PETER SIMON PALLAS.
Born 1741.—Died 1811.
This traveller, whose works are comparatively little known in England, was born at Berlin, September 22, 1741. His father, who was an able surgeon, entertained the design of educating him forhis own profession; and at the same time caused him to learn several languages. At a very early age he was able, therefore, to write the Latin, the English, the French, and the German. His retentive memory rendered these acquirements so easy, that his great success in this department of knowledge scarcely at all interfered with his progress in others; so that he is said to have likewise maintained among his schoolfellows the pre-eminence in all their various studies. He was, in fact, by no means satisfied with what was taught him by his different masters, but employed his leisure hours in the study of natural history; and at the age of fifteen he had already imagined ingenious divisions of several classes of animals.
Having attended at Berlin the courses of Gleditsch, Mekhel, and Roloff, and those of Vogel and Rœderer at Göttingen, he proceeded to Leyden, to finish his studies under Albinus, Gaubins, and Musschenbroeck. The rarest productions of nature had been for two centuries accumulating in Holland by the commerce of the whole world; and it was therefore impossible that the ardent passion of Pallas for natural history should not be still further excited by living in the midst of them. But perhaps we attribute too much influence to the force of circumstances. The soul, with all its tastes and passions, is far more independent of external things than is generally supposed. Concomitance is not causation. The energy of the mind derives sustenance, as it were, from circumstances; but the effect of this nourishment is determined by its own original character, just as it is determined by the innate qualities of the scorpion, or the bee, whether the vegetable juices which they extract from the plants of the field shall be converted into poison or into nectar. However this may be, Pallas afterward visited England, where a commerce more extensive than had ever been carried on by any other nation,ancient or modern, must likewise have collected immense treasures in natural history, which afforded him a fortunate occasion for improving his knowledge. The sight of these scientific riches seems, in reality, to have determined him to waive all claim to professional emolument or honours, for the purpose of devoting himself entirely to natural history; and he obtained his father’s permission to settle at the Hague, with a view of continuing his studies.
Here, in 1776, he published his “Elenchus Zoophytorum,” the first of his “great works,” to adopt the expression of M. Eyriès, which, for an author of twenty-five, was a remarkable performance. The “Miscellanea Zoologica,” which was published the same year, still further augmented his reputation. This work (I still borrow the language of the French geographer) threw a new light upon the least known classes of the animal kingdom, those which had hitherto been confounded together under the name of worms. These two publications carried far and wide the name of their author, and several governments sought to monopolize his talents. He would probably have given the preference to that of his own country, had he received from it the least encouragement; but, as too often happens, says M. Cuvier, it was at home that he was least respected. He therefore resolved to desert his country, and accepted a place in the Academy of St. Petersburg, which was offered him by Catherine II. Pallas’s private circumstances are nowhere, so far as I have been able to discover, properly explained. I know not, therefore, whether extreme poverty or vulgar cupidity determined him to take this step; but I cannot, without pain, contemplate men of abilities running about the world in search of wealth, ready to snatch at it from any hand, and no less ready, however base may be the donor, to repay the dishonourable obligation by despicable flattery and adulation. For this reason, in spite of the profound venerationwith which I regard every thing like genius, which appears to be a spark of the Divine nature fallen from heaven, I cannot help considering Pallas as a learned and ingenious slave, cringing at the foot of power, and willing to perform all things at its bidding.
Catherine, it is well known, was desirous that some of her own barbarians should observe in Siberia the transit of Venus over the sun’s disk in 1769, and not, as in 1763, leave the honour to foreigners. She therefore selected a number of astronomers from the Academy of St. Petersburg, and joined with them several naturalists, whose business it was to examine the nature of the productions and soil in this remote province of the empire. They were, in fact, instructed to make the most exact researches on the nature of the soil; on that of the waters; on the means of cultivating the deserts; on the actual state of agriculture; the diseases which chiefly prevailed among men and beasts; the means of curing or preventing them; the manner of rearing bees, silkworms, and cattle; minerals, and mineral waters; the arts, trades, and other industrious processes of each province; the plants, animals, the interior and the form of mountains; and, in short, on all the objects of natural history. The geography of the country, the manners of its inhabitants, and the traditions and monuments of antiquity were likewise included.
Such was the enterprise to engage in which Pallas was invited into Russia. In the midst of the numerous preparations required for so long and arduous a journey, he found leisure to compose several new works (for he possessed, and was vain of, a great facility in writing), which, in the opinion of naturalists, were full of interesting views; among others he presented to the academy his famous memoir on the bones of large quadrupeds discovered in Siberia, in which he proves that the remains of elephants,rhinoceroses, buffaloes, and many other kinds of animals now peculiar to the south, were found in those northern regions.
The expedition was composed of seven astronomers and geometricians, five naturalists, and several pupils, who were to direct their course in various directions over the immense country which they were about to explore. Pallas left Petersburg on the 21st of June, 1768. The great road to Moscow, which traverses a part of Ingria, affords nothing interesting either to the traveller or the naturalist. Having passed Tosna, they entered a forest of pines and birch-trees, where, owing to the marshy nature of the soil, every spot which had been cleared of wood swarmed with gadflies. He passed through, but made no stay at Novogorod, and then pushed on to Bronitzkoi. The river which passes through this town abounds in salmon-trout, which descend from the lake of Ilman, visible from the neighbouring hill. The road here affords a view of several ancient tombs, which our traveller did not pause to examine.
At a short distance beyond Saisovo, he crossed the Jemlin, in which pearl-muscles are found; and, hurrying along impatiently, arrived at Moscow on the 4th of July. This city, which had so often been visited and described by others, possessed so few attractions for him that he would willingly have quitted it immediately; but his vehicles, shattered by the badness of the roads, paved in some instances with trees, and cracked by the heat of the sun, required reparation; other causes of delay occurred, and he was therefore detained here many days. To amuse himself a little, and blunt the point of his impatience, he made several short excursions in the environs, where he was greatly struck at finding on all sides numerous petrifactions of marine substances. The river Moskwa produces an abundance of marine sponges, with which the Russian womenrub their cheeks, instead of paint. Attempts were even then making to raise the genuine rhubarb in the environs of Moscow.
