them, feems to be that of fliding down a hill. They make a track on the fide of a fteep hill, mending any little inequalities with fnow or ice, then at the verge of the hill, fitting on a little feat, not bigger than, and much refembling, a butcher's tray, they defcend with aftonishing velocity. The fenfa tion is indeed very odd, but to my felf, for I have often had the cujolity to try it, I cannot fay it was agreeable; the motion is fo rapid it takes away one's breath : nor can I give an idea of it, except defiring you to fancy you were to fall from the top of a house without hurting yourself, in which you would probably have fome mix ture of fear and furprize. The

Ruffians are fo fond of this diver Gon, that, at Petersbourg, having no bills, they raise artificial mounts on the ice on the river Neva, for the purpose of fliding down them, particularly on holidays and feftival feafons, when all the people, young and old, rich and poor, partake of the fport; paying a trifle to the perfons who conftructed the mount, each time they defcend.

I call this peculiar to Ruffia as a diverfion for though it is practifed at the place known by the name of the Ramaffe, the defcent of Mount Cenis to Lanebourg, which at fome feafons of the year is in a state that admits of travellers fliding down it in the fame method, as is defcribed in most books that treat of the Alps, yet this may be confidered rather as neceffity, or convenience, than merely amufement.

The late Empress Elizabeth was fo fond of this diverfion, that, at her palace of ZARSKO ZELLO, The had artificial mounts of a very fingular construction, made for this

purpose. These have been called, by fome Englifhmen who have vifited that country, The Flying Mountains, and I do not know a phrafe which approaches nearer to the Ruffian name. You will obferve that there are five mounts of unequal heights the firft and higheft is full thirty feet perpendi cular altitude; the momentum with which they defcend this carries them over the fecond, which is about five or fix feet lower, juft fufficient to allow for the friction and refiftance; and fo on to the laft, from which they are conveyed by a gentle defcent, with nearly the fame velocity, over a piece of water into a little island. These flides, which are about a furlong and half in length, are made of wood, that they may be used in fummer as well as in winter. The procefs is, two or four perfons fit in a little carriage, and one stands behind, for the more there are in it the greater the swiftnefs with which it goes; it runs on caftors and in grooves, to keep it in its right direction, and it defcends with a wonderful rapidity. Under the hill, is a machine worked by horfes for drawing the carriages back again, with the company in them. Such a work as this would have been enormous in moft countries for the labour and expence it coft, as well as the vaft quantity of wood ufed in it. At the fame place, there is another artificial mount which goes in a fpiral line, and, in my opinion, for I have tried it alfo, is very disagreeable; as it feems, always leaning on one fide, and the perfon feels in danger of falling out of his feat.

In winter no work can be done in agriculture, as may easily be imagined,

imagined, the ground being faftened by the froft, as well as covered by fnow. The economical bufinefs, therefore, which conftitutes the employment of the common people in this feason, is, befides the threshing the corn, manufacturing their cloaths, for the peafants in the villages, make their own wearing-apparel of every fort, felling timber for building or other purposes, and cutting wood for fireing.

They are able alfo to go out a hunting, and as the country abounds with game, it furnishes a large part of their provifions, during the feafons when they are permitted to eat it; for the fafts of the Greek church taken together interdi& animal food full half the year. The method the common people ufe in hunting is with fnow fhoes, which are nothing more than a piece of wood half an inch thick, five or fix feet long, and about four inches broad, turned up at the end, which they faften at the bottom of their feet, and by means of them they run or rather skate over the fnow, with a pole in their hands, fafter than the hare or any game they purfue, which are apt to fink in.

They enjoy alfo the profitable diverfion of fishing, notwithstanding the waters being covered with ice; and one manner of it, with a drag-net, is very peculiar, though I doubt if I fhall be able to describe it fo as to give your Lordship an idea of it. There is a hole about four feet by two cut in the ice, to let down a common drag-net; oppofite to this, at the diftance they mean to pull up the net, is another hole, about four feet fquare: they then cut a number of fall round holes at about four yards diftance

from each, in a circular form, from the hole, where the net is let', down to that where it is taken up. At the ends of the two ftrings, that is, the upper and lower ftrings which drag the net, long poles are tied: thefe poles will reach from one round hole to another, where they are directed and pushed under the ice, as they fwim at the top of the water, till they come to the biggest fquare hole, at which they draw them out, and by this means the net inclofing the fifh it has furrounded; for the upper part of the net is floated at the top of the water under the ice, and the lower part of it funk by leads in the fame manner as when the river is open the ingenuity of the operation confifts in the contrivance of dragging under the ice.

Thefe, my Lord, are fome of the peculiarities of the northern climates in winter; they have their inconveniencies, but they have their advantages too. In fummer they differ much lefs from fouthern climates. To balance the long absence of the fun in the former feafon, they enjoy a larger fhare of his influence in the latter, which caufes vegetation to be exceedingly quick; otherwife the fhortness of

the feafon would not fuffice for the neceffary bufinels of fowing the land, for the growth of the corn, and for gathering it in.

