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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77506 ***
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: _Frontispiece._
+
+STEPPES OF THE CASPIAN.]
+
+
+
+
+                                  RUSSIA
+                                    ON
+                               THE BLACK SEA
+                                    AND
+                               SEA OF AZOF:
+
+                                   BEING
+                   A NARRATIVE OF TRAVELS IN THE CRIMEA
+                         AND BORDERING PROVINCES;
+
+                                   WITH
+              NOTICES OF THE NAVAL, MILITARY, AND COMMERCIAL
+                       RESOURCES OF THOSE COUNTRIES.
+
+                          BY H. D. SEYMOUR, M.P.
+
+                               WITH MAP, &c.
+
+                                  LONDON:
+                      JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.
+                                   1855.
+
+                  _The right of Translation is reserved._
+
+       LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET,
+                            AND CHARING CROSS.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+The following work is partly the result of my own personal observation,
+and partly a compilation from some of the most approved authors who
+have written on the Crimea and the resources of Russia. It was prepared
+for the press during last winter, and the publication of it has been
+retarded by the attention which, for the last few months, I have been
+obliged to bestow on other matters. As the Crimea is still an object of
+deep interest, and as I am not aware that the notices I have collected
+have yet been presented to the public in a succinct form, I hope by the
+following pages that I may help to satisfy public curiosity and add
+something to the stock of information which we possess respecting the
+Southern parts of European Russia.
+
+Having paid one visit to the Crimea in the year 1844, and two visits
+to Southern Russia in 1844 and 1846, I have been able to correct and
+verify the descriptive parts of the book by my own experience. The
+careful work of M. Dubois de Montpereux[1] has been my principal guide
+on geology, archæology, and ancient history, and from his magnificent
+atlas I have borrowed a few illustrations. I have abstracted from the
+‘Études sur la Russie’ of M. Haxthausen an account of the Russian navy
+and army, adding matter acquired from other trustworthy sources. To
+the above-named book and that by M. Tegoborski,[2] both standard works
+on the internal economy of the Russian empire, I am much indebted; and
+although I think their accomplished authors write under a strong bias,
+yet their works are indispensable to those foreigners who wish to study
+the resources and organization of the Russian empire. M. Tegoborski has
+not been allowed to state his whole opinions upon some subjects, and the
+Censor has obliged him to make material alterations, particularly where
+he speaks of the condition of the peasantry. I have likewise alluded to
+a discussion which took place last year in the ‘Revue des Deux Mondes,’
+in which this gentleman took a part. In the course of last summer a
+very able article appeared in the French ‘Moniteur,’ on the subject of
+Russian Finance, in which it was attempted to be proved that Russia
+was very weak on this point, and could not hold out for any lengthened
+period against the Western Powers. The subject was followed up by M. Léon
+Faucher in the ‘Revue des Deux Mondes,’ in a damaging article on Russian
+resources and finance. Soon afterwards an answer to this was sent from
+Petersburg, written by M. Tegoborski, who is an employé in the Bureau des
+Finances, and it appeared in the November number of the Revue, with a
+rejoinder by M. Léon Faucher, written just before his lamented decease.
+Notwithstanding the truth of M. Tegoborski’s observation, that Russia
+cannot be judged by the same rules as other European nations in matters
+of finance, owing to her totally different state of civilization, I think
+he fails to prove the main object of his article, that Russia can stand
+many more such campaigns as that of 1854. Russia must have little hope of
+persuading us of her power by other means, when she is obliged to have
+recourse to an article in a foreign periodical in the midst of a deadly
+struggle.
+
+I have borrowed much from the work of M. and Madame Hommaire de Hell,[3]
+and would refer any reader who wishes for vivid descriptions of Southern
+Russia, full historical information, and accurate scientific knowledge,
+to the original French work of this distinguished engineer and his
+accomplished wife. M. H. de Hell spent five years in the country to
+ascertain the difference of the levels between the Black Sea and the
+Caspian, and his work is accompanied by an atlas of rare merit.
+
+I am indebted to many friends, and, among others, to Mr. Yeames, late
+Consul-General at Odessa, Mr. Crawfurd, and Mr. Blackmore, late chaplain
+at Cronstadt, for many valuable suggestions and corrections; and Mr.
+Lander has been good enough to revise the chapters on the shores of the
+Sea of Azof, with which no man is better acquainted. This accomplished
+gentleman was born in New Russia, and for many years has conducted the
+house of Yeames and Co. at Taganrok; and I may say with truth, that the
+eighteenth chapter is rather his than mine.
+
+In Chapter V. I have especially to acknowledge several pages of valuable
+matter relating to the Asiatic races of mankind, for which I am indebted
+to a note by Dr. William Smith, inserted in his recent admirable edition
+of the great work of Gibbon. My little book pretends to be scarcely more
+than a compilation, and if I have anywhere else omitted to acknowledge
+assistance, it has not been from the wish unfairly to appropriate the
+labours of others.
+
+I have also to thank the Rev. Walter Sneyd for the sight of a translation
+of a curious Italian MS. in his possession, describing the travels in the
+Crimea of one Nicholo Barti of Lucca in the seventeenth century.
+
+My notice on the Russian Budget in Chapter VIII. is not so full as I
+could wish it to have been, and perhaps I may have made too high an
+estimate of the military expenditure. The other facts relating to it are
+taken principally from M. Tegoborski’s writings.
+
+I have endeavoured, in the following pages, to be as accurate as
+possible, but more leisure than I have enjoyed would have enabled me to
+go over the ground still more carefully than I have done, and verify
+my statements upon various subjects by information gathered from other
+scattered sources.
+
+I am fully alive to the defects and incomplete character of the sketches
+which I now venture to present to the public; and I ask, therefore, for
+indulgence if I have not contributed as much as I might have done to the
+instruction or amusement of my readers.
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+
+My original intention was to have compiled a summary of the history of
+the Caucasus, where I spent nearly three years, and to which a short
+account of the Crimea would only have served as an introduction. The
+increasing interest attaching to the latter subject, however, made me pay
+more attention to it; so that I now offer to the public some notices on
+that country and the shores of the Sea of Azof, without being able to add
+anything upon what I hoped to make the main subject of my inquiry. Some
+chapters upon the Caucasus are already partly written, but I have not
+had sufficient time to prepare them for insertion in the present volume,
+although intimately connected with it. They relate to a country replete
+with the deepest interest, and I hope that, ere long, some more competent
+hand than mine may vindicate the character of those heroic mountaineers,
+whom many are accustomed unjustly to stigmatize as barbarians. Though
+unlettered, they possess equal claims to our admiration with our own
+Saxon and Norman ancestors, or with the Swiss in the days of Tell, for
+they possess that stubborn love of independence and that “spirit of
+divinest liberty,” which is the root of all good.
+
+When peace shall be made, it will be most fortunate should we be able to
+secure the freedom of the Eastern coast of the Black Sea by treaty, for
+the independence of that country would form one of the best securities
+against Russian aggression. At the Caucasus Russia may be said to end,
+and a new class of nationalities to begin, and she can only desire to
+possess that mountain range with the intention of extending her conquests
+beyond it.
+
+The Caucasus, that is, the mountain range itself, and the countries that
+lie at the foot of them, to the north and south, are the most convenient
+entrance to the heart of the great table-land of Asia, which, when once
+thoroughly subdued, might constitute an impregnable citadel whence Russia
+would be enabled to extend her influence and dominion in every direction.
+The Caucasus is the real citadel of Russian power in the South and
+East, although as yet beleaguered by the nations from which it has been
+partially wrested. Russia has surrounded it by an army of 170,000[4] men,
+and carefully keeps its inhabitants from communication with civilized
+Europe. We have never acknowledged the sovereignty of the Russians over
+this territory, nor over the Christian provinces to the south of the
+Caucasus. If her blockade were permanently removed from the eastern coast
+of the Black Sea, and the brave inhabitants of the mountains allowed to
+carry on a liberal commerce with Europe, their energies would be quickly
+turned from war to peaceful arts.
+
+Those who designate the Circassians as mere warlike barbarians should
+remember that we ourselves were but warlike semi-barbarians in the
+early ages of our history, and that the manly character which made us
+so formidable in the days of the Plantagenets enabled us ultimately,
+with better directed energies, to raise our great commercial empire in
+the eighteenth century. The Circassians and the other mountain tribes
+resemble us in many particulars: they debate every great affair in a
+national council; they venerate the ancient usages and ordinances which
+form their constitution; and they have the same gradation of ranks and
+aristocratic feelings which distinguish ourselves.
+
+Above all points of resemblance to us, they have clung to their
+independence with Anglo-Saxon tenacity; and shall we, when peace shall
+be made, allow their rude and gigantic enemy again to surround them with
+her liberated forces, till she exterminate them by brute power, and no
+memorial be left of unsuccessful virtue save that which history will
+assuredly record in their favour?
+
+We acknowledged the independence of the Colonies of Spanish America while
+they were still struggling with the mother country; we went still further
+with Greece, for we gave them active assistance, having not only the
+French, but the very Russians themselves for our allies. Surely, then,
+there exist far more cogent reasons for assisting the Circassians, who
+have never been conquered by the Russians. Up to the breaking out of the
+present war the Russians had only an ever-disputed possession of the
+actual ground occupied by their fortifications and protected by their
+cannon, and they have been constantly resisted by the mountaineers, who
+have ever refused to acknowledge the sovereignty of the Emperor.
+
+The coast of Circassia is now free, and all that is required is that it
+should be kept so, without being again subjected to a barbarous blockade.
+If a consul were placed there, and merchants encouraged to frequent it,
+its gallant inhabitants would soon yield to the civilizing influences of
+Europe, and engage themselves in developing its boundless resources.
+
+We may rest satisfied that the freedom of the Caucasus will form an
+important element towards the diminution of Russian influence in the East.
+
+I agree with Mr. Gladstone in thinking we must look for future security
+not only by reducing the power of Russia, but by raising that of Turkey
+and the other independent peoples bordering on the Black Sea. Free
+communication and free trade once firmly established there, the question
+might be considered as in a great measure settled. It is true that you
+cannot impose free trade upon Russia, who occupies half the coasts of the
+Black Sea; but you may claim your right to traffic with the Circassians
+on the east coast of that sea, and protect your commerce there by an
+authorized agent. So great are the advantages of unrestricted trade—so
+much does commerce strengthen and civilize, that the liberal tariff of
+Turkey, and the opening of the Principalities (as stated in App. E),
+have been, in an indirect manner, the cause of the present war; for,
+with freedom of trade, the Christian subjects of the Porte, for some
+years before the commencement of hostilities, had so much increased in
+importance and wealth, that they excited the jealousy of Russia, and she
+feared that if she did not claim in time a closer protectorate over them,
+they might escape her altogether. I say this, assuming it to have always
+been a cardinal point in the politics of Russia, in due time, to advance
+her empire to Constantinople and Athens.
+
+Although I believe the whole Russian nation to be bent upon certain
+measures of territorial aggrandizement, I have not failed to acknowledge
+in my notices the general pacific character of the people. They are not
+a martial nation; that is, they are not a nation which takes delight in
+war for the sake of braving its dangers and revelling in its excitement;
+but theirs is the patient, enduring, indomitable courage which will
+face any dangers to compass certain ends. The Russian nation has been
+misdirected by its rulers as to the true objects of national glory, and
+by an exorbitant tariff and other measures has been kept from mixing with
+other European nations, lest it should learn juster ideas of the points
+in which true glory and prosperity consist, and become impatient of a
+military organization, the object of which is to carry out indefinite
+schemes of conquest.
+
+I have lived among the Russians, and I have learnt to respect them as a
+strong, earnest, unprejudiced people, with a great principle of growth in
+them, and who will work out the defects of their character, and become
+some day an honour to civilization. They were the only nation in the
+world, I believe, with whom we had never been at war.[5] None can more
+deeply regret than I do that we have been obliged now to try their mettle.
+
+We must remember that we have a Court to deal with which combines the
+deep calculation of Europe with the wiles of Asiatic intrigue, and that
+we shall assuredly be over-reached, if we do not insist upon sufficient
+guarantees. We must also remember that the conquest of Constantinople
+is the settled determination of Russia, and has been the prime object of
+ambition to that country ever since the ninth century, when the Russian
+fleets first appeared before its walls; and that, if we are determined
+(as I hope is the case) that they shall never possess it, we must take
+care, whenever peace shall be made, that it be rendered perfectly secure,
+and the approaches to it guarded with the greatest possible care.
+
+If we yield, as Mr. Gladstone and his friends wish us to do, to the first
+offers of Russia, we shall fail in our paramount object, and become
+the laughing-stock of the world. The lives of the brave will have been
+wasted, and the successes we have gained will be of no avail; Russia,
+at the first favourable opportunity, will renew the struggle, with the
+advantages of railroads and all modern inventions. In dealing with so
+subtle an enemy it will be wise not to hesitate, but push on, and,
+treating Russia as she wished to treat Turkey, require from her effectual
+guarantees that she will not again disturb by her ambition the peace of
+Europe.
+
+The supineness and indecision of the European Powers for the last thirty
+years have enabled Russia to take up an insolent position towards
+Europe; and the fears of our own imaginations have contributed to swell
+the prestige of the Colossus of the North, and to render his intrigues
+successful. Our statesmen are now fully convinced of the gravity of our
+position, and the extent of Russian intrigue both in Asia and in Germany.
+I had myself personal experience of it last year in the latter country.
+In returning from India in March, 1854, I spent a day at the little
+German state of ———— —— ——, to visit a German friend well versed in the
+secret politics of his country. He told me how ashamed he was of his
+countrymen, who were false to their true interests, and cowered beneath
+the power of Russia. In the morning, when he came to breakfast with me
+in my hotel, an officer took him aside to speak to him. When my friend
+returned to me, he said, “You would not believe yesterday the degree of
+influence which Russia exercises in Germany; you have here a proof of it.
+That officer who took me aside commands the —— troops, and he called me
+aside to show me a diamond ring and an autograph letter from the Emperor
+of Russia, flattering him, and conferring upon him an order. That man is
+henceforward the devoted servant of Russia.” My friend, who is himself a
+distinguished littérateur, assured me that there were nearly two thousand
+literary persons in Germany who openly received their quarterly pensions
+at the Russian embassies to uphold Russian interests. He even authorized
+me to authenticate these statements by the use of his name, which
+nevertheless I refrain from doing.
+
+As so much is now said by some parties respecting the supposed fairness
+and moderation of Russia, I will relate two anecdotes of what happened
+under my own cognizance in the East. When the Russians seized, about the
+year 1840, the island of Ashtoráda, near Asterabad, at the south-east
+corner of the Caspian Sea, which they have since fortified and
+garrisoned, and when they explored with steamers the Gourgan and Atrak,
+rivers flowing exclusively through the Persian territory, but leading
+in the direction of the best road to India, there was one Turcoman Chief
+resolutely hostile to them, whom they could neither frighten nor seduce.
+One night, therefore, troops were disembarked, his house was surrounded,
+and he and all his sons were carried off and conveyed into the interior
+of Russia, whence, at the prayer of a very influential personage, his
+place of exile was changed to Tiflis, where I knew him.
+
+The second is a more daring violation of the territory of the same
+power, with whom, be it remembered, we have a treaty of alliance, and
+at the court of which we have long had a minister constantly residing.
+A certain member of the Georgian royal family, Suleiman Khan,[6]
+lived in the Persian provinces ceded to Russia in 1828, and having an
+inveterate enmity to that power, he refused to remain there when they
+became Russian, and fled into a remote part of Persia. After many years
+he thought he might venture to come and live at Tabreez, the capital
+of Azerbiján, and near his own country. He had sounded the Russian
+consulate, and found them apparently favourable, and when he arrived he
+was invited to dinner by the Russian Consul-General. Everything passed
+off very agreeably until after dinner, when, as he was sitting on a sofa
+with the Consul, drinking his coffee, the latter begged to be excused for
+an instant, and left the room. Immediately upon his quitting, a file of
+Russians appeared at the door, with their pieces levelled at the Khan,
+and the Consul, from behind them, told him he was extremely sorry that
+he was obliged to treat a guest in so uncourteous a manner, but that
+he must execute his orders, that Suleiman Khan must consider himself
+a prisoner, and prepare instantly to be conveyed into the interior of
+Russia.
+
+This fact was told me by the English Consul at Tabreez, when I arrived
+at that city some short time after this event had occurred, and I
+dined with the Russian Consul in question, now holding a high post in
+Russian diplomacy, in the very room where it happened. Of course, when
+proceedings of this sort were overlooked by our Government, there is no
+wonder that Russia grew emboldened, and believed that no European power
+dared to interfere with her.
+
+We have begun at last, after thousands of lives and millions of treasure
+have been expended in attacking the only strong position of Russia in the
+Black Sea, to attack some of the long line of vulnerable points which she
+presents. Our successes at Kertch, Berdiansk, Mariopol, Taganrok, and
+Soujuk Caleh have been as easy as they have been important, and we have
+now only to continue the same course of action.