From this city he set out for Vlodimir. But little care was then taken in Russia to provide travellers with good horses, since even the members of this expedition were sometimes scarcely able to proceed on account of the badness of their beasts. Vlodimir, formerly an extensive city, according to the traditions of the country, is picturesquely situated upon several small hills, and surrounded by cherry-orchards, the produce of which is the chief means of subsistence possessed by the inhabitants. At Kassinof Pallas found the descendants of several Tartar princes, who were now engaged in the fur trade, and possessed of considerable riches. They were of the Mohammedan religion, and were at that time rebuilding a fallen mosque, by permission of the government.
At a small village on the banks of the Oka he saw a great number of goitres, whose deformity he supposed to arise from the quality of the water. On the banks of the Piana he found, in a small scattered village, several descendants of the Mordwans, who, having been converted to Christianity, had lost almost all traces of their ancient manners. These, according to Pallas, were at that time the filthiest people in the Russian empire, which was a bold thing to say; but they were good husbandmen, and their women, though ugly, were exceedingly laborious, which our traveller, no doubt, regarded as a superior quality to beauty.
About the middle of September the cold was already considerable, rain and snow were frequent, and the severe frosts commenced. Having passed the Soura, they entered into an immense forest, where he observed wild cabbages on the banks of the river. Here they saw the beehives of the Mordwans, which were left all the winter in the forestswith a very slender covering; and, among their flocks, several mules produced between the goat and the sheep. The peasants of these woody districts were principally employed in making tar. On the 22d of September they reached Simbirsk, on the Volga, where they were detained within doors for some days by a tremendous storm. They then issued forth upon their various pursuits; and, among other places, Pallas visited the sulphurous springs which are found near the Sargout. One of those springs was formerly of considerable extent, and furnished large quantities of sulphur, but it had then disappeared. The other formed a little marsh on the left bank of the stream. Even in the depth of winter, the water of the spring never froze, and at all times a thin sulphury vapour hung like a light cloud over its surface.
The season being now too far advanced to allow them to proceed on their journey, they determined to pass the winter at Simbirsk, from whence they departed on the following March towards Siberia. In fact, they were weary of their residence at Simbirsk long before the winter was over; and Pallas, having been given a charming picture of the environs of Samara, removed thither with his companions on sledges. Near this town, in the bed of a small stream which falls into the Sviaga, were found numerous remains of the skeletons of elephants, among which were several tusks very slightly injured by time, from the ivory of which various beautiful articles were wrought. Here our traveller continued during the whole month of April, in which time he examined whatever was remarkable in the environs; and then, on the 2d of May, proceeded towards the south, to Sizran on the Volga.
The heat at this place during almost the whole of May was nearly insupportable; the clouds gathered together, and, extending themselves in a thick canopy over the sky, appeared to promise rain, whilethe thermometer continued rising from 105 to 110 degrees in the shade; so that, in a place situated in the same latitude as Caernarvon in North Wales, a heat equal to that of Calcutta in July was experienced in the spring. So high a temperature of the atmosphere was probably unusual, as it alarmed the peasantry for their crops; and processions, offering up solemn prayers for rain, were beheld throughout the country.
Proceeding thence towards Perevoloka, our traveller beheld on the way a village which on the evening before his arrival had been nearly unroofed by a hurricane. The vast chalky plains on the banks of the Volga had now been almost entirely stripped of vegetation by the sun, and the heat in those places which were bare of trees was tremendous. At the foot of a small range of hills which traverse these stepps Pallas conjectured that the vine would succeed admirably. On drawing near the Volga they found numerous lofty hills, some of which were exceedingly well wooded, while barrenness dwelt upon the others; and the narrow defiles which divided them were filled with tarantula-holes, and the burrows of the marmot, which was seen sitting at the mouth of its retreat uttering piercing cries.
On a solitary spot at a short distance from the Volga Pallas visited a large tomb, which he found had formerly been opened by avaricious treasure-seekers; but their excavations, like the tomb itself, were now covered with a thick underwood, and were therefore of ancient date. The excursions of our traveller in various directions from Samara, which was his head-quarters, were numerous, and his discoveries in natural history would seem to have been no less so; but he passed from place to place with the utmost safety and despatch, as we travel from London to Bath; and therefore, however valuable may have been his scientific labours, the events of one day too nearly resembled those of the preceding not to cause the utmost monotony in his history.
Near Bouzoulouk, on the river Samara, were found numerous ancient tombs resembling those of the Grecian heroes on the shores of the Hellespont. Copper or golden-headed arrows were sometimes found on opening these burrows; and on one occasion the treasure-seekers were rewarded by the discovery of a chain of gold round the neck of a skeleton. The bones of the dead indicated a gigantic stature. On arriving at one of the principal fortresses on the line of the Jaik, Pallas visited the Bashkir and Kalmuc camps, where he was amused with a concert in the old national style. The songs of the Kalmucs, like those of more refined nations, were chiefly of love. Their instruments, though rude, were not unpleasing. They likewise exhibited their strength in the wrestling-ring, and their dexterity in the use of the bow. The Bashkirs also displayed their skill in archery, and danced several Tartar dances. Here Pallas observed the largest marsh-flies he had ever seen,—six inches in length by three and a half in breadth. In travelling along the Jaik it was found necessary to move under the protection of an escort of Cossacks, as the Kirghees, a hostile nation, were encamped in groups along the banks of the river. On the 1st of July, 1769, he arrived at Orenburg.
In this city our traveller enjoyed an opportunity of observing the manners of the Kirghees. These people purchased annually from the Russians a number of golden eagles, used by their hunters in the chase of the wolf, the fox, and the gazelle, and would sometimes give a horse in exchange for one of these birds, while others were hardly valued at a sheep, or even a small piece of money. During his stay at Orenburg he visited the great salt-mines of Hetzkain, and learned the laborious and ingenious methods by which the fossil salt is extracted from the bowels of the earth. The mines are chiefly worked in summer, and the salt, being left to accumulateuntil the winter months, is then transported to distant places by the peasantry. In these solitary regions he saw a caravan of thirty camels returning from China, having crossed the vast deserts of Central Asia, where both men and animals had nearly perished for want, in consequence of the excessive heat of the summer. From thence he proceeded to the Jasper Mountains, where many stones were found beautifully variegated; some representing, when split, the figures of trees upon their surfaces, while others were dotted with spots of different colours. On the summits of these mountains he beheld numerous Kirgheesian tombs constructed with prodigious blocks of jasper, with more than imperial magnificence.
