which they call Iuan: and therehence fetching a very crooked course, comes very neere to the riuer Volga: but disdaining as it were the company of any other riuer, doth there turne it selfe againe from Volga, and runnes toward the South, and fals at last into the Lake of Moeotis. Boristhenes, which comes from the same head that Rha doth, (as wee sayde before) carieth both it selfe, and other waters that are neere vnto it, towards the South, not refusing the mixture of other small riuers: and running by many great and large Countreys fals at last into Pontius Euxinus. Besides these riuers, are also in Muscouie certaine lakes, and pooles, the lakes breede fish by the celestiall influence: and amongst them all, the chiefest and most principall is called Bealozera, which is very famous by reason of a very strong towre built in it, wherein the kings of Muscouie reserue and repose their treasure in all times of warre and danger. Touching the Riphean mountaines, whereupon the snow lieth continually, and where hence in times past it was thought that Tanais the riuer did spring, and that the rest of the wonders of nature, which the Grecians fained and inuented of olde, were there to be seene: our men which lately came from thence, neither sawe them, not yet haue brought home any perfect relation of them, although they remained there for the space of three moneths, and had gotten in that time some intelligence of the language of Moscouie. The whole Countrey is plaine and champion, and few hils in it: and towards the North it hath very large and spacious woods, wherein is great store of Firre trees, a wood very necessarie, and fit for the building of houses: there are also wilde beastes bred in those woods, as Buffes, Beares, and blacke Wolues, and another kinde of beast vnknowen to vs, but called by them Rossomakka: and the nature of the same is very rare and wonderfull: for when it is great with yong, and ready to bring foorth, it seeketh out some narrow place betweene two stakes, and so going through them, presseth it selfe, and by that meanes is eased of her burden, which otherwise could not be done. They hunt their buffes for the most part a horsebacke, but their Beares a foot, with woodden forkes. The north parts of the Countrey are reported to be so cold, that the very ice or water which distilleth out of the moist wood which they lay upon the fire is presently congealed and frozen: the diuersitie growing suddenly to be so great, that in one and the selfe same firebrand, a man shall see both fire and ice. When the winter doth once begin there it doth still more and more increase by a perpetuitie of cold: neither doth that colde slake, vntill the force of the Sunne beames doth dissolue the cold, and make glad the earth, returning to it againe. Our mariners which we left in the ship in the meane time to keepe it, in their going vp onely from their cabbins to the hatches, had their