agile, and climbs the highest pinnacles, walking securely over the rugged, rocks which impend the steepest precipices, inaccessible to man, and in fact to every other animal. To those impregnable redoubts they repair whenever they are attacked by wolves, bears, or any beast of prey; the old rams bringing up the rear, with their enormous horns curled into a circle after the manner of the domestic sheep; only much more formidable. A single horn of a very old ram will weigh from fifteen to twenty Russian pounds. These animals are found also in abundance on the opposite shores of the Ochotsk sea; but never in the interior. The Tongusees and Koraikees make cups, spoons, and various utensils of their horns. I have been told by the Kamtchatdales, that rams sometimes kill each other in fighting, and a blow from one of them would kill any other animal immediately. They are very broad over the breast, the bones being knit together in the strongest manner; and what is called the brisket is particularly thick and firm. When pursued to the edge of a rock or precipice, they have been seen to curl the fore legs under the body, and let themselves fall on their breasts against the rocks beneath, to the distance of twelve to twenty feet, leaving their astonished pursuers on the top of the height from whence they sprung, to admire their agility, and wonder that they have not been dashed to atoms. They have a thick skin well furnished with hair that resembles the reindeer's in colour, but has none of that oily disagreeable smell belonging to the wool of our sheep; consequently, though it may touch the flesh, in skinning the animal, it never causes any disagreeable taste. The flesh may be said to have the flavour of the most delicious and delicate mutton, without any of the strong taste which that acquires whenever the wool is suffered to touch the flesh. The epicures, no doubt, will lament that such delicate food is confined to the wilds of Siberia! The argallis do not always inhabit those inaccessible places. In the autumn, especially, they are found about the base of the mountains, where the hardy hunter kills a number for his winter stock. As the place where he finds them is sometimes at a great distance from home, he hangs them up in the trees, where they are frozen, and they remain until he can go with his dogs and sledge to bring them away. He takes care, however, to cover them well with bark and branches to keep them from the crows, and he tears all the bark from the bodies of the trees, and makes them as smooth as possible, that bears may not climb them: however, the roussomak, an animal of prey, called by some the wild dog, sometimes robs the trees in spite of his best precautions.

Reindeer also abound in the peninsula; not to mention the numerous herds of domesticated deer kept by the reindeer Koraikees. If we add hares, partridges, and black game, with a great variety of water-fowl, and an innumerable quantity of fish of the salmon species, it is evident that none but the careless and indolent, even of that portion of the inhabitants who are totally unacquainted with the arts of civilized life, can possibly suffer for want of food.'-vol. i. pp. 70-73.

The "breadth of the breast," which our author takes care to mention, reminds us of an instance of the application of science to rural economy in this country, which is not unconnected with the

*Called in Russian, glukhar; in French, coq de bruère. In Kamtchatka there are no wood-hens (gellinots) or pheasants, though they

abound in Siberia.

quotation before us. Mr. Coke, of Norfolk, was partly induced by the physiological observations of Mr. Cline, the surgeon, to send away all his Norfolk sheep and cows, and substitute for them the South Down in the one case, and North Devon in the other; both the breeds being remarkable for the "breadth of the breast." The experience of the great agriculturist has proved the vast difference which has been made in his fortune by this early attention to skilful advice.

Bears are very plentiful in Kamtchatka; and destructive as they are sometimes to the inhabitants, these animals are very useful to them in many respects. Their fat makes good material for the lamps of this people, if it is not sometimes converted to the more important purpose of food. Their skins form warm clothes, and covering for beds; and is sometimes rudely manufactured into leather and strong cables, both of immense value to a maritime race. The wild birds, such as geese, are in general very delicious eating, owing, it is supposed, to the circumstance of their being nourished chiefly from a species of the water-lily, which grows very plentifully in Kamchatka.

Mr. Dobell, pursuing his journey into the interior of Siberia, visited Ochotsk, whence he proceeded to Yakutsk. Many sublime and picturesque scenes presented themselves during his route, as also tracts of cultivation, which are the more pleasing, since they are so inconsistent with all our former notions of the naked and unkindly region of Siberia. Having crossed the Aldan, from the Ochotsk side, Mr. Dobell met with a scene which will no doubt revive the pleasing remembrances of Mad. Cottin's pathetic tale.