From Orenburg he descended along the course of the Jaik, through a mountainous country, intersected by numerous ravines, and of a wild, desolate aspect. Near Kalmikova, on the eastern shore of the Jaik, he saw a Kirghees camp. When the party drew near, about the close of the day, the Kirghees seemed terrified at their approach; but were soon reassured upon observing their pacific disposition. They then crowded round them with joyful faces, and, bringing forth their koumiss, or prepared mare’s milk, enabled several of Pallas’s attendants to steep their senses in forgetfulness. Still, our honest travellers, conscious, perhaps, that the Kirghees had some injuries to revenge against the Russians, were fearful of passing the night in the camp, and therefore hastened to return before dark to the city. Thence he continued proceeding in a southern direction to the ruins of Sarai, of which the ditch and the rampart are nearly all that now remain. It sunk gradually with the decay of the Tartar power, until the inhabitants at length emigrated to Chiva, and allowed it to fall entirely. The road from thence to Gourief, on the Caspian, lies over a dry marsh, where nothing but a few red wild-flowers meet theeye. Here Pallas embarked in a boat with a Mons. Euler, in order to visit a small island in the Caspian, the waters of which were of a grayish green, though the sailors assured them that the colour farther out at sea was a greenish black. It was said, that during summer phosphoric fires were occasionally beheld upon its waves.
Having examined the embouchure of the Jaik, and the neighbouring coast of the Caspian Sea, Pallas returned northward, and set up his quarters for the winter of 1769 at Oufa, situated on the river Belaia. Here he employed the time not spent in travelling in working up his journal. The winter unfortunately happened to be peculiarly bad; and this, united with the melancholy situation of the city, and the bad air which prevails there, prevented him from deriving all the advantages which might have been expected from so long a residence. To increase the dulness and insipidity of his stay, he was kept almost a prisoner in the city until the month of May by continual inundations. In all other respects, likewise, the winter was unfavourable. It commenced with September, and continued increasing in rigour until the end of November, when they were visited by terrible tempests, in which several travellers perished on the downs of Orenburg. These continued during the whole of December. January was less severe, and February mild. The winter ended in March, the thaw commenced with April, and then the country was overflowed.
Pallas had passed so unpleasant a winter at Oufa, that he saw the time of departure approach with the greatest satisfaction; and, as soon as the overflowing of the rivers had ceased, despatched a soldier before him across the Ural Mountains into the province of Isetsk, with orders to cause the roads and bridges to be repaired. He himself followed on the 16th of May. The weather, notwithstanding the advanced season of the year, was overcast andstormy, with a north-west wind; it hailed, snowed, and rained at intervals; but this did not continue long. In the course of the day he passed by a vast chasm, formed by the sliding of strata from their basis, and by the inhabitants denominated “the bottomless pit.” Here the people had three years before cast the carcasses of all those animals which had died of the murrain, which brought thither a prodigious number of famished and furious wild dogs, and thus rendered the road so dangerous that it was found necessary to send out an armed detachment against them.
The road now entered an immense forest, in which the Russians, in imitation of the Bashkirs, kept great numbers of beehives, which were hollowed out in the trunks of large trees, about five or six fathoms from the ground. This is intended as one of the means of protecting the hives against the bears; for which purpose they likewise carefully cut off all the lower branches of the tree, and smooth every knot. However, as the bear is too able a climber to be thus discouraged, they, in addition to these common precautions, fix a kind of circle of sharp knives or scythes round the tree, a little below the hive, which either prevents the animal from ascending, or impales him when he would return. But there are some old bears too experienced to be thus caught, who strike out the spikes with their paws. Against these other means are resorted to. In the first place, they fix a kind of catapult aloft on the tree, with a cord suspended, which, when the animal touches, an arrow is darted down with great vehemence, which transfixes him in the breast. Another method is, to suspend a plank horizontally on some of the long branches by cords, in such a manner that it can be drawn at will before the mouth of the hive, to which it is fastened by a knot of pliable bark. Upon this plank the bear seats himself in order to work at the hive. He then commences byloosening the knot, upon which the plank becomes what boys call a “see-saw;” and the bear is either precipitated in a moment to the ground, where he is impaled upon sharp stakes fixed there for the purpose, or, if he does not fall, he is compelled to leap, or wait trembling on the plank until the owner of the hive arrives and shoots him at his ease.
Having traversed the country of the Moursalarki Bashkirs, our traveller visited a small volcano, around which every thing was in full flower and further advanced than elsewhere, on account of the internal heat. This volcano was not of ancient date. Many persons then living remembered the storm during which a thunderbolt fell upon a great pine-tree, which, taking fire and burning rapidly to the very roots, kindled the mountain, which had thenceforward continued on fire. The neighbouring forests were wholly consumed by the conflagration. At this time the fire seemed to have retired into the centre of the mountain, where it raged with prodigious violence, occasionally bursting forth through the wide fissures of the superincumbent crust, which it was gradually calcining to powder. The view of the volcano during a stormy night was sublime. Broad openings or cracks, commencing at the summit of the cone, spread themselves like the veins of a leaf down the side, branching forth in many directions, as from a trunk; and these, contrasted with the dark mass of the mountain, and emitting light-red flames through all their extent, appeared like so many perpetual streams of lightning in a thunder-cloud.
