travellers ever penetrate like the latter into the core of manners and national character, since most of those who approach them put on, in deference to their very authority, an artificial, deceptive appearance. In the same manner, a nation which should begin and end in peace would have no history; none, at least, which could interest any one beyond its borders. Human virtues are plants which never strike a deep root unless shaken by misfortune. Virtue consists in the directing of our intellectual and physical energies to a praiseworthy end; but if our energies be naturally feeble, or dwindle and wither away through lack of exercise, our virtue, by a necessary consequence, must become dwarfish and insignificant, and utterly incapable of exciting enthusiastic sympathy in those who behold its meek and timid bearing. These reflections have been extorted from me by the insipid mode of travelling adopted by Pallas. Nothing can be further from my intention than to recommend or require foolhardiness in a traveller; but it seems not irrational to expect, that when a man undertakes the task of examining a remote country, he should be willing to incur some risk and fatigue in the execution of his plan. Of fatigue Pallas, perhaps, endured his share; but he seems to have shrunk rather too timidly from coming in contact with barbarous nations; and I therefore greatly distrust the completeness of his moral pictures. On the other hand, his descriptions of plants, minerals, and the processes of Russian industry are exceedingly minute, and enjoy, I believe, among scientific men the reputation of being exact; but these, unfortunately, the very nature of biography compels me to reject, or introduce into the narrative but sparingly. Among the curious things observed in the western districts of Siberia was the method of preparing Russia leather, which, though tanned in the ordinary manner, acquired the fine scent which renders it so valuable from the oil extracted from the bark of the birch-tree. In traversing the forests which surround the marble quarries on the banks of the Toura, with Vogoul guides, they were overtaken by the night. Excepting the small spot on which they halted, all around was a marshy swamp encumbered with wood, and affording neither road nor pathway. They therefore considered themselves fortunate in having found a dry resting-place; and the Vogouls, to whom such accidents were familiar, immediately occupied themselves in kindling a fire at once, in order to procure warmth and keep off the bears. Next morning his guides undertook to conduct him, by a short path across the forest, to the banks of the Liala, and accordingly struck off boldly into the wilderness. The sombre pine-trees, intermingling their branches above, rendered the way exceedingly obscure; a bog or a fallen tree every moment intercepted their route; the branches of prickly shrubs tore their hands and faces; and not a step could be taken without carefully