Born 1741.--Died 1811.
Born at Berlin--Educated as a surgeon--Studies natural
history--Visits Holland--England--Publishes his first
great work--Accepts an appointment in the Academy of
St. Petersburg--Catherine II.--Engages in the Russian
enterprise for observing the transit of Venus--Sets
out from St. Petersburg--Gadflies--River Jemlia--Pearl
muscles--Arrives at Moscow--Marine sponges used for painting
the cheeks--Rhubarb--Vlodimir--Cherry-orchards--Tartar
princes--Goitres--Extreme filthiness of the Russians--Severe
cold--Mules between the goat and sheep--Sulphurous
springs--Environs of Sumara--Travels on sledges--Skeletons
of elephants--Tizran--Excessive heat--Village unroofed
by a hurricane--River Volga--Ancient tombs--Gigantic
bones--Kalmuc camp--Archery--Botanical excursions--Marsh
flies--Kirghees--Orenburg--Golden eagles--Falconry--Value
of a trained hawk--Salt-mines--Chinese caravan--Jasper
mountains--Jasper tombs--Ruins of Sarai--Embarks upon the Caspian
Sea--Arranges his Journal--Floods--Hurricanes--Bottomless
pit--Furious wild dogs--Beehives--Method of protecting the hives
from the bears--Volcano--Burning forest--Cotton produced from the
poplar-tree--Loses himself in a forest--Curious method of passing
a river--Asbestos mountain--The mind abhors an uninterrupted
calm--Insipid method of travelling--Method of preparing
Russia leather in Siberia--Cheliabinsk--Departs for Eastern
Siberia--Extensive conflagration--Steppe of Ischimi--Aquatic
game--White herons--Arrives at Omsk--Refused permission to
inspect the Siberian maps there--Banks of the Irtish--Continual
storms--Method of preserving furs from the moth--Encounters an
enormous wolf--Ancient mines--Attacked by dysentery--Prodigious
tomb--Enormous lump of solid gold--Visits the Altaïc
mountains--Sublime scenery--Black sparrows--Crosses Lake Baikal
in a sledge--Rugged and sublime scenery--Tremendous storm--Hunting
the sea-dog--Mongolia--Borders of China--His health declines--Blue
crow--Locusts--Tartar hordes--Intense cold--Prepares for
his return to Petersburg--Execrable manner of peopling
Siberia--Perilous adventure--Wild horses--Ancient shores of the
Caspian--Repairs to Moscow--Arrives at Petersburg--Premature
old age--Publishes his travels, &c.--M. Cuvier--Theory of the
earth--Traverses the southern provinces of Russia--Dies at
Berlin--Character 65