In traversing a forest in this district after a terrible hurricane, Pallas found the ground strewed with small branches of poplar, the extremities of which furnish a finer and more silky cotton than that of Egypt or Bengal. Whether the Russian government has ever attended to the suggestion of this naturalist, in substituting this cotton for the ordinary species, I have not been able to learn. The routethrough the forests and mountains which border the Aural in this direction was by no means very pleasing. Pallas loved smooth roads, good inns, and good dinners. He was therefore particularly annoyed when, in making towards a mountain said to abound in aluminous slate, he found his guide at fault in the woods, where, after wandering about for some time, they were overtaken by a tempest. The sky suddenly grew dark, and their way lying among rugged rocks of enormous magnitude, the passage between which was frequently blocked up by trees which the hurricane had overthrown, their horses refused to proceed. Besides, the darkness was now so great that they could not see before them, and it was therefore necessary to pass the night where they were. To make their lodgings as comfortable as they could, they selected the tops of the highest rocks, which were somewhat drier than the rest of the forest. Had they possessed a tinder-box, it would have been easy to kindle a fire, by which they might have dried and warmed themselves; but our traveller, like Sir Abel Handy in “Speed the Plough,” whose inventions were never completed by the hour of need, had left his tinder-box behind him. He endeavoured to remedy this evil by rubbing together two small pieces of wood; but the rain had damped the seeds of fire which they contained, and he rubbed in vain. Relinquishing at length all attempts to inveigle Vulcan into their company, they erected a small tent with the branches of trees and their cloaks, and throwing themselves, wet as they were, upon the felt of their saddles, in this manner quietly passed the night, though the rain fell in torrents on all sides. Next morning, after drinking a little water, which served them for breakfast, they pushed on through the woods; but as the rain still continued, they were for a considerable time unable, with all their exertions, to restore warmth to their limbs. In the afternoon, however, they discoveredan iron-foundry, where they dried their garments, and then set forward on their return to their quarters. This was destined to be a day of adventures for Pallas. The river Aï, which they had crossed without difficulty the day before, was now swelled to a furious torrent by the rains; so that a ferry-boat was indispensable. A horde of Chouvashes, who inhabited the banks of the stream, undertook to construct a boat; but when it was launched, and the traveller embarked in it, the mariners discovered that the cords by which it was to be pulled along were so awkwardly arranged that they were every moment in danger of being capsized and hurled into the water. Fortunately, the rapidity of the current was so great, that they darted along like an arrow, clinging to their carriage, which they had had the prudence to fasten with strong cords to the boat; and in a moment they were on the opposite shore, where the sharp angles of their raft, for it was little better, struck in the earth, and prevented all possibility of a refluence into the river. They then dragged their vehicle on shore, and continued their journey.
Proceeding eastward from this place, they arrived on the 20th of June at the Asbestos Mountain, which traverses a marshy region covered with moss. The asbestos is found on the summit of the loftiest hill in the whole chain, in a kind of coarse slate. It is brittle, like decayed wood, while in the stone, but upon being exposed to the air becomes soft and pliable as flax, and is easily spun and woven into cloth. Pallas himself, who carefully examined its nature and qualities, as well as the mine, if it may be so termed, from which it is drawn, saw it manufactured into paper. From this place he proceeded to the iron-forges of Sisertskoï, in the neighbourhood of which gold is found in a matrix of quartz and ochre; and, indeed, all the country immediately north of this point abounds in an auriferous ochre, from whichmuch pure metal might be extracted. He then visited various other forges, mines, and quarries, and arrived at Ekaterinburg on the 23d of June.
Our traveller’s life, like the peaceful periods of history complained of by Plutarch, was too uniform to furnish many interesting events to his biographer. He travelled, he examined many things, he wrote; but dangers, difficulties, and all the fierce play of the passions, which render the life of a bold adventurer who relies on his own resources a series of romantic achievements, have no existence in his travels’ history, and both the reader’s patience and mine are, therefore, somewhat irritated. This, no doubt, may appear unphilosophical to many. It may be said, that when we behold the picture of a life, whether individual or national, which flowed along in a calm tide, unruffled by misfortune or vicissitude, our feelings should be lulled into the same tranquil motion, and be productive of a happiness similar to that, the representation of which we contemplate. I have faith in the wisdom of nature, which has ordered things otherwise. The mind, when in a healthy and vigorous state, abhors an uninterrupted calm; and storms, hurricanes, and thunders are not more conducive to the general good of the physical world than vicissitudes, transitions, dangers, escapes, which are the storms and sunshine of life, are conducive to happiness in the individual who undergoes them, and to sympathy and pleasure in those who contemplate his career. For this reason, persons who travel with authority never inspire us with the same respect as those whose movements are spontaneous and independent; nor can such travellers ever penetrate like the latter into the core of manners and national character, since most of those who approach them put on, in deference to their very authority, an artificial, deceptive appearance. In the same manner, a nation which should begin and end in peace would have no history; none, at least, whichcould interest any one beyond its borders. Human virtues are plants which never strike a deep root unless shaken by misfortune. Virtue consists in the directing of our intellectual and physical energies to a praiseworthy end; but if our energies be naturally feeble, or dwindle and wither away through lack of exercise, our virtue, by a necessary consequence, must become dwarfish and insignificant, and utterly incapable of exciting enthusiastic sympathy in those who behold its meek and timid bearing.
These reflections have been extorted from me by the insipid mode of travelling adopted by Pallas. Nothing can be further from my intention than to recommend or require foolhardiness in a traveller; but it seems not irrational to expect, that when a man undertakes the task of examining a remote country, he should be willing to incur some risk and fatigue in the execution of his plan. Of fatigue Pallas, perhaps, endured his share; but he seems to have shrunk rather too timidly from coming in contact with barbarous nations; and I therefore greatly distrust the completeness of his moral pictures. On the other hand, his descriptions of plants, minerals, and the processes of Russian industry are exceedingly minute, and enjoy, I believe, among scientific men the reputation of being exact; but these, unfortunately, the very nature of biography compels me to reject, or introduce into the narrative but sparingly. Among the curious things observed in the western districts of Siberia was the method of preparing Russia leather, which, though tanned in the ordinary manner, acquired the fine scent which renders it so valuable from the oil extracted from the bark of the birch-tree. In traversing the forests which surround the marble quarries on the banks of the Toura, with Vogoul guides, they were overtaken by the night. Excepting the small spot on which they halted, all around was a marshy swamp encumbered with wood, and affording neither roadnor pathway. They therefore considered themselves fortunate in having found a dry resting-place; and the Vogouls, to whom such accidents were familiar, immediately occupied themselves in kindling a fire at once, in order to procure warmth and keep off the bears. Next morning his guides undertook to conduct him, by a short path across the forest, to the banks of the Liala, and accordingly struck off boldly into the wilderness. The sombre pine-trees, intermingling their branches above, rendered the way exceedingly obscure; a bog or a fallen tree every moment intercepted their route; the branches of prickly shrubs tore their hands and faces; and not a step could be taken without carefully observing whether it might not precipitate them into some impassable morass. Not a plant met the eye but themœringiaand thelinnea, two plants which our traveller, in general a patient forbearing man, often saluted with Tristram Shandy’s whole chapter of curses, as they were in those northern regions the never-failing forerunners of a swamp or an impervious pine-forest. After much toil they reached an open space, from which the trees had been cleared away by a conflagration, which Pallas attributed to lightning, and his guides to the frolics of the devil, who, they imagined, during some long winter night had kindled a whole forest to light up his gambols. Shortly afterward, his guides, who had probably bestowed too many of their thoughts upon the devil, entirely lost their way, and, after floundering about in bogs and woods for several hours, were compelled to confess their utter ignorance of the way; upon which, at the command of our traveller, they turned back, and regained the point from which he had started. The Vogouls, with whom he performed this unsuccessful journey, are a people of primitive and peculiar manners, living in separate families scattered through the woods, with each its domain and enclosure of several miles, containing elks andother large game. Though surrounded by marshes, they are said to enjoy excellent health. Their lives, however, are not of long duration. Short in stature, and effeminate in form, they in some measure resemble the Kalmucs, but their complexion is fairer. Their women are handsome, and of exceedingly amorous temperament. They profess Christianity, but merely for peace’ sake; for in secret they continue the worship of idols, which are daily invoked with prayer and sacrifice.
