much exaggerated: according to an account which was given to him by an English gentleman, which he received from a lieutenant of the police, and which he fays may be relied on, Moscow contains within the ramparts 250,000 fouls, and in the adjacent villages 50,000. Two French travellers, who were there in 1792, fay, its population confifts of from 300,000 to 328,000 fouls, in fummer; but in winter is increased to nearly 400,000. Voyage de Deuz Français.

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CURIOSITIES.] This article affords no great entertainment, as Ruffia has but lately been admitted into the rank of civilifed nations. She can, however, produce many ftupendous monuments of the public spirit of her fovereigns; particularly her canals made by Peter the Great, for the benefit of commerce. Siberia is full of old fepulchres of an unknown nation, whofe inftruments and arms were all made of copper. In the cabinet of natural history at Petersburg, is a rhinoceros, dug up on the banks of the river Valui, with his fkin, and the hair upon it, perfect. The Ruffians are extremely fond of the ringing of bells, which are always to be heard tinkling in every quarter. The great bell of Mofcow weighs, according to Mr. Coxe, "432,000 pounds, "and exceeds in bignefs every bell in the known world. Its fize "is fo enormous," fays that writer, "that I could scarcely have given credit to the account of its magnitude, if I had not ex"amined it myself, and afcertained its dimenfions with great exact"nefs. Its height is nineteen feet, its circumference at the bottom twenty-one yards eleven inches, its greateft thickness twenty-three "inches." It was caft in the reign of the emprefs Anne: but the beam on which it hung being burnt, if fell, and a large piece is broken out of it; fo that it lately lay in a manner useless. Mr. Bruce in his Memoirs mentions a bell at Moscow, founded in the czar Boris's time, nineteen feet high, twenty-three in diameter, and two in thickness, and weighing 336,000 pounds. The building of Petersburg, and raifing it on a fudden from a few fifhing-huts to be a populous and rich city, is perhaps an enterprife hardly to be paralleled in antiquity. The fame may be faid of the fortrefs of Cronstadt, in the neighbourhood of Petersburg, which is almoft impregnable. This fortrefs and city employed for fome years 300,000 men in laying its foundation, and driving piles night and day; a work which no monarch in Europe (Peter epted) could have executed. The whole plan, with a very little