+
+I can state, on the authority of persons intimately acquainted with those
+countries, in answer to what Mr. Cobden said in the House of Commons,
+that the blow we struck in the Sea of Azof has been the severest which
+we have dealt to Russian power—that all the stores we destroyed at
+Kertch belonged to the Government, and not to private individuals, and
+that the same was the case with every bag of flour and oats destroyed at
+Berdiansk, Mariopol, and Taganrok. The Russian Government, as is well
+known, has always supplied Sevastopol and their other fortresses on the
+coast of the Black Sea with stores and ammunition from the interior of
+the country by means of the Sea of Azof, as is explained in my work.
+It is known that they had just completed large purchases of stores for
+Sevastopol which we intercepted in our late expedition, so that the
+merchants had received their money, and the loss wholly fell on the
+Government.[7] If our fleet had penetrated to Rostof, we should probably
+have destroyed a still larger amount of stores, and at the latter place
+the shot and shells which are brought down there from the foundry at
+Lugan, and from Siberia, for transmission to the Russian fortresses in
+the Black Sea. Perhaps this may be reserved for another expedition; for
+close to Rostof are Novo Tcherkask, the capital of the Don Cossacks, and
+Naketchiván, an Armenian town, and the head-quarters of many Armenian
+houses deeply engaged in supplying the commissariat of the Russian army.
+From the eastern coast of the Sea of Azof may also be obtained large
+herds of fine horses for our cavalry, and fat beasts for the subsistence
+of our army.
+
+The taking of Anapa will allow the Circassians to overspread the country
+as far as the Bosphorus, and even to cross it and assist us in the
+Crimea, a part of which they formerly occupied, and from which some of
+their noblest families make it their boast to have come.
+
+From Soujuk Caleb it is now friendly country to Ekaterinodár on the
+Kuban, the capital of the Black Sea Cossacks; and if judicious persons
+be sent to treat with the Circassians, a long line of easy and important
+victories will be opened to us. But in the East, still more than in
+the West, everything depends upon a judicious selection of agents; and
+it is especially necessary, among free mountaineers, to gain their
+confidence by kind, considerate conduct, and to persuade them that you
+have no projects for your own aggrandizement, but wish, by confirming
+their independence and adding to their strength, to render them a strong
+bulwark against Russian aggression.
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+
+  VIEW OF STEPPES                                           _Frontispiece._
+
+  PLAN OF SEVASTOPOL                                      _To face p._ 62
+
+  PLAN OF THE HERACLEOTIC CHERSONESE                           ”      148
+
+  PLAN OF KERTCH (PANTICAPÆUM)                                 ”      256
+
+  GREEK ANTIQUITIES IN GOLD AND ELECTRUM FOUND AT KERTCH       ”      282
+
+  MAP OF THE CRIMEA AND SEA OF AZOF                           _At the end._
+
+NOTE.—In the Map, Cape Kazantip is represented as fortified by the
+Russians. This is an error; the fortifications were meant to have been
+marked near Arabat.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+                                CHAPTER I.
+
+                               THE CRIMEA.
+
+  General description of the Crimea—Mountains—Rivers—Ancient
+  name—Boundaries—The Steppes to the north connected
+  with it—The roads—Bereslaf—Kherson; its foundation
+  and importance—Gloubóky—Perversion of names by the
+  Russians—Nicolaief, head-quarters of Black Sea fleet,
+  described—Odessa—Definition of New Russia—Limits of ancient
+  Scythia—The dominions of the Khans of the Crimea—The Zaporogue
+  Cossacks                                                          Page 1
+
+                               CHAPTER II.
+
+                          THE STEPPES OF RUSSIA.
+
+  Extent and boundaries of the Steppes—The Tchorno-ziemé—Soil
+  and aspect—Their productions—Appearance of the Steppes in
+  spring, summer, and winter—Snow-storms, called “Metel” and
+  “Boura”—“Balkas,” or ravines—Roads, their state in spring—Tumuli
+  or “Kourgans”—False tumuli—The mirage—Tchernomore Steppes—From
+  Don to Moloshna—Moloshna to Dniepr—German colonies—Inhabitants of
+  Steppes—Game—Soroke or Marmot—Biroke—Suslic—The Steppes occupy
+  two-thirds of the Crimea                                              13
+
+                               CHAPTER III.
+
+                       FROM PERECOP TO SYMPHERÓPOL.
+
+  The isthmus of Perecop—Its defences—History—Its capture by
+  Marshal Munich in 1736—The Crimea and Kilboroún conquered
+  by him—His cruelty and atrocities—The Armenian Bazar—The
+  salt lakes—General view of the sea-coast on each side of
+  the isthmus—The Black Sea and Gulf of Karkiníte—Anchorage
+  of Akméshed—Cape Karamroún—The Lagoon of the Dniepr
+  and Boug defended by Kilboroún and Otchákow—The river
+  Boug—Gloubóky—Kherson—The Shiváshe, or Putrid Sea—The
+  Tonka, or Strelka, or Arabate—The road from Perecop to
+  Sympherópol—Sympherópol                                               26
+
+                               CHAPTER IV.
+
+                    BAKTCHÉSERAI AND TCHOUFOUT KALEH.
+
+  Description of Baktchéserai—The palace of the Khans—Pouschkin’s
+  fountain—The great council-room—The hareem—The cemetery—The tomb
+  of Dilara Bikéh—The gorge of Tchoufout Kaleh—Acheláma—Tchoufout
+  Kaleh—The Karaim Jews, or those who reject the Talmud—Their very
+  ancient origin—Probable descendants of Sadducees—Their high
+  character—Tomb of the beautiful Nenekedjàn—The crypt town of
+  Kirkor                                                                37
+
+                                CHAPTER V.
+
+                           WHO ARE THE TATARS?
+
+  Origin of the Tatars—Original common stock of the Mongol,
+  Toungous, Turk, and Ugrian groups of nations—Short account
+  of each of these—The Tatars belong to the Turk race—Their
+  royal race, the Gerays, descendants of Zingis Khan, through
+  Tóktamish—Discord in the kingdom of Kiptchak for one
+  hundred years—Kingdom of Crimea founded by Mahomet II.—Held
+  tributary to Constantinople till conquest by the Russians—The
+  conditions—Popular notion that the Gerays are next heirs to the
+  throne of Constantinople—Selim Geray—Constitution of Crimea—Power
+  of the Khans with the Grand Sultan—The Sultans, or royal
+  family, of the Gerays—The wives of the Khans—Character of the
+  Tatars—Their manner of living—Their fidelity                          48
+
+                               CHAPTER VI.
+
+                               SEVASTOPOL.
+
+  Road to Sevastopol from Baktchéserai—Conquest and foundation
+  of Sevastopol in 1783-84—Description of town and fortress—“The
+  Dvoretz”—Engineer buildings—Fort Alexander and Fort
+  Constantine—South Bay—The Hulks—Bay of Vessels, now the
+  Docks—Description of the barracks—Hospitals, Slobodes—Colonel
+  Upton and anecdotes of Russian workmen—Sevastopol
+  in 1834—Reservoir of Sevastopol—Sievarna fort—The
+  citadel—Observations of Sir Howard Douglas on the siege—Military
+  stores—Arsenals of Russia—Manufactories of fire-arms—Cannon
+  foundries—Stores come to Sevastopol by the Don and the
+  Azof—The road by the Arabate and Perecop—Fortifying of Cape
+  Kazantip—Undefended state of Kertch up to May last—Public
+  gardens—Haxthausen on the object of Sevastopol and the Black Sea
+  Fleet—Chopin on the Anglo-French alliance—Conclusion                  61
+
+                               CHAPTER VII.
+
+                            THE RUSSIAN NAVY.
+
+  Its origin under Peter the Great—Early victories of the
+  Varangians, or Normans, and Cossacks—Row-boats more useful in the
+  Baltic than large vessels—The navy under Catherine II.—English
+  instructors—Difficulty in manning the fleet—No mercantile
+  navy—Organization of the Russian fleet—No marines—Oak for
+  navy—Food of sailors—Russian vessels on foreign stations—Only one
+  Russian foreign merchant—Greek influence diminished in 1844—“The
+  Twelve Apostles”—“The Teredo Navalis”—The Affair of Sinope—The
+  Paixhans shell system—General observations                            83
+
+                              CHAPTER VIII.
+
+                           ON THE RUSSIAN ARMY.
+
+  Large proportion of Russian population in the army—Military
+  organization—Peaceable natural disposition of Russian
+  people—Strong feelings when roused—Obedience to
+  orders—Anecdotes—Commercial disposition of the Russian
+  people—Their wish to mix with European nations—Education checked
+  by the Government—Military system of Peter the Great—His great
+  objects—Faults of our Government with respect to Russian
+  policy—The army, whence recruited—Great Russians—Poles—Little
+  Russians—Finns, Jews, &c.—Name “Ruski” or Russian—Its origin—The
+  conscription—Soldiers’ marriages—The Cantonists—Emperor’s
+  efforts to improve condition of common soldier generally
+  unsuccessful—Corporal punishment—Labour—“Indefinite
+  leave”—Division of empire for conscription—Amount of
+  population per cent. taken from 1840-1855—Expense of the
+  Russian soldier—Democratic system of army—The cross of St.
+  George—Classification of Russian army—Into 1st, Corps d’Armée, or
+  complete armies—2nd, Local Regular Troops—3rd, Irregulars—Don,
+  Black Sea, and Ural Cossacks—Value and number of Cossack
+  troops—Various Asiatic irregulars—General observations                96
+
+                               CHAPTER IX.
+
+         INKERMAN, MANGOUP, AND THE HILLY COUNTRY OF THE CRIMEA.
+
+  The Bay of Sevastopol to Inkerman—Aktiar—Inkerman
+  Castle—Its history—Crypts—Fuller’s earth, or natural
+  soap—Tchorgouna—Tchouli, residence of Pallas—Crypts at
+  Karakoba—Mount Aithodor—Mangoup—Description and history—Gothic
+  architecture—Position of Mangoup—Interesting character of
+  surrounding country—The Tchatyr-Dagh and the Yailas                  137
+
+                                CHAPTER X.
+
+                       THE HERACLEOTIC CHERSONESE.
+
+  The Heracleotic Chersonese—Origin of name—Defended by a
+  wall—Kherson—Its history and remains—House of Lamachus—The
+  predecessors of Vladimir and their relations with
+  Constantinople—Account of the siege by Vladimir, taken out of
+  Nestor—Vladimir’s Baptism—Springs of water—Kherson destroyed by
+  Lithuanians—The bays between Sevastopol and Cape Chersonese—Cape
+  Partheniké—The Tauric Diana—The monastery of St. George—Bustards
+  on the Chersonese                                                    148
+
+                               CHAPTER XI.
+
+                ON THE ANCIENT INHABITANTS OF THE CRIMEA.
+
+  The Cimmerii—The Tauri—Connexion of Greece with the Black
+  Sea—Digression on the Crypts of the Crimea—B.C. 600: the
+  Scythians—The Greek colonies, B.C. 650—Milesian emigration—Dorian
+  emigration—Trade of these early times—Mithridates, reigned
+  B.C. 120-63—A.D. 62: The Alans—A.D. 100-200: The Goths—A.D.
+  376: The Huns—Second attack of the Huns—Justinian reigned,
+  A.D. 527-565—A.D. 679: The Khazars—A.D. 900-1000: The
+  Petchenegues—About 1204: The Comans—1226: The Tatars—The
+  Genoese—1473: Kaffa taken by the Turks—The Black Sea then shut up
+  to European nations—Mixture of races in present inhabitants of
+  Crimea                                                               166
+
+                               CHAPTER XII.
+
+                     BALACLAVA AND VALLEY OF BAIDAR.
+
+  Balaclava—Karl Ritter’s views of the importance of
+  the Black Sea in very early times—Homer’s account of
+  Balaclava—The Cembalo of the Genoese—Tatar occupation of
+  it—Arnaouts—Tchorgouna—Mackenzie’s Farm—Valley of Baidar—Manners
+  of the Tatars—Woronzof road                                          182
+
+                              CHAPTER XIII.
+
+                 THE SOUTHERN COAST, AS FAR AS ALOUCHTA.
+
+  Pass of Phoros—First view of the Southern Coast—The
+  climate—Valley of Laspi—Mount Aia, or Cape Saritch—Modern
+  Laspi—Phoros to Kíkineis—Land slips—Liméne—Singular
+  appearance of Tatars—Aloupka—Prince Woronzof’s
+  palace—Gardens—Luxuriant vegetation—Craters—Account
+  of Prince Woronzof—Miskhor—Koureis, seat of Princess
+  Galitzin—Madame de Krudener and Comtesse Lamothe—Gaspra—Mount
+  A’ithodor—Imperial Oriánda—Ouchansóu—Yalta—The
+  mountain pass to Baktchéserai—Marsánda—Cyclopean
+  remains—Magaratch—Nikita—Botanical gardens—St.
+  Daniel—Oursouf—Ancient castle of Justinian—Cyclopean
+  remains—Mount Aioudágh, the ancient Kriumetôpon Prom—Village of
+  Partheníte—Great and Little Lambat—The Chaos—Numberless ancient
+  remains—The pass of Mount Castéle—The descent to Alouchta            197
+
+                               CHAPTER XIV.
+
+                      THE EASTERN COAST AND SOUDAK.
+
+  Alouchta—The Eastern and Western Coasts—Oulou Ouzéne,
+  the property of Mrs. Lang—Mdlle. Jacquemart—The Bay of
+  Soudak—Ruins of the triple fortress—The Kiz Koullé, or Girl’s
+  Tower—Ancient Soldaya—Its history—Remains—Vandalism of the
+  Russians—Ruined barracks—The Crimean Wine Company—The wines of
+  the Crimea—Prices of land in the Crimea—Road to Theodosia—Tatar
+  hospitality—Koktebel                                                 220
+
+                               CHAPTER XV.
+
+               FROM ALOUCHTA TO SIMPHERÓPOL, KARASOUBAZAR,
+                        ESKI KRIM, AND THEODOSIA.
+
+  Valley of Alouchta—Obelisk—Valley of the Angar—Tavshan
+  Bazar—Fortified Gorge—Yenisála, a Greek Colony—Aian and the
+  source of the Salghír—Ascent of the Tchatyr-Dagh—Yaila—Snow
+  reservoirs—From Tchafki to Simpherópol—Excursion up valley
+  of Little Salghír to caves of Kisilkoba—Caverns—Simpherópol
+  to Karasóubazar—The Shireen family—Eski Krim—Theodosia, or
+  Kaffa—B.C. 700, Theodosia founded by Milesians—A.D. 250,
+  totally destroyed by the Huns—Desert for 1000 years—A.D. 1280,
+  Kaffa founded by Genoese on site of Theodosia—Short history of
+  it—A.D. 1475, taken by Turks—Its decline—Revival in seventeenth
+  century—1781, taken by Russians—Description of ruins—Their
+  destruction by the Russians—Position of Kaffa in commercial point
+  of view—Arabat—The wall of Asander—The approach to Kertch            236
+
+                               CHAPTER XVI.
+
+                                 KERTCH.
+
+  Approach to Kertch—The Cimmerian Bosphorus—Russian conquest of
+  Kertch in 1771—Its rise since 1833—Its chance of becoming the
+  emporium of trade for the Sea of Azof—Russian authorities—Ancient
+  church—Kertch, the ancient Panticapæum—Acropolis—Arm-chair of
+  Mithridates—Allée of Tumuli on Theodosian road—The Tumulus a
+  sign of Milesian occupation—Contents of Tumuli on Theodosian
+  road—Etruscan vases at Kertch—Burial-places of the poor—Tomb
+  of the Pigmies—The Catacombs—The Tombs of the Kings—The
+  Golden Mountain—The rich discoveries at Kouloba—Description
+  of the contents of the Tomb—Pillaged by the people—Probably
+  that of Leucon I., or Paerisádes I.—The Museum—Myrmékium—Mud
+  volcanoes—Naphtha springs—Cape Akboroun—Nymphæum—Herring
+  fishery—Opouk, the ancient Kimmericum                                255
+
+                              CHAPTER XVII.
+
+                             THE SEA OF AZOF.
+
+  The Sea of Azof—Its extent and boundaries—Its depth
+  continually diminishes—Its sweet water—Its rivers—Currents—The
+  Straits of Kertch—The Russian defences of it—The eastern
+  shores—Temróuk—Okhtor—Cape Obriv—The fishing-huts—Bay and new
+  town of Yeisk—Cape Tchimborsk—Mouths of Don—Bars of the Don—Old
+  town of Azof—Rostof—Its commercial importance—Shallowness
+  of water in Gulf of the Don—The Azof frozen in winter—Ruins
+  of ancient Tana—Taganrok founded by Peter the Great—Its
+  history—Its importance—Mariopol—Cape Bielo-Serái—Berdiansk—Its
+  foundation—Port is filling up—Lake Moloshenska—Peninsula of
+  Berútchi—Straits of Yénitchi                                         299
+
+                              CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+                   ON THE COMMERCE OF THE SEA OF AZOF.
