COXE’s TRAVELS IN RUSSIA.

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are purchafed {landing. They grow moftly on the diftriris which border on the Dnie-per, are fent up that river to a landing-place, tranfported thirty verits to the Duna, arethen formed into floats of from fifty to two hundred pieces, and defcend the ftream toRiga . The tree which produces the largeil mails is the Scotch fir. Thofe pieces whichare from eighteen to twenty-five inches in diameter are called mails; under thofe di-menfions, {pars, or in England, Norway mafts; becaufe Norway exports no trees morethan eighteen inches in diameter.

The Englifh merchants, who contract with government, buy the malls from theburghers of Riga ; and great fkili is required in diftinguilhing thofe that are foundthroughout from thofe which are in the lead internally decayed. They are ufually fromfeventy to eighty feet in length.

The hemp is brought from the Ukraine and Poland , and requires two years in itspafiage to Riga . The barks in which it is conveyed, are from two hundred and fiftyto three hundred tons burthen, are covered with mats, Hoping like a penthoufe roof,and have a falfe bottom. They afcend the Dnieper and the Duna ; but on account ofnumerous fhoals can only pal's the Duma m the ipring, or about three weeks after thefnow begins to melt, and if they mil's that time, are delayed till autumn. The hempexported from Riga , is generally more efieemed, and 30 per ceqt. dearer, than that ex-ported from Peterfburgn * ; the former com.es from the Ukraine , the provinces of Mo-hilef and Polotlk, and the neighbouring parts of Poland ; the other from the govern-ments of 'Ever and Novogorod. The Riga hemp is chiefly ufed for fhrouds and flaysof men of war, and procured by contrail for the Engiilh admiralty and Eall Indiacompany f.

The inhabitants of Riga carry on alfo a conflderable commerce in fait. They importit from Spain , and fend it up the Duna to lupply the diltridls bordering on that river jand by land into Courland, and into the neighbouring provinces of Poland .

We paid our refpedls to General Brown, governor of Riga , and had the honour ofdining with that gallant veteran, who, with a pleafing garrulity natural to old age, relateda variety of interefling adventures, that had befallen him in the courfe of a long andarirve" life. He is a native of Ireland , and was born in the beginning of this century.Being a Roman catholic , he was compelled to feek his fortune in foreign courts, whichhe would willingly have dedicated to his own. He firft entered the Auflrian, and finallyinto the Ruffian fervice. In the campaigns of 1737 and *738, he ferved under CountMunich againft the Turks, and dillinguilhed himfelf at the fiege of Otchakof. Beingfent with a corps of troops into Hungary , he was taken prifoner by the Turks, fold as a

* Lately the Ukraine hemp has found its way to Peterfburgb.

•f- In cafe of neeeffity, the Urtican Ccmnaltna, or hemp-nettle, might be fubftituted in the place of hemp.It is a native of South-eaftern Siberia , on the other fide of the Oby, and is chiefly found in the vallies be-tween rocky mountains, and on the banks of the livers. It comes out early in the fpring, and affords goodfhcots, which are eaten by the natives as vegetables. It flowers in June or July ; and in good foils (hootsfrom ten to fifteen feet high In Siberia the feeds ripen in September, about the time of the firA froA.It is perennial, and multiplies by running The cords made from this fpecies are (Longer even than thofetwilled from hemp. The Mongol Tartars ufe them for cords to their bows, and for nets to catch animal*in the woods In fome parts of Germany the natives employ them for ropes. This plant is deferibed inAmman ’s Slirplum Rarioritm in Imperio Rutheno leones et DefcrtftioneS, p. 173. No. 249. plate 25. Uriienfo-liisprofuntie laciniaiis ; alio in Limelin’s Flora Siberica. It will be deferibed in the third volume of Pallas’Flora Ruffica.

The common nettle, the urtica wens of Linnseus, fupplies the natives of Kamfchatka *, and of the KurilJfies, with cords for fi(Eing-nets.

* See Cook’s laft voyage, vol. iii. p. 339.—Pallas Nord. Beytr. vol. iv. p. 117.

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