Page:Ancient and modern history of the Russian Empire.pdf/11

11 As Siberia appears to have been inhabited by animals now unknown, so likewise it appears to have been inhabited by a race of men totally unoticed in history, and whose former existance is now only discovered by their sepulchres, which contain some of their arms and instruments, all of them made of copper. In one of the expeditions of Peter the Great to the coasts of the Caspian Sea, his people having penetrated into the country about 150 leagues, discovered a great stone building, half covered with sand, the architecture of which had a considerable resemblance to that of some of the ruins of ancient Presopolis. On entering it, they found a number of presses made of black hard wood, and containing near 300 books, in the form of quarto volumes. The country people would not allow them to carry these away, looking upon them as sacred; but they found means to bring off three, which they delivered to the Emperor. They appeared to be composed of very large sheets of thick paper, supposed to be made of cotton, or the bark of trees, laid over with two varnishes above each other one of a blue, and the other of a black colour; the characters were written in white; but as all the lines were of an equal length it could not be determined whether they were written from left to right, or from right to left. Several brass statues were also procured from the peasants in the neighbourhood, among which was that of a Roman General crowned with laurel; others had armour; like, that worn in the west