About the end of August Pallas arrived at Cheliabinsk, where he was for a considerable time confined to his chamber by an affection of the eyes. Here, therefore, he resolved to remain during the winter; but, in order that no time might be lost, he despatched a number of his attendants in various directions, with orders to collect information. Growing tired of this town about the middle of December, however, he set out for Tobolsk, where he remained but a few days, and then returned by Ekaterinburg to Cheliabinsk, where he continued during the remainder of the winter.
Pallas remained at Cheliabinsk until the 16th of April, 1771, when, having commissioned a number of the young men who accompanied the expedition to examine the more northern portions of Siberia, he departed towards the east. The day before he set out, the long grass on the extensive downs to the north of the city were set on fire; the flames swept rapidly along the plains, and the wind blowing towards the town, there was some danger that this irresistible conflagration, which already embraced the whole extent of the horizon, might reach the place, and consume it to ashes. A timely shower of rain, however, put an end to their apprehensions.
In proceeding towards the Tobol, our traveller was alarmed by a report that the Kirghees were making an incursion into the interjacent territory, and prudently turned out of his way to avoid an encounterwith these rude barbarians. At Kaminskaia several of his companions fell sick, some with fever, some with scorbutic rheumatism, while others became a prey to melancholy. His movements, for these reasons, were slow. The weather, meanwhile, was exceedingly severe; the snow falling heavily, accompanied by cold wind. The last days of April were marked by a terrible hurricane, and May was commenced with hard frost; notwithstanding which, neither the young flowers nor the buds suffered any particular injury. On the 2d of May one of his attendants died of scurvy, which had afflicted him for five months, and was accompanied by symptoms no less violent than those which attend the same disorder at sea. This event, which would have cost some men a tear, seems to have given no particular uneasiness to Pallas, who, leaving some of his people to inter the dead, coolly continued his journey.
On reaching the stepp of Ischimi, he found an immense plain watered by extensive lakes, and abounding in aquatic game, among which the most remarkable was a large species of white heron. To study the manners of this bird he remained here a few days. But his mode of procuring game was somewhat different from that of Le Vaillant, who pursued the birds into the woods, observed them in their native haunts, and shot them himself. Pallas despatched a number of subaltern naturalists, who shot the game for him, and furnished him with an account of their manners; and this was what he termed studying natural history.
On arriving at Omsk, he applied to the temporary governor of the town for permission to examine the collection of maps of Siberia, as divided into provinces and districts, which had been made by the late Governor Springer; but the new functionary, “dressed in a little brief authority,” had the ambition to play the politician and statesman, and, notwithstanding that he knew Pallas to be travelling for thegovernment upon a public mission, refused him the favour he demanded without an express order from court. Nay, when he desired to depart, this new great man, with the prudence of an owl, denied him a proper passport, though without this it would be difficult for him to obtain horses on the way. Pallas, however, with the caution of a courtier, rather than with the honest indignation of a man of letters, instead of stigmatizing this gross misconduct as it deserved, merely observes, that he attributed it to the military spirit naturally inimical to the sciences.
Our traveller at length departed from Omsk, and commenced his examination of the productions found on the banks of the Irtish, where, on digging in the sandy downs, the bones of elephants and of many large fishes were discovered. Though it was now drawing near the end of May, he experienced continual storms, sometimes accompanied by black clouds, at others by a clear sky. From the inhabitants, however, he learned that tempests succeed each other almost unceasingly in those regions, where a week of fine weather is seldom or never known. He here learned from the fur-merchants a secret which deserves to be generally known: in order to preserve their furs from the worms, they tied up in each bale several calamus roots, which, they asserted, were an unfailing defence of their merchandise. A few shreds of Russia leather, which preserves books and papers from the moth even in Hindostan, would no doubt have answered the same purpose.
On the 11th of June, while travelling through a country thickly intersected with salt-lakes and birch forests, and peopled by myriads of wild bees, he encountered an enormous wolf, which was chasing a duck upon the heath. This animal, he says, is generally remarkable for its timidity in summer; but on the present occasion seemed disposed, like one of La Fontaine’s wolves; to enter into a debate with the strangers; for, instead of flying, he coolly stoodstill to look at them, without being in the least disturbed by their shouting. At length, however, despairing of entering into any thing like rational conversation with persons who seemed resolved to monopolize all the privilege of good company for themselves, he turned round upon his heel, and with a disdainful and careless bound, continued his journey.
At the foot of the small mountains which branch northward of the Altaïc chain, Pallas discovered a prodigious number of excavations and pits, made at some remote period by a people now unknown, who understood the art of smelting metals, but who have left no trace of their existence save these mines, and the ornaments of copper and gold which are found in their tombs. Here, at the small town of Shoulba, our traveller was attacked with dysentery; but it was necessary to push forward, though his weakness was such that he could scarcely step into his carriage. While in this state he passed by, but could not visit, a tomb of prodigious magnitude, situated on the summit of a lofty mountain, which, according to tradition, had formerly been opened by a band of one hundred and fifty armed peasantry, who had been rewarded for their labour by the discovery of fifty pounds weight of solid gold. A few days afterward his dysentery became so violent that he was compelled to discontinue his journey, and confine himself, during several weeks, to his bed.
