The Appendix chiefly consists of acts of parliament and other ftate-papers, in confirmation of feveral parts of the volume, and a description of the contrivances employed to facilitate labour in the coal-mines.-On the whole, this work must be particularly valuable to the inhabitants of Newcastle: we only regret that our author has not extended the sphere of its utility, which he might easily have done, without adding greatly to the bulk or the expence, by more particular details respecting the commerce of this city. In every thing which relates to the embellishments of these volumes, no expence feems to have been spared.

Travels from St. Petersburgh in Ruffia to various Parts of Afia. Illuftrated with Maps. Two Volumes. By John Bell. 8 voi 125. in Boards. Creech, Edinburgh; Robinsons, London.

MR. Bell published his account of his travels in 1761; but

either from a limited circulation, or impending avocations, we omitted to notice the work; it is better to recur to this fecond edition, which the demand for it has occafioned, and the value of the remarks renders very acceptable, than to pass it over altogether.

Our author, from a ftrong defire of feeing foreign parts," went to Ruffia in the year 1714; and in the fubfequent year undertook a journey to Ifpahan, as an attendant on the Ruffian embaffy to Perfia, in the equivocal office of furgeon and fecretary. As it was only in 1758 that he engaged in this work, at the particular requeft of fome friends, the defcription of the country is perhaps lefs particular; the objects are defcribed with lefs fpirit, and the recollected ideas are lefs forcible. But in every part of these volumes, the plain unornamented ftyle of the work ftrongly impreffes on the reader's mind, the fidelity of the relator. The first journey is not fo particular, nor fo interefting as the others. From Pe terburgh Mr. Bell goes to Mofcow; from thence, the courfe of the expedition is to the north-east, where they reach the Wolga at Cafan, and purfue their journey either on the river, or by the fide of its banks to Aftrachan. They cross the western femicircular winding of the Cafpian, debark at Nizebat, turn to the fouth-west to Tauris, and from thence proceed fouth-easterly to Ifpahan. The map which is defigned to illustrate this journey is tolerably good, but not fo correct as the editor feems to believe it. The fituation of places north of Aftrachan is fufficiently correct; but in the Crimea, Cuban, and fome parts of the Cafpian, there feem to be feveral little mistakes which the last Ruffian maps have corrected.

In this journey, which in the paffage down the Cafpian, the circuitous route to Tauris, and from thence to Ispahan, where our author croffed the fcene of Alexander's conquefts, seems to awaken curiofity and expectation, we meet with nothing very interefting. The Cafpian, though to a naturalift an extraordinary fcene, is defcried at firft by our author as an object of horror; a great gulf in many places of dangerous navigation, and whofe fhores are inhabited by inhofpitable and barbarous nations ;' for all the inhabitants of the coaft deserve this title except the Perfians and Ruffians. Mr. Bell found it by experience an unpleasant sea, fubject to storms, or perhaps ftill more vexatious calms. Its banks are often fandy and fedgy, fometimes clouded by numerous gloomy trees, noifome from reptiles, and troublefome from the mofquitoes the Perfians remarked at that time, that the water was retiring from the fhore. In the account of Ifpahan, and the reception of the ambaffador, we find nothing which appears of fufficient importance for a quotation. The magnificence of the Perfians confifts, in a great measure, in the horses, elephants, and their ornaments: their luxuries in fountains of water, a luxury which must be fenfibly felt in that climate, coffee and sherbat. At that time a phyfician enquired of Mr. Bell from whence tea came, and how it should be made.

