LITERARY SPECTATOR.
DOBELL'S TRAVELS.*
THEY who love to travel in arm-chair and slippers, by the side of a comfortable fire, could not have a better companion than PETER DOB EL L. His book is full of curious facts, of new and interesting accounts of countries known to us very imperfectly, and in many par- ticulars not known at all. Captain COCHRANE, indeed, rambled through a considerable part of them, and entertained the world by a description both of his own singularities and those of the natives. LEDYARD, had he not been arrested by the Russian authorities just at tae moment when his course was becoming interesting, would also have added to our knowledge. PETER ,DOBELL is a worthy successor of these two thr-famed pedestrians, and possesses over them Multifa- r.ous advantages. He is not a mere passenger ; for although the nar- rative he gives here is but of one wandering throhgh these countries, it is not published till after the voyage had been several times repeated, and his experience ripened by a residence of many years in Kamt- s ;hatka. Yes, positively, an individual who can write a book, and a very good one too, and who is by no means deficient .in various spe- cies of information, has resided for several years in Kamtschatka—the Uitima Thule of civilization, according to our notion of that part of the world. There are countries where "all save the spirit of man is divine," and there are others where " nought save the spirit of man is divine." Kaantschatka and Siberia are the last places on earth we * Travels in Kamtschatka and Siberia, with a Narrative of a Residence in China. By Peter Dobell, Counsellor to the Quart of his Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Russia. 2 vols. 8vo. Loudon, 1830,
should have expected to turn out Paradises. It is an admirable les- son, however, for hasty judges, to find that though neither may exactly answer to our ideas of the Garden of Eden; there is nothing in them to prevent a considerable population to dwell in thew in plenty and comfort, and to possess in great perfection all the enjoyinerits which really constitute human felicity. The whiter is long and severe but it is healthy, the season of pleasure, and the extreme cold out of doors presents a gratifying contrast with the warmth within. The summer is short, but brilliant and beautiful, when the features of na- ture doff the veil of snow, and present, for certainly too brief a period, a face of beauty not exceeded elsewhere, although perhaps the very transitoriness of its appearance heightens its charms. The means of existence absolutely overflow ; the lakes and rivers are moving with fish ; and a passing flood leaves the shore covered with shot& of them. The surface of the water is populous with every species of wild-fowl; the flocks of deer are not to be counted ; and the furry animals almost pass the door, to remind the inhabitants to provide in tune for a suitable supply of winter clething. The inhabi- tants are a mild and simple race, guileless and hospitable: their cot- tages are ever open to receive the traveller, and the car, with its team of high-trotting dogs, ever ready to speed the parting guest on his way. PETER DOBELL is in all respects fitted to describe this country • himself hardy and simple, with a taste for unsophisticated life, and yet by no means deficient in the arts of civilization, he is capable of appreciating the people he was thrown among. The style of his nar- rative is worthy of his subject : it is plain even to simplicity, perspi- cuous, and lively ; in short, we might have thund it among " Pur- chas his Pilgrimages," and not been very much astonished, such is the absence of modern varnish. We rejoice that it has been in no bookmaker's hands : luckily quartos are somewhat out of fashion—a few years ago, it is very possible that plain PETER DOBELL might have been inflated into a quarto, and we should have been fortunate if his title of Imperial Counsellor had not been thought worth two.
The author commences his narrative in 1812. It was on the 21st of August in that year, that he, sailing probably from China, made the land of Kamtschatka. He stayed sonic time in the peninsula, and then traversed its whole length into Siberia ; which he crossed in its greatest breadth, to the imminent risk of his life. He and a small party were lost, almost without provisions, many days among the trackless mountains covered with snow ; and were only saved by meeting with a river to whose stream they committed themselves, and which, after a rapid course of several days, brought them at length into an inhabited region. The whole narrative of this fearful adven- ture is as .leeply interesting as any to be thund in the pages of the real romance of life. The route traversed on this voyage by the aid of dogs, deer, and horses, was afterwards retraced by the author ; and latterly he was accompanied from Russia through Siberia into Kamtschatka by his wife and daughter. A traveller's expenses in Kamtschatka are not paid in coin, but in tea and sugar ; a fact which ought to give our ladies a high idea of Kamtschatkan civilization. Tea is a universal beverage ; and is found, after fatigue, to be the greatest of restoratives, and after exposure to cold, the most speedily productive of a genial warmth. It is singular that the two latest accounts of 'travels in two extremely different
parts of the earth agree in passing the highest eulogies on tea. In Mr: (or Sir) EDMOND TEMPLE'S Travels in Peru, he is as loud in its
praises as Mr. PETER DOBELL in Siberia : so that it would seem tea was refrigerative as well as restorative, otherwise it would not be equally acceptable on the burning plains of' the Pampas as the frozen tops of the mountains that border the sea of Okhotsk. The Kamt- schatkans drink tea like Chinese, without sugar,—the latter. being; ex- ceedingly dear ; so that a handful of sugar is considered an invaluable present, and wins all hearts. One of the Kamtschatkans who entertained our author was MER- LIN, a fine specimen of the character of the people. From his provi-
sion for the winter, we may form an idea of the plenty that may be found in a Kamtschatkan ostrog. He assured Mr. DOBELL, thathhe and his sons had killed (that year) twelve bears, eleven mountain- sheep, several rein-deer, a large number of geese, ducks, and teal, and a few swans and pheasants.
