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the scene itself, which is little else than a boundless tract of invariable desolation, without any peculiar phenomena to characterise it, than to the writer; but however good an excuse this may be, it is certainly no recommendation. The table of contents alone is enough to frighten a common reader from the contents themselves; it is made up (wholly) of the names of places,-such a hideous catalogue of unpronounceable words, as we never saw brought together before in a given space, except on the map itself.

The whole interest of the volume centres in Captain Cochrane individually, the hardships he suffered, the privations he endured, the obstacles he overcame, the dangers he escaped. Of some of these, the following passages afford good illustra

tions.

On the 9th day I started for Zashiversk, distant forty miles, the first twenty of which was by a rising path, until I reached the greatest elevation of a lofty mountain, with some peril and more difficulty. The scene reminded me of my journey across the sand hills at the back of Vera Cruz, with this difference only, that the gale, generally attending both, obscures in the one instance the atmosphere with sand, and in the other with snow; in both no traces of a path can long exist if there be any wind. The snow lay from four to six feet deep, and our situation was at one time extremely dangerous, being completely ignorant which way to turn; not the smallest vestige of verdure was to be seen, and, except a few crosses (another resemblance to Vera Cruz), which were sure to receive the offering of the Yakuti, consisting of horse-hair drawn from the tail or mane of horses, in token

of their gratitude for safe arrival at the summit, nothing was visible. I left this desert of snow, and rapidly descended the north-east side of the hills, enjoying the magnificent winter scene which gradually opens to view. I soon reached the banks of the Chouboukalah, and the more considerable Galanima, and then along a well-wooded valley, gained the rapid Indigirka just at the point where the latter falls into it; not long after which I entered the

town of Zashiversk.

Of all the places I have ever seen, bearing the name of city or town, this is the most dreary and desolate; my blood froze within me as I beheld and approached the place. All that I have seen in passing rocky or snowy sierras or passes in Spain, in traversing the wastes of Canada, or in crossing the mountains in North America,

or the Pyrennees, or the Alps, cannot be compared with the desolation of the scene. around me! The first considerable haltingplace from Yakutsk, the half-way house, is nine hundred or one thousand miles removed from a civilized place. Such a spot gives name to a commissariat, and contains seven habitations of the most miserable kind, in

habited severally by two clergymen, each separate, a non-commissioned officer, and a second in command; a post-master, a merchant, and an old widow. I have, during my service in the navy, and during a period when seamen were scarce, seen a merchant ship with sixteen guns, and only fifteen men; but I never before saw a town with only seven inhabitants.

Fish is fine and most abundant, and constitutes almost the only support of the numerous inhabitants. There is not a blade of grass near the place, and no horses are kept nearer than thirty miles; so that there is no little difficulty in bringing the hay which maintains a couple of COWS. The planner or proposer of this site for a town might deserve punishment, but certainly less than that of being made its perpetual commander. I remained three days, living in a state of luxury to which I had, of late, been a stranger. Hares, wolves, bears, wild rein-deer, and elks, which abound here, were my ordinary food; foxes, which are also in great plenty, are here used as food. Bear and wolf meat I

found good when very hungry; rein-deer I found a delicate diet; but elk I think surpasses every thing I have tasted, having all the nutriment of beef, with all the delicate flavour of the rein-deer. (P. 220-223.)

In order to understand what our author means by the "luxury" of bear and wolf-meat, it is necessary to be informed that horse-flesh was a demi-savages his escort. common edible with him and the But it would be erroneous to suppose from this, that our author is insensible to the pleasures of good eating; nay, he sometimes indulges a style of panegyric upon this subject, which might fairly indict him as an Epicurean: "Spite of our prejudices, (says he,) there is nothing to be compared with the melting of raw fish in the mouth; oysters, clotted cream, or the finest jelly in the world, is nothing to it. I myself have finished a whole fish, which in its frozen state might have weighed two or three pounds, and with black biscuit, and a glass of rye brandy, have defied either nature or art to prepare a

better meal." We suspect these luxuries would have wanted much of their gratefulness, had they not been served up in a medium, proverbial for its effect in rendering the most unsavory viands palatable, to wit-the sauce of hunger. Marrow, warm from the fore-feet of a rein-deer, is also enlarged upon by our traveller, as one of the greatest delicacies in nature; and stone-butter (an earthy substance called by the Russians Kamenoye Maslo) is another dainty in his Siberian bill of fare. Indeed the inhabitants of the country where such kickshaws are fashionable, appear to be bon vivants of no ordinary description; we much question, if the giant of hasty-pudding celebrity, might compete with a native Yakut or Tongouse in powers of deglutition.