+
+  Rostof, key to commercial system—A district of the Government
+  of Ekaterinoslaf—Its gradual rise since 1835—Articles of
+  export—Wheat—Linseed—Rye—Military stores sent by the Azof
+  to Sevastopol, &c.—Iron foundries of Lugan—Tallow—Breeds of
+  cattle—System of advances—Agencies of foreign merchants, chiefly
+  at Pavlosk—Advantages of Free Trade—Passage of goods by the Don
+  and the Volga—Dubofka and Katchálin—Hardships of the military
+  system—Intelligence of Russian merchants—True policy of Russia       312
+
+                                APPENDIX.
+
+  (A.) List of the Russian Naval Force in the Black Sea, Jan. 1853     337
+
+  (B.) Suvórof’s Discourse under the Trigger                           340
+
+  (C.) The Timber Trade of Northern and Southern Russia                346
+
+  (D.) Commerce of Ports of Crimea                                     350
+
+  (E.) On the advantage of establishing a Free Port on the Danube
+         at the St. George’s Mouth of the river                        354
+
+
+
+
+SOME ACCOUNT OF THE CRIMEA, AND THE SHORES OF THE SEA OF AZOF.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE CRIMEA.
+
+    General description of the Crimea—Mountains—Rivers—Ancient
+    name—Boundaries—The Steppes to the north connected
+    with it—The roads—Bereslaf—Kherson; its foundation
+    and importance—Gloubóky—Perversion of names by the
+    Russians—Nicolaief, head-quarters of Black Sea fleet,
+    described—Odessa—Definition of New Russia—Limits of ancient
+    Scythia—The dominions of the Khans of the Crimea—The Zaporogue
+    Cossacks.
+
+
+The peninsula of the Crimea is a southern portion of the Steppes of
+Russia, raised by volcanic action out of nearly the centre of the Black
+Sea. It is about 200 miles across in a direct line from Cape Karamroún
+on the western side above Eupatoria to Cape Fanar, the furthest point
+eastward on the Straits of Kertch, and 125 miles from Perecop to Cape
+Kíkineis on the southern coast. It contains a population of about 200,000
+inhabitants, and covers an area of 10,050 English square miles.
+
+The Tauric range of mountains runs east and west along the southern coast
+from Balaclava to Theodosia, and generally within a few hundred yards
+of the shore, which, being protected by them from the northern winds,
+enjoys a delicious climate, like that of southern Italy. But this mild
+temperature is confined to the narrow strip of land along the coast which
+is shut in by the mountains, and to the north of them the weather shows
+severe alternations of heat and cold, and the snow in some seasons
+covers the ground for a considerable time in winter. The mountains
+themselves occupy a large space, and rise to a height of from 1000 to
+5000 feet. They are generally flat-topped or dome-shaped, and hold within
+their range high elevated plains called Yailas. Their summits reveal
+granite and other primitive rocks, and on their northern sides lie, like
+a mantle, the Steppes, which constitute all the northern portion, and
+nearly two-thirds of the area, of the whole peninsula.
+
+These steppes gradually incline downwards towards the north, and
+hence received from the later Greeks the name of “ta climata,” or the
+inclines.[8] The following are the principal rivers:—Eastward, the
+Salghír, the Bulganak, the three Andols, the Tchoroksou, the Soubashi,
+and the Karagos, which flow into the Shiváshe or great lagoon on the
+east, improperly called the Putrid Sea; and on the westward, the western
+Bulganak, the Alma, the Katcha, and the Belbek, which discharge their
+waters into the long open bay at the head of which stands Eupatoria.
+
+The peninsula of the Crimea was known to the Greeks under the name of the
+Taurica Chersonesus, and in the middle ages was called Gothia. It is now
+called either the Tauride (a version of its first appellation), or more
+commonly Crimea, from the famous city of Eski Krim, near Theodosia, which
+was built by the Tatars in the thirteenth century, and is now a ruin.
+
+The Crimea is joined to the main land by the narrow isthmus of Perecop,
+on each side of which there is a very shallow sea. To the north of it the
+dreary plains of Russia extend interminably, on the west to Bessarabia
+and the Ukraine, and on the east to Tatary and Siberia. There has in all
+times been a connexion between the Steppes to the north of Perecop and
+the peninsula of the Crimea itself, and they have both generally been in
+the possession of the same people. A portion of the Steppes, bounded by
+Bereslaf, Alexandropol, and Mariopol, are now included in the Russian
+government of the Tauride. As the character of the Steppes is very
+peculiar, and they form, as I have said, about two-thirds even of the
+whole peninsula of the Crimea, I have thrown together in the next chapter
+some general observations upon them.
+
+I will now say a few words about the road between Perecop and Odessa, and
+the principal towns through which it passes. The whole distance is 352
+miles,[9] and there are post-horses along the road, which runs entirely
+through the Steppes. Road, however, properly speaking, there is none; for
+even outside the gates of Odessa the traveller follows the track of those
+that have preceded him, and in dry weather bowls rapidly along, but is
+arrested by the slightest fall of rain. I left Odessa, in the year 1843,
+in the commencement of August, in a light britska drawn by three horses,
+and in consequence of a slight shower of rain in the morning I was
+stopped half-way in the rich loam of the Steppes, and was obliged to pass
+the night there, and send on to the next station for three fresh horses
+to pull my carriage through the heavy ground.
+
+The road from Perecop to Bereslaf, on the banks of the Dniepr, runs 52½
+miles across a perfectly flat country, where the soil is not fertile.
+The latter town is situated on the right bank of the Dniepr, which is
+precipitous and very much higher than the left bank, which is shelving,
+and this peculiarity is found in all the rivers of the south of Russia.
+
+Bereslaf owes its importance to its situation at a point where the
+Dniepr is crossed by a wooden bridge. In the Greek period it was called
+Miletopol, and in later times it belonged to the Zaporogue Cossacks till
+their conquest by the Russians.[10]
+
+From Bereslaf to Kherson is 47 miles, and the road runs along the bank
+of the Dniepr. The town of Kherson is the capital of the government
+of the same name, which is bounded by the governments of the Tauride,
+Ekaterinoslaf, Kief, and Podolia, touching also at some points on
+Moldavia, Bessarabia, and the Black Sea. The north and north-west
+parts of the government of Kherson are very fertile, and produce
+great quantities of wheat; although the soil becomes dry and sandy on
+approaching the Black Sea. Before its conquest by the Russians this was
+the country of the Nogai Tatars, who were also called Precopian Tatars,
+but none of their tribes now remain to the westward of the Dniepr. The
+population of the government of Kherson now amounts to between 300,000
+and 400,000, and is composed of Russians, Armenians, Jews, Germans, and
+Bulgarians. The town of Kherson is situated on the north bank of the
+Dniepr,[11] which here spreads out into a wide kind of lagoon, 11 miles
+in breadth. This is filled with low islands, which are often covered
+with water, and render the passage difficult and dangerous. The town
+was founded in the desert in 1778, by Catherine II., and was the first
+commercial port which the Russians established on the Black Sea. This
+was four years after the Treaty of Kainardji, by which the Black Sea was
+opened for the first time to any European nation, after having been shut
+up for 300 years, since the conquest of Constantinople.[12]
+
+Kherson is situated at about 50 miles from the sea, and the water is too
+shallow to allow large vessels to approach it. These load and discharge
+their cargoes at Gloubóky, which is many miles below Kherson and the
+mouths of the Dniepr. Kherson continued to increase till the foundation
+of Odessa, eighteen years afterwards, in 1796. It was both the commercial
+and naval centre of the Russians when they first reached the Black Sea
+in their conquests; but, as the commercial affairs were transplanted to
+Odessa, so their naval arsenal, with the admiralty and the dockyards,
+were removed to Nicolaief a few years earlier.[13] The name of Kherson
+was given to the new town because it was erroneously supposed to stand
+on the site of the ancient Greek colony of that name, the ruins of which
+are to be seen close to Sevastopol, and similar mistakes are common in
+the case of many other Russian towns founded about the same time. Thus
+Sevastopol itself bears the name of the old Greek city on the shores of
+Abkhazia; the ruins of the real Eupatoria are at a long distance from the
+place which now bears its name; and nothing but a Tatar village of the
+name of Hadjibey ever stood on those steppes where Odessa is supposed to
+renew the memory of the ancient Odessus.
+
+Nicolaief is the only town of the slightest importance on the dreary
+road from Kherson to Odessa, and is 40 miles from the former, and 77
+miles from the latter place.[14] It stands in the open Steppe, at the
+confluence of the Boug and the Ingoul, on the left bank of the former
+river, and 22 miles from its mouth. The Boug is here a noble stream, a
+mile and a half broad,[15] and so deep that the largest men-of-war can
+ascend and descend after taking out their guns. Its right bank is deep
+and precipitous, and the left bank low and shelving, a peculiarity, as
+I have before remarked, of all the rivers of Southern Russia. This was
+likewise found to be the case at the Alma. This town was founded in 1791,
+and intended to replace Kherson as the head-quarters of the Russian fleet
+in the Black Sea. It is simply a naval arsenal, and contains a population
+of 10,000 or 12,000 persons, entirely occupied in the government
+establishments. There are here immense storehouses and dockyards, in
+which all the Russian fleet in the Black Sea is built.[16] The timber for
+ship-building comes chiefly down the Dniepr to Kherson, and from thence
+to Nicolaief. All the vessels constructed here are transported empty down
+the river to Gloubóky or Otchákow, and proceed from thence to the Black
+Sea on wooden frames called camels, because of a sandbank near Kilboroún,
+and they take in their cannon and tackle at Sevastopol. The town is
+quite undefended except by a wall, which has been built not for military
+but police purposes, to prevent peculation and smuggling, by allowing
+no ingress or egress without permission. There is no good water[17] at
+Nicolaief, as that of the rivers is often brackish, as is also that which
+is obtained from wells, but an excellent spring has been found at some
+distance from the town, the water of which has now been introduced and
+fills a large reservoir, which holds a sufficient quantity for a much
+larger population than now inhabits Nicolaief.[18]
+
+From Nicolaief to Odessa the country is very desert and uncultivated;
+for the old Tatar population has disappeared, and new settlers have
+not arrived in sufficient numbers to occupy their place. It is only at
+the last stage from Odessa that the country bears at all the aspect of
+civilization.
+
+Odessa, situated on a barren Steppe, is the second commercial port in the
+Russian empire. It was the last town founded by the Empress Catherine
+II. in 1796, a few months before her death; and although its situation
+is not the best that could have been chosen, still its position as a
+débouché for the Polish provinces, and its privileges as a free port,
+have made it rapidly increase up to the present time. Odessa is the
+residence of the Governor-General of New Russia, and the real capital of
+all Southern Russia—that is to say, the largest money centre, and the
+town to which all look up as the richest and most refined in the empire
+after Petersburg and Moscow. New Russia comprehends the governments of
+Kherson, Ekaterinoslaf, and the Tauride, or the vast territory which has
+been conquered from nomade nations within the last century, and is as
+yet thinly peopled with fixed inhabitants. All these countries have the
+same interests, and require special attention, and for these reasons the
+governors of them do not correspond with the ministers at Petersburg, as
+is the case with the other governments of the Russian empire, but are
+referred to the Governor-General of New Russia,[19] who resides among
+them at Odessa, and can naturally pay a more immediate attention to their
+wants than distant ministers.
+
+New Russia, as the name denotes, has been recently acquired. This
+country, with Bessarabia, nearly agrees with the limits of ancient
+Scythia in the time of Herodotus, who describes it as extending from
+the Ister (Danube) to the Tanais (Don), and as being watered by eight
+rivers, of which the Tanais was the last. Scythia, then, appears to have
+been bounded by the Danube on the south-west. To the north the whole
+of the Boug ran through Scythia; and beyond the Don, to the east, the
+Scythian population ended, and the Sauromatæ occupied the Steppes between
+the Caspian and Black Sea. The latter people are supposed by some to be
+the same as the Sarmatæ, or Sarmatians, the ancestors of the Poles. The
+southern part of Scythia, between Kherson and Perecop, was inhabited by
+a fixed population, called the Agricultural Scythians; and the Royal
+Scythians were to the east, near the Don; and the Nomade Scythians along
+the whole country to the north. From the third to the sixth century, when
+the barbarians pressed forwards to occupy the defenceless provinces of
+the Roman empire, these plains were the high road of nations, and were
+occupied by a succession of nomade peoples during the whole period of the
+Byzantine empire, until they fell into the hands of the Tatars and the
+Ukraine Cossacks, called Zaporogues, from whom the Russians conquered
+them in the latter half of the last century. Several Nogai Tatar tribes
+regularly divided the whole of the southern portion of it, from the
+Dniestr to the Don, and all were under the dominion of the Khan of the
+Crimea, and constituted the largest portion of his territory. At the end
+of the seventeenth century these Tatars were known in Europe by the name
+of the Precopian Tatars, or the Tatars of Perecop.[20]
+
+The nearest regular nations to these on the north were the Poles and the
+Russians, of which the Poles were three centuries ago the more important
+and powerful people; but both were then much smaller nations and occupied
+far less territory than they now do. Between them and the Tatars there
+was an immense tract of waste land called the Ukraine, which in Russian
+means the march, or border land. Upon this a fugitive population of all
+sorts settled themselves, and took as their head-quarters the rapids of
+the Dniepr, where that river for about 70 miles falls over a succession
+of vast granite blocks, which impede the navigation of the river, and
+have caused the formation of numerous islands, difficult of access.
+From this cause the mixed population who took refuge there were called
+Zaporogues, or the people who lived at the falls, from two Russian words,
+“za,” at, “porohi,” the falls; and they were also called Cossacks, or
+Kazaks, as the word is pronounced in Russian and Tatar. This is an
+appellation of uncertain origin, and known over a vast extent of country
+on the confines of Europe and Asia. The Zaporogues were called Kazak, and
+so were the people who lived on the Don, and these two communities were
+of decided Russian origin. This name was also well known among Asiatic
+nations, for the Tcherkess in early times were called Kazaks, and Wood
+found it in use as far as the banks of the Oxus. It is not considered as
+a complimentary term, and the Cossacks of the Don call themselves the
+Donskoi, or the people of the Don, and consider the other as a reproach.
+
+The Zaporogue Cossacks then inhabited the march between the Tatars and
+the Poles and Russians, and thus resembled the border people of England
+and Scotland. In the reign of Sigismund I., King of Poland, the last of
+the race of Jagellon, who died in 1572, the Cossacks were first taken
+into pay and armed against the Tatars, and a Polish officer was appointed
+their governor; and in the reign of Stephen Batory, which began three
+years after the death of Sigismund, they were regularly brought under
+military discipline. Much that is fabulous has been related of this
+people, and they have been described as a nation who admitted no women to
+live among them, as the Amazons near the Sea of Azof banished all men;
+and imagination had embellished their history as early as the seventeenth
+century.[21] “They were, however,” says Chevalier, who wrote a history of
+the Cossack war, which was published at Paris in 1663, “only a military
+body, and not a nation, as some have imagined. We cannot compare them
+better than to the Franc archers established in France by Charles VII.
+They made periodical naval expeditions against the Turks, and have even
+advanced within two leagues of Constantinople. Their rendezvous was
+the islands of the Dniepr, and when winter approached they returned to
+their homes. They generally mustered 5000 or 6000 men: their boats were
+sixty feet long, with ten or twelve oars on each side, but this must be
+understood only of their war-boats.”
+
+In short, they were pirates after the manner of our forefathers, the
+Jutes, Angles, Saxons, and Danes.
+
+The father of John Sobieski commanded the Cossacks, and gives the
+following account of them:—
+
+“They are chiefly of Russian origin, though many criminal refugees
+from Poland, Germany, and other countries are to be found among them.
+They profess the religion of the Greek Church; and have their fixed
+residence in their naturally fortified places, watered by the Dniepr.
+Their business is war, and when they are shut up, as it were, in their
+nest,[22] they consider it illegal to neglect athletic sports for any
+other pursuits. They live sparingly by hunting and fishing, and they
+support their wives and families by plunder. They are governed by a
+prefect, whose sceptre is a reed, and who is chosen in a tumultuous
+manner. He has absolute power of life and death, and has four counsellors
+to assist him. The Poles have given them the town of Trychtymirow in
+Kiovia. Long habit has fitted them for maritime warfare. They use boats,
+in the side of which they can occasionally fasten flat bundles of reeds
+to buoy them up and resist the violence of the waves and winds. With
+these boats they sail with great rapidity, and very often take the laden
+Turkish vessels. Not many of them use lances (framlis), but they are all
+furnished with arquebuses (sclopetis); and in this kind of warfare the
+kings of Poland can match the infantry of all the monarchs of the world.
+They fortify their camp with waggons ranged in several rows; this they
+call ‘tabor,’ and make them their last refuge from an overbearing enemy.
