Europe - The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques And Discoveries Of The English Nation - Volume 4 - Collected By Richard Hakluyt
- Page 175 of 258 - First - Home
Diuers Lose Their Noses, The Tips Of Their Eares,
And The Bals Of Their Cheeks, Their Toes, Feete, &C. Many
Times (when the
Winter is very hard and extreeme) the beares and woolfes issue by troopes
out of the woods
Driuen by hunger, and enter the villages, tearing and
rauening all they can finde: so that the inhabitants are faine to flie for
safegard of their liues. And yet in the Sommer time you shal see such a new
hiew and face of a Countrey, the woods (for the most part which are all of
firre and birch) so fresh and so sweete, the pastures and medowes so greene
and well growen, (and that vpon the sudden) such varietie of flowers, such
noyse of birdes (specially of Nightingales, that seeme to be more lowde and
of a more variable note then in other Countreys) that a man shall not
lightly trauell in a more pleasant Countrey.
And this fresh and speedy growth of the spring there seemeth to proceede
from the benefite of the snow: which all the Winter time being spread ouer
the whole Countrey as a white robe, and keeping it warme from the rigour of
the frost, in the Spring time (when the Sunne waxeth wanme, and dissolueth
it into water) doeth so throughly drench and soake the ground, that is
somewhat of a sleight and sandie mould, and then shineth so hotely vpon it
againe, that it draweth the hearbes and plants foorth in great plentie and
varietie, in a very short time. As the Winter exceedeth in colde, so the
Sommer inclineth to ouer much heat, specially in the moneths of Iune, Iuly
and August, being much warmer then the Sommer aire in England.
The countrey throughout is very well watered with springs, riuers, and
Ozeraes, or lakes. Wherein the prouidence of God is to be noted, for that
much of the Countrey being so farre inland, as that some part lieth a
thousand miles and more euery way from any sea, yet it is serued with faire
Riuers, and that in very great number, that emptying themselues one into
another, runne all into the Sea. Their lakes are many and large, some of
60. 80. 100. and 200. miles long with breadth proportionate.
[Sidenote: The chiefe Riuers of Russia.] The chiefe Riuers are these,
First, Volgha, that hath his head or spring at the route of an Aldertree,
about 200. verst aboue Yaruslaue, and groweth so bigge by the encrease of
other Riuers by that time it commeth thither, that it is broad an English
mile and more, and so runneth into the Caspian sea, about 2800. verst or
miles of length.
The next is Boristhenes (now called Neper) that diuideth the Countrey from
Lituania, and falleth into the Euxin sea.
The third Tanais or Don, (the ancient bounder betwixt Europe and Asia) that
taketh his head out of Rezan Ozera, and so running through the Countrey of
the Chrim Tartar, falleth into the great Sea, lake, or meare, (called
Maeotis) by the citie of Azou.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 175 of 258
Words from 91659 to 92170
of 136233