17.3. 3. Of the Climate of Asia.
The relations of travellers
[3]
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 a few
places, it is unsusceptible of cultivation; and that, though the
Russians have settlements all along the Irtis, they cultivate nothing;
that this country produces only some little firs and shrubs; that the
natives of the country are divided into wretched hordes or tribes, 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 everywhere blows without opposition; that
this wind, which renders Nova Zembia uninhabitable, blowing in Siberia
makes it a barren waste; that in Europe, on the contrary, the mountains
of Norway and Lapland are admirable bulwarks, which cover the northern
countries from the wind; so that at Stockholm, which is about fifty-nine
degrees latitude, the earth produces plants, fruits, and corn; and that
about Abo, which is sixty-one degrees, and even to sixty-three and
sixty-four, there are mines of silver, and the land is fruitful enough."
We see also in these relations "that Great Tartary, situated to the
south of Siberia, is also exceedingly cold; that the country will not
admit of cultivation; that nothing can be found but pasturage for flocks
and herds; that trees will not grow there, but only brambles, as in
Iceland; that there are, near China and India, some countries where
there grows a kind of millet, but that neither corn nor rice will ripen;
that there is scarcely a place in Chinese Tartary at forty-three,
forty-four, and forty-five degrees where it does not freeze seven or
eight months in the year, so that it is as cold as Iceland, though it
might be imagined, from its situation, to be as hot as the south of
France; that there are no cities, except four or five towards the
eastern ocean, and some which the Chinese, for political reasons, have
built near China; that in the rest of Great Tartary there are only a few
situated in Buchar, Turkestan, and Cathay; that the reason of this
extreme cold proceeds from the nature of the nitrous earth, full of
saltpetre and sand, and more particularly from the height of the land.
Father Verbiest found that a certain place, eighty leagues north of the
great wall, towards the source of Kavamhuran, exceeded the height of the
sea near Pekin three thousand geometrical paces; that this height
[4]
is the cause that though almost all the great rivers of Asia have their
source in this country, there is, however, so great a want of water that
it can be inhabited only near the rivers and lakes."
These facts being laid down, I reason thus: Asia has properly no
temperate zone, as the places situated in a very cold climate
immediately touch upon those which are exceedingly hot, that is, Turkey,
Persia, India, China, Korea, and Japan.
In Europe, on the contrary, the temperate zone is very extensive,
though situated in climates widely different from each other; there
being no affinity between the climates of Spain and Italy and those of
Norway and Sweden. But as the climate grows insensibly cold upon our
advancing from south to north, nearly in proportion to the latitude of
each country, it thence follows that each resembles the country joining
it; that there is no very extraordinary difference between them, and
that, as I have just said, the temperate zone is very extensive.
Hence it comes that in Asia, the strong nations are opposed to the
weak; the warlike, brave, and active people touch immediately upon those
who are indolent, effeminate, and timorous; the one must, therefore,
conquer, and the other be conquered. In Europe, on the contrary, strong
nations are opposed to the strong; and those who join each other have
nearly the same courage. This is the grand reason of the weakness of
Asia, and of the strength of Europe; of the liberty of Europe, and of
the slavery of Asia: a cause that I do not recollect ever to have seen
remarked. Hence it proceeds that liberty in Asia never increases; whilst
in Europe it is enlarged or diminished, according to particular
circumstances.
The Russian nobility have indeed been reduced to slavery by the
ambition of one of their princes; but they have always discovered those
marks of impatience and discontent which are never to be seen in the
southern climates. Have they not been able for a short time to establish
an aristocratic government? Another of the northern kingdoms has lost
its laws; but we may trust to the climate that they are not lost in such
a manner as never to be recovered.
Footnotes
[3]
See Travels to the North, vol. viii; the "History of the Tartars"; and
Father Du Halde, iv.
[4]
Tartary is, then, a kind of flat mountain.