As soon as his health was a little improved, he set out with M. Sokoloff, in order to visit the Altaïc mountains. The whole of the neighbouring districts are diversified with hill and dale, and watered by numerous streams, which come down from the mountains, foaming and thundering over their rocky beds. On some of these eminences were found extensive copses of raspberry-bushes, around which Pallas observed the fresh tracks of bears, which are very fond of this fruit, and not unfrequently carry off women and children who resort thither to gather it. Apparentlythis is done merely as a frolic, or by way of terrifying interlopers from meddling with their property; for our traveller gravely observes that they do them no manner of injury.
At length they discovered the summits of the Altaï, covered with snow, and towering far above everything around them. Pallas had no eye for the picturesque. What in the eyes of another man would have been sublime was to him merely fearful and horrible; but he was struck with these cones, and pyramids, and precipices, and prodigious pinnacles of rock, which, when he beheld them, appeared to support a black roof of clouds, which stretched over the whole hemisphere, and menaced the country with a second deluge. No marine petrifactions, or any sign of their ever having been submerged in the ocean, were here discoverable; but it is probable that more careful researches would have been productive of a different result.
From the Altaïc mountains Pallas directed his course towards the north, crossed the Obi, traversed the governments of Kolyran, visited Tomsk, and on the 10th of October arrived at Krasnoiarsk, a city situated on the Yeniseï, in the 66th degree of north latitude. Here he set up his quarters for the winter. The autumn, he observes, is generally mild in the southern parts of Siberia; but with the winter storms and hurricanes come on, and sometimes blow during a whole month without intermission. The cold is intense. Nevertheless, about the middle of February the sun begins to exert considerable power, and sensibly diminishes the snow on the mountains.
On the 7th of March, 1772, Pallas departed from Krasnoiarsk for the eastern part of Siberia, accompanied by a painter, and three naturalists. Their route, as far as the Angora, lay through a country partly covered with forests, where there falls, during winter, large quantities of snow. From time to time they observed the encampments of the idolatroustribes who inhabit those regions, and roam about like wild animals in the woods. They reached Irkutsk on the 14th, and having remained a week in that capital, continued their journey along the shores of Lake Baikal. The weather had now grown warm, and they saw the last flocks of alpine larks and black sparrows, flying round the city, and then departing for the north; these were followed by a species of striped crow, which had passed the winter in the warm regions of Mongolia, or China, and was now pursuing the same route towards the arctic circle.
As our traveller was desirous of crossing Lake Baikal on sledges, he hurried his departure from Irkutsk, lest the warm weather should melt the ice, and obstruct his passage. The scenery on the shores of this immense lake is exceedingly rugged and sublime. Rocks of vast elevation form the shores of the Angara, by which you descend from Irkutsk to the sea; and on arriving at the mouth of the river you discover, as through an arcade, the vast basin of the Baikal, and the lofty mountains which confine its waters on the east. They directed their course in a straight line from a small post on the bank of the frozen stream, towards the borders of the lake, pursuing their way in sledges on the ice. When they had proceeded about half-way, they were overtaken by a tremendous storm from the north-west, which entirely cooled the atmosphere. The wind swept along the ice with such prodigious violence, that the sledge-drivers, who ran along by the side of the vehicles, were sometimes blown away to the distance of many fathoms from the road, and were compelled to stick their knives in the ice, to prevent their being carried away, and hurled into some chasm. To avoid the risk of such accidents, the party halted until the tempest was over.
At Zimovia on the Baikal, they found several persons setting out to hunt the sea-dog on the lake. This kind of chase takes place principally in April.The sea-dogs, assembling on those parts of the shore where rapid streams or warm springs keep up an opening in the ice, then ascend from the water, in order to lie down upon the ice, and sleep in the sun. The hunters fix up in their little sledges a small white flag, which the dogs take for ice, and accordingly are not frightened until they draw near and fire upon them.
Pallas now descended in his sledge upon the Baikal, and commenced this singular portion of his journey. The ice had this winter been as smooth as a mirror, on the whole surface of the lake; but when they had advanced to a certain distance from the shore, they found a fissure of several feet in breadth, which intercepted their passage, and forced them to make a circuit of considerable length. However, this obstacle having been surmounted, they encountered no other, and quickly found themselves on the opposite shore. The road now assumed a different character, running over rugged mountains, or sandy flats, where the snow was entirely melted, until, cutting the Selinga, as it were, into two parts, it led them into a milder climate, where the spring, with all its gay accompaniments, was already far advanced. They arrived, much fatigued, at Selinginsk, on the 25th of March.
From Selinginsk he proceeded through Mongolia towards the borders of China, moving among an idolatrous people, the partisans of the Lamaic hierarchy, until, arriving at Kiakter, he touched the extreme limits of the empire, where his journey in that direction was to terminate. Here Pallas made many inquiries respecting the commerce, opinions, and manners of the Chinese; and having satisfied his curiosity, returned to Selinginsk. From this point he now directed his course northward, towards the great tributary streams which fall into the Selinga. His excursions in this direction, which were carried into execution without enthusiasm or curiosity, merelyas a task imposed on him by authority, are still more destitute of incidents, if possible, than the former portion of his travels. He examined the iron-mines, the grain and fur trade, and the objects of natural history furnished by the district.
Pallas now turned his face towards the east, traversed the desert regions which lie between the Selinga and the Onon, the principal branch of the Amoor, and having pushed his researches to within a very short distance of the Chinese frontier, returned by a different route to Selinginsk, leaving to M. Sokolof and others the honour of exploring the frontiers of Mongolia, along the banks of the Argoon and Amoor. His health, indeed, now began to suffer from constant fatigue, and he was therefore fully justified in relinquishing this portion of his task; but I cannot easily pardon him for pretending to have been actuated by the desire of botanizing on the banks of the Selinga, since, if botanizing was his object, it was to be presumed that the wild shores of the Amoor would have afforded a still more ample and extraordinary field for his researches. During his stay at Selinginsk, he observed, among other curious animals and birds, the blue crow, which was easily taken, as its young were hitherto unfledged; and a species of small white hare, which was found in great numbers in the little islands in the Selinga. Besides these there was the leaping hare, which, mingling at night among the sheep, frightened them by its bounding motions. The Mongols, who are fond of its flesh when roasted, imagine that it sucks the ewes; as the vulgar in England report of the hedgehog and the cow.
