rtion of this tract has in Christian times been
reclaimed from its state of desolation, and is at present occupied by
civilized communities; but even now the East remains for the most part
in its primitive neglect, and is in possession of roving barbarians.

It is the Eastern portion of this vast territory which I have pointed
out, that I have now, Gentlemen, principally to keep before your view.
It goes by the general name of Tartary: in width from north to south it
is said to vary from 400 to 1,100 miles, while in length from east to
west it is not far short of 5,000. It is of very different elevations in
different parts, and it is divided longitudinally by as many as three or
four mountain-chains of great height. The valleys which lie between them
necessarily confine the wandering savage to an eastward or westward
course, and the slope of the land westward invites him to that direction
rather than to the east. Then, at a certain point in these westward
passages, as he approaches the meridian of the Sea of Aral, he finds the
mountain-ranges cease, and open upon him the opportunity, as well as the
temptation, to roam to the North or to the South also. Up in the East,
from whence he came, in the most northerly of the lofty ranges which I
have spoken of, is a great mountain, which some geographers have
identified with the classical Imaus; it is called by the Saracens Caf,
by the Turks Altai. Sometimes too it has the name of the Girdle of the
Earth, from the huge appearance of the chain to which it belongs,
sometimes of the Golden Mountain, from the gold, as well as other
metals, with which its sides abound. It is said to be at an equal
distance of 2,000 miles from the Caspian, the Frozen Sea, the North
Pacific Ocean, and the Bay of Bengal: and, being in situation the
furthest withdrawn from West and South, it is in fact the high capital
or metropolis of the vast Tartar country, which it overlooks, and has
sent forth, in the course of ages, innumerable populations into the
illimitable and mysterious regions around it, regions protected by their
inland character both from the observation and the civilizing influence
of foreign nations.

2.

To eat bread in the sweat of his brow is the original punishment of
mankind; the indolence of the savage shrinks from the obligation, and
looks out for methods of escaping it. Corn, wine, and oil have no charms
for him at such a price; he turns to the brute animals which are his
ab