Reports from Russian forts on the Irtysh and Altai frontier of a widespread earthquake on 28 November 1761, sent to St Petersburg and printed in London.
W. W. Weymarn, writing from Fort Omsk in March 1762, sent Dr James Mounsey, the Russian emperor's chief physician, a set of garrison reports on an earthquake felt along the fortified lines of the Irtysh, Kuznetsk and Kolyvan on 28 November 1761 (old style), plus a tremor on 22 October. He added his own theory that 'combustible matter' in the Altai caught fire. The French letter was translated and read to the Royal Society in 1763. Tartars appear only once, as makers of gunpowder from Altai saltpetre. This corpus copy is the 1763 Philosophical Transactions printing.
How they knew
Official record
Who “Tartar” means here
The Turkic peoples of the Altai and upper Irtysh frontier, mentioned alongside the Kalmyks (Dzungar Oirats); the Kazakhs beyond the Irtysh are called 'Kirgis Kaisacks'.
Why read it
A precise, dated disaster report from the Siberian frontier: timber forts shaking, turf roofs cracking, and no mention of any buried cities. It also has a one-line glimpse of Tartar and Kalmyk gunpowder making.
Watch out
Only one passing mention of Tartars. The earthquake theory is the author's own speculation. The 'monstrous lamb' skin sent earlier is mentioned but not described.
Editorial contextIn his notes on the earthquake, Weymarn says the Altai near the Katun river is full of saltpetre that forms like cement in the rock clefts, and that the local Tartars and Kalmyks make strong gunpowder from it by a quick, simple method. It is a small but concrete detail about frontier peoples' technology.
is all full of a kind of Saltpetre, which is found in form of a cement, in great plenty, in the clefts and between the beds of rock ; with this the Tartars and Kalmucks make very strong and good Gunpowder, by an industrious, simple and expeditious method.