Previous to his finally quitting the country, he made another excursion to the frontiers of China, principally, it would seem, for the purpose of studying the botany of those districts, when the flowers were clothed in all the beauty of summer. The road to Kiakta traverses a large sandy plain, and afterwarda succession of rocky mountains, entirely destitute of wood. In this latter district our traveller observed a species of locust, by whose flight the natives could foretel with certainty whether the weather would be fair or otherwise. They mounted aloft on the wing previous to rainy weather, and the noise of their motions resembled that of castanets. After remaining some short time in the vicinity of Kiakta, he once more returned to Selinginsk, and began to make the necessary preparations for retracing their footsteps to Krasnoiarsk, where they again intended to pass the winter. Accordingly, on the 3d of July, Pallas and a part of his companions departed from Selinginsk, and proceeded towards the Baikal.
Upon reaching the eastern shore of the lake, they saw a thick cold mist, which appeared to fill the whole extent of its vast basin, and hung close upon the surface of the water. This fog exactly resembled those fogs which are sometimes collected in the hollows of the mountains, or on the shores of the sea. It was kept in continual motion, and tossed hither and thither, like the waves of the ocean, by the wind. This mist was accompanied by strong westerly winds, which prevented our traveller from proceeding on his way; and he amused himself during his detention in studying the fishes of the lake, together with the birds and animals which frequent its shores.
On the 10th of July, he embarked, and set sail with boisterous and contrary winds. The passage of the lake was long, but, arriving at length at Zimovia, Pallas proceeded with all possible expedition to Krasnoiarsk, by way of Irkutsk. He arrived on the 1st of August at the point of destination, where, to his great satisfaction, he found that a magnificent collection of the flowers which adorn the banks of the Yeniseï had been made during the spring and summer, by one of his pupils, whom he had left behind for that purpose. From Krasnoiarsk, ourtraveller made another long excursion, visited several Tartar hordes, various mines, mountains, and tombs, and returned about the middle of September, the approach of winter being already visible in those high latitudes. By December, the cold had reached an intensity which had never been felt even in Siberia. The air was still, and at the same time condensed, as it were; so that, although the sky was exceedingly clear, the sun appeared as if beheld through a cloud. In the morning of the 6th of December, Pallas found the mercury of his thermometer frozen, “a thing,” says he, “which had never before happened during the whole eight years in which I had made use of this instrument. I then conveyed it from the gallery where it was kept into an apartment moderately warmed with a stove. Here the column of mercury, which had been condensed in the tube, immediately sunk into the bulb, while that in the bulb resumed its activity in the course of half a minute. I repeated this experiment several times with the same result, so that sometimes there remained but a very few particles in the tube, sometimes not above one. In order to follow the progress of the experiment, I gently warmed the bulb with my fingers, after it had been exposed to the air, and watching the mounting of the mercury, distinctly observed that the condensed and frozen columns offered considerable resistance before they gave way. At the same time I exposed about a quarter of a pound of mercury to the air, in a saucer. This mercury had been previously well washed in vinegar, and cleansed from impurities. The saucer was placed in a gallery on the north side of my house. In an hour the edges of the surface were frozen, and a few minutes afterward, the whole superficies was condensed into a soft mass, exactly resembling pewter. As the interior, however, still continued fluid, a small portion of the surface presented numerous wrinkles branching outfrom each other, but the greater part was sufficiently smooth. The same thing took place with a still larger quantity which I placed in the open air. This mass of frozen mercury was as pliable as lead but if bent suddenly, would break more easily than pewter; and when flattened into sheets, appeared somewhat knotty. I tried to beat it out with the hammer, but being quite cold, the mercury fell from it in drops. The same thing took place when you touched this mass with the finger, the top of which was instantly benumbed with cold by the simple contact. I then placed it in a moderately warm room, and it melted like wax placed over the fire. The drops separated from the surface, which melted gradually. The intensity of the cold diminished towards the evening.”
In the month of January, 1773, Pallas began to make preparations for returning to Petersburg, and departing on the 22d, pushed on with the utmost rapidity to Tomsk. During this journey, he discovered the execrable principles upon which it was attempted to people Siberia. The refuse of the people, the lame, the sick, the infirm, and the old, had been collected together, and sent thither to die. Men had been torn, for this purpose, from their wives and families. Women, for some reason or another, had not been allowed to emigrate from the west in sufficient numbers, and vice and misery flourished in their absence. Man, deprived of the society of women, necessarily degenerates into a ferocious beast, contemning all laws, and every regulation of morality. “It is not good that man should be alone.” Whenever new colonies are established, women should be numerous. It is they who are the grand instruments of civilization.—The cavern, the desert hut, when inhabited by a woman, already contains the germs of humanity, of hospitality, of improvement; but without heris a den, a haunt of ungovernable passions,—a refuge from the storm, but not a home.
In crossing a bridge over the Dooroosh, in the country of the Votiaks, our traveller was placed in a more perilous condition than he had experienced during any former period of his travels. His horses had already reached the shore, when the bridge, which must have been a very frail structure, gave way under his carriage, and he must infallibly have been precipitated into the stream, had not the spirited horses dashed on at the moment, and dragged up the carriage from amid the falling ruins.
The country between the Jaik and the Volga was at that period a vast desert, which abounded with wild horses. Pallas, however, was of opinion that these animals had once been tame, but, during the emigrations and nomadic movements of the Kalmucs and Kirghees, had escaped into the wilderness, where they had multiplied exceedingly. To fly from the heat and the hornets, these horses wandered far into the north during the summer months, and there, besides a refuge from their persecutors, found better pasturage, and an abundance of water. The surface of this great Mesopotamia was sprinkled at intervals with ruins of Tartar edifices, which swarmed in an extraordinary manner with serpents.