'Behind a large body of meadows, on the declivity of a hill, exposed to the south, we saw several jourats beautifully situated, and, on enquiry, I was informed they contained a colony of banished men, sent thither by order of the government. They appeared very well off, having comfortable dwellings, cattle, &c. They certainly had few luxuries; but, with common industry, living on the banks of a river abounding with fish and game, and where there was good soil and fine pastures, they could never want for the necessaries of life, unless too indolent to procure them. Those people call themselves Possellencies, or colonists, and are styled in Siberia, Neshchastnie Loodie, or unfortunate people; no banished man, though he be a convict of the description, being ever called in that country by a name that can wound his feelings, so as to remind him of crimes for which he is already supposed to have been punished, or degrade him in the opinion of the public. This shews not only very sound policy, but a proper delicacy of the governors towards the feeling of these poor people; a delicacy highly commendable, as, by throwing a veil over their past crimes, they not only make them forget what they have been, but induce them to emulate the very many examples before them of retrieved criminals, who have become honest, industrious, good subjects.

'Banishment to such a country as Siberia, then, is certainly no such terrible infliction, except to a Russian, who, perhaps, of all beings upon earth, possesses the strongest attachment to the soil on which he growstaking root like the trees that surround him, and pining when transplanted

to another spot, even though it should be to a neighbouring province, better than his own. Too much praise cannot be bestowed on the humane system adopted by the Russian government in saving the lives of criminals. without distinction, and transporting them to Siberia, to augment the population of a fine country much in want of inhabitants, where their morals are strictly watched, and where they soon become useful, good people. Death is, in fact, so transitory a punishment, that unless a man. has religion and a perfect idea of rewards and penalties in the world to come, it may have no terrors for him; nor will its anticipation ever prevent the commission of crimes so well as the idea of banishment and long suffering. I would not be thought to be the advocate of cruelty: on the contrary, I warmly espouse the principle of producing a perfect contrition, and change of sentiments and actions in the criminal, ere we send him into the presence of his God. To bring about this in an effectual manner, and be satisfied it springs from a thorough conviction of his error, we must not confine him in chains, with a priest praying at his side, until the moment he is launched into eternity. He should be made, as he generally is in Siberia, so far a free agent as to have the power of again doing wrong, else his firmness and resolution are never put to the test; nor can that repentance be called sincere which springs from the imperious necessity of immediately making his peace with his offended God, before whose awful tribunal his merciless government sends him suddenly to appear, with all his crimes fresh upon him.* Having seen the good effects of the penal code of Russia, what I say on the subject is no more than what truth and justice demand; and I wish, for humanity's sake, that so bright an example, which sheds a ray of unsullied glory on her Sovereigns, may be followed with equal success by every nation of the earth.'-vol. i. pp. 333--336.

We are not disposed to find fault with sentiments so amiable as these, particularly coming from one of a country so extremely young in civilization as Russia. But we must not be understood to approve of the indiscriminate abolition of capital punishment, —which we are nevertheless happy to hear works so well,-that, it seems, has been effected in the Muscovite Empire. The fault of such a policy, and the error of Mr. Dobell's sentimentality is, that, in both instances, too exclusive an attention is bestowed on the criminal. We regard the example of punishment as its greatest end, and we have no hesitation in saying that that mode of disposing of a convict which, being not violently disproportioned to his crime, is likely to have the greatest effect in deterring others from the same violation of the law, is the best and wisest that a state can adopt. Mr. Dobell may easily believe that death is no great punishment when it comes to be suffered. But the question is, what punishment operates more powerfully on the imagination

* In Siberia there are certainly instances where convicts have again committed crimes, and some of them murder: these are confined to the mines for life. There are, however, but few examples of this sort; the majority of the convicts acquiring habits of industry and good conduct superior to the same class of people in Russia.

of the mass of mankind, and acts more diffusively on their motives and conduct in restraining them from the commission of enormous offences, than the ignominious termination of their life?

At Yakutsk, which is situated a little beyond 62 degrees of latitude, our author found much to be pleased with. The climate, however, is so extremely capricious, that vegetables seldom thrive there. But, once grown, they may be preserved in the purest possible state for a considerable time in ice, which, notwithstanding its abundance in those regions, is a certain and complete antiseptic. Mr. Dobell was fortunate enough to be invited to witness a ceremony which he describes in the following manner.

