meanness of the surrounding hovels. This place was formerly a strong fortress, and frequently besieged during the wars between Russia and Poland: the ramparts of the antient citadel still remain; from them we commanded an extensive view of the adjacent country, consisting of a large plain watered by the winding Dnieper, and bounded by distant hills. From Dogorobush we proceeded about 24 miles to a small village called Zaratesh; where we thought ourselves very fortunate in being housed for the night in a tolerable hut, which afforded us, (a rare instance of accommodation in these parts,) a room separate from that used by the family. Our hostess was a true Asiatic figure: she had on a blue garment without sleeves, which descended to the ankles, and was tied round the waist with a red sash; she wore a white piece of linen wrapped round her head like a turban, ear-rings, and necklace of variegated beads; her shoes were fastened with blue strings, which were also bound round the ankles, in order to keep up the coarse linen wrappers that served for stockings.

August 27. Our route, next morning, from Zaratesh to Viasma, lay through a continuity of forest, occasionally relieved by the intervention of pastures and corn-fields. When we reflected that we were in the 55th degree of northern latitude, we were surprized at the forwardness of the harvest; the wheat and barley were already carried in, and the peasants were employed in cutting the oats and millet. Since our departure from Smolensko the weather had proved remarkably cold; and the wind had the keenness of a November blast: the peasants were all clothed in their sheep-skins, or winter dresses.

At a small distance from Viasma we passed the rivulet of the same name, navigable only for rafts, which descended its stream into the Dnieper: we then mounted a small eminence,

on the top whereof stands the town, making a magnificent appearance, with the domes and spires of several churches rising above the trees. Viasma spreads, in a broken disjointed manner, over a large extent of ground: its buildings are mostly of wood, a few houses of brick excepted, which had lately been erected by the munificence. of the Empress. Part of the principal street is formed, like the Russian roads, of the trunks of trees laid cross-ways, and part is boarded with planks, like the floor of a room. It contains above twenty churches, a remarkable number for a place but thinly inhabited. The churches in these small towns and villages are chiefly ornamented with a cupola and several domes: the outside walls are either white-washed or painted red; and the cupolas or domes are generally green, or of a different colour from the other parts. At some distance the number of spires and domes rising above the trees, which conceal the contiguous hovels, would lead a traveller unacquainted with the country to expect a large city in a place, where perhaps, upon nearer inspection, he will only find a collection of wooden huts.

At Viasma was concluded, in 1634, the treaty of perpetual peace between Ladislaus IV. king of Poland, and Michael Feodorovitch: by this treaty Michael confirmed the cession of Smolensko, Severia, and Tchernichef, which had been yielded to the Poles at the truce of Develina; while Ladislaus renounced the title of Tzar, and acknowledged Michael as the rightful sovereign of Russia *. On this occasion both monarchs relinquished what they did not possess; and wisely sacrificed imaginary pretensions to the attainment of a substantial peace.

The Russian peasants appeared in general a large, coarse, hardy race, and of great bodily strength. Their dress is a round hat, or cap, with a very high

Lengnich, Hist, Pol, p, 167.

crown,

crown, a coarse robe of drugget (or in winter of a sheep-skin with the wool turned inwards) reaching below the knee, and bound round the waist by a sash, trowsers of linen almost as thick as sack-cloth, a woollen or flannel cloth wrapped round the leg instead of stockings, sandals woven from strips of a pliant bark, and fastened by strings of the same materials, which are afterwards twined round the leg, and serve as garters to the woollen or flannel wrappers. In warm weather the peasants frequently wear only a short coarse shirt and trowsers.

Their cottages are built in the same manner as those of Lithuania; but larger, and somewhat better provided with furniture and domestic utensils; they are of a square shape; formed of whole trees, piled upon one another, and secured at the four corners where their extremities meet, with mortises and tenons. The interstices between these piles are filled with moss. Within, the timbers are smoothed with the axe, so as to form the appearance of wainscot; but without are left with the bark in their rude state. The roofs are in the penthouse form, and generally composed of the bark of trees or shingles, which are sometimes covered with mould or turf.