+The Poles were obliged to furnish them with arms, provisions, and forage
+for their horses.”
+
+Such were the men whom Batory enlisted in the Polish service. In the
+year 1556 he divided them into six regiments, and appointed superior
+and subordinate officers over them. They were then only infantry, says
+Chevalier, but Batory joined to them 2000 horse, and in a short time
+they consisted chiefly of cavalry. Their chief was called the hetman,
+or ataman; and the king presented him with a flag, a horse-tail, a
+staff, and a mirror, as ensigns of authority.[23] The Cossacks played an
+important part in all the wars that desolated these countries till they
+were subdued, in the last century, by Catherine II., and transplanted to
+the banks of the Kuban to keep in check the Circassians. They then lost
+the name of Zaporogues, and took that of Tchernomorski[24] Cossacks,
+or Cossacks of the Black Sea, under which they are now fighting in the
+Russian armies before Sevastopol.
+
+The authority of the khans of Crimea[25] extended beyond Odessa to the
+Dniestr,[26] which was in former times the limits of Moldavia, whose
+prince paid them tribute. To the north the Tatars were separated from
+the kingdom of Poland by the country of the Ukraine; and the Zaporogue
+Cossacks were organized by the Polish monarchs as a kind of military
+colonists to check their depredations. The Tatar sway was also extended
+along all the Steppes as far as the Don Cossacks, and then again beyond
+them to Circassia, and the power of the khans of Crimea long survived
+that of their brethren in Great Tatary. But when once the Russian people
+had begun to shake off their shameful servitude to the Tatars, which it
+is doubtful whether any other European nation placed in their position
+could have avoided, each generation saw them increase in power, till they
+had conquered Zaporogues, Poles, Don Cossacks, and Tatars, and turned
+these nations into obedient subjects and instruments for the further
+extension of their enormous empire.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE STEPPES OF RUSSIA.
+
+    Extent and boundaries of the Steppes—The Tchorno-ziemé—Soil
+    and aspect—Their productions—Appearance of the Steppes
+    in spring, summer, and winter—Snow-storms, called
+    “Metel” and “Boura”—“Balkas,” or ravines—Roads, their
+    state in spring—Tumuli or “Kourgans”—False tumuli—The
+    mirage—Tchernomore Steppes—From Don to Moloshna—Moloshna to
+    Dniepr—German colonies—Inhabitants of Steppes—Game—Soroke or
+    Marmot—Biroke—Suslic—The Steppes occupy two-thirds of Crimea.
+
+
+The vast plains which extend over one-fifth of the whole Russian empire
+in Europe,[27] or more than twice the size of France, are known both
+to natives and foreigners by the name of the “Steppes,” and present
+a monotonous level from the confines of Moldavia to the high plateau
+of Central Asia.[28] An imaginary line drawn through Krementchouk and
+the northern part of Tambof forms their limit to the north, and to the
+south they are bounded by the Black Sea and the Azof; they also extend
+over all the northern parts of the Crimean peninsula. After passing the
+Sea of Azof they expand to the south and occupy the space between the
+Azof and Caspian as far south as the Terek and the Kuban, which are the
+boundaries of Circassia, and very distinctly mark their limits in that
+direction. On the north they reach the Oural Mountains, and then crossing
+the river of that name they join the deserts of Tatary, and increase
+in breadth to the north and south as they approach the great Asiatic
+table-land. They are totally devoid of trees or shrubs, have a soil of
+varying fertility, and a very scanty population.
+
+In the north of Russia the ground is naturally covered with trees and
+shrubs, and produces immense forests, but where the Steppes begin, the
+forests end. Much has been written on the causes of the treeless aspect
+of the Steppes, and on the possibility of covering them with forests by
+planting. Some consider that they were in ancient times covered with
+wood, which has been destroyed by the nomade peoples who in all ages have
+inhabited them. The authority of Strabo is used, who mentions the country
+between Perecop and the Dniepr under the name of Hylæa,[29] because of
+its dense forests, although there is not now a shrub to be seen there;
+and Haxthausen says he observed in the government of Saratof, which
+belongs to the region of the Steppes, that the rivers Irguiss, Jároslaw,
+and Aktóuba were still bordered by splendid forests of oaks, beech,
+poplars, and willows, although pines were never to be met with.[30]
+Murchison, however, with reason I venture to think, utterly disbelieves
+in the former existence of forests that have been destroyed, and thinks
+that the total absence of trees in Southern Russia results from general
+conditions of climate, and from the want of dew, which is the cause
+commonly assigned for it by the inhabitants of the country itself.
+
+But if there be no trees or shrubs, the southern provinces of Russia
+enjoy a herbaceous vegetation of extreme richness, which occupies the
+soil with a vigour of growth which is rarely met with in Europe, and
+grasses, which in other places scarcely attain the height of a foot,
+are met with in the Steppes reaching upwards of six feet. The reason
+of this prolific vegetation is that the Steppes are mostly within the
+region of the celebrated tchorno-ziemé, or black earth, which is a
+deposit of amazing fertility, peculiar to the southern part of Russia.
+“The tchorno-zèm,” says Murchison,[31] “has its northernmost limit
+defined by a waving line, which passing from near Kief and Tchérnigof,
+a little to the south of Líchvia, appears in 54° of north latitude in
+that tract, then advances in its course eastward to 57°, and occupies the
+left bank of the Volga west of Tcheboksar, between Nijny Novgorod and
+Kazan. In approaching the Ural chain we saw no black earth to the north
+of Kazan, but it was plentiful on the Kama and around Ufa. Again, on the
+Asiatic or Siberian side of the Ural Mountains, we travelled through one
+large mass of it near Kamensk, south of the Issetz river, in latitude
+56° north, and through another between Miask and Troitsk. In the great
+Siberian plains we heard that it spreads over considerable spaces in
+the eastern, central, and southern parts of that region. Although we
+met with it occasionally in the low gorges of the Ural chain, and in
+the Bashkír country on both flanks of the southern Ural (in plateaux
+more than 1000 feet above the level of the sea), and also in the Steppes
+of the Kirguiss; we did not see it in the plains near Orenburg, nor
+to the south of that city. There is none to the south of Tzáritzin on
+the Volga, in the Steppes of the Kalmucks between that place and the
+mouth of the Don; and it is only in very limited patches along the Sea
+of Azof, or, in other words, on the southern face of that elevation
+between the Dniepr and the Don which constitutes what is commonly
+called the granitic Steppe. It occurs, however, in great thickness on
+the plateaux on the northern side of that axis, where it surmounts
+the carboniferous limestone with many seams of coal, so that it might
+at first sight be supposed to be produced by the decomposition of the
+subjacent carbonaceous strata. It lies, however, upon rocks of all ages,
+and occupies the centre of a trough, large as an European empire, having
+the detritus of the crystalline and older rocks for its northern, and
+the low granite Steppes and Caspian deposits for its southern limits.”
+It occupies an area of about 180 millions of acres in European Russia,
+and varies from a few feet to fifteen and twenty feet in thickness. “In
+travelling over these black tracts in a dry summer we were often,” says
+Murchison, “during a whole day, more or less surrounded by a cloud of
+black dust, arising from the dried up tchorno-zèm, which is of so subtile
+a nature as to rise up through the sod in rich grass countries under the
+stamp of the horses’ feet, and forms so dense a cloud that the traveller
+is often begrimed like a working collier.”
+
+It is not the humus arising from decayed forests or vegetables during
+the present period of the world’s history, as no trace of trees, roots,
+or vegetable fibre is found in it in any part of the empire. In the
+northern parts of Russia, where the forests have been lately cleared,
+no vestige of it exists, while it abounds south of a certain line, or
+exactly in those extensive and steppe-like undulations which have been
+devoid of trees throughout all known time. Its extreme fertility is
+attributed to the unusually large quantity of nitrogen which it contains;
+and its origin is referred to the period when the Russian continent was
+still submerged, and the tchorno-ziemé (which Russian economists justly
+consider as one of the most precious treasures of the empire) was the
+mud at the bottom of a great internal sea. This union of the black
+earth with a temperate climate in the Steppes between the Dniestr and
+the Don already enables the inhabitants of those countries to send, as
+from Mariopol, the finest wheat to the European markets, and justifies
+economists in looking forward to this region as one destined to a
+brilliant future. On the shores of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azof and
+eastward of the Don the Steppes become less fertile, until, wearing a
+more and more barren aspect, they gradually get blended with the sandy
+deserts of Tatary. On the eastern shore of the Sea of Azof, in the
+countries of the Don and Tchernomorsky Cossacks,[32] there is, however,
+some splendid land, and large quantities of corn and linseed are sent
+thence, northwards to Taganrok for exportation, and southwards to supply
+the army of the Caucasus. The Steppes are in parts covered with a rich
+herbage, on which feed large herds of horses, cattle, sheep, and camels.
+The upper layer of the soil of the Steppes presents a great variety
+in its composition, from lands impregnated with saline substances,
+and moving sands, to the mixtures most favourable to vegetation. As
+this upper layer rests upon a subsoil which does not easily permit
+infiltration, it is upon its thickness that depends its fertility; for,
+where it is not deep enough to retain humidity, the land becomes easily
+saturated by rain, and dried by evaporation. This circumstance is a
+great check to cultivation, because long droughts are common in these
+countries. All the Steppes are not in this disadvantageous position,
+although such is their predominant character in several governments to
+the south and east of the empire. This want of rain, and absence of
+natural means for retaining moisture, such as hills or trees, is one
+of the greatest calamities of the country; but the vegetation of that
+part of the Steppes which is only used for pasturage has a particular
+character which modifies the influence of the droughts. Nature here shows
+a wonderful variety of resources.
+
+The vegetation of the spring lasts about three months, and if this period
+passes without abundant rains, the grass does not reach its natural
+height. It dries in a moment, when the stalk has all its richness, and
+thus forming a natural kind of hay, it offers to the cattle during nine
+months a very substantial food, and these pastures are in consequence
+particularly favourable to sheep. When, on the contrary, the rains of
+spring are very abundant, the vegetation becomes rank, and the grass
+sometimes reaches four times its natural height. In such seasons the
+“stipa capillata” springs up, the prickly fruit of which proves injurious
+to sheep by penetrating their flesh, and often causing their death. The
+pasture at the same time is less wholesome and nourishing: in short, by a
+singular contrast in this country, which is generally condemned for its
+droughts, the proprietors of the Steppes often prefer a dry season to one
+too rainy. The vegetation of the pasturing Steppes also presents another
+peculiarity, that the grass is not spread in an even manner over it, but
+in isolated spots, which form a kind of oases. The even turf is only
+found in very low valleys.
+
+The Steppes are divided by one writer into “eternal Steppes” and
+“accidental Steppes:” the first are those where the layer of soil is so
+thin that they never can be cultivated, and trees will never be able to
+grow; while the others are highly favourable to agriculture, and some
+remains of ancient forests are found in the low valleys. In the Steppes
+near Taganrok, as long as they are uncultivated, there is a kind of
+natural rotation of crops. To the herbage, which sometimes is as high as
+a man’s waist, succeeds the next year a coarse weed called “bourian,”
+which rises to the height of three or four feet, and is cut to use as
+fuel. Though it burns very quickly, it serves for Russian stoves, which,
+heated for a quarter of an hour, will keep an apartment warm during the
+whole day. To the bourian succeeds a thin kind of grass, and then about
+the third year the pasture is again excellent. A considerable portion of
+the Steppes is cultivated, and, without any artificial means, produces
+some of the finest wheat known. A rest of one or two years suffices to
+restore to the ground its original fertility, and the enormous tracts
+of uncultivated land make it never necessary to overtax its powers. In
+other parts the cultivation of the Steppes differs from that of all
+other countries. Certain kinds of grain are sown for several years in
+succession, and then the ground is left fallow, and becomes covered with
+grass. The first year weeds spring up in abundance, and then in the
+second and third years the pasturage becomes excellent. When the soil
+seems sufficiently recovered, it is again ploughed. This agricultural
+cycle occupies from ten to fifteen years, according to the fertility of
+the soil.[33]
+
+M. Haxthausen divides the Steppes into five classes:
+
+1. The tertiary calcareous formation predominates in Bessarabia, Kaddia,
+and a small part of the government of Kherson.
+
+2. The chalk forms the base of the soil in the north, and embraces the
+Steppes of the governments of Kharkof, Woroneje, Tambof, a part of the
+country of the Cossacks of the Don, and the government of Saratof.
+
+3. The granitic base, which is a spur from the Carpathians, extends along
+the Black Sea and the Sea of Azof to the Caucasus.
+
+4. The Steppes of alluvial deposit extend to the south-east along the
+Kuban and Terek, which run east and west at the foot of the northern
+slopes of the Caucasus.
+
+5. The Steppes of saline base extend to the east as far as the river
+Jaik, which runs into the Caspian Sea on the north, and on which is
+situated Orenbourg.
+
+The Steppes of the three first formations have a situation much higher
+above the level of the sea than the alluvial and saline steppes, which
+Pallas thinks evidently formed the bottom of the waters when the Caspian
+was united to the Black Sea. They are everywhere covered by a rich layer
+of humus, more or less thick. The alluvial Steppes are of extraordinary
+fertility wherever the soil is not covered with marshes.
+
+The granitic Steppes are mostly covered with a thick short grass, while
+the chalky and calcareous Steppes produce herbage which reaches six or
+seven feet in height, and a profusion of beautiful varieties of wild
+flowers. The banks of the rivers are covered with reeds, which reach in
+the alluvial Steppes an enormous height. The cynarocephalus, a kind of
+reed, in German “kletten,” which is used as fuel, is found from thirty to
+forty feet in height. That portion of the country of the Steppes which
+is likely to be of great future importance is the one situated above the
+Black Sea and the Sea of Azof, between the Carpathian Mountains and the
+Don.
+
+For a short period, in April and May, the Steppes present a beautiful
+appearance. The brilliant green of the rising crops of corn, and the
+fresh grass, intermingled with flowers of the most lively colours, are
+pleasing to the eye, and give a charm to the monotony of the scenery.
+A hot scorching sun, however, soon withers the grass, which assumes a
+brownish hue, and clouds of dust increase the dreariness and parched
+appearance of the Steppes. During the winter the ground is covered with
+snow, which at times lies several feet deep. Unimpeded by mountains,
+forests, or rising ground, the winds from the north-east, passing over
+many hundred miles of frozen ground, blow with resistless violence, and
+often uninterruptedly for several weeks. When the frost is severe, and
+the snow in a dry powdery state, the wind drifts it about and obscures
+the air. These snow-storms are called by the inhabitants “metel” or
+“boura,” and have often proved fatal to the half-frozen, blinded, and
+bewildered traveller, who, having lost his way, is wandering over the
+dreary icy Steppes in search of a place of refuge. Detached houses and
+whole villages are sometimes buried by the drifting snow, through which
+the inmates are obliged to cut their way. At times the traveller looks in
+vain for the solitary post-house at which he is always anxious to arrive,
+and learns only that he has reached his temporary resting-place by a
+slight rise in the snow, and by his sledge being overturned into a hole,
+through which he creeps down into the snug cottage, which is sometimes
+thus buried for several weeks. When the wind blows with violence, and the
+snow is drifted about in eddies, the storm has a singularly bewildering
+and stunning effect. The inhabitants themselves lose their way, and the
+herds of horses, cattle, and sheep, that happen to be surprised by it,
+become seized with a panic, and, rushing headlong before the gale, defy
+every obstacle that presents itself to their wild career. They are then
+inevitably lost, and, overcome by fatigue, they either perish in the
+snow, or meet their death by falling down the precipitous sides of some
+ravine. These ravines are called “Balkas,” and occur frequently in the
+Steppes that lie between the Dniestr and the Don. To the north of the
+Crimea they are most frequent, and in some parts follow each other in
+quick succession, and always in the direction from north to south.
+
+The roads in Southern Russia are mere tracks, and those on which post
+communications are established have earth thrown up at their sides, and
+at intervals conical mounds of earth or stone to indicate the way. The
+bridges across the ravines are generally in such a dilapidated condition,
+that but few of them can be trusted.
+
+The melting of the snow in the months of March and April changes the
+ravines into torrents, the waters of which, rushing with incredible
+violence, form an insurmountable obstacle to travellers. The ground,
+saturated with the melted snow, becomes so soft that light-laden waggons
+sink in it to the axletrees, and during this season it is not uncommon
+to meet the wrecks of many of them that could not be dragged through the
+mud, and have been abandoned. Post-carts,[34] that convey but one or two
+persons besides the driver, of the lightest and smallest description,
+dragged by five horses, proceed only at a foot’s pace.
