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 accumulate until 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 the eye. 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 and stormy, 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 by loosening 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 route through 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 discovered an 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.