"in November," said he, "we shall catch many hares and partridges ; and I have one thousand fresh salmon lately caught, and now frozen, for our winter's stock. Added to this, in my cellar there is a good stock of cabbages, turnips, and potatoes ; with various sorts of berries, and about thirty poods of savannas, the greater part of which we have stolen from the field-mice, who collect them in large quantities also for the winter."
This savanna is the Lilium pomponium ; the sweeter species of .which iS very palatable, having something of the flavour of a waxy potato, with a sweetish bitter taste. There are two other roots, which the Kamtschatkans eallOnakarshina, and in which they greatly delight, eating them raw, like a chestnut. They are also exceedingly fond of eating a plant they call pootehkee, which they are obliged to swallow without touching the lips, owing to its corrosive quality. The labour which the dogs which draw the hibitka will undergo, is astonishing: they tire out bath deer and horses. Fifty or sixty versts
a-day is a common distance, and that long continued. They are not,
however, easy to manage, and require no little skill and dexterity on the part of the kyoorshik or driver. When our author started from
Avatcha, he was accompanied by a number of his friends a part of the way on the road, each in his kibitka, and his team of fifteen or sixteen dogs, all eager and impatient to start. His driver was a Cossack, and drunk ; and as it was a race all the way, and the honour of each driver was at stake, great exertions were made. Our traveller was overturned several times in the snow : he had two Chinese with
him from Macao, who had never seen snow before, and complained of being rolled out into the .white hard water. The sagacity of these animals is extraordinary : when travellers are lost upon the plains, and ate wandering in vain to find the jousta of a Kardikee deer, the dogs will catch the direction of the deer at a great distance. When they begin to snuff and bark, and set off at full speed, the traveller knows that he is within reach of aid, though he can see nothing. Dog-driving is not without its danger : in passing the trail of any animal of the chase, the dogs will frequently give mouth, join ie full cry, and the whole cavalcade must go a- hunting, in spite of their utmost strength. No recollectiOn of the kibitka behind them occurs to the beasts : they leap and penetrate into thickets without the least regard to the carriage. The only hope of the driver is to manage to get himself jammed up between two trees, When a forcible stop is put to the chase. On one occasion, a very .singular scene took place : our traveller's provisions were exhausted, and his dogs were nearly starved for want of food, and knocked up by hard labour. Seeing that they could not complete their journey, he despatched forward the strongest party to bring back a reinforcement. The dogs themselves were conscious that they were approaching their journey's end, and pushed thrward in spite of the fatigue ; so that the relay of dogs were met not far from the town. The poor crea- tures, the moment they saw their well-fed companions, became as- sured not only of aid, but of food, and the joy they expressed was extraordinary.
"Nothing," says Mr. DORELL, "could exceed the joy of our dogs on per. ceiving those froth Igiga. They sprung into the air, barked aloud, and set forward with such eagerness to meet them, it was impossible to restrain them. When they came up to them, they jumped upon them, and licked and fawned upon them, with an expression of satisfaction and pleasure which it was im- possible to mistake. We approached the town : it was utterly impossible to hold them hack; and if it had not been for the assistance of the inhabitants, who ran and caught hold of them or threw themselves on the sledges, they would have upset us, and broken every thing to pieces."
Very cold countries have very hot summers ; and though the time for vegetation is short, the progress is rapid. Who would expect to find pumpkins, melons, and cucumbers, growing in profusion without hot-beds, at Tobolsk, the old capital of Siberia, where vegetables of every kind attain the highest perfection ? At Yakutsk, where the frost in winter often exceeds 40° of Reaumur, the summer is sometimes as hot as the torrid zone. " This province," says DOBELL, " may be called the garden of Flora, (the garden of Flora in Siberia!) nor have I ever seen in any country a greater variety of beautiful wild flowers, than are profusely spread over the country about Yakutsk and the country between it and Ochotsk." We have many notions to correct in respect to climate. Somebody has said, "it is not frost which makes cold ;" and nothing can be more true. Both Kamtschatka and Siberia are rich in mineral treasures, and abound in articles of trade : but they may be said to be very imper- fectly known even at St. Petersburg ; and in any case they are so poorly peopled, and the state of internal communication is so bad, that these rich countries, "endowed," says DOBELL, "with all the choicest bounties of Nature," and forming a portion of a great empire, are lost both to it and to the world. A part of the second volume is occupied with China, which Mr. DOBELL has seen a good deal of. He is in favour of the existence of a company trading to China ; as he thinks, without one, we should quicklycome to loggerheads. But how do the Americans manage this matter ?
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