+
+One of the few characteristic features of the Steppes is the number of
+tumuli or artificial mounds that are scattered over their surface, and
+in some localities, especially towards the Azof, they are found lying
+together in great numbers.[35] These tumuli, or “kourgans” as they are
+called by the natives, are often found to contain valuable relics of
+early ages. There are other artificial mounds, similar to tumuli, in
+certain directions, at intervals of from one to three versts, extending
+over long lines of country, which are supposed to have served as
+watch-posts and beacons to the roving hordes who used to inhabit these
+plains. On each mound a watch-tower was probably erected, and a beacon
+prepared, which, when lighted at proper seasons, would serve either to
+guide them home from a predatory excursion, or give them timely notice
+of the approach of an enemy. During the summer months the well-known
+phenomenon called the “mirage” is often seen, and its effects are as
+beautiful and deceitful as those described in Africa. That part of the
+Steppes, called the Tchernomore, between the Kuban and the Don, with
+the exception of the districts in the immediate vicinity of the sea, is
+almost exclusively devoted to the rearing of horses, horned cattle, and
+sheep. From the Don westwards to the river Moloshna, the land is mostly
+used for tillage. From the Moloshna, again westwards to the Dniepr, the
+Steppes, principally inhabited by the Tatar Nogai tribes, are but little
+cultivated, and might afford pasturage to a far larger quantity of cattle
+and horses than now graze upon them.
+
+The German colonies of the Moloshna, and others of less importance in
+the vicinity of Mariopol, may be well compared to oases in the desert.
+Their neat cottages, with well-built barns and out-houses, surrounded by
+trees and gardens, and by highly cultivated fields, bear the signs of
+wealth and comfort, and of the care bestowed upon them by an industrious
+and intelligent population. The German colonies form a striking contrast
+to the dreary country in which they are situated, and to the miserable
+Russian villages, and the still more wretched Tatar aouls, around
+them. Their situation is always well chosen on some sloping ground,
+on the border of one of the few rivulets that water the country. The
+population of the Steppes is of a mixed character, and is composed of
+Little Russians, Tatars, Greeks, Cossacks, German colonists, Kalmucks,
+and Armenians. Although living in the immediate vicinity of each other,
+they neither intermarry nor associate much with one another. They differ
+in religion and character and features and manners, and retain the
+distinctive stamp of their origin.
+
+Game abounds on the Steppes. The large and small bustard are seen in
+flocks in the districts to the north of Crimea. The “streppet,” of a
+larger size and lighter hue than the grouse, the only English bird
+to which it can be compared, partridges, quails, hares, snipe, and
+woodcocks, are to be met with in great numbers, and are remarkable for
+their fine flavour. Wolves are scarce, and are never seen in packs as in
+Central and Northern Russia.
+
+“Innumerable inhabitants of a smaller race people these immense plains.
+Among these is the suroke, or marmot of the Alps, which is seen in all
+parts of the Steppes, sitting erect near its burrow, and on the slightest
+alarm whistling very loud, and observing all around. It makes such
+extensive subterraneous chambers, that the ground is perforated in all
+directions, and the land destroyed, wherever the animal is found. The
+peasants universally give them the name of ‘Wastie.’
+
+“The biroke is a grey animal, something like a wolf, very ferocious, and
+daring enough to attack a man. The Cossack peasants, armed with their
+lances, sally forth and chase it over their plains.
+
+“The most numerous of all the animals of the Steppes are the suslics,[36]
+which absolutely swarm in all the Steppes. They make a whistling noise
+like the suroke, but are much smaller, not being larger than a small
+weasel. They construct their habitations under ground with incredible
+quickness, excavating first of all a small cylindrical hole or well
+perpendicularly to the depth of three feet; thence, like a correct miner,
+shooting out levels, although rather in an ascending direction, to
+prevent being incommoded by water. At the extremity of his little gallery
+the suslic forms a very spacious chamber, to which, as to a granary, he
+brings every morning and evening all he can collect of favourite herbage,
+of corn, if it can be found, and roots, and other food. Nothing is more
+amusing than to observe the habits of this little animal. If any one
+approaches, it is seen sitting at the entrance of its little dwelling,
+erect upon its hind-feet, like the suroke, carefully watching all that is
+going on around it. Nothing annoys it so much as water; and if some be
+poured into its hole, it comes out and is easily caught.”[37]
+
+Such is a brief account of the Steppes which occupy a considerable
+portion of the Russian empire, and as they likewise form nearly
+two-thirds of the whole Crimea, and approach within a short distance of
+Sevastopol in the direction of Inkerman, this description in the main
+features will also apply to that peninsula.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+FROM PERECOP TO SYMPHERÓPOL.
+
+    The isthmus of Perecop—Its defences—History—Its capture by
+    Marshal Munich in 1736—The Crimea and Kilboroún conquered
+    by him—His cruelty and atrocities—The Armenian Bazar—The
+    salt lakes—General view of the sea-coast on each side of
+    the isthmus—The Black Sea and Gulf of Karkiníte—Anchorage
+    of Akméshed—Cape Karamroún—The Lagoon of the Dniepr
+    and Boug defended by Kilboroún and Otchákow—The river
+    Boug—Gloubóky—Kherson—The Shiváshe, or Putrid Sea—The
+    Tonka, or Strelka, or Arabate—The road from Perecop to
+    Sympherópol—Sympherópol.
+
+
+The isthmus of Perecop is about five miles broad, and stretches from the
+Bay of Karkiníte on the side of the Black Sea to the large lake called
+the Shiváshe, which is connected with the Sea of Azof by the strait of
+Yénitchi.
+
+The isthmus is defended by an irregular fortress erected on the south
+side of a deep ditch, and protected by a high wall built of freestone,
+stretching right across the isthmus, which rises slightly in the middle.
+The fosse and the wall are said to have been formed in ancient times
+by the inhabitants of the peninsula to defend themselves against the
+incursions of the nomades of the Steppes. The taphros or ditch of the
+more ancient geographers, and the “new wall” of Ptolemy, lie about a
+mile and a half south of Perecop. According to Pliny,[38] the Crimea was
+originally an island; and natural appearances which meet the eye seem
+to make this statement probable. It is related by one historian that in
+the tenth century the wall was razed to the ground, and a thick wood
+planted from sea to sea, through which ran two roads, one leading to
+the Cimmerian Bosphorus on the east, and the other to the ancient town
+of Kherson, near the south-west corner of the peninsula. The fosse was
+cleared out, and a stone wall, defended by towers, built by the Tatar
+khans of Crimea, about the end of the fifteenth century. The Russian name
+“Perecop” properly signifies a ditch or fosse cut across the road to
+prevent any further passage, and has been substituted for the Tatar name
+“Orkapou,” which denotes the gate of the isthmus.[39]
+
+The fortress, together with the whole line of fortification, was first
+taken in 1736, when Marshal Munich appeared before the lines with 54,000
+men and 8000 waggons for munitions and baggage. The ditch was then 72
+feet wide and 42 feet deep, and behind it rose a galionade 70 feet high.
+Six towers, built in stone, flanked the line, and served as bastions to
+the fortress of Orkapou, which rose behind them. A thousand Janissaries
+and 100,000 Tatars here opposed an obstinate but vain resistance to
+Munich, who after two days took the lines by assault, and, forty-eight
+hours afterwards, the town of Orkapou. Immediately afterwards General
+Leontief was sent with 10,000 infantry and 300 Cossacks to take the
+fortress of Kilboroún (Kinborn), which, situated on the mainland, rises
+at the extremity of the promontory of the same name, and commands the
+entrance of the lagoon into which the Dniepr and the Boug discharge
+their waters.[40] Munich immediately pursued his march to Koslof (now
+Eupatoria), the second commercial town in Crimea, situated on the western
+coast of the peninsula, and, having taken it, its riches became a prey to
+the soldiers.
+
+Exactly one month after their arrival at Perecop the Russian army
+appeared before the gates of Baktchéserai, which they utterly destroyed.
+Two thousand houses and the vast palace of the khans were burnt, and
+the rich library which had been collected by Selim Geray Khan, and that
+of the Jesuits, were reduced to ashes. The same fate awaited Akméshed
+(Sympherópol), where the palaces of the Kalga Sultan, and of the
+principal Mirzas to the number of 1800, were mercilessly given to the
+flames. Munich had intended also to seize Kaffa (Theodosia), the most
+important fortress of Crimea, when an illness obliged him to return to
+Perecop, where he received the news of the taking of Kilboroún. The town
+of Azof had been taken a short time before. The march of Munich across
+the beautiful plains of Crimea was marked by the burning of towns and
+ravages of all sorts, and the cruelties of which he was guilty have
+placed his name beside those of Louvois and Catinat, the devastators of
+the Palatinate. Before he left Crimea he razed the lines of Perecop and
+blew up the fortifications of the town.[41]
+
+At the present time there is a bridge across the fosse, and a stone
+gateway, which presents rather an interesting appearance as seen from the
+north. On either side are a few straggling houses, inhabited by Tatars,
+Jews, and Russians, most of whom derive their support from the salt-lakes
+in the vicinity. The principal part of the town is at a distance of
+about two miles further south, and goes by the name of the Armenian
+Bazar, from the country of its most numerous population. It contains
+a custom-house, and comptoirs for the brandy distilleries, and salt
+magazines, within it, a number of shops, and about 900 inhabitants. Here
+is a mosque with two minarets, and a Russian and an Armenian church. The
+quantity of salt exported by this route to Russia is immense. According
+to Vsevolovski more than 20,000 waggons are annually employed in the
+trade. They are drawn by oxen, and generally form large caravans, the
+sight of which affords an agreeable relief to the eye of the traveller
+when wearied by the continuous monotony of the Steppe. The salt is
+produced by evaporation on the surface of the lakes, some of which have
+a circumference of upwards of 20 versts, and are in general shallow, and
+have formerly had a communication with the sea. The soil is also strongly
+impregnated with saline properties, which it necessarily communicates to
+the vegetation; the Tatar cattle are, however, fond of it, and the sheep
+fatten equally with those fed on the produce of common earth.
+
+Now, standing on the isthmus of Perecop, let us look first to the
+right, and follow the indentures of the coasts and the channel of the
+shallow sea that leads to it from Odessa; and then turn to the left,
+where equally shallow lagoons are interposed between the isthmus and the
+little strait of Yénitchi. The want of water on each side of the isthmus
+forms its strength, as it makes it equally difficult of approach for
+a land or a naval force. On the left side no vessels can approach it
+within a long distance, but on the side of the Black Sea there is deep
+water and good anchoring ground at a distance of about 20 miles. The
+gulf which runs up from the Black Sea to Perecop is called the Gulf of
+Karkiníte. It separates Crimea from the mainland, is open to the west and
+south-west, and 42 miles in width at its entrance. Its length, from Cape
+Karamroún, the most westerly point of Crimea, to the isthmus of Djaril
+Agátch, at the head of which there is 30 feet of water, is 60 miles. Up
+to this point, which is two-thirds of its total length to Perecop, it
+is navigable, and beyond it and the opposite promontory of Saribouláte,
+40 miles from Cape Karamroún, vessels cannot pass. The depth round the
+promontory of Saribouláte is three fathoms, and beyond it only a few
+feet. The south coast of the Gulf of Karkiníte is formed of elevated
+plains, which are distinguished at a great distance, and its shore is
+bold and steep. The port of Akméshed in this gulf, at 12 miles from Cape
+Karamroún, is a great resort for navigators who run between Odessa and
+the Crimea. This anchorage is distinguished by a white tower erected on
+a cape to starboard on entering, and again by several buildings situated
+in the interior of the port, which is three-quarters of a mile in length,
+and its entrance between the capes is two-thirds of a mile broad.[42]
+This anchorage offers four, three, and two fathoms, sandy bottom, and
+good holding-ground. A quarantine establishment is situated here; and to
+the east of this anchorage, along the beach which lines the south of the
+port, there is a picturesque village. On entering the port you can at
+once make the village, and the anchorage is at an equal distance from the
+two shores, at two and a half cables’ length from the beach, in five or
+six fathoms depth, and sandy bottom, exposed to the north and north-west.
+The creek described above is quite safe, and to the west of the village
+vessels are secure.
+
+Cape Karamroún, the westernmost point of the Crimea, lies 12 miles
+south-west of Akméshed, and all along this interval the coast is safe,
+bold, and bordered by steep white rocks. At 3½ miles before arriving at
+Cape Karamroún is Cape Eskíforos, and in the interval the fertile little
+valley of Karadja. It is remarkable on account of its beach, its trees,
+and a little village, immediately opposite to which there is an anchorage
+in five and a half fathoms, sandy and muddy bottom. Here there is a
+lighthouse, 117½ feet above the level of the sea. The light is fixed,
+and can be seen at sea at a distance of 17 miles. A strong current runs
+here with the wind; and the sea at Eskíforos changes from a bright blue
+to a dirty and dark green colour, which increases in depth as Odessa is
+approached.[43]
+
+A long low spit of land runs along the northern side of the Gulf of
+Karkiníte, and terminates in a point, on which is placed the fortress of
+Kilboroún at the entrance of another gulf running parallel with that of
+Karkiníte. The promontory on which the fortress is placed is very low,
+almost on a level with the sea, and subject to inundations. The fortress
+of Otchákow commands the entrance of the lagoon of the Dniepr on the
+opposite side, and the distance between it and Kilboroún is only about
+2¼ miles. This passage is very important, as into this gulf flow the
+great rivers of the Boug and Dniepr, and on the latter is situated the
+important town of Kherson, and on the former the great naval arsenal of
+Nicolaief, and the safety of both depends upon the passage of Kilboroún.
+The country between the Gulf of the Dniepr and the Gulf of Karkiníte was
+called Hylæa by the ancients, because of the woods by which it was then
+covered; these have entirely disappeared, and the whole country is now a
+bare and almost uninhabited Steppe.
+
+The two great rivers of the Boug and the Dniepr, falling into the Gulf of
+the Dniepr, by their united currents flowing to the west, make a channel,
+the maximum depth of which is seventy-three feet.[44] At sixteen miles
+to the east of Otchákow, and nine miles north-west of Cape Stanislas,
+the Boug discharges its water into the lagoon, which it shares with the
+Dniepr. This river, as far as Nicolaief, is from twenty to sixty feet
+in depth, and its width varies from one to three miles. The city of
+Nicolaief, which is the Russian arsenal for the Black Sea, is twenty
+miles from the mouth of the Boug, and at the junction of that river with
+the Ingoul.[45] The delta of the Dniepr is composed of a number of small
+islands, covered with reeds and mostly uninhabited, and it runs into its
+lagoon by nine mouths, three of which are much more important than the
+others. The course now followed by coasters who wish to approach the
+mouths of the Dniepr is to keep close in to the shore, along the north
+side of the bay, passing the town of Gloubóky,[46] which may be called
+the port of Kherson. Gloubóky is four miles from the Kizim mouth of the
+Dniepr, which was not navigable thirty years ago, but is now the one
+which is principally used. It is at Gloubóky that vessels of a large
+draught of water load and discharge their cargoes, and there is here a
+depth of nineteen feet at a good cable’s length from the shore. This port
+has greatly increased of late years, and is now the place where most
+of the linseed grown in the countries watered by the Dniepr is shipped
+for exportation. The entrance to it is marked out by buoys, and in the
+channel there is from twenty-five to thirty-seven feet of water.
+
+The city of Kherson is situated on the right bank of the Dniepr, which is
+there half a mile broad and fifty feet deep. Looking westward from the
+promontory of Kilboroún, we find Odessa lying at a distance of thirty
+miles, and a channel for ships the whole way to it, of from twenty to
+sixty feet in depth. A long sandbank, called in the Russian maps the
+sandbank of Odessa, stretches out in the direction of that town from
+Kilboroún for twenty-four miles. Following the line of the shore of
+the mainland, we find Cape Berezane jutting out eight miles from Cape
+Otchákow, and between them is the island of Berezane, with steep bold
+reddish cliffs. At twenty-two miles further on is Cape Dembrowski, very
+near the town of Odessa, with some rocks near it, which render it unsafe.
+The greatest depth of the bay of Odessa is eight fathoms.
+
+Having thus traced the line of the coast to the west of Perecop, and
+shown what important places lie there, and how far it may be navigated
+by vessels of very considerable size, a point of great importance in the
+present state of the war, let us return to Perecop, and see whether it is
+equally approachable on the eastern side, on which it is bounded by the
+Shiváshe, or, as it is called, the Putrid Sea. This is simply a shallow
+fresh-water lake, into which are discharged the principal rivers of the
+eastern side of Crimea, the Salghír, the Karasou, the Bulganak, the two
+Yandols, and the Sóubachi. The Shiváshe discharges these accumulated
+waters, at its northern extremity, into the Sea of Azof, by the canal of
+Yénitchi. There seems no good reason for calling it the Putrid Sea, as
+there is neither an unpleasant smell issuing from it, nor are its banks
+unhealthy. The Shiváshe is separated from the Sea of Azof by a narrow
+tongue of land, fifty-two miles long and about half a mile wide, covered
+with reeds and coarse grass, on which a few flocks of sheep are seen to
+graze. There are three post stations upon it, and it is used as the high
+road for persons coming from the towns on the north shores of the Sea of
+Azof to Kertch and the eastern parts of the Crimea.