On the 25th of June our traveller arrived at the Moravian colony of Sarepta, which in eight years had increased, by immigration, from five persons to two thousand five hundred; and was at this period in a highly flourishing state. He here entered into some curious researches respecting the ancient shores of the Caspian, whose waters, in his opinion, once covered the greater portion of the Kalmuc country, just as those of the Black Sea did all the low lands upon its banks, before the deluge of Deucalion, when they first burst the huge natural mound which separated them from the Mediterranean.
Pallas passed the autumn at Zarizyn, where heobserved the Kalmucs moving westward in hordes towards the country lying between the Volga and the Don. From this place he made an excursion through the stepps which lie up the stream of the Volga; on his return from which he chiefly employed himself in botanical researches, until the spring of 1774. He then undertook another journey along the banks of the Aktooba, through a country infested with bands of vagabond Kirghees, and other wandering nations, and returned to his head-quarters on the 25th of May.
It was now six years since the expedition had set out from Petersburg, and all its members began to desire repose. Each person, therefore, hastened to return by the shortest road to the capital. Pallas was directed to repair to Moscow, and punctually obeyed his orders, without making the slightest deviation to the right-hand or to the left. He arrived at this ancient city on the 3d of July, 1774. “Here,” says he, “I found the orders of the court, by which I was commanded to hasten without the least delay to Petersburg; and, notwithstanding that I felt exceedingly desirous of making a short stay at Moscow, for the purpose of improving my knowledge, by conversing with the learned M. Müller, one of the most excellent men in Russia, as well as one of the most celebrated of its historians,it was necessary to yield and obey.” Such is the condition of those who travel by command. He arrived at Petersburg on the 30th of July, exhausted by fatigue, and with a head sprinkled with premature gray hairs; for he was then no more than thirty-three years old.
The companions of Pallas had suffered still more severely; scarcely one of them lived long enough to draw up an account of his travels; and it was therefore left to him to render this piece of justice to their memory. For himself, the splendid objects which he had beheld had made too profound an impressionon his mind to allow of his being satisfied with the accounts of them which he had hastily traced in his journal. He therefore determined upon the publication of several separate works, which should contain the natural history of the most celebrated quadrupeds of Siberia; and these he actually laid before the public, together with descriptions of a great number of birds, reptiles, and fishes. In addition to all these, he even projected a natural history of all the animals and plants in the Russian empire; in which design, though it was never completed, he made a very considerable progress. The empress herself, worthless and profligate as she was, was possessed by the ambition of being regarded as the patron of the sciences, and in order to facilitate the execution of our traveller’s project, communicated to him the herbariums of several other botanists, who had studied the flora of the empire. To secure the completion of the undertaking, Catherine moreover engaged to furnish the expense of the engraving and printing of the work; but the end was not answerable to this magnificent beginning; projects of more vulgar ambition, or vile and despicable amours, too fully occupied the imperial mind to allow so unimportant a thing as the science of botany to command a thought, and Pallas was constrained to rely upon his own resources for making known his botanical discoveries to the world. The same fate attended his works on the natural history of the animals and insects of the empire.
M. Cuvier, whose capacity to appreciate the labours of a scientific man can scarcely be called in question, observes, that it is seldom that very laborious men possess sufficient tranquillity of mind to conceive those root-ideas which produce a revolution in the sciences; but Pallas formed an exception to this rule. He nearly succeeded in changing the whole aspect of the science of zoology; and most certainlydid operate a complete change in that of the theory of the earth. An attentive consideration of the two great chains of mountains of Siberia enabled him to discover this general rule, which has been everywhere found to hold good, that there exist three primitive orders of mountains, the granitic in the centre, the schistous next in succession, and the calcareous on the outside. It may be said that this great discovery, distinctly announced in a memoir read before the academy in 1777, gave birth to the modern science of geology: from this point the Saussures, the Delues, and the Werners proceeded to the discovery of the real structure of the earth, which is so exceedingly at variance with the fantastic ideas of preceding writers.
In addition to his scientific labours, Pallas was engaged by Catherine in drawing up comparative vocabularies of the languages spoken by all the various nations in the Russian empire; but was restrained, in the execution of this plan, to follow exactly in the track pointed out by his mistress. He was likewise chosen member of the committee employed, in 1777, in compiling a new topography of the empire; and had the honour of instructing Alexander, the late despot of Russia, and his brother Constantine, in natural history. But, notwithstanding all these marks of distinction, and many others of equal importance, our traveller experienced the truth, that happiness is incompatible with dependence of every kind. His travelling habits, too, rendered a sedentary life irksome to him; but what still further disgusted him with Petersburg, was the crowd of fashionable but absurd people who thronged his house, imagining, perhaps, they were doing him an honour by consuming his time. To escape from this species of persecution, he took advantage of the invasion of the Crimea, to visit new countries; and during the years 1793 and 1794, traversed the southern provinces of the empire at his own expense.He even skirted the frontiers of Circassia, but, with his usual prudence, avoided the dangers which would have attended a journey into that country. He then proceeded into the Crimea, through which Potemkin was leading the empress as a spectacle of contempt and scorn to all mankind; and was so captivated by a passing glance at its splendid scenery, that, on his return to Petersburg, he solicited and obtained permission to retire thither.
Solitude, however, which appeared so desirable at a distance, Pallas soon found to be an intolerable curse; the climate, also, fell infinitely short of his expectations, was inconstant and humid, and liable to be altered by every passing wind. It united, in fact, the inconveniences of the north and of the south; yet our traveller endured these evils for fifteen years; but at length, feeling the approaches of old age, he determined at once to escape from the climate of the Crimea and from Russian despotism, and selling his estates at an exceedingly low rate, returned to his native city, after an absence of forty-two years. His health, however, had been so completely undermined by the diseases he had contracted during his travels, and, more than all, by his long residence in the Crimea, that he might be said merely to have looked upon his native place, and on the face of those friends or admirers which his knowledge and fame had gathered around him, before death removed him from the enjoyment of all these things. This event took place on the 8th of September, 1811. Pallas appears to have been an able, learned, and upright man, deeply intent on promoting the interests of science, but indifferent about those great political rights without the enjoyment of which even the sciences themselves are of no more dignity or value than the tricks of a juggler.