The journey to Pekin is much more interefting, and the objects are more particularly defcribed. The author goes again to Mofcow, and along the Oka to Cafan. He then proceeds to the north, and to the east so far as Kaygorod, from thence fouth-east across the mountains to Siberia and Tumen, which is a fhort diftance only from Tobolfki, the capital of Siberia, on the Irtifh. They croffed the Yenifey at Yenifeik; and, if allowance be made for the turnings which the nature of the country required, their courfe was eafterly fo far as Elimiky on the Elimm; a journey equal to thirty-five degrees of longitude, without calculating the circuitous windings and ftill within the vast and extenfive diftrict of Siberia. From Elimfky they went to the fouth, croffed the Angare river and the lake Baykel. Their courfe on the lake was eafterly, and from thence they proceeded to Pekin, fometimes in a fouth, and fometimes in an easterly direction.

The first remarkable place is Tobolfky, the capital of Siberia; and as we have frequently heard of this kind of banishment in the Ruffian annals, we may remark, that the country, though cold, is pleafant; the aboriginal Tartars fober, civilifed, and honeft; the Ruffians not deficient even in the ele gant accomplishments. The Swedish officers, after the battle of Pultowa, were confined in Siberia, and felt no misfortune

but

but their national defeat, and the distance from their homes. They greatly contributed to diffeminate the knowlege of mufic, and the elegant, as well as ufeful accomplishments of a civilifed nation.

The Irtifh, on which Tobolky is built, rifes in Tartary,. from the lake Korzan, in latitude 47° N. and, after paffing the mountains, glides through a fertile vale till it arrives at Sedmy Palati, the houfe of the feven rooms, built by Tamerlane or Gengis Khan. Several of thefe rooms were filled with fcrolls of glazed paper, fome of which the czar Peter. fent to the Royal Academy of Paris. The academician, we believe M. Formey, not willing to be thought unacquainted with the Tartarean characters, gave fome account of them, which M. Stehlin has told us was afterwards found to be entirely falfe. The first part of the anecdote is to be found in this journal, but the fubfequent one in the work which we examined in our laft volume. It leads us to remark, that these volumes might be rendered more interefting by judicious notes extracted from the Ruffian travels of Pallas, &c. with the affiftance of other authors. Many of Mr. Bell's predictions, which fhew a found judgment and no inconfiderable penetration, have been fince fupported by actual difcoveries: and the beft eulogium on our traveller would be fhort remarks confifting of what has been difcovered in the last thirty years. The account of the Kontayfha, the monarch whom the Europeans have called the great Cham of Tartary, is original and authentic. We wish to preserve it.

The territories of this prince are bounded by three of the most potent empires in the world; on the north by Ruffia, by China on the call, and by the country of the Great Mogul to the fouth. From the two firft he is feparated by defert plains, and from the third by almost impaffable mountains. To the fouth-weft his frontiers reach near to Bucharia. The Kontayfha is a very powerful prince, and able to bring into the field at a fhort warning, an hundred thou and horsemen, who are all of them able-bodied men, well mounted, and armed with bows, arrows, lances, and fabres. This is a greater number of horse than any prince that I know can mufter, except his Ruffian ma jesty and the emperor of China. Thefe Tartars live in tents all the year, removing from place to place as called by neceffity or inclination. This is the most ancient and pleafant manner of life. It is entertaining to hear them commiferate those who are confined to one place of abode, and obliged to fupport themTelves by labour, which they reckon the greatest flavery."

The Kontayfha has always fome thousands of his fubjects encamped near himfelf, who treat him with great veneration and respect. And, in justice to him, it must be confeffed, that he

is as attentive to the interefts of his people, and as affiduous in the administration of justice in particular, as if they were his own children.'

The Ruffians, as Mr. Bell predicted, have made great difcoveries on the eastern fide of Afia; but they have added nothing to this account. The Tartar remains discovered in tombs, fhow that the inhabitants were a civilifed and elegant race, while Europe probably was plunged in ignorance and barbarifm. The Tongufi, faid to be the aborigines of Siberia, are particularly defcribed, but we cannot trace any resemblance between them and the original inhabitants of Canada, which are now well known. Mr. Bell, from his information, thought that there was a great fimilitude; but if it were poffible to derive the former from the latter, they must have reached Canada by a paffage to the fouth of Nootka found, probably by that ftrait, if it exift, denominated from Fuente. This race inhabit the whole country northward to the frozen ocean, but how far they extend to the east is not known our author found them in about 100° E. longitude.

