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824 COXE’s TRAVELS IN RUSSIA.
The paper is certainly of our manufacture, as it bears the Englifh ftamp; and we find
in Hackluyt, that paper was among the firft imports which Ruffia received from
England.
This library contains, perhaps, more Chinefe books than any other collection in
Europe. They are claffed in port-folios, and confift of two thoufand eight hundred
feparate pieces. An exact catalogue has been lately made by Leontief, who paffed
feveral years at Pekin, wherea Ruffian church is eftablifhed, and ftudents are permitted
to refide for the purpofe of learning the language*. Hitherto we have been indebted
almoft to the French alone for accounts of the Chinefe empire {. The amicable in-
tercourfe, however, which has for fome time fubfifted between the courts of Peterf-~
burgh and Pekin, has facilitated the acquifition of Chinefe books; and the eftablith-
ment of a feminary at Pekin has led the Ruffians to obtain a more accurate knowledge
of that country. Hence many interefting publications have appeared at Peterfburgh,
relative to the laws, hiftory, and geography of China, extracted and traflated from the
originals publifhed at Pekin. Ts
~The various branches of natural hiftory are diftributed in different apartments.
This mufeum, which is extremely rich in native productions, has been confiderably
augmented by numerous fpecimens, collected by Pallas, Gmelin, Guldentftaedt, and
other learned profeffors, during their late expeditions through the Ruffian empire.
The ftuffed animals and birds occupy one apartment. Among the former I par-
ticularly obferved the Equus Hemionus, a {pecies of wild horfe, which bears the appear-
ance of a mule: it refembles an afs in the mane, ears, feet, and tail, and principally
in the black ftreak down the back; in other parts it is like a horfe. It is the fame
which was called by Ariftotle the Hemionos, found in his days in Syria, and which he
celebrates for its amazing {wiftnefs and fecundity; it is denominated by the Mongols
d/higgetei, which fignifies eared ; is allo known among naturalifts by the name of mu/us
Dauricus, becaufe it is found in Dauria, about the rivers Amoor, Onon, and Orgoon.
Thefe animals, however, are there obferved only in fmall numbers, detached from the
numerous herds which inhabit the deferts of Tartary, to the fouth of the Ruffian do-
minions. ‘Their {wiftnefs is proverbial, and is faid to exceed even that of the antelope:
they are defcribed by the Tartars as very fierce, and fo untractable as not to be tamed.
Pallas has favoured the world with an accurate defcription and engraving of this fingu-
lar animal, in the New Commentaries of the Academy, to which I refer the reader, as
well as to Pennant’s account, in his Hiftory of Quadrupeds.’ The other animals pe-
culiar to Ruffia and the adjacent countries, which attracted my notice, are the wild
ram, called Argolt by the Mongols, by Linnzus Capra Ammon, which inhabits the
mountainous deferts fouth of the lake Baikal; the Bos Grunniens of Linnzus, or
grunting ox of Pennant, which inhabits Tartary and Thibet, and is mentioned here
for the uncommon beauty of the tail, full and flowing, of a gloffy and filky texture.
Thefe tails form a confiderable article of exportation from Thibet. ‘The Indians faften
fmall bundles of the hair for fly-flaps; the Chinefe dye tufts with a beautiful {carlet, for
the decoration of theix caps, and the Turks employ it as ornaments { to their ftandards. ’
{ obferved alfo the ibex, or bouquetin §, of Siberia, the white bear, the ermine, the
mufk-rat, the flying {quirrel; among the amphibious animals, the fea-horfe, whofe tufk
* See Ruffian Difcoveries. :
+ The account of Lord Macartney’s embafly, by the late Sir George Staunton, has added to our
knowledge of that empire,
The Europeans erroneoufly fuppofe thefe ornaments to be made from horfe. tails.
§ See account of the bouqnetin, in Travels in Spritzerland, Letter 4r. ;
5 is
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