Some perfons reckon the light nights in fummer an agreeable circumftance, and thefe are very re markable even in the latitude of St. Petersbourg, which is 61 de. grees; this arifes not only from the fun's being fo fhort a time under the horizon, but from the strong reflection of the atmosphere, which caufes fo great a brightness, one

jecture, at first fight, that one immenfe ftratum had been compofed in remote ages; but who can pretend to imagine how remote? There are various fpecies of terreftrial_animals, fometimes comminuted and confufed, and fometimes perfectly well difpofed and diftinguishable. The places moft known, where they are found, are along the coaft, in the vertical and horizontal chafms, or in the divifions of the marble ftrata which form the base and the hills of the iflands. The fishermen and feamen, who, in fmall barks, ufually keep near the fhore, can point out many of thofe fpots; and the fhepherds are acquainted with those within land, and in the caverns. Chance might difcover new collections to obfervers, as it did to us, if the lovers of natural wonders came more frequently on that coaft.

Every heap of bones, whether in the vertical or horizontal clefts, is, as it were, wrapt up all round in a kind of fparry ftalactitic fhell, three or four inches thick, which incrufts the fides of the fiffure, and follows all the finuofities exactly. Where the congeries of bones is horizontal, it is always accompanied by the fparry cruft, and not only is divided by it from the lower ftratum, but evidently fhews to have been alfo coated above by the fame cruft of reddish diaphonous fpar; which proves to every one, who is a little acquainted with the interior parts of the earth, the exiftence of one or more ftrata of calcareous stone formed on thofe heaps of bones, but now destroyed by time. Were we not to fuppofe this, we could not understand how

fuch a remarkable sparry cryftallization came to be formed.

The fubftance of the bones is ordinarily calcined; fometimes it is found penetrated by pyritical fluors, which are commonly called denditri. The fiftular bones, as thofe of the arms and legs, are lined within with a cruft of gemmeous fpar, lucid, and exceedingly pure, like a cryftallization, made by a difficult filtration through a very compact body. The acetabuli and ribs, and generally all the fpungy bones, preferve exactly the whitenefs of calcination in the fmalleft comina, or partitions of their cavities. When not very fmall, they are full of an ochreous ftoney matter, of a reddish colour; and when very small, they are entirely coated with a stalactitic fhining reddish crust. Of the horny parts. of animals no veftige is found. The teeth preferve the natural brightness of their enamel, and are often found placed in their native jaws and holes. They are fre quently, however, found feparate, and leave no doubt about the species of animals to which they belonged. Excepting the teeth and jaws, we could not find any other part of the cranium well preferved, and that was not equivocal.

Having examined, feveral months before I went to the island of Cherfo and Ofero with my learned friend Mr. Symonds, and profeffor Cirilli, a piece of a congeries of Illyric bones, we found a human jaw, a vertebra, and a tibia, alfo human, fomewhat larger than ufual in our age; fome sheeps bones and teeth of oxen and horfes. The celebrated anatomift, Doctor Leop Caldani, who does fo much honour

to the University of Padua, afcertained them. The noble Signor J. Morofini, a great lover and cultivator of botany, and a diligent collector of marine curiofities and foffils, has many pieces of thefe ofleolithi, and particularly feveral brought from the iflands Apfyrtes, of one of which I thought proper to have the figure engraved. In one of them there is a jaw divided in two by a stroke given to its matrice, fo that the half of one, and half of the other fide appears.

Together with thefe bones are united by the fame cement many pieces of various fize, and a great number of splinters of white marble, angular, fharp, and of confequence never rounded by the was ters. It happens alfo, fometimes, that, in a great heap of fuch pieces and fplinters of marble, none at all, or a very few pieces of bones are found. The cement that joins them together is however conftantly reddish, and of an ochrotartarous nature. When exposed to the air it becomes more] firm, and almost doubly harder than it was before detached from its native pofition. No veftige or fragment of marine bodies can be difcovered, either by the naked eye, or by the help of glaffes, mixed with the bones, though the ftrata on which they lie, and thofe above them, are full.

I know very well, that, in many other parts of Europe, foffil bones of wild beasts, and perhaps of men, are found. The celebrated Gefner, in his treatife on the origin of petrifactions, fpeaks of an anthropolite, which, however, is not very ancient; in the Philofophical Tranf actions, mention is made of a human skeleton found at Derby; Hop

pelius relates at large the difcovery of another human skeleton made at Aix in Provence; both Scheuchzer and Kircher fpeak of fofil bones of the fame fpecies with ours: but the greateft part of thofe pretended carcaffes and bones may be fubject to doubts. If even all the foffil bones mentioned by various authors were really human, our Illyric bones would not be lefs worthy of particular confideration, as they far exceed all hitherto known by the naturalifts in preservation, frequency, and quality. In our journey over the island of Cherfo and Ofero, which was rather fomewhat hafty, we could, in feveral places, caufe them to be dug up under our own eye. There are two different heaps on the isolated and defert rock of Gutim, though we were told only of one of them on the fpot, and did not find the other; a mile from Gutim, at a place called Platt, on the island of Cherfo, other heaps are feen. We found them, as 1 obferved already, in the caverns of Ghermofball, and at Porto-Cicale, in the post of Vallifball, and at Balvanida, on the other fide of the strait, not far from Luffin picciolo. From thence paffing over to the fmall island called Canidole picciola, and Stracane, in the language of the country, we difcovered two large heaps; af terwards, we went over to the fmall island of Sanfego, about eight miles diftant from Luffin picciolo, and were fhewn, at a diftance, the place where they lay, at the foot of a hill of fand, of which the ifland is compofed, and of which I fhall fpeak more at large. Though the foil of that island is very far from being ochreous or irony, yet there, alfo, the bones are wrapt in