At Tabalak I had a pretty good specimen of the appetite of a child, whose age (as I understood from the steersman, who spoke some English and less French) did not exceed five years. I had observed the child crawling on the floor, and scraping up with its thumb the tallow grease which fell from a lighted candle, and I inquired in surprise whether it proceeded from hunger or liking of the fat. I was told from neither, but simply from the habit in both Yakuti and Tongousi of eating whenever there is food, and never permitting any thing that can be eaten to be lost. I

gave
the child a candle made of the most
impure tallow,-a second,-and third,-
and all were devoured with avidity. The
steersman then gave him several pounds of
sour frozen butter; this also he immedi-
ately consumed; lastly, a large piece of
yellow soap,-all went the same road; but
as I was now convinced that the child
would continue to gorge as long as it could
receive any thing, I begged my companion

to desist.

European would have difficulty in even sipping at it), without the least inconvenience. I have seen three of these gluttons consume a rein-deer at one meal; nor are they nice as to the choice of parts; nothing being lost, not even the contents of the bowels, which, with the aid of fat and blood, are converted into black-puddings.

For an instance in confirmation of this, no doubt, extraordinary statement, I shall refer to the voyages of the Russian admiral, Saritcheff. "No sooner," he says, "had they stopped to rest or spend the night, than they had their kettle on the fire, which they never left until they pursued their journey, spending the intervals for rest in eating, and, in consequence of no sleep, were drowsy all the next day." The admiral also says, "That such extraordiill effects, although they made a practice nary voracity was never attended with any of devouring, at one meal, what would have killed any other person. The labourers," "the admiral says, "had an allowance of four poods, or one hundred and forty-four English pounds of fat, and seventy-two pounds of rye-flour, yet in a fortnight they complained of having nothing

to eat.

said that one of them was accustomed to
Not crediting the fact, the Yakuts
consume at home, in the space of a day,
large ox, twenty pounds of fat, and a pro-
or twenty-four hours, the hind quarter of a
Portionate quantity of melted butter for his
justifying the assertion, the admiral had a
drink. The appearance of the man not
mind to try his gormandizing powers, and
for that purpose he had a thick porridge of
rice boiled down with three pounds of but-
and although the glutton had already
ter, weighing together twenty-eight pounds,
breakfasted, yet did he sit down to it with
great eagerness, and consumed the whole
without stirring from the spot: and, ex-
cept that his stomach betrayed more than
of molestation or injury, but would have
an ordinary fullness, he betrayed no sign
been ready to renew his gluttony the fol-
lowing day." So much for the admiral,
reliance.
on the truth of whose account I place perfect
(P. 212-214.)

As to the statement of what a man can or will eat, either as to quality or quantity, I am afraid it would be quite incredible; in fact, there is nothing in the way of fish or meat, from whatever animal, however If the reader should at any time putrid or unwholesome, but they will de- happen to be benighted in the midst vour with impunity, and the quantity only of winter, upon a shrubless waste or varies from what they have, to what they a sandy desert, he might, perhaps, can get. I have repeatedly seen a Yakut be glad of Captain Cochrane's recipe or a Tongouse devour forty pounds of for making up a good bed, and obmeat in a day. The effect is very obtaining a comfortable night's rest, servable upon them, for from thin and under these circumstances: "I took meagre looking men, they will become perfectly pot-bellied. Their stomachs must off my shoes, hat, and jacket, and, be differently formed to ours, or it would taking a spare flannel waistcoat and be impossible for them to drink off at a drawers which I had fortunately redraught, as they really do, their tea and tained in a bundle, with a dry pair soup scalding hot (so hot, at least, that an of worsted stockings, with this I

made myself a bed, putting my feet into my hat, and pointing them towards the wind, and my shoes under my head for a pillow; then lying down and drawing my jacket over my shoulders, I slept very soundly." His invention of a horse-shoe fire, when the necessity occurred of sleeping in snow, is also worthy of remembrance; the reader may gather some hints from the following narration, if ever he should think of posting through Siberia in search of adven

tures:

The Yakuti then with their axes proceeded to fell timber, while I and the Cossack with our lopatkas or wooden spades cleared away the snow which was generally a couple of feet deep. We then spread branches of the pine tree, to fortify us from the damp or cold earth beneath us: a good fire was now soon made, and each bringing a leathern bag from the baggage,

furnished himself with a seat. We then put the kettle on the fire, and soon forgot the sufferings of the day. Yet the weather was so cold that we were almost obliged to creep into the fire; and as I was much worse off than the rest of the party for warm clothing, I had recourse to every stratagem I could devise to keep my blood in circulation. It was barely possible to keep one side of the body from freezing, while the other might be said to be roasting. Upon the whole, slept tolerably well, although I was obliged to get up five or six times during the night to take a walk or run for the benefit of my feet. While thus employed, I discovered that the Yakuti had drawn the fire from our side to theirs, a trick which I determined to counteract the next night. I should here observe, that it is the custom of the Yakuti to get to leeward of the fire, and then undressing themselves, put the whole of their clothes as a shelter for one side of their bodies, while the other side receives a tho

rough roasting from exposure to the fire; this plan also gives them the benefit of the warmth of their own bodies. The thermometer during the day had ranged from 20° to 25°, according to the elevation of the sun.

The following day, at thirty miles, we again halted in the snow, when I made a horse-shoe fire, which I found had the effect I desired, of keeping every part of me alike warm, and I actually slept well without any other covering than my clothes thrown over me, whereas before I had only the consolation of knowing that if I was in a freezing state with one half of my body, the other was meanwhile roasting to make amends. (P. 206, 207.)

The imperturbable serenity with which he appears to have encountered the several disasters of his

journey, is at once both ludicrous and astonishing. At Tosna in Russia, he was seized by ruffians, who dragged him by the collar into a forest, bound him to a tree, took from him his watch and money, leaving him at the same time "almost as naked as he came into the world." Upon this occasion he gravely observes: "To pursue my route to Tzarko Selo would indeed be alike indecent and ridiculous, but being so, and there being no remedy, I made therefore forward' the order of the day; having first with the remnant of my apparel rigged myself à l'Ecossoise, I resumed my route. I had still left me a blue jacket, a flannel waistcoat, and a spare one, which I tied round my waist in such a manner that it reached down to my knees: my empty knapsack was restored to its old place, and I trotted on even with a merry heart." He adds, that upon being offered a change of raiment by his Excellency General Woronzoff (whose servants taking him probably for a lunatic declined it, considering his thin had shut the door in his face), he dress as "peculiarly becoming." This gaiety, whether the result of philosophy or constitution, never deserts him, even in the most uncomfortable situations. Adventures which another traveller would have ordered his printer to emphaticate with italics and a note of admiration, he relates with a degree of simplicity and naïveté excessively amusing. Thus after having quitted Pogost, he says,— "Being too jaded to proceed farther, I thought myself fortunate in being able to pass the night in a cask! Arrived at Paulovo, &c." At Barnaoule likewise: "The governor had at first taken me for a Rashcolnick (a Polish exile) from my long beard and longer golden locks; notwithstanding I wore at the same time a long swaddling gray nankeen coat, but indeed so great a buck had I beand a silken sash round my waist, come of late that I hardly knew myself:" Again too: " In journeying along the river my horse twice fell under me upon his broadside, yet without injury to me, as I used no

stirrups, my feet hanging at liberty for the sake of kicking the horse's side to keep me warm." And a little after, -"Having well refreshed ourselves with the flesh of a bear and a horse, which had the day before fought each other to death, we departed, &c." "At forty miles, or three in the afternoon, we drank tea in a bush, &c."