Every step in this part of Mr. Bell's route is interefting, for it affords fcenes and facts little known and fcarcely fubject to change; but the different paffages are of a mifcellaneous kind, which we have not room to copy, and which will not admit of abridgment. The Baykall Sea is fresh; it is about fifty miles broad, except about the middle, where it is greatly contracted. We have mentioned it, as it affords an explanation of a fact which has greatly puzzled naturalifts. The water, we have faid, is fresh, though the communication with the north fea is open, and this communication was formerly more confiderable than at this time. The Selinga, and various rivers which flow into it, counterbalance the influx of the fea, and prevent the falt from contaminating the lake, but in its former fituation when the communication was free, feals and herrings found their way into it; and they have remained there, by degrees accuftoming themfelves to the change of element which has produced fome changes in their forms. The omully is undoubtedly the herring, and the feal is ftill lefs altered. In a fimilar way, we may account for the appearance of fish in rivers, and even in lakes which have no connexion with the fea, where a continued feries of ages has changed their form and their manners. Moft, if not all the great rivers of Siberia, have their courfes to the north and the north-west.

The inhabitants of this vaft tract have been described in many different works, particularly in a very plain, unobftru five, but inftructive one, ftyled fimply Ruffia.' Of the la

ma

ma and the high prieft, ftyled Delai Lama, many idle ridiculous tales have been related: we shall extract a fhort account of thefe venerable perfonages from Mr. Bell.

This extraordinary man affumes to himself the character of omnifcience, which is the interpretation of the word Kutuchtu; and the people are taught to believe that he really knows all things past, prefent, and future. As his intelligence by means of his lamas is very extentive, he is cafily able to impofe on the vulgar in this particular. They alfo believe that he is immortal, not that his body lives always, but that his foul upon the decay of an old one, immediately tranfmigrates into fome young human body, which by certain marks the lamas difcover to be animated by the foul of the Kutuchtu, and he is according treated as high prieft.

When the fpirit of the Kutuchtu has taken poffeffion of a new body, that is, in plain English, when he is dead, the lamas are immediately employed to difcover in what part of the world this wonderful perfon is regenerated, or born again, as they exprefs it. They need, however, go to no great distance to find him; for, the affair being previously concerted among the chief lamas, they foon determine the choice of a fucceffor, who generally happens to be a young boy that has been well inftru&ted how to behave on that occafion. When a fucceffor is pretended to be found, a company of lamas are fent to examine the matter, who carry along with them many toys, fuch as fmall filver bells, and things of that nature, which belonged to the former Kutuchtu, intermixed with others that did not. All thefe are laid before the child, who picks out fuch things as belonged to his predeceffor, and difcovers the greatest fondness for them, but rejects with difguft whatever is not genuine. Besides this trial, fome queftions are put to him relative to wars or remarkable events, in his former ftate; all which are answered to the fatisfaction of the conclave, whereupon he is unanimoufly declared to be the felf-fame Kutuchtu, is conducted with great pomp and ceremony to Urga, and lodged in the tent of the high priest.

Till the new Kutuchtu arrives at a certain age, he is entirely under the government of the lamas, and few are permit ted to fee him, except at a great distance, and even then it is not easy to get accefs to him. It may feem furprising, that in fo numerous an affembly of lamas, no intrigues fhould be carried on, nor difputes arife, among the electors. All is conducted without noife or contention. It is, however, imagined, that the authority of the prince greatly contributes to their unanimity.

The Mongals relate that their Kutuchtu now has lived fourteen generations, and renews his age every mooon; for at the new moon he appears like a youth; when the is full, like a full-grown man; but, when near the change, he is an old man with grey hairs."