We went to see the cabinet of natural history, which is remarkable by the productions of Siberia which it contains.  The furs of that country have excited the cupidity of the Russians, as the Mexican gold mines did that of the Spaniards.  There was a time in Russia, when the current money consisted of sable and squirrel skins, so universal was the desire of being provided with the means of guarding against the cold.  The most curious thing in the museum at Petersburg, is a rich collection of bones of antediluvian animals, and particularly the remains of a gigantic Mammoth, which have been found almost whole among the ices of Siberia.  It appears from geological observations, that the world has a much older history than that which we know:  infinity is fearful in all things.  At present, the inhabitants, and even the animals of this extremity of the inhabited globe are almost penetrated with the cold, which makes nature expire, a few leagues beyond their country; the color of the animals is confounded with that of the snow, and the Dearth seems to be lost in the ices and fogs which terminate this lower creation.  I was struck with the countenances of the inhabitants of Kamstchatka, which are perfectly imitated in the museum at Petersburg.  The priests of that country, called Shamanes, are a kind of improvisators; they wear, over their tunick of bark, a sort of steel net, to which some pieces of iron are attached, the noise of which is very great when the improvisator is agitated; he has moments of inspiration which a good deal resemble nervous attacks, and it is rather by sorcery, than talent, that he makes an impression on the people.  The imagination, in such dreary countries, is scarcely remarkable but by fear, and the earth herself appears to repel man by the terror with which she inspires him.  I afterwards saw the citadel, in the circumference of which is the church where the coffins of all the sovereigns, from the time of Peter the Great, are deposited:  these coffins are not shut up in monuments; they are exposed in the same way as they were on the day of their funeral, and one might fancy one’s self quite close to these corpses, from which a single board appears to separate us.  When Paul I. came to the throne, he caused the remains of his father, Peter I. To be crowned, who not having received that honor during his life, could not be placed in the citadel.  By the orders of Paul I. the ceremonial of interment for both his father and mother was recommenced.  Both were exposed afresh:  four chamberlains once more kept guard over the bodies, as if they had only died the day before; and the two coffins are now placed by the side of each other, compelled to live in pe*&ce under the empire of death.  Among the sovereigns who have stayed the despotic power transmitted to them by Peter I. there are several whom a bloody conspiracy has cast from the throne.  The same courtiers, who have not the strength to tell their master the least truth, know how to conspire against him, and