at
a loss to ascertain: at last I found, from former observations, that we
were in the Caspian Sea! which washes part of the country of the Calmuck
Tartars. How we came here is was impossible to conceive, as this sea has
no communication with any other. One of the inhabitants of the Cheese
Island, whom I had brought with me, accounted for it thus:--that the
monster in whose stomach we had been so long confined had carried us
here through some subterraneous passage; however, we pushed to shore,
and I was the first who landed. Just as I put my foot upon the ground a
large bear leaped upon me with its fore-paws; I caught one in each
hand, and squeezed him till he cried out most lustily; however, in
this position I held him till I starved him to death. You may laugh,
gentlemen, but this was soon accomplished, as I prevented him licking
his paws. From hence I travelled up to St. Petersburg a second time:
here an old friend gave me a most excellent pointer, descended from the
famous bitch before-mentioned, that littered while she was hunting a
hare. I had the misfortune to have him shot soon after by a blundering
sportsman, who fired at him instead of a covey of partridges which he
had just set. Of this creature's skin I have had this waistcoat made
(showing his waistcoat), which always leads me involuntarily to game if
I walk in the fields in the proper season, and when I come within shot,
_one of the buttons constantly flies off, and lodges upon the spot where
the sport is_; and as the birds rise, being always primed and cocked, I
never miss them. Here are now but three buttons left. I shall have a new
set sewed on against the shooting season commences.

When a covey of partridges is disturbed in this manner, by the button
falling amongst them, they always rise from the ground in a direct line
before each other. I one day, by forgetting to take my ramrod out of my
gun, shot it straight through a leash, as regularly as if the cook had
spitted them. I had forgot to put in any shot, and the rod had been made
so hot with the powder, that the birds were completely roasted by the
time I reached home.

Since my arrival in England I have accomplished what I had very much at
heart, viz., providing for the inhabitant of the Cheese Island, whom
I had brought with me. My old friend, Sir William Chambers, who is
entirely indebted to me for all his ideas of Chinese gardening, by
a description of which he has gained such high reputation