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AED» ce» COXE’S TRAVELS IN RUSSIA.
are purchafed ftanding. They grow moftly on the diftri&s which border on the Dnie.
per, are fent up that river to a landing-place, tranfported thirty verfts to the Duna; are
then formed into floats of from fifty to two hundred pieces, and defcend the ftream to
Riga. The tree which produces the largeft mafts is the Scotch fir. Thofe pieces which
are from eighteen to twenty-five inches in diameter are called mafts; under thofe di-
menfions, {pars, or in England, Norway maits; becaufe Norway exports no trees more
than eighteen inches in diameter. fy.
The Englifh merchants, who contra&t with government, buy the mafts from the
burghers of Riga; and great {kill is required in diftinguifhing thofe that are found
throughout from thofe which are in the leaft internally decayed. They are ufually from
feventy to eighty feet in length. .
The hemp is brought from the Ukraine and Poland, and requires two years in its
paflage to Riga. The barks in which it is conveyed, are from two hundred and fifty
to three hundred tons burthen, are covered with mats, floping like a penthoufe roof,
and have a falfe bottom. They afcend the Dnieper arid the Duna; but on account of
numerous fhoals can only pafs the Duna in the {pring, or about three weeks after the
{now begins to melt, and if they mifs that time, are delayed ull autumn. The hemp
exported from Riga, is generally more efteemed, and 30 per cent. dearer, than that ex-
ported from Peterfburgh * ; the former comes from the Ukraine, the provinces of Mo-
hilef and Polotfk, and the neighbouring parts of Poland; the other from the govern-~
ments of Tver and Novogorod. The Riga hemp is chiefly ufed for fhrouds and ftays
of men of war, and procured by contract for the Englifh admiralty and Eaft India
company Tf.
‘The inhabitants of Riga carry on alfo a confiderable commerce in falt. They import
it from Spain, and fend it up the Duna to fupply the diftri€s bordering on that river ;
and by land into Courland, and into the neighbouring provinces of Poland.
We paid our refpeéts to General Brown, governor of Riga, and had the honour of
dining with that gallant veteran, who, witha pleafing garrulity natural to old age, related
a variety of interefting adventures, that had befallen him in the courfe of a long and
active 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, which
he would willingly have dedicated to hisown. He firft entered the Auftrian, and finally
into the Ruffian fervice. In the campaigns of 1737 and 1738, he ferved under Count
Munich againft the Turks, and diftinguifhed himfelf at the fiege of Otchakof. Being
fent with a corps of troops into Hungary, he was taken prifoner by the Turks, fold asa
* Lately the Ukraine hemp has found its way to Peterfburgh.
+ In cafe of neceffity, the Urtican Cannabina, or hemp-nettle, might be fubftituted in the place of hemp.
It is a native of South-ealtern 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 rivers. It comes out carly in the fpring, and affords good
fhoots, which are eaten by the natives as vegetables. It flowers in June or July ; and in good foils fhoots
from ten to fifteen feet high In Siberia the feeds ripen in September, about the time of the firft froft.
It is perennial, and multiplies by running. The cords made from this fpecies are ftronger even than thofe
twilted from hemp. The Mongol Tartars ufe them for cords to their bows, and for nets to catch animals
in’the woods. In fome partsof Germany the natives employ them for ropes. This plant is deferibed in
Amman’s Siirpium Rariorum in Imperio Rutheno Icones ct Defcriptiones, p. 173- No. 249. plate 25. Urtica fo-
lizs profunde laciniatis ; alfo in Gmelin’s Flora Siberica. It will be defcribed in the third volume of Pallas’
Flora Ruffica.
The common nettle, the uriica urens of Linneus, fupplies the natives of Kamfchatka *, and of the Kuril
Ufles, with cords for fithing-nets. ,
* See Cook’s laft voyage, vol. iii. p. 339.—Pallas Nord. Beytr, vol. iv. p. 117.
5 flave, |
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