+
+This curious tongue of land is called by the Tatars the Arabate, and by
+the Russians Strelka (or Arrow), or the Tonka. Where the Strelka detaches
+itself from the mainland, in the direction of Kertch, are the remains of
+an old ruined fort of an octagon shape, and surrounded by a deep moat,
+which is called the fortress of Arabat. There is about twenty-four feet
+water near the shore of the Strelka, on the side of the Sea of Azof, and
+here its beach is high and precipitous, while it slopes off on the side
+of the Shiváshe.[47]
+
+From Perecop the first stage is Terekli Tchousoun, and near it a road
+strikes off to the right leading to Kozlof or Eupatoria, a place of
+considerable trade, and containing 5000 inhabitants, principally Tatars
+and Jews. The latter are of the sect of the Karaites, and number 700
+souls. Many of them are rich, and carry on an extensive commerce with
+Odessa, Constantinople, and other parts of the Levant.
+
+The first view the traveller obtains of Crimea but ill accords with the
+ideas which are generally formed of its romantic beauty, the country
+being simply a Steppe, without either tree, streamlet, or hill to
+diversify the prospect. After passing the next stage, where there is
+a large well for watering the flocks of the Tatars, a gentle rise is
+perceptible in the surface of the ground, and the soil loses its saline
+and sandy character, and assumes the appearance of a fine mould, with
+here and there considerable quantities of marl. On reaching the summit
+of the elevation, which here stretches across the peninsula, there is
+a delightful view of the Tchatirdagh and the range of mountains on the
+southern coast.
+
+Hence there is a gradual descent over the undulating surface into the
+plains to the north of Sympherópol, and after passing through a beautiful
+Tatar village, with a mosque and minaret, situated on the left bank of
+the Salghír, and beautifully adorned with poplars and fruit-trees, the
+traveller arrives at the capital of the Crimea, since its occupation by
+the Russians.
+
+At Sympherópol the Steppes have disappeared, the climate is milder, and
+the scene changes. The mountains now are near, gardens appear on every
+side, and the slopes around are clothed with trees. Sympherópol has
+quite the aspect of a Russian town. The streets are enormously wide; the
+greater number of the houses are no better than white-washed cottages,
+and those of the rich part of the population are built in a bad kind of
+bastard Italian style.
+
+Here reside the principal Russian authorities of the Crimea, and
+the town has a population of 8000 souls—5000 Tatars, 1700 Russians,
+900 gipsies, and 400 strangers.[48] Before the time of the Russians,
+Sympherópol, under the name of Akméshed, which means, in Turkish, the
+White Mosque, was the residence of the Kalga Sultan, or Viceroy of the
+Khan of the Tatars, who himself resided at Baktchéserai. This personage
+filled the second place in the Khanate, and, when the Khan died, he held
+the reins of government until the arrival of the new Khan, who was named
+by the Sultan of Constantinople. He had a court like the Khan himself,
+and had his Vizir, his Defterdar, his Divan Effendi, and also the female
+dignitaries of Anabei and Ouloukháni, which were conferred on his nearest
+female relations, and to which were attached important privileges. The
+Kalga also held a court of justice, to which there was an appeal from all
+the courts of the Kadis, or judges, in Crimea;[49] he was vested with all
+powers, except those of life and death, and from him there was no appeal
+except to the Great Divan of the Khan himself. His authority extended as
+far as the limits of the town of Kaffa, and, in the absence of the Khan,
+he led the armies of Little Tartary to battle.[50]
+
+The most delightful sites in the environs of Sympherópol are the banks
+of the river Salghír, and here, opposite to the old Tartar capital, was
+the palace of the Kalga. The ruins show that it was a vast irregular mass
+of buildings, and we can judge of its style by the still existing palace
+at Baktchéserai. It had, doubtless, numberless halls and corridors,
+ornamented with rich woodwork, and fountains, and looking-glasses, and
+its gardens were celebrated for their beauty, and for the pieces of water
+within their precincts, on which were several boats for the amusement of
+the Kalga. No trace now remains of its former glories. A brewery and a
+brandy manufactory now use the pure stream that once fed the fountains,
+and a public garden, for smoking and drinking, desecrates the spot which
+was once set apart for the use of the hareem.[51] There are no mosques
+of any beauty, but there is a large Greek church, built, in 1832, in the
+Grecian style of architecture, with a portico in front. There is also
+here a large market-place and an important market, which supplies the
+southern coast of Crimea, by way of Alouchta, and to this town there is
+an excellent road, leading through a pretty valley, with villa residences
+of Russian nobles by the side of it, some of which are situated in richly
+wooded parks, and form an agreeable contrast to the vast Steppes that lie
+on the north of Sympherópol. In the environs are to be seen the ruins of
+very ancient times, for Sympherópol was a capital before the time of the
+Tatars, and Kermentchíck is the name of the fortress cut in the rocks,
+which was the residence of Skilouros, the king of the Tauro-Scythians,
+and the enemy of the great Mithridates, when he reigned at Kertch.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+BAKTCHÉSERAI AND TCHOUFOUT KALEH.
+
+    Description of Baktchéserai—The palace of the Khans—Pouschkin’s
+    fountain—The great council-room—The hareem—The
+    cemetery—The tomb of Dilara Bikéh—The gorge of Tchoufout
+    Kaleh—Acheláma—Tchoufout Kaleh—The Karaim Jews, or those
+    who reject the Talmud—Their very ancient origin—Probable
+    descendants of Sadducees—Their high character—Tomb of the
+    beautiful Nenekedjàn—The crypt town of Kirkor.
+
+
+A good road leads from Sympherópol to the town of Baktchéserai, which
+is half-way from the former place to Sevastopol. Baktchéserai was the
+capital of the Tatars during their occupation of Crimea, and like
+Karasóubazar retains much of its Eastern character, owing to the ukase
+of Catherine II., which is still in force, and by which the Tatars are
+allowed to retain exclusive possession of these two cities.
+
+The distance from Sympherópol to Baktchéserai is 30 versts,[52] and the
+road runs along a waste Steppe, with the exception of a mile and a half
+of the distance, during which it passes through the pretty valley of the
+upper Alma. The town is situated in a deep gorge in the chalk formation,
+and the traveller does not see it till he has arrived at the end of his
+journey, and suddenly looks down upon it snugly ensconced at his feet
+between two walls of rock. There he sees the irregular Tatar habitations,
+interspersed with delicate minarets and tall poplar-trees stretching in
+two long lines on each side of the muddy stream of the Djourouk Sou.
+A steep road leads down to it, which passes the modest triumphal arch
+erected in honour of the visit of the Empress Catherine II. to the
+capital of her new conquest in the last century, and which bears the
+simple inscription, “1787.” The town has completely retained its Oriental
+character, and in passing down the long street, nearly three-quarters of
+a mile in length, the little open shops of the tailors, the shoemakers,
+the bakers, the locksmiths, and the kalpac-makers, are seen, with their
+proprietors sitting cross-legged, in Eastern fashion, and working and
+selling at the same time.
+
+Baktchéserai is celebrated for the number of its fountains and the purity
+of its water, which one writer pretends is the lightest in all Tatary and
+Turkey.[53] There are no less than 119 fountains for a population of 9547
+inhabitants. At the end of the long street, just across the little river,
+is the great sight of Baktchéserai, the ancient palace of the khans,
+which all travellers stop to visit.
+
+Now that Turkey is becoming so much Europeanized, this palace, as a
+specimen of the old architecture of the Turk race, goes on increasing in
+interest. The great men at Constantinople are sacrificing the ancient
+peculiarities of their palaces to modern conveniences, but this venerable
+monument is kept up by the sovereigns of Russia precisely in its ancient
+condition. I was much struck with it when the brightly painted gateway
+first opened upon me. This divides in two a long line of buildings, of
+only one story in height, with all the windows filled up with carved
+woodwork, and ornamented with rude arabesques painted in bright colours.
+
+Right and left on entering are ranges of apartments, which all open on a
+long gallery, whence there is a good view of the interior court and the
+groups of fantastic buildings raised irregularly around it.
+
+At the entrance of the second court on the left is the gate called
+the Iron Gate, leading to the principal apartments, on which is an
+inscription declaring it to have been built by Mengli Geray Khan, who
+conquered the Crimea in 1480, and was acknowledged as its sovereign by
+the Turks.
+
+A staircase leads into the richly-ornamented hall, in which there are two
+fountains, one of which is called Selsibíl, or the fountain of Mary, on
+which the Russian poet Pouschkin has written some beautiful verses.[54]
+
+Beyond this hall is that of the divan, the great council-room, placed
+in the midst of a terraced garden. This is one of those magic buildings
+in which the climate of the East can really be enjoyed. Its floor is of
+marble, and its fretted ceiling tastefully gilt, while the centre is
+occupied by a marble basin, into which the water is perpetually trickling
+from a fountain with fifteen jets. The only light that is admitted is
+toned down through painted glass, and the softest divans invite repose
+from the heats of summer. The terraces of the garden outside are planted
+with roses; and the clearest streams of water fall in small cascades from
+one marble basin to another.
+
+From the first hall is a doorway leading to the principal apartments of
+the khan himself, where is the hall of audience and a long suite of rooms
+leading down to the banks of the river, whence the great man, behind a
+lattice, could, unperceived, see what was passing in the town. Behind
+the Pavilion of the Waters, carefully hidden by high trees, is a little
+secluded court, where the sacred precincts of the hareem terminated with
+a high tower or kiosk, whence the ladies used to witness the fêtes and
+martial games that were celebrated in the great court, and whence there
+is a most charming view of the town and all the surrounding country.
+
+While the right side of the palace was devoted to all that could
+contribute to the sensual enjoyment of life, on the left rose the mosque
+and the cemetery; the former built in a good style, and completed by
+two tall minarets of fine workmanship. The khan ascended to his tribune
+by a staircase shaded by a poplar-tree, and here strangers are taken
+to witness the Mussulman service and the dance of the dervishes. The
+cemetery adjoins it, in which two large domes contain the monuments of
+nearly all the khans since 1654.[55]
+
+The gardens, and the reservoirs that feed the fountains of the palace,
+extend behind it, and above these, on one of the sides of the narrow
+valley, is seen a part of the town, and an immense cemetery, which is
+approached from the court of the palace by an allée of monuments. One
+graceful dome, placed just without the precincts of the palace-garden,
+immediately attracts attention. Below, an octagonal building, with
+interlacing arches and slender pilasters, supports it, and rich
+arabesques decorate every part, in the midst of which the cross is seen
+most conspicuous. This is the tomb of a beautiful Georgian, called
+Dilara Bikéh, who was the wife of Krim Geray, and greatly beloved by her
+husband, who was one of the best khans that ever governed Crimea.[56]
+
+The Georgians are all Christians of the Greek Church, and Dilara Bikéh
+steadily refused to change her religion, and reposes here on sufferance,
+at the edge of the Mussulman cemetery, as she was not admitted into the
+burial-ground of the house of Geray.
+
+Many a pilgrimage is made to this tomb, as to that of Marie Potocka,
+another beautiful Christian who gained the heart of a Mussulman prince.
+She was a Pole, of an illustrious family, and inspired one of the last
+khans of Crimea with so violent a passion, that he carried her off and
+married her. Neither the splendour of her position, nor the tenderness
+of her husband, could, however, reconcile her to being the wife of an
+infidel, and she died prematurely, worn out by remorse.
+
+The pleasure of a visit to Baktchéserai depends upon the frame of mind of
+the traveller. It is true there is something grotesque, irregular, and
+barbarous, about the whole: that the workmanship of the palace is rough,
+the joints ill fitted, and the colouring what some would call gaudy; but
+there is at the same time originality in the design, vivid fancy in the
+colouring, and a sense of the picturesque in the grouping together of the
+parts. As an accomplished French lady has remarked, in her interesting
+Travels in the Crimea, “It is no easy task to describe the charms of a
+mysterious and splendid abode, in which the voluptuous khans forgot all
+the cares of life; it is not to be done, as in the case of one of our
+palaces, by analysing the style, arrangement, and details of the rich
+architecture, and reading the artist’s thoughts in the regularity, grace,
+and noble simplicity of the edifice,—one must be something of a poet to
+appreciate a Turkish palace; its charms must be sought not in what one
+sees, but in what one feels. The positive cast of minds are disabled
+from seeing beauty in anything but rich materials, well-defined forms,
+and highly-finished workmanship, and Baktchéserai must be to them only a
+group of shabby houses, adorned with paltry ornaments, fit only for the
+habitations of miserable Tatars.”[57]
+
+The entrance into the gorge of Baktchéserai from the side of the Tauric
+chain of mountains on the south is much grander than the approach from
+the steppe. The rocks open like an immense portal gate into the narrow
+valley, and on every side ruins are scattered, even to the summits of
+the mountains. This gorge, like the others in the neighbourhood, was
+originally closed by a wall, a fort, and a crypt town, which faced the
+interior of the mountains, and therefore evidently belonged to the
+inhabitants of the hills, who defended themselves against the nomades of
+the steppes.[58]
+
+These remains of the most ancient times of the Tauro-Scythians are
+mingled with ruins of recent date. The garden and palace of Acheláma,
+built by the Khan Krim Geray, occupied all the valley, and in the midst
+was a lake, where the ladies of the hareem used to bathe, and a kiosk,
+where the khan used to repose himself. The word “Acheláma” means “a
+graft” in Turkish, and the name was given because of the many kinds of
+fruit-trees which were grafted in these gardens, of which no vestige now
+remains.
+
+To the left of this ruined garden, perched on an isolated rock, with
+houses overlooking the precipice, is the little town of Tchoufout Kaleh,
+which has been inhabited for centuries by a colony of Jews. A road cut
+in the rock, and joining the one which leads to the southern coast, is
+the only communication to this singular little establishment, which is
+surrounded by a strong wall, entered by gates, which are carefully closed
+every evening.
+
+These Keraim Jews are all merchants, who have their shops in
+Baktchéserai, and bear the highest character for honesty. They reject
+the superstitious fables of the Talmud, and their separation from its
+followers dates, according to some learned men, several centuries before
+the birth of Christ, although the Rabbinists pretend that they did not
+form a separate sect until the eighth century.[59] Peyssonel relates
+that they claim an origin from Bokhara, and says that they followed
+the Mongols and Tatars from Asia in the thirteenth century, and as
+these latter gradually left Tchoufout Kaleh for Baktchéserai, the Jews
+established themselves in their place. They always enjoyed special
+privileges, and were exempt from some contributions that were imposed
+on the Greeks and Armenians; as, for instance, the obligation to find a
+certain quantity of labour for fortifications, mosques, fountains, and
+other public buildings.
+
+The Jews pretend that their privileges were granted them for services
+rendered in ancient times to the Khans of the Tatars; but Peyssonel
+attributes the real origin of them to the services of a Jewish doctor,
+who, having been fortunate enough to cure an Ouloukháneh, or one of the
+great female dignitaries, as his reward obtained for his countrymen the
+exemptions noticed above. The capitation-tax of the Jews was henceforward
+attached to the dignity of Ouloukháneh, and the Jews, in gratitude,
+always supplied the palace of the Princess with wood, coal, coffee, and
+other necessaries. Their houses are very clean, and they dress like the
+Tatars, and use a dialect of the Tatar language, to which they give the
+name of Djagaltai.[60]
+
+Mr. Henderson, who visited them in company with Mr. Glen, the well-known
+Oriental scholar and missionary in Persia, questioned them closely as to
+the tradition of their Eastern origin, and even corresponded with them
+upon the subject, and from their accounts it appears that they have no
+written documents to prove at what time they occupied this fort, or
+whence they came before arriving in the Crimea. They also stated that
+they had no tradition of any bond of union ever having existed between
+their ancestors and the Jews of Bokhara, in which country there are no
+Karaim. The only traditionary account current among them is that their
+ancestors came from Damascus and settled here about five hundred years
+ago, under the protection of the Khans of Crimea.
+
+Their language also, as exhibited in their ancient books, approximates
+more to the Osmanli than to the Oriental Turkish, and it appears from the
+Travels of Rabbi Petachia, that there were Karaites in the Crimea about
+the year 1180, which was considerably prior to the arrival of the Tatars.
+
+With respect to the sect in general, it claims a very high antiquity, and
+seems originally to have been the same with that of the Sadducees, one
+of the three principal sects which divided the Jewish nation about two
+hundred years before the birth of our Lord. One of the distinguishing
+tenets of the Sadducees was their strict adherence to the letter of the
+law, to the entire exclusion of traditional interpretation; and some
+authors of note have conjectured that the errors which that sect taught
+in the time of our Lord formed no part of their primitive creed, and that
+it was the adoption of them by Sadok which made the sect divide into
+Sadducees and those afterwards called Karaim, whom Prideaux[61] takes to
+be the Scribes so frequently mentioned in the New Testament.
