accordingly presented himself to the enraged bear, who immediately raised himself upon the hind legs, and began to cry and roar most bitterly; the imerach followed the example. The bear then began to dance, and the driver did the same, till at length the other nartes coming up, the bear received a blow upon the nose and was secured.'-pp. 292 -295.

The Tchutski hold an annual fair, at a Russian fortress on the borders of the country inhabited by these savages, in which they exchange their furs and skins, sea-horse teeth, and rein-deer dresses with the Russians for tobacco and other luxuries, and household necessaries. It is not permitted to open the fair until one or more of the chiefs have waited on the Russian commissary, to receive baptism at the hands of some missionaries from Irkutsk, and to pay a nominal tribute. Our traveller gives the following account of this initiation to christianity.'

6

'The morning was ushered in by the arrival of these persons in state, dressed in their gayest apparel, and seated in a beautiful narte, drawn by two rein-deer, the whole forming a cavalcade of twenty-five or thirty pairs. Having reached a large storehouse, to which the altar and images were carried, the priest proceeded to baptize the two men, their wives, and three children; but instead of being merely sprinkled with water, they, men and women, were obliged one and all to strip, and to be three times plunged in a large iron cauldron of ice-water, with the thermometer on the spot at 35° of Reaumur, with no part of the dress on except their trowsers; and were afterwards directed to bathe their feet in the same cold water. I could not help pitying the women and children, the former of whom, having long hair, became, as it were, enveloped in icicles. A small cross suspended round the neck, with many difficult and almost useless injunctions how to pronounce their newly acquired names, completed the ceremony.'-pp. 304, 305.

As these new converts are entitled to receive certain presents. chiefly tobacco, in return, it frequently happens, Captain Cochrane says, 'that the same chiefs present themselves twice or even three times to be baptized;' this trick, we think, could scarcely be played more than once. The ceremony being performed, the benediction follows, when, our traveller says, the poor ignorants become quite happy, quite proud, and ultimately quite drunk.'

6

Captain Cochrane visited their camp, consisting of three large and three small tents: the latter, appropriated to the family of the chiefs, were neat, clean, and warm, without a fire, at a temperature without of 35° of frost; the others, belonging to the people, were disgustingly dirty and offensive.

On entering one of these small dwellings, I found the chief and his wife perfectly naked, as was also a little girl their daughter, of about nine years old,-nor did they seem to regard our presence, (Mr. Måtiushkin

VOL. XXXI. NO. LXI.

P

tiushkin was with me,) but ordered the daughter to proceed and prepare some rein-deer's meat for us; which she did, in that state of nudity, by a fire close to the tent. Having lolled upon the bed about a quarter of an hour, we were treated with the rein-deer meat half boiled, of which we of course partook out of compliment. I was, however, obliged to cut short my visit from want of air, and the most offensive smell I had everendured for so long a time.'-pp. 309, 310.

From these people, who are certainly the least civilized of all the various tribes of Northern Asia, Captain Cochrane procured such information respecting the North-East Cape of that continent, as he deemed fit to be laid before the Royal Society of London, especially as he conceived that it refuted a strange, whim which Admiral Burney entertained, towards the latter period of his life, that Behring's Strait was no Strait at all, but a deep bay; and consequently, that the two continents of America: and Asia were united. To prove the absurdity of such a notion, (fortified by the geographical information received from the enlightened Ťchutski, who never saw a compass nor know what it means, and who explain the direction or position of places by the rising or the setting sun,) Captain Cochrane addresses a longwinded Memoir on the subject, to the Secretary and President of the Royal Society,' of which it appears they took no notice; owing, as he thinks, to his having committed the unpardonable blunder of putting the secretary before the president. On his return he demanded back his memoir, which was immediately given to him; and one of the fellows,' whom he consulted on the subject of this apparently strange treatment, advised him, he says, to shame the rogues and print it,' which he has accordingly done, in about sixty pages of letter-press. The paper may be suitable. enough for the place where it now appears; but the perusal of it, we suspect, will fully explain why the Royal Society did not admit it into their Transactions.

6

It would be tedious to follow our author in the subsequent part of his journey over dreary wastes and dismal solitudes, across frozen rivers and snowy mountains, at the imminent risk of breaking his neck, or being frozen to death, or perishing with hunger, at every step. We are only surprized that the young Kamschatka girl of fourteen or fifteen years of age, whom he afterwards married, and who is said to be of a delicate habit, should be capable of performing the same journey, under all the hardships which, at the very best part of the year, must necessarily be experienced. What these are may be partly seen in the letter which the Captain addressed to the governor-general of Siberia, accounting to him for departing from the original design of his travels.

'From the river Kolyma I had last the honour of addressing your excellency;

excellency; since when I have come over a large tract of desolate country, nearly two thousand miles, with great labour and some peril. The difficulties I have had to contend with surpass every thing of the kind I have ever before seen, and required every exertion of mine to conquer; which I did not do under seventy-five days of hard labour. My route, lay along the Kolyma, Zyzanka, Indigirka, Omekon, and Okota; all of which are, at this season of the year, large, rapid, dangerous, and almost impassable rivers. Besides these, there are numerous other streams, as well as lofty mountains of frozen snow, large overflowed marshes, crowded and decayed forests, and half-frozen lakes, which present themselves in every part of this journey: suffering at the same time cold, rain, hunger, and fatigue, with forty-five nights' exposure to the snow; at times without fire in a frost of thirty degrees; and latterly, five days being passed without food; never having seen an individual during four hundred miles, and but one habitation in the extent of one thousand; being frequently bewildered and lost in the snow mountains; -all these circumstances tend to weary and dispirit a traveller upon a like journey, and render him incapable of addressing your excellency in a proper style.'—vol. i. pp. 399, 400.

