[180] I have said a free passage, because if we conclude from the narrative of Deshneff's voyage, that there really does exist such a passage; yet if that passage is only occasionally navigable (and the Russians do not pretend to have passed it more than once) it can never be of any general and commercial utility.
[181] I beg leave to assure the reader, that throughout this whole work I have entirely confined myself to the Russian accounts; and have carefully avoided making use of any vague reports concerning the discoveries lately made by captains Cooke and Clerke in the same seas. Many of the geographical questions which have been occasionally treated in the course of this performance, will probably be cleared up, and the true position of the Western coasts of America ascertained, from the journals of those experienced navigators.
[182] Pallas Reise, part III. p. 155-157. When Mr. Pallas was at Kiachta, the Bucharian merchant, who supplies the crown with rhubarb, brought some pieces of white rhubarb (von milchveissen rhabarber) which had a sweet taste, and was equal in its effects to the best sort.
[183] See Murray's edition of Linnæus Systema Vegetab. Gott. 1774. In the former editions of Linnæus Rheum Rhabarbarum is called R. Undulatum.
[184] Mr. Pallas (to whom I am chiefly indebted for this account of the Tartarian and Siberian Rhubarb) assured me, that he never found the R. Palmatum in any part of Siberia.
[185] Phil. Trans. for 1765, p. 290.
[186] The Yaik falls into the Caspian Sea, about four degrees to the East of the Volga.
[187] In order to succeed fully in the plantation of rhubarb, and to procure sound and dry roots, a dry, light soil with a rocky foundation, where the moisture easily filters off, is essentially necessary.
[188] If we reckon a Dutch dollar, upon an average, to be worth 1 rouble 20 copecs.
[189] This calculation comprehends only the rhubarb purchased at the different magazines belonging to the College of Commerce; for what was procured by contraband is of course not included.