+
+According to Mordecai, one of their own writers, they are sprung from
+Judah Ben Tabbai, and were originally denominated, after him, the Society
+of J. B. T., but afterwards changed their name to that of Karaim,[62] or
+Karaites. If the accounts that obtain among themselves may be credited,
+the first place where a Karaim synagogue was established, after the
+destruction of Jerusalem, was Grand Cairo, in which city they have always
+kept up a separate community, and where, according to the most recent
+accounts, they still exist. They are also found in most of the countries
+between India and Poland.
+
+The principal point of difference between them and the Rabbinical or
+Pharisaical Jews consists in their rejection of the oral law, and
+their rigid appeal to the text of Scripture, as the exclusive and only
+infallible source and test of religious truth. They therefore glory
+in the name of Karaites, or Scripturists, although, as is the case
+with the epithets by which most sects and systems of opinion have been
+characterized, it was at first given them by their enemies. They,
+however, consult the Talmud and other Jewish writings, and the answer of
+the principal Rabbi in Tchoufout Kaleh to Mr. Henderson was singularly
+marked by good sense and moderation: “We do not admit,” said he, “that
+the Talmud has any binding authority over our consciences, and there are
+many things in it which we cannot approve, but shall we on this account
+reject what is good in it, and not avail ourselves of such statements as
+are consonant with the text of Scripture?”
+
+In the middle of the town, near the ancient gate, is a mausoleum,
+with an elegant portico, in which are said to repose the remains of
+Nenekedjàn Khánum, daughter of the famous Tóktamish Khan, the successor
+of Tamerlane.[63] She fell in love with a handsome Genoese nobleman
+according to some, or a Tatar Mirza according to others. As her father
+would not consent to the marriage, she fled with her lover to the
+impregnable walls of Tchoufout Kaleh. He was treacherously inveigled out
+of his place of safety, and Nenekedjàn, knowing the fate that would
+await him, threw herself down the precipice. Her father, repentant when
+too late, built this beautiful tomb to her memory, which is covered with
+Arab inscriptions from the Koran.
+
+Tchoufout Kaleh[64] means, in Turkish, “the fortress of the Jews,” and
+this name is not found applied to it till two hundred years ago. The
+ancient name was Kirkor, which was the capital of the Khans, before they
+removed to Baktchéserai.[65] From the earliest times this spot must have
+been a residence of men, for there is a crypt town built at the entrance
+of the gorge, in the strata of the chalk, with the isolated hill of
+Tchoufout Kaleh behind it, which served as a place of refuge, fortified
+by nature. All the other crypt towns in Crimea, as those at Inkerman,
+Mangoup, Katchikaléw, and Tepekerman, are built in similar localities,
+and date from the time of the Tauro-Scythians, many centuries before
+Christ.[66]
+
+This subterranean town is cut under the fortress, in the sides of the
+little valley. There are in one place alone as many as fifty of these
+grottoes, and a path with steps is cut in the rocks leading from them up
+to the fortress. On the opposite side one of them is converted into the
+Monastery of the Assumption, and inhabited by the monks, and a visit to
+it enables the traveller to judge how the old crypt towns looked before
+they were deserted. Many white crosses mark the tombs of rich Greeks,
+whose bodies have been brought from various parts, to be buried in this
+sacred ground.
+
+All the higher part of the valley, beyond a magnificent group of oaks,
+has been used for ages as a burying-ground by the Jews, and is called
+the Valley of Jehoshaphat. The tombs, great numbers of which are cut in
+the white chalk, are ranged under fine trees, and along the sides of the
+paths. The effect of it is very striking, as the extent is enormous, and
+the whole place is carefully kept up. Some of the monuments go as far
+back as the middle of the thirteenth century, and the most ancient are
+also the simplest, and resemble long stone coffins.[67]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+WHO ARE THE TATARS?
+
+    Origin of the Tatars—Original common stock of the Mongol,
+    Toungous, Turk, and Ugrian groups of nations—Short account
+    of each of these—The Tatars belong to the Turk race—Their
+    royal race, the Gerays, descendants of Zingis Khan, through
+    Tóktamish—Discord in the kingdom of Kiptchak for one
+    hundred years—Kingdom of Crimea founded by Mahomet II.—Held
+    tributary to Constantinople till conquest by the Russians—The
+    conditions—Popular notion that the Gerays are next heirs to
+    the throne of Constantinople—Selim Geray—Constitution of
+    Crimea—Power of the Khans with the Grand Sultan—The Sultans, or
+    royal family, of the Gerays—The wives of the Khans—Character of
+    the Tatars—Their manner of living—Their fidelity.
+
+
+After the account given in the last chapter of the capital of the Tatars,
+it will be perhaps interesting to inquire a little into the history of
+this people, who have established themselves for so many hundred years
+in the Crimea, who still form the bulk of its population, and, although
+their former warlike spirit seems quite to have disappeared, are now
+rendering our army important assistance by bringing it provisions.
+
+To gain a clear idea of their antecedents, we must for a few moments
+travel back into very early times.
+
+There seems to have been in a prehistoric period of time some common
+stock from which four great groups of nations have descended, the Mongol,
+the Tungousian, the Turk, and the Ugrian, called also the Finn, or Tchud.
+The Mongols occupied a comparatively small territory till the time of
+their national hero Zingis Khan, when they first occur in history. Even
+in his armies and those of his successors, most of his soldiers were
+Turks, while the captains were Mongolians.
+
+They are now confined principally to the country northward of the Great
+Wall of China, and westward of the Mandshu country.
+
+The Tungusians extend on the east from the Yenisei to the Sea of Okhotsk,
+and on the north from the coast of the Icy Sea, between the Yenisei and
+the Lena, to the Yellow Sea on the south-east. Of this race, the only
+division which has exercised an influence on the history of the world is
+that of the Mandshus, the present rulers of China.
+
+The Turks, the most widely extended of the four races, and one of the
+most considerable of the families of the world, occupy as a continuous
+population the vast extent of country from the neighbourhood of Lake
+Baikal, in Siberia, near the northern frontier of China, to the eastern
+boundaries of the Greek and Slavonic countries in Europe, and along the
+northern coast of Africa to the vicinity of the Pillars of Hercules. One
+isolated tribe, that of the Yakuts, dwell in the remote east, upon the
+river Lena, and the coasts of the Icy Sea.
+
+The Ugrians left the great eastern plateau of Asia, and settled in the
+north-west of Asia and the north of Europe, at a period long antecedent
+to all historical documents. They extend as a continuous population from
+the Yenisei on the east to Norway on the west. The eastern branches of
+this race are the Voguls and the Ostiacks, between the Ural Mountains
+and the Yenisei, inhabiting the country formerly called Ugrien, Jugrien,
+or Jugoria, and the most important of the western portions of them are
+the Finns and the Lappes. The Magyars of Hungary are also members of the
+Ugrian race, and, in the ninth century of the Christian era, descended
+from the southern part of the Uralian Mountains, and settled on the
+plains of the Lower Danube. They called themselves Magyars, but the
+Russians gave them the name of Ugri, and this is the name which has been
+corrupted into Ungri and Hungary. The Magyars are the only people of
+the Ugrian race who have exercised any influence upon the history of the
+world.
+
+From the third of these races (viz., the Turkish) are sprung the
+Tatars[68] of Crimea, who are a remnant of the great nation which overran
+a large part of Asia and Europe in the thirteenth century; and the
+princes of the House of Geray, who ruled the Crimea down to the time of
+the Russian conquest, and several branches of which still exist in Russia
+and Circassia, are the lineal descendants of the great conqueror, Zingis
+or Gengis Khan. This mighty potentate, who, at the age of thirteen, was
+left as the chief of a small tribe dependent on the kingdom of the Niu
+Tchè Tatars in the northern portion of China, and whose name was then
+Temouchin, commenced his career by defeating the rebellious nobles of
+his tribe, and boiling the principal malcontents in seventy cauldrons
+filled with hot water. By his large views, and his skilful use of the
+superstitious tendencies of his people, he induced the chiefs of the
+neighbouring tribes to obey him, and a holy hermit saluted him as the
+master of the world, by the name of Zingis Khan.[69] He conquered China,
+upset the flourishing kingdom of the Seljuk Turks in Khaurism, and then
+his generals advanced by Derbend and the shores of the Caspian, and
+defeated the Russian princes at the battle of the Kalka, near Mariopol,
+on the Sea of Azof (1224). They pursued the flying Russians to the
+Dniepr, and then returned to Zingis Khan in Great Bukharía.
+
+Ten years after the death of Zingis Khan in 1227, Batou Khan, his nephew,
+conquered the whole of Russia (1237), and the country remained subject to
+the Tatars for about 150 years, till at the celebrated battle of Koulikof
+on the Don (1380) the Russians made the first step towards throwing off
+their subjection, and the black standard of Dmitri Donskoi waved over the
+slaughtered hosts of the Khan Mamai.[70]
+
+The empire of Zingis Khan had been divided at his death, and Tamerlane
+now ruled over the two Bukharías. Russia depended on the kingdom of
+Kiptchak, which, soon after the battle of Koulikof, fell to the lot of
+Tóktamish, a general of Tamerlane,[71] who gained it by defeating Mamai,
+at another famous battle in the vicinity of Mariopol. The celebrated
+kingdom of Kiptchak comprehended the Steppes which extend between the
+Caspian and Black Seas, between the Caucasus and the Don in one part, and
+between the Volga and the Emba in another.
+
+Tóktamish was conquered afterwards by the Ouzbeg Idekou (1395), another
+general of the great Tamerlane, against whom the khan of Kiptchak had
+revolted, and from Tóktamish descend the Gerays of Crimea, and from
+Idekou the khans of the Nogai Tatars. Nearly a hundred years of civil
+war followed in Kiptchak after the victory of Idekou, and at the end
+of it we find Mengli Geray seated on the throne of Crimea (1478),
+which he consented to hold tributary to Mahomet II., the conqueror of
+Constantinople. The kingdom of Crimea was therefore the remnant of the
+kingdom of Kiptchak, as this latter was only a small portion of the vast
+empire of Zingis Khan. At the time of the interference of Mahomet II.
+there was terrible disorder in the affairs of Little Tatary, and the
+state was on the verge of ruin. Three khans reigned at once, and Mengli
+Geray, who had the best right to the throne, was dispossessed and obliged
+to retire to Mangoup, which at that time was in the possession of the
+Goths and the Genoese. Mahomet fearing lest the latter people, who were
+masters of the greater portion of the Crimea, and the Muscovites, who
+had already seized several provinces of the empire of Kiptchak, should
+unite to divide the rest of it, wished to assist the Tatar princes, and
+to put an end to the dissensions which must have brought about the total
+destruction of the monarchy. He, therefore, drove the Genoese from the
+Crimea, took from them the cities of Mangoup and Caffa, and brought
+prisoner to Constantinople the dethroned khan, Mengli Geray, whom he
+afterwards restored on the following conditions:
+
+1st. The khan swore for himself and his descendants submission and
+inviolable fidelity to the Porte; and he consented that the khans should
+be placed on the throne and removed by the Grand Sultan at his pleasure,
+and that they should make peace and war for the interests of the Ottoman
+empire.
+
+On the other hand, the Sultan conceded—1st. That only a prince of the
+race of Zingis Khan should be placed on the throne of Little Tatary.
+
+2nd. That he would never, under any circumstances, put to death any
+prince of the house of Geray.
+
+3rd. That the Gerays should never be obliged to deliver up refugees who
+took shelter in any of their dominions.
+
+4th. That the khutbah or prayer of the khan should be read in the mosques
+after that offered up for the Grand Sultan.
+
+5th. That, if the khan made a particular request to the Porte, it should
+not be refused.
+
+6th. That the khan should carry five tails on his standard when he went
+to battle, which was one less than the Grand Sultan himself, and two more
+than the highest rank of pashas.
+
+Lastly. That in time of war the Porte should allow 120 purses, or about
+12,000_l._, for each campaign, towards the expenses of the khan’s guard;
+and 80 purses, or nearly 10,000_l._, for the Kapikouli Mirzas, or the
+immediate vassals of the khan, who were not of noble birth.
+
+There was a fixed opinion in Peyssonel’s time, and it exists down to the
+present hour, that the family of Geray are the next heirs to the throne
+of Constantinople, should the family of the Sultan become extinct; but
+Peyssonel questioned upon this point the khan himself, and his ministers,
+and the learned men, and they all agreed in saying that no such right
+existed, and that the opinion took its rise in a vulgar error.
+
+It is probable that it originated in the following manner:—Hadji Selim
+Geray Khan reigned at the end of the seventeenth century, and was a great
+prince—great as a king, a general, a soldier, and a man. This prince,
+having beaten in a single campaign the Germans, the Poles, and the
+Muscovites, saved the standard of the faith when it was on the point of
+being taken, and supported the falling fortunes of the Ottoman empire.
+
+Upon this the Janissaries wished to raise him to the throne, but he
+thanked them, and declared himself incapable of violating the engagements
+to the Porte, which his ancestors had contracted for him, and that he
+should consider himself unworthy of them if he mounted the throne of
+Turkey by treachery. Having appeased the seditious Janissaries, he asked
+but one favour, and that was to be allowed to visit Mecca. He was the
+first Tatar prince to whom this favour was accorded, for their birth was
+considered so illustrious, that the Sultans were afraid of their rousing
+the people of Arabia, and declaring themselves the successors of the
+Khalifs.
+
+Selim Geray[72] was so much respected in Turkey, that the Sultan called
+him his father, and, in gratitude, declared that the throne of Tatary
+should be filled by princes of his branch of the Geray family alone. The
+khans of Crimea used to feel the irksomeness of their dependence on the
+Porte, which kept its ascendant by the favour of the nobles, who were
+very powerful in Crimea, and by the religious feeling of the people,
+who recognised the Grand Sultan as the successor of the Khalifs and the
+depositary of the keys of Mecca.
+
+The power of the khans of Crimea was by no means unlimited, and rather
+resembled a constitutional monarchy than a despotism. They drew no
+revenue from the land nor from their subjects, and could not alter the
+privileges of the nobles; and, by the fundamental constitution of the
+monarchy, no noble could be punished without the participation of the
+beys, or heads of the great houses assembled in council. Bengly Geray,
+after having punished the nobles who were concerned in the revolt of
+Shireen Bey, and contributed to the expulsion of Seadet Geray, wished to
+diminish the power of the nobles, and formed a plan for removing the Beys
+from their great hereditary offices, and making his vizir chief of all
+the nobility. The nobles of the Crimea and of the Nogais all opposed this
+proposition, and the khan seeing his danger, abandoned his intentions.
+
+The influence of the khan with the Porte was very great, particularly in
+time of war. When Devlet Geray was at Adrianople, and had taken leave
+of the Grand Sultan, and was preparing to mount his horse, he suddenly
+stopped, with one foot in the stirrup and the other on the stone that
+helped him to mount, and the Sultan in surprise asked him what delayed
+his departure. He received for answer, that the khan would not mount his
+horse till the head of Baltagi Mehemet Pasha, the grand vizir, with whom
+he was greatly displeased on account of the treaty he had made on the
+Pruth, was brought to him. The minister, as well as the reis effendi,
+were executed, and their heads sent to the khan.
+
+The khan was sometimes sent for to Constantinople to consult with on
+affairs of state, and he was then received like a king. The vizir and all
+the grandees went out to receive him, he sat down and took his coffee
+with the Sultan, and, like him, wore the aigrette, and received the
+homage of the Janissaries.
+
+His forces were very considerable, and he could easily raise an army of
+200,000 men. This he could do, although his revenues were very small, and
+did not exceed 160,000_l._ a year, because as the nobles marched with
+their vassals, and each soldier carried with him provisions for three
+months, the support of his army cost him very little.
+
+His style in writing to foreign powers, except the Sultan, was—Geray,
+by the grace of God, Emperor of the Tatars, the Circassians, and the
+Daghestan.
+
+All the princes of the reigning house had the title of Sultan, and were
+not shut up, but enjoyed complete liberty. Some held great charges in the
+kingdom, and others lived in Roumelia on lands granted to them by the
+Porte. There were generally some in Circassia, which was the country to
+which they often fled when they had any cause for discontent, and where,
+by raising the warlike population of the mountains, and marching against
+the khan, or making excursions on the Russian territory, they sometimes
+caused the khan much annoyance. They all received pensions from the
+Porte, and were greatly respected by the whole nation of the Tatars.
+
+The family was divided into two branches, of which the one are the
+descendants of the good prince Hadji Selim, and the other are a distant
+branch, called Tchoban Gerays, or the Shepherd Gerays. It used to be
+the custom of the khan, and of all the princes of the house of Tatary,
+always to choose as their wives Circassian slaves, and on this account
+the mothers of the khans were little respected, even by the prince
+himself, and after the death of their husbands they lived in the hareems
+of their sons, and were not admitted to their table, and even remained
+standing till they received permission to sit down.