The officer, (Baron Wrangel, often mentioned in our pages,) who was about to proceed from the Kolyma to settle the position of Shelatskoi Noss, declined the offer of Captain Cochrane to accompany him. This, it appears, was one of the objects of his journey, though we cannot imagine how he could possibly have accomplished it to any useful purpose without instruments. Another object was that of crossing over to America; this was aban→ doned, because two Russian ships were in Behring's Strait. We know not why that should have prevented him from putting his original design in execution, unless, which is not improbable, he received a hint that such a step would not be agreeable to the Russian government. All he tells the governor, however, is, that the naval expedition had the same object in view that he had. I cannot be allowed to act with them for the reasons before assigned [none whatever are assigned]: I will not act against them; and therefore I cannot act at all.'

Thus, luckily for himself, disappointed in his intention of crossing over to America, where he would inevitably have perished, hé proceeds to Kamtschatka, traverses that peninsula, falls in love, marries, and returns with his wife to Europe, nearly in the same way he had proceeded, and everywhere experiencing the most friendly treatment, except at Perma, where he and his lady were obliged to take up their lodging in a stable, and to bear the impertinence of the governor. His observations on crossing lake Baikhal are rather curious.

'The mountains every where round the Baikhal are of the most clevated and romantic appearance. They are bold, rocky, much indented,

P 2

and

and very dangerous for vessels in summer, as no anchorage is any where to be found. The winds are most violent, and subject to instant changes, resembling hurricanes. The sea is said to run mountains high, and as the vessels are badly manned and worse officered, it is no wonder that numerous accidents occur. July and August are considered as the worst seasons, May and June are the best; but whether in bad or good! seasons, it not unfrequently happens that the transports are twenty-five and thirty days in crossing a distance of fifty miles. It is here that the power of steam would best exhibit its incalculable advantages.'-vol. ii. p. 128.

Our traveller, however, crosses it in a very different manner, and with sufficient rapidity.

Having reached the Baikhal, out of which the Angara flows, and into which the Selenga runs, we coasted it for thirty miles before we, arrived at the place of crossing. The ice was so clear, transparent, and, slippery, that I could not keep my feet, yet the horses are so accus-. tomed to it, that hardly an instance occurs of their falling. We crossed the lake, and reached the opposite village, which has a considerable monastery, in time to breakfast; we had been two hours and a half in going the distance, forty miles. Such is, however, the rapidity with which three horses abreast cross this lake, that the late governor of Irkutsk usually did it in two hours-three hours are generally taken. A horse once fallen on the clear ice, I doubt the possibility of getting him upon his legs again. It is dangerous to attempt stopping them, nor indeed is it, in my opinion, possible; if, however, the vehicle be stopped on this sort of ice, I almost question the practicability of starting it again, without assistance from other people to force the vehicle on from behind. On the other hand, I have seen sledges move so much faster than the horses, as to overtake and turn them short round, and ultimately to form a complete circle.'-vol. ii. pp. 129, 130.

The Captain makes an excursion to Kiatcha and Maimaichin, the two frontier towns of Russia and China, at which the whole commerce of these two empires, which divide between them about one half of the old world, is carried on by forty or fifty Russians and two or three hundred Chinese. We accompanied the traveller to this singular mart with some degree of curiosity, which was but indifferently repaid; the only new information which we collect from his short visit is, that the Chinese live without women: that they told him so, on his inquiring for the ladies, we have no doubt, because, like all other orientals, they shut up their females, and here more closely than elsewhere, as a little brook only separates them from the Russians.

Sed manum de tabula. Had time permitted, we would readily have entered somewhat more at large on the homeward journey: for though, as we have seen, our author travelled at a prodigious rate, yet, as he evidently possesses a shrewd and active mind, he could scarcely fail to collect a considerable mass of intelligence

respec ting

respecting the manners and condition of the various tribes that people these interminable regions.

We have only to add, that, although the work, from the writer's want of scientific knowledge, contains little that is satisfactory on the face of the country and its natural productions, we shall be much mistaken if the general reader does not find in it a good deal of information that is at once novel and amusing.

ART. XIV.-1. Report of the Commissioners for building New Churches.

1824.

2. The Protestant Dissenters Catechism. New Edition. By W. Newman.

1824.

WE have united these two publications under the same Article,

in order to allow ourselves full latitude for the discussion of a very important subject. The First, the Report of the Parliamentary Commissioners for the Building of New Churches, is highly gratifying, as it shows the great demand for church room, and the eagerness with which it is accepted; and also in some degree discouraging, since it discovers still great and imperious claims upon the munificence of the public, and that, though so much has been done, much is still wanting. The Second is, apparently, a sort of official publication, being a modified reprint of the old standard work among Dissenters. We trust, however, that it is not really characteristic of the spirit universally or even extensively prevalent among that body. It retains all the old and thrice-refuted calumnies against the church, the depreciation of its ministers, misrepresentations of its principles, mistatement of its doctrines; with a proportionate profusion of panegyric upon the founders and supporters of dissent. We are rather inclined to consider the real temper of the great body of Dissenters not so fairly delineated in their own coarse and uncharitable portrait, as in the following passage from a recent pamphlet, usually attributed to the late lamented Mr. Rennell, a clergyman who united in a remarkable manner the profound scholar, and laborious parish priest; who, although a strenuous and most conscientious supporter of the Church of England, conciliated, with success almost unrivalled, the respect and esteem, even the attachment of all parties, whether they agreed with or dissented from his doctrines.

'The Dissenters are more active, perhaps, than they were, but they are certainly far less virulent. They do not fill their ranks upon the principle of hostility, but of indifference. A resemblance to the church is rather affected than avoided. Their places of worship are no more called meetings, but chapels-their ministers assume the title of " reverend;" in