The peasants usually construct the whole house solely with the assistance of the hatchet, and cut the planks of the floor with the same instrument, in many parts being unacquainted with the use of the saw they finish the shell of the house and the roof before they begin to cut the windows and doors. The windows are openings of a few inches square, closed with sliding frames; and the doors are so low as not to admit a middle-sized man with out stooping. These cottages, sometimes, though very rarely, consist of two stories; in which case the lower apartment is a kind of store-room, &e. and the upper is the habitable part of the house the staircase is most commonly a kind of ladder on the out

:

side. Most of these huts are, how ever, only one story; a few of them contain two rooms, the generality only one. In some of this latter sort I was frequently awakened by the chickens picking the grains of corn in the straw upon which I lay, and more than once by a less inoffensive animal. At Tabluka, a village where we passed the night of the 27th, a party of hogs gained admittance into the room at four in the morning, and roused me by grunting close to my ear. Not much pleased either with the earliness of the visit, or the salutation of my visitors, I called out to my servant, "Joseph, drive these gentry out of "the room, and shut the door." "There is no door that will shut," replied Joseph with great composure;

we have tried every expedient "to fasten it without success; the "hogs have more than once been ex"cluded, but have as often returned." This conversation so effectually rou sed me, that I determined to resign to my unwelcome guests that litter which I could no longer enjoy: I according ly raised myself from the straw; and sitting down, contemplated, by the light of a slip of deal, the scene around me. My two companions were stretched upon the same parcel of straw from which I had just emerged; a little beyond them our servants occupied a separate heap; at a small distance, three Russians, with long beards, and coarse sackcloth shirts and trowsers, lay extended upon their backs on the bare floor: on the opposite side of the room three women in their clothes slumbered on a long bench; while the top of the stove afforded a couch to a woman, dressed like the others, and four sprawling children almost naked.

The furniture in these cottages con sists chiefly of a wooden table or dres ser, and benches fastened to the sides of the room: the utensils are platters, bowls, spoons, &c. all made of wood, with perhaps one large earthen pan,

in which the family cook their victuals. The food of the peasants is black rye bread, sometimes white; eggs, salt-fish, bacon, mushrooms: their favourite dish is a kind of hodgepodge made of salt or fresh meat, groats, rye flour, highly seasoned with onions and garlic; which latter ingredients are much used by the Russians. August 27. Near Viasma we entered the vast forest of Volkonski, thro' which we continued for 150 miles without interruption, almost to the gates of Moscow. This forest, which stretches on all sides to an immense extent, gives rise to the principal rivers of European Russia, the Duna, the Dnieper, and the Volga. The sources of the Duna were at some distance from our route; but those of the Dnieper and the Volga rose at small intervals from each other, not far from Viasma. The country in this part was more than usual broken into hill and dale; though still it exhibited rather a succession of waving surface, than any considerable elevations.

On the 28th we arrived at the village of Gretkevat,owards the close of the evening, and imprudently proceeded on our journey another stage of eighteen miles: the evening set in ex. ceedingly dark, cold, and rainy; the road was uncommonly bad; and we were in continual apprehensions of being overturned. The greatest danger, however, which we encountered,

was unknown to us until we arrived at the end of the station: we were

then informed by our servants, that we had actually crossed a broad piece of water upon a wooden bridge with out railing, so infirm that it almost cracked under the carriage, and sonarrow that one of the hindwheels was for an instant absolutely suspended over the precipice beneath. Our usual good fortune brought us safe, between twelve and one, to a cottage at Moshaisk, where we found an excellent ragout of beef and onions prepared for us by the trusty servant, who always

preceded us, and provided our lodging and supper. I have little to say of Moshaisk; as we entered it at so late an hour, and departed the next morning by day-break. We changed horses at the village of Selo-Naro, and arrived early in the evening at Malo-àViasma, embosomed in the forest, and pleasantly situated at the edge of a small lake. This place is distant only 24 miles from Moscow, where we were impatient to arrive; but we prudently deferred our journey until the next morning, as we did not chuse to tempt fortune again by exposing ourselves a second time to dangers, in a dark night and in an unknown country.