'In the evening the governor waited on me, and invited me to accompany him to a house, to see a ceremony performed, previously to a wedding that was to take place next day. We repaired to the house where we found a large party of gentlemen and ladies assembled. The bride and her attendants occupied one end of the room, near a large table on which were placed fruits, cakes, wines, &c. Tea and coffee were served. Afterwards, I was called to look at a procession from an opposite building or store, called in this country an amber, where every sort of provision, effects, &c. are kept. I saw several low four-wheeled vehicles, each drawn by a single ox, loaded with furniture, bedding, clothing, &c. &c. for the new married couple. Lights were carried before them-and a number of young girls assembled near the door of the amber, sang in concert as each vehicle was loaded with the effects of the bride. This ended, the party returned to the house, when dancing commenced, and was kept up with spirit the whole of the night. Before quitting the house, the parents of the young bridegroom requested me to come the following morning and witness the ceremony of his taking leave of them, previously to his going to church. At twelve o'clock on the 22d, we attended at the father's house, where a number of the friends of the bridegroom was collected: several large tables were laid for dinner, and at the principal one, near the images, which in a Russian house are always at the eastern corner of the room, sat the bridegroom and his attendants. A female relative representing the bride, was placed in a chair on the left hand of the bridegroom; and the father and mother sat at the opposite side of the table. Three dishes of cold meat were placed before the principal attendant, and wine and watki (whisky) being at the same time handed round, he cut a large cross on the first one, placing it aside; then the second-then the third in the same way; and at the cutting of each, wine and watki were handed round to the company, who rose and drank to the wedding party. Nothing was eaten, this being merely a ceremony to prepare the feast for the young couple, when they should return from church. After this, the bridegroom went round to the opposite side of the table, holding the image of the Virgin in his hand and crossed himself on his knees, and bowed his head three times to the ground, before his father, who, when he rose, took the image from him, kissed him, and crossed him with it on his head. The same homage was paid to his mother, on which he delivered the image to another person, who preceded the bridegroom and his party to the church, where they met the bride and her attendants; and the couple were then led to the altar, and united in the holy bands of wedlock, by the

protopope or chief of the clergy. The ceremony resembled that of the Catholic church, except that towards the close, the priest places a hymeneal crown on the heads of the man and woman, and they walk three times round a table, where lie the cross and the Bible. This part of the proceeding is regarded as alternately binding them in strict allegiance to each other during the rest of their lives. There are also two rings used, which are exchanged from the man to the woman, during the ceremony. The whole party now returned to the house of the bridegroom's father, where a repast was prepared for them, resembling all large entertainments of this sort. The healths of the principal persons of the place were drunk, and followed by a salute of three guns after each toast. The evening was crowned with an illumination, and a ball, at which, as a stranger, I had the honour of leading off the bride.'-vol. ii. pp. 9-12.

We can easily imagine after this, that the Yakuts are a very hospitable set of people; indeed our author, under the excitement perhaps produced by some profusely generous presents, declares that for kindness to strangers, the inhabitants of Siberia bear away the palm from all the rest of the world. It is gratifying to think, that the most successful efforts are in operation for surmounting the difficulties which nature presents to the cultivation of the soil in this northern region. Agriculture is creeping by parallels of latitude, and from what has been done already by the inhabitants of Siberia, there is every reason to believe, that the frozen sea of the north alone will limit the advance of vegetation. There is an impediment, indeed, at work, which the vigilant care of a good government would soon remove. The governors of the eastern parts of Siberia have an interest in keeping up the succession of sables and foxes undisturbed; and as reclaiming the land would be usurping the dominion of these valuable creatures, the governors naturally merge the public good in their own private interest. The meadows and pastures of Yakutsk are very fine, and enable many of the inhabitants to keep large stocks of horses for commerce. Goats are always associated with their horses. They treat the latter with kindness whilst the animals are living, and they eat them when dead. The Yakuts, who are still very numerous in the province of Yakutsk, are regarded as a sort of inferior caste by the Russians, and many of them exist in a very destitute state of vassalage. Butter seems to be the staple support of life with them, holding the same rank as the potatoe maintains among the people of Ireland. Our author was assured that at a wedding feast, sometimes, where there is a goodly collection of average butter consumers, melted butter will be drunk in the proportion of from twenty to thirty pounds per man. They use it as a medicine, and declare that it is as good as calomel in a bilious attack. As we have yet to pay attention to our author's remarks on China, we shall not follow him through the details of his further progress in Siberia. His observations, however, we must say, have tended very much to alter our impressions as to the physical