COXE’s TRAVELS IN RUSSIA. 647
without fcales, but extremely rough to the touch. It has, like mod; other fifh, two pec-toral fins, two ventral, one anal, one dorfal, and the tail is forked *. Many authorshave erred in fuppofing this fifh to be peculiar to the Volga and the Cafpian Sea, forthey frequent many other rivers, lakes,-and feas, of the Ruffian empire. According toMuller, they are caught in the Dnieper , and feveral rivers falling into tire Frozen Ocean,particularly the Lena f. Lange afferts, that they are found in the Yenifei; Pallas de-scribes them as inhabiting the Irtifh, Oby, and Yaik ; Georgi mentions them amongthe fifh of the lake Baikal, and fometimesin the Angara. We learn from Linnaeus , thatby order of Frederic I. King of Sweden , fome live fterlets, procured from Ruffia, werethrown into the lake Mtder, where they propagated J. They have been fometimescaught in the Gulf of Finland , and even in the Baltic ; yet are not fuppofed natives ofthole feas, but firay fifh, which efcaped from fome veffels daffied to pieces in paffing thefalls of the river Mafia §.
Sept. 19. Having obtained the valuable acquifition of a new wheel, we proceeded onour journey in the afternoon, and reached before the dole 6f the evening, Torfhok,which is fituated upon the banks of the Tvertza. It is a large draggling place, con-fiding chiefly of wooden buildings, intermixed with a few public firuciures, and brickhoufes, lately erefted at the expence of the Emprefs.
Although Torfhok was only forty miles diftant from Tver, we efieemed it a fortunatecircumftance, that, during that fpace, no accident happened to our carriage. But wewere not fo fuccefsful on the enfuing day; for the axle-tree breaking about fix milesfrom Vidropufk, we walked to the village, and having procured a temporary axle-treeto fupport our infirm vehicle, again proceeded in kibitkas as far as Viffinei-Voloffiok ; aplace remarkable for the canal, which, by uniting the Tvertza and the Mafia, conne&sthe inland navigation between the Cafpian and the Baltic.
Vifhnei-Volofhok, one of the imperial villages enfranchifed by the Emprefs, and en-dowed with confiderable privileges, has already reaped many benefits from its new im-munities. The inhabitants, raifed from the fituation of Haves to that of freemen, havefhaken off their former indolence, and caught a new fpirit of emulation and induftry :they have turned their attention to trade, and are awakened to a fenfe of the commer-cial advantages poffeffed by the place of their abode. The town is divided into regularftreets, and is already provided with a large range of fhops and warehoufes, which lineeach fide of the canal. All the buildings are of wood, excepting the court of jufticeerefted at the charge of the Emprefs, and four brick houfes belonging to a rich bur-gher. During our flay at Vifhnei-Volofhok, we did not fail to examine, with great at-tention, every part of the celebrated canal, of which an account will be given in a futurechapter |j.
Having procured a new axle-tree, we quitted, on the 21ft, Vifhnei Volofhok, erodedthe river Shlina, and continued along a timber road, carried over extenfive moraffes,
* The reader will find an engraving of the fterlet in the Mufeum Fred. I. of Linnaeus , in le Bruyn’s Tra-ils, vol. i. p. 8q ; and in Lepekin’s Reife, Table 9.
t S. R. R. G. ix. p. 4. Haygold’s Rufsland, vol. ii. p. 416. Pallas's Reife, part i. p. 284. part ii. p.446 - Georgi Reife, vol. i, p. 177.f Faun. Sue. No. 272.
$ Bruce relates in his Memoirs, that fome veflels 11 going for Pet.erfburgh with live fifh, called Sterlit,
J n paffing the falls of Ladoga, were beat to pieces, by which accident the fifh regained their liberty, andfome of them were afterwards taken at Cronfladt, and one catched at Stockholm , which were con tide red asgreat curiofities, asnone of them had ever been feen in thofe feas before.” P. 112.fj On the inland Navigation of Ruffia, book vi. c. 7.
13
and