Book XVII.
Chap. 3.of those in cold climates has enabled them to maintain their liberties. This is an effect which springs from a natural cause.
This has also been found true in America; the despotic empires of Mexico and Peru were near the Line, and almost all the little free nations were and are still, near the Poles.
CHAP. III.
Of the Climate of Asia.
THE relations of travellers[1] inform us, "that the vast continent of the north of Asia, which extends from forty degrees or thereabouts to the Pole, and from the frontiers of Muscovy even to the eastern ocean, is in an extremely cold climate; that this immense tract of land is divided by a chain of mountains which run from west to east, leaving Siberia on the north, and Great Tartary on the south; that the climate of Siberia is so cold, that excepting some places it cannot be cultivated, and that though the Russians have settlements all along the Irtis, they cultivate nothing; that in this country there grows only some little firs and shrubs; that the natives of the country are divided into wretched colonies, like those of Canada; that the reason of this cold proceeds on the one hand from the height of the land, and on the other, from the mountains, which, in proportion as they run from south to north, are levelled in such a manner, that the north wind every where blows without opposition; that tins wind which renders Nova Zembla uninhabitable, blowing in Siberia makes it
- ↑ See travels to the North, Vol. 8. the Hist. of the Tartars, and Du Halde Vol. 4.