The journey from the Frozen Ocean to Okotsk was, perhaps, the most perilous ever undertaken and performed by any European traveller. Two thousand miles, stretching across lofty mountains of ice, large overflowed marshes, half frozen lakes, impetuous rivers, and forests almost impervious, were measured by this undaunted sailor. He remained forty-five nights exposed to the snow, from the drifting of which it was often impossible to keep alive a fire, and five days without food, the other seventy which it took to perform this journey being chiefly supported on horse-meat. In crossing the Okota on a raft of his own making, our author had to contend with difficulties sufficient to make a man of less stubborn intrepidity think it the easiest method of subduing them to lie down at once and die; but by a combination of prudence and temerity, which belongs perhaps to the character of a British seaman alone, he finally extricated himself,-only indeed to plunge into other adventures equally rash and hazardous. To crown his pedestrian errantry, he resolved to cross from Okotsk to California in America, for the purpose of exploring (alone and on foot) the desolate regions of that vast continent; and was only prevented from pursuing this, we must say, Quixotic scheme, by not finding a vessel which might carry him over. We are only surprised that he did not provide himself with a pair of Mr. Kent's newly-invented slippers for walking on water, and thus attempt to cross the Pacific Ocean without further ceremony. Truly the old Russian mineralogist at Nertchinsk who told him that ere long he expected to hear of his arrival in the moon," had chalked him out a track not a little

prefigurative of what his friends seem to hint will be his ultimate destination.

The Siberians, contrary to general opinion in England, would appear from Captain Cochrane's Narrative to be a happy, and on the whole a moral people. The number of criminals is very small, though the policy of colonization induces the government to swell the number of exiles, by pronouncing a sentence of banishment for every slight misdemeanour. Of their progress towards civilization, wealth, and power, he speaks in very sanguine terms. Their mines, he asserts, will shortly rival those of Peru in value; and the salubrity of their climate, internal resources, and increasing population and trade, will render them one of the most powerful nations on earth.The Lancasterian System, it seems, is in full play, as also the English Missionary System, but with very different success: education is spreading rapidly; whilst in the three years that they have been zealously employed there, the Missionaries have failed to convert one individual. Hospitality is a distinguishing feature of the Russ and Siberian character; in travelling from Moscow to Irkutsk (a route of six thousand miles) our author's expenses did not amount to a guinea. Extraordinary as it may appear, he found the natives of this ice-bound country less able to defy cold than he; whilst they were enveloped in furs, he wore nothing but a light dress of nankeen or leather. Their powers of enduring bodily fatigue are also by no means wonderful; we hear our author crying out in almost every second page, for a "fresh Cossack" to accompany him.

On the other hand, the Kamtchatdales are described as a most wretched, oppressed, demoralized, and vanishing race of creatures. Their numbers are now diminished to about four thousand, afflicted with an epidemic scrofula, the fruit of one immoral disease, (from which scarcely a single individual is free,) combined with their indolence, poverty, filth, and perpetual inebriety.

JOHN A' SCHAFFELAAR,

TRANSLATED FROM THE DUTCH OF TOLLENS.

Toen 't vuur der tweedragt vlamde in 't rond.

WHEN high the flame of discord rose,
And o'er the country spread,

When friends were changed to deadliest foes,
And nature's feelings fled :—

When doubtful questions of debate
Disturb'd the public mind,
And all, impell'd by furious hate,
Forgot their kin and kind :-

When foreign armies, helm'd and plumed,
Were hurrying to our strand,
And fierce, internal fires consumed

The heart of Netherland :

Then flourish'd John a' Schaffelaar,
A hero bold was he,

Renown'd for glorious deeds of war,
And feats of chivalry.

Let him who would Rome's Curtius name,
Give Schaffelaar his due,

Who was, though lauded less by fame,
The nobler of the two.

Secluded virtue fairest shines,

No flattery dims its rays,
While virtue on a throne declines,
And fades beneath its praise.

You ask me once again to sing-
And I have yet the will-
And whilst my lyre retains a string,
"Twill sound for Holland still.

When Utrecht saw her sons appear

Her bishop to depose,

And all with musket and with spear
Against his vassals rose:

When Amersfoort had sworn to shield,
Defend him, and obey;

And Barneveld had made it yield,
And wrested him away:

Then flourish'd John a' Schaffelaar,
A hero bold was he-

Renown'd for glorious deeds of war,
And feats of chivalry.

Up-up the steepest tow'r he went,
With eighteen men to aid,

And from the lofty battlement

A deadly havoc made.

He dares their fire, which threatens death,

And gives it back again,

And showers of bullets fall beneath,

As thick as winter's rain.

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