of rivers. It conies out early 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 frofL It is perennial, and multiplies by running.
The cords made from this fpecies are flronger even than
.thofe twilled from hemp. The Mongol Tartars ufe them for the
cords to their bows, and for nets to catch animals in the woods.
In fome parts of Germany the natives employ them for ropes.
This plant is defcribed in Amman’s Stirpium Rariorum. in Imperio
Rutbeno leones et Dejcriptiones, p. 173. N° 249. plate 25. Urticcr
foliis profunde lacinidiis; alfo in Gmelin’s Flora Siberica. It will
be defcribed in the third volume of Pallas' Flora Ruffica.
The common nettle, the urtica urens of Linnaeus, fupplies the
natives of- Kamtfchatka and of the Kuril Ifles, with cords for
their fifhing nets.
The inhabitants of Riga carry on alfo a confiderable commerce
in -fait. They import it from Spain, and fend it up the
Dana to fupply the diftridls bordering on that river; and by land
into Courland, and the neighbouring provinces of Poland.
We paid our refpeits to General Brown, the governor of
Riga, and had the honour of dining with that gallant veteran,
who, with a pleafing garrulity natural to old age, related a variety
of interefling adventures that had befallen him in the courfe of
a long and a ¿live life. He is a native of Ireland, and was bom
* See C o o k ’s Iafl voyage, vol. iii. p. 339— Pallas Nord. Beytr. vol. iv . p. 1 1 7 .
1 in
in the beginning of this century. Being a Roman catholic, he cha p .
IV . was compelled to feek his fortune in foreign courts, which he
would willingly have dedicated to his own. He firit entered the
Auflrian, and finally into the Ruffian fervice. He ferved under
Count Munich againfl the Turks, in the campaigns of 1737,
and 1738, and diflinguifhed himfelf at the iiege of Otchakof.
Being fent with a corps of troops into Hungary, he was taken
prifoner by the Turks, fold as a Have, and transferred to four
different mailers. At one time he was bound back to back
with another prifoner for eight-and-forty hours, and expofed al-
moft naked at the various places where flaves are brought for
fale. He had then borne the rank of colonel in the Ruffian'
fervice, but gave out, that he was only a captain, in order to
Ieffen. the price of his ranfom. Having been accidentally met
by a gentleman, to whom he was perfonally known, he fent information
of his fituation to the French embaffador, who found
means to purchafe him for 300 ducats. But his Turkifh mailer
difcovering that he was of higher rank than he had pretended, reclaimed
his prifoner, and threatened to ufe force in order to recover
him. The French embaffador, however, applied to the Grand
Vizir, who decided in his favour: Count Brown recovered his
liberty, and returned to Ruffia, in which fervice he was gradually,
promoted, and has been lately appointed governor of Riga,, a
place of the greatefl trail.
The bridge over the Duna, at Riga, is a floating wooden bridge,
40 feet in breadth, and 2,600 in length, and is formed in the following;