east, as the dominant race of the
times; one swarm of the Normans making its way to England, while another
was establishing its supremacy over the Sclavonians of the Borysthenes,
the two being to meet in opposite directions at the end of a thousand
years."

He regards the gigantic power of Russia as in an unconscious
co-partnership with England in the grand cause of commerce and
civilisation. He also makes the curious and true remark that,
notwithstanding the astonishing successes of the Normans in Europe, they
were never numerous enough to establish their language in any of the
conquered countries. Their unparalleled successes, therefore, seem to
express the idea that those feeble bands of warriors were strengthened
every where to accomplish the purposes of Providence.

We now come to the overland journey to Siberia. On the 23d of July, they
reached the port of Ochotsk, where, however, they were met by masses of
floating ice. Here Sir George had the first intelligence from England,
which brought to his English heart the glad tidings of the birth of a
Prince of Wales. They found this settlement a collection of huts on a
shingly beach. The population is about 800 souls. A more dreary scene
can scarcely be conceived than the surrounding country. Not a tree, and
even scarcely a green blade is to be seen within miles of the town. The
climate is on a par with the soil. The summer consists of three months
of damp and chilly weather, during great part of which the snow still
covers the hills, and the ice chokes the harbour, and this is succeeded
by nine months of dreary winter. But when men find fault with such a
climate as this, the fact is, that the fault is their own. Those
climates were never intended for the residence of man; they were
intended for the white bear, the seal, the whale, and the fur-bearing
animals. To those inhabitants, they are perfectly adapted. If the rage
of conquest, or the eagerness for gain, fixes human beings in the very
empire of winter, they are intruders, and must suffer for their
unsuitable choice of a locale.

The principal food of the inhabitants is fish. On fish they feed
themselves; their dogs--which are equivalent to their carriage
horses--their cattle, and their poultry, are also chiefly fed on fish.
All other provisions are ruinously dear. Flour costs twenty-eight rubles
the pood,--(a ruble is worth about a franc, the pood is thirty-six
English pounds.) Beef is so dear as to be regard