The road for some way before we came to Malo-à-Viasma, and from thence to Moscow, was a broad, straight avenue, cut through the forest. The trees, which composed these vast plantations, set by the hand of Nature, were oaks, beech, mountainash, poplar, pines, and firs, mingled together in the most wanton variety. The different shades of green, and the rich tints of the autumnal colours, were inexpressibly beautiful; while the sublime, but uniform expanse of forest, was occasionally relieved by recesses of pastures and corn-fields.

DURING the whole month

the weather has been extremely variable. On the evening of the 19th there was a good deal of lightning. In the course of the next day, the mercury in the barometer fell as low as 28, lower than it has been remarked for many years.-There appears to have been a very great tide in the surrounding ocean at this period; the effects of which were felt at Leith on the 21st and 22d, when many cellars and houses were inundated.

ORNITHOLOGY. Mr Bullock, proprietor of the splendid new Museum in Piccadilly, London, and who some years ago exhibited his fine collection in this city, has spent a considerable part of the past summer among the Orkney and Shetland islands, in quest of specimens of some of the rarer animals, particularly birds, which inhabit those remote islands, and the insulated barren rocks or skerries connected with them.

On the Mainland of Orkney, Mr Bullock discovered a non-descript species of Alauda or Lark, which inhabits the upper moorlands, such as Wideford Hill near Kirkwall, along with the grous, in company with which indeed it is generally observed. In Hoy island, remarkable for its lofty and magnificent sea-cliffs, Mr Bullock was successful in procuring specimens of all the four species of Eagles that are known to be natives of Great Britain. By the assistance of the most active and expert rockmen, who are accustomed to climb the tremendous precipices in search of the lyres or shearwaters, he procured the eggs and young of the Golden Eagle (Falco chrysaetos) and the Whitetailed Eagle (F. albicilla); and he got the full-grown Ring-tail (F. fulvus), and Sea Eagle (F. ossifragus).

His observations on the marine birds of Orkney confirm the remark of Professor Jameson, that the Uria minor of naturalists is merely the young of the Uria troile; and he ascertained that the grey toist of the Orcadians is only the young of the black toist, or Uria grylle, as had been previously suspected.

He was lucky in catching, in the early part of summer, favourable wea ther for exploring the lonely islet of Suleskerry and its Stack, situated in the Atlantic Ocean, about 40 miles westward from Hoy Head. On account of the disasters which have often befallen the small open boats, in which the hardy natives used annual

ly to visit these remote and stormy rocks, the Great Seals (Phoca barbata) had enjoyed a five years jubilee, and were now very abundant. Numerous skeletons of this uncommon species of seal marked, at the entrance to a cave, the scene of the annual slaughter practised in former times. The sea-fowls were now in countless thousands, the whole surface of the rock being covered with nests, and eggs or young. All the common species of gulls and auks were breeding here. The Eider-duck was common, having maintained this as a favourite breeding place since the days of Buchanan, who gives a lively and elegant description of its appearance and habits, under the name of colk (colca); but the latinity of which description is more to be admired than its accuracy as a piece of natural history. A great colony of gannets, or Solan-geese, held undisturbed possession of the Stack of Suleskerry, a huge detached conical rock, of great height.

In North Ronaldshay, the most northerly of the Orkney Islands, Mr B. observed, in the month of August, the Great Owl (Strix bubo), the Katogle, or cat-bird of the Orcadians.One of this species was, about the same time, shot in Unst, the most northerly of the Shetlands, by Lawrence Edmondstone, Esq., of that island. It seems not improbable, therefore, that this bird sometimes breeds in the unfrequented hills of these islands.

In Unst, Mr B. was fortunate enough to shoot a Pratincole (Glareola Austriaca), being only the second specimen we have ever heard of in Great Britain. This bird is so rare that it has not yet found a place in any British list; it does not appear in Col. Montagu's Ornithological Dictionary, nor in Dr Turton's Bri