COXE’s TRAVELS IN RUSSIA.
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wheel, which-required a conftant fupply of greafe to prevent it from taking fire ; and asthe next place in our route, likely to afford a new wheel, was above fixty miles, weprudently returned to Tver. I confoled myfelf for this delay; as it gave us an oppor-tunity to pay more attention to the town and environs, than our tranfient flay had per-mitted. We took up our abode at the fame houfe we had juft quitted, an inn kept bya German, and one of the new magnificent brick edifices lately eredted, butalmoft with-out furniture or beds.
On the following day we made an agreeable excurfion into the adjacent country:after crofting the Volga over a bridge of boats, and the Tvertza over a raft, we rodebetween the banks of thofe two beautiful rivers. We then left the Volga to purfue itscourfe towards the Cafpian Sea, watering, as it palfes, the rnoft fertile provinces in Ruf-fia, and bathing the walls of Cafan. and Aftracan, and made a circuit in the environs ofTver : we frequently flopped to admire feveral delightful views of the new town,proudly feated upon the fteep bank of the Volga, the country gently Hoping towards theriver.
Tver lies in the midft of a large plain, interfperfed with gentie acclivities. Thecountry produces in great abundance wheat, rye, barley, oats, buck-wheat, hemp andflax, and all forts of vegetables, . The forefts yield oak, birch, alder, poplar, mountain-alh, pines, firs, and junipers. The quadrupeds, which rove in the neighbouring coun-try, are elks, bears, wolves, and foxes ; wild goats and hares: alfo badgers, martens,weafels, ermines, ferrets, fquirrels, and marmottes. The principal birds are eagles andfalcons, cranes, herons, fwans, wild-geefe and ducks, partridges, quails, woodcocks andlnipes, black game ; alfo crows and ravens, magpies and blackbirds, fparrows and ftar-lings ; together with nightingales, linnets, larks, and yellow-hammers. The filh caughtin the Volga are falmon, fteriet, tench, pike, perch, groundlings, gudgeons, and foine-times, but rarely, fturgeon and beluga.
The fteriet, acipenfer ruthenus of Linnaeus , is probably peculiar to the northern partsof the globe, and is a fpecies of fturgeon highly efteemed for flavour, and for its roe,from' which the fineft caviare is made. It is diftinguilhed from the other fturgeons byits colour and inferior fize, being feldom more than three feet in length *. The top ofthe head and back are of a yellowifh grey, the Tides of the body whitifh, the belly white,mixed with rofe-colour, efpecially towards the mouth and vent, the eyes are of a Iky-blue, encircled with white. The fnout is long and pointed, comprefied and fluted. Themouth is tranfverfe, with thick prominent lips, which it has the power of drawing in-wards, with a beard, confifting of four fmall and foft cirrbi , or wattles. It has fiverows of pointed bony imbricated fcales^ one upon the back, two along the Tides , andtwo under the belly ; the row upon the back begins from the neck, and reaches to thedorfal fin ; the number f, by which Linnaeus afeertains the fpecies, and fixes at fifteen,varies from fourteen to feventeen. The two fide rows begin from the upper angle ofthe gill-covers, and reach to the middle of the tail; their form is flat in the middle?with dentated margins turning towards the tail; their number varies from fixty to fe*venty. The two rows, which lie under the belly, reach from the pedtoral towards theventral fins; they are four-fided, much iinaller than thofe upon the back, and thickerthan thofe on the Tides . Befides thefe five rows, there are alio fome adipofe bony fealesbetween the tail and the vent; their number invariably five. The reft of the ikin is
* Lepekin’s Reife, vol. ii. p. 154.. arid Pallas’s Reife, part ii. p. 446.
f Acipenfer Ruthenus cirris/p. fquamis dorfalibus 15. Muf. Fred. I. p. 54. and Taun. Sue; 272 -—Iothe Sytt. Nat., p. 403, he defines it, Acipenfer ordinibus 5. fquamarum offearum, intermedio ofiiculis 15.
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