+
+The Tatars in the days when they were a formidable people are described
+by a French officer who served in Poland against them, as of middle
+stature, strong, with thick limbs, short neck, broad face, their eyes
+small, but very black, and opening wide, their complexion tawny, hardened
+to all sort of labour and pains from their very infancy. They were
+dressed in sheepskins, and carried with them on their journey a steel to
+strike fire, and a mariner’s compass and a sun-dial to guide them through
+the desert plains where there is no beaten way or path. “They ride very
+short,” says the officer, “like all the Eastern nations, and their
+horses, which they call bac-mates, were long, lean, and ugly, with the
+hair of their neck thick, and great tails, which hang down to the ground;
+but they are swift and indefatigable in travelling, being able to carry
+their riders whole days’ journeys without drawing bit; and they will feed
+at all times, and when in winter the earth is covered with snow, which
+is the time when the Tatars make their incursions, they live either upon
+what is under the snow, or upon the branches or sprouts of trees, pine
+tops, straw, or anything they can find.”
+
+The Tatars hardly ever used bread, but made a pottage of millet, and
+ordinarily ate horse-flesh, boiled when they were at leisure, but just
+heated under their saddles and eaten raw when on a march, and the only
+sauce they had was the froth of the flesh from this primitive way of
+cooking it. They always had extra horses with them for food.
+
+They had the highest character for integrity, and very few nations were
+to be found less vicious. Besides their continence, they were extremely
+sincere and faithful, and had no thieves or false witnesses amongst them;
+they did little injustice or violence, and lived in union and great
+tranquillity. The marvellous fidelity of the captive Tatars in Poland was
+celebrated. They never failed to return when they were released on their
+parole, and the Polish gentlemen rather trusted the young Tatars in their
+service with the keys of their money and jewels than any others of their
+household.[73]
+
+The Tatars can hardly now be said to form a nation. After the conquest
+of Crimea by the Russians, all those who did not wish to stay under the
+Russian sceptre were allowed to emigrate, and many availed themselves of
+the permission and retired into Turkey, so that there are now scarcely
+any remaining in the country west of the Dniepr, and their number has
+much diminished in the Crimea.
+
+The influx of fashionable people to the southern coast of the Crimea, and
+the wealth they have brought there, has corrupted the lower orders of the
+Tatars, and made the nobles shrink in haughty seclusion to the mountains.
+There the poorer classes, unlike the Tatars of the southern coast and the
+plains, retain their rough and primitive independence, and the rich can
+peaceably pass their lives without being shocked by the sight of their
+masters.
+
+I will conclude this chapter by borrowing the account given by Madame
+Hommaire de Hell of her visit to the Princess Adel Bey, a celebrated
+Tatar beauty, who still lives near Baktchéserai. She rode for several
+hours from the latter place through a lovely country, intersected with
+streams, valleys, and numerous orchards, to Karolez, the village of the
+princess, lost in the mountains, in the valley of the same name. It is
+situated near Mangoup, whence there is a glorious view of the mountainous
+parts of the Crimea and Sevastopol, and Balaclava, and the sea shining
+beyond them; and the abundance of its waters, and the mountains that
+encompass the valley with a line of battlemented walls, make it a
+favourite spot with the lovers of natural beauty.
+
+Here Madame de Hell and her husband were received at the guest-house of
+the princess by a double line of richly-dressed servants, drawn up in the
+vestibule to receive them, and they were conducted into a saloon arranged
+in the fashion of the East, with gaily painted walls and red silk divans.
+
+Thus far an ungrudging hospitality received every distinguished guest
+alike, but Madame de Hell was allowed an interview with the princess in
+her own apartments, a favour which has been permitted to very few ladies.
+
+From her account it appears that Eastern beauty still deserves its
+reputation, and that the ancient manners and dress are still to be found
+unaltered in the mountains of the Crimea. Admitted into a fairy apartment
+looking out on a terraced garden, “a curtain was suddenly raised at the
+end of the room, and a woman of striking beauty entered,” says Madame
+de Hell, “dressed in a rich costume. She advanced to me with an air of
+remarkable dignity, took both my hands, kissed me on the two cheeks, and
+sat down beside me, making many demonstrations of friendship. She wore
+a great deal of rouge; her eyelids were painted black, and met over the
+nose, giving her countenance a certain sternness, which nevertheless
+did not destroy its pleasing effect. A furred velvet vest fitted tight
+to her still elegant figure, and altogether her appearance surpassed
+what I had conceived of her beauty. After some time, when I offered
+to go, she checked me with a very graceful gesture, and said eagerly,
+‘Pastoi, pastoi,’ which is Russian for ‘Stay, stay,’ and clapped her
+hands several times. A young girl entered at the signal, and by her
+mistress’s order threw open a folding-door, and immediately I was struck
+dumb with surprise and admiration by a most brilliant apparition.
+Imagine, reader, the most exquisite sultanas of whom poetry and painting
+have ever tried to convey an idea, and still your conception will fall
+far short of the enchanting models I had then before me. There were
+three of them, all equally beautiful and graceful. Two were clad in
+tunics of crimson brocade, adorned in front with broad gold lace; the
+tunics were open, and disclosed beneath them cashmere robes, with very
+tight sleeves terminating in gold fringes. The youngest wore a tunic of
+azure blue brocade, with silver ornaments: this was the only difference
+between her dress and that of her sisters. All three had magnificent
+black hair escaping in countless tresses from a fez of silver filagree,
+set like a diadem over their ivory foreheads; they wore gold embroidered
+slippers, and wide trousers drawn close at the ancle. I had never beheld
+skins so dazzlingly fair, eyelashes so long, or so delicate a bloom of
+youth. The calm repose that sat on the countenances of these lovely
+creatures had never been disturbed by any profane glance. No look but
+their mother’s had ever told them they were beautiful; and this thought
+gave them an inexpressible charm in my eyes. It is not in our Europe
+where women, exposed to the gaze of crowds, so soon addict themselves
+to coquetry, that the imagination could conceive such a type of beauty.
+The features of our young girls are too soon altered by the vivacity of
+their impressions to allow the eye of the artist to discover in them
+that divine charm of purity and ignorance with which I was so struck in
+beholding my Tatar princesses. After embracing me they retired to the
+end of the room, where they remained standing in those graceful Oriental
+attitudes which no woman in Europe could imitate. A dozen attendants,
+muffled in white muslin, were gathered round the door, gazing with
+respectful curiosity. Their profiles, shown in relief on a dark ground,
+added to the picturesque character of the scene. This delightful vision
+lasted an hour. When the princess saw that I was decided on going away,
+she signified to me by signs that I should go and see the garden; but
+though grateful to her for this further mark of attention, I preferred
+immediately rejoining my husband, being impatient to relate to him all
+the details of this interview, with which I was completely dazzled.”[74]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+SEVASTOPOL.
+
+    Road to Sevastopol from Baktchéserai—Conquest and
+    foundation of Sevastopol in 1783-84—Description of town and
+    fortress—“The Dvoretz”—Engineer buildings—Fort Alexander
+    and Fort Constantine—South Bay—The Hulks—Bay of Vessels,
+    now the Docks—Description of the barracks—Hospitals,
+    Slobodes—Colonel Upton and anecdotes of Russian
+    workmen—Sevastopol in 1834—Reservoir of Sevastopol—Sievarna
+    fort—The citadel—Observations of Sir Howard Douglas on the
+    siege—Military stores—Arsenals of Russia—Manufactories of
+    fire-arms—Cannon foundries—Stores come to Sevastopol by the Don
+    and the Azof—The road by the Arabate and Perecop—Fortifying of
+    Cape Kazantip—Undefended state of Kertch up to May last—Public
+    gardens—Haxthausen on the object of Sevastopol and the Black
+    Sea Fleet—Chopin on the Anglo-French alliance—Conclusion.
+
+
+The high road from Baktchéserai to Sevastopol is carried entirely along
+the terrace which separates the chalk from the tertiary ridges of the
+Steppe. It passes along its whole length over a white clay soil, and in
+summer is very dry and dusty, except in the valleys of the Katcha and
+the Belbek. Here the eye is refreshed by the verdure of vineyards and
+orchards, especially on the banks of the Belbek, where there are several
+country houses belonging to the superior officers in Sevastopol, and the
+little Tatar village of Douvankoi offers some charming points of view.
+From Douvankoi[75] the road follows the valley of the Belbek till it
+crosses the stream near the village of the same name, and then, after
+skirting for a moment the sea, it turns again inland, and passing close
+to Fort Constantine, arrives at Sievarna,[76] the citadel of Sevastopol,
+on the north of the Great Bay, which must be crossed to enter the town.
+
+From so important a place as Sevastopol it is a great inconvenience to be
+obliged to cross the water to reach the high road leading to the interior
+of the Crimea and Petersburg, but the country is so extremely cut up
+with ravines to the east of the town, towards Inkerman, that no direct
+communication by this the shortest route has yet been attempted.
+
+Sevastopol has succeeded the ancient Greek colony of Kherson, with this
+difference, that as the latter was a great commercial mart, so the former
+is entirely devoted to warlike purposes, and no considerations of a
+commercial or manufacturing nature ever entered into the mind of those
+who founded it. It is in consequence entirely military, and contains
+nothing but men-of-war, arsenals, barracks, and batteries.
+
+When the conquest of the Crimea had been assured to Russia by the treaty
+of Constantinople, of the 10th of June, 1783, the Russians found nothing
+around the magnificent bay of Sevastopol except the little village of
+Aktiar, placed at the extremity of the bay near Inkerman, under the
+cliffs of white clay that border its steep shores. During all the time of
+the Tatar possession of Crimea, this basin, which might have been made an
+incomparable port, had been neglected. The Tatars called the Great Bay
+Kadi Liman, and the more inland portion of it, including the careening
+bay, Avlita.[77]
+
+[Illustration: POSITIONS OF THE ALLIED ARMIES BEFORE SEVASTOPOL.]
+
+No sooner were the Russians in possession of it, than within a year they
+had made preparations for turning to account its natural advantages.
+Already in the spring of 1784 they began to build houses for the invalids
+of the fleet, placed near a beautiful spring of water at the extremity
+of the Bay of Artillery. The fleet at that time consisted of fourteen
+ships of war in the port, one of which had just brought a cargo of
+colonists.[78] They were still uncertain where they should place the
+town, but even then were inclined to its present position, and the
+fanciful name of Sevastopol[79] was fixed upon, as they could not give
+it that of Kherson,[80] which had already been misapplied. The old name
+of Aktiar had a long struggle with the new name in public use, and I
+find that in the Russian post map, of so late a date as 1825, Aktiar is
+engraved and Sevastopol wholly omitted. Ten years later, in 1794, when
+Pallas again visited this place, a great plan had been laid down, which
+has been followed out in all its important details down to the present
+day. Five batteries, those of Alexander and Constantine, which commanded
+the entrance to the Great Bay, a third on the northern coast, and two
+others opposite, on the point between South Bay and Artillery Bay, had
+been built. The admiralty and its church, the arsenal, the Greek church
+on the hill, the ports, and the quarantine already existed.
+
+Since that time it has made gigantic progress, as may be seen by the
+descriptions of the various travellers mentioned in the notes.[81] The
+town is built in the shape of an amphitheatre, on the rise of a large
+hill, flattened on its summit, between the Artillery Bay, which is the
+merchant port, on the right of the town to a person looking at it from
+the sea, and the South Bay, which is the port of war on the left.
+
+Several wide unpaved streets, bordered by good houses, ascend the hill
+from the water, up a steep incline. They open on a large empty square,
+separating them from the fortifications, which consist of several
+batteries placed on the point of the promontory. Here is hoisted the flag
+of the admiralty, which is the residence of the commandant of Sevastopol.
+
+The quay is a fine construction, paved with stone, and ornamented with
+pillars of granite, which have been brought there down the Dniepr from
+the interior of Russia.
+
+The street which runs the nearest to the South Bay is the principal one
+of the town, and between it and the bay are the Russian church and the
+admiralty, with its tower for a gateway, and the arsenal. A prolongation
+of the principal street between the batteries and the Admiralty leads to
+the great Stairs which serve as the landing-place to cross the bay, and
+here is passed on one side a house which has now a mean appearance in
+Sevastopol, but which is still honoured with the name of Dvoretz, or the
+Palace, because in 1787 it was the residence prepared for the reception
+of Catherine II., who lodged here during her stay in the town, which
+she had just founded. In the highest part of the town, the Greek church
+is seen in a commanding position, in the wall of which is an old Greek
+bas-relief, of no great value, according to Dubois, although much praised
+by Clarke.
+
+Farther on, at the height of 240 feet above the level of the sea, is the
+telegraph, which naturally commands the whole town, and fourteen stations
+establish a communication in two hours with Nicolaief, the head-quarters
+of the fleet of the Black Sea.
+
+Since the siege of the town commenced we have destroyed some of these
+stations, and the telegraph is now carried by a different route through
+the country in the possession of the Russians to Perecop.[82] A courier
+with despatches would not take much more than a week to reach Petersburg
+from Sevastopol in fine weather, as I remember that one arrived at Prince
+Woronzof’s palace of Aloupka, on the southern coast of Crimea, by post,
+in eight days from Petersburg, and I think the distance from Petersburg
+to Tiflis has also been accomplished in the same time.
+
+The merchant vessels which come to take in stores at Sevastopol all enter
+Artillery Bay, along the furthest part of which are ranged the principal
+shops of the town.
+
+The rocks which border the western side of this bay were blown up and
+allowed to fall into the sea in 1834, in order to form a platform large
+enough to receive some important buildings required for the engineers.
+
+On the flanks of the same rock, but looking to the entrance of the
+Great Bay and the Quarantine Bay, are ranged, one above the other, the
+formidable bastions of Fort Alexander, intended to cross their fire with
+those of Fort Constantine opposite, in order to destroy any vessels which
+should attempt to enter the bay. These two forts are armed with 320
+cannon. The passage or entrance of the bay, narrowed by two reefs, is
+shown at night by two lighthouses near Inkerman, at the end of the Great
+Bay; and for ships to enter safely, these lights must be kept exactly on
+the same line, one above the other. Behind Fort Alexander, on the top of
+the hill to the right on entering, are the barracks of the land-forces;
+and this is one of the points in which Sevastopol does not shine. They
+are passed in going to the quarantine, which is at the extremity of the
+bay of the same name, and are placed on the spot on which stood the
+principal part of the ancient city of Kherson, to which the Tatars still
+give the name of Tchortchoun.
+
+The library and reading-rooms for the officers of the navy, which
+I visited with one of the Messrs. Upton, who I think had been the
+architect of them, were well furnished with valuable works and scientific
+instruments. These stand, or stood, near the church, in the highest part
+of the town, and command, from their fine spacious apartments, a splendid
+view of the grand harbour and the open sea.
+
+While the fleet is armed, it remains in the Great Bay, and when it is
+laid up it is placed in the South Bay, which is a branch of the Great
+Bay, about a mile and three quarters long, and 400 yards wide. The Tatars
+call the South Bay Kartaly Kotche, or the Bay of the Vulture, and its
+direction is from north to south. This interior port is so well defended
+by the steep hills which close it in, that the water is never more
+disturbed than in a pond, and it is so deep that the largest vessels can
+almost lie close to its western shore.
+
+There, in the furthest part of the bay, used to lie the old men-of-war,
+used as hulks, in which the greater number of the convicts, who worked
+by thousands in the dockyards, were shut up at night.[83] The continual
+passage of these bands of bad characters through the town used to be
+the great annoyance of the inhabitants of Sevastopol, who, like our
+own colonists, could not see without dread this great accumulation
+of criminals among them. Some, of course, occasionally escaped, and
+immediately recommenced their lawless practices in all parts of the
+Crimea.
+
+As a ramification of the South Bay, at its entrance there opens to the
+south-east a little basin, which is a kind of inner port, the total
+length of which is about half a mile. It is called the Bay of Vessels,
+because a part of the laid-up vessels used to be placed here, and
+remained in perfect security in all weathers. When the question was
+raised about building the docks, no better position could be found than
+the extremity of this little bay, in which a basin has been formed 400
+feet broad, 300 feet long, and 24 feet deep, to receive the vessels which
+require to be repaired. For this purpose five docks or reservoirs, made
+independent one of the other by locks, have been made. The one at the
+furthest extremity is destined for first rates; the two reservoirs which
+flank it on the right and left are for second rates; and the two last at
+the entrance of the basin are for frigates: the three principal locks are
+58 feet wide. To feed these basins, they have fetched the water of the
+Tchornaia Retchka[84] (Bouiouk Ouzéne) from Tchorgouna to the locks, and
+have conducted it by a canal, overcoming difficulties which would have
+seemed insurmountable to many governments. Although the Tchorgouna, in a
+direct line, is only eight miles distant from the entrance of the docks,
+it has been necessary, in order to avoid obstacles, to make a détour,
+which has lengthened the canal by four miles, and it is therefore about
+twelve miles long.
+
+It passes Inkerman, and thence is carried along the Great Bay. The
+deep ravines and the Careening Bay have here rendered necessary very
+important works, including two tunnels, one of 800 feet in length, and
+three aqueducts, embracing between them thirty-eight arches, 1000 feet in
+length.
+
+The point where the stream has been diverted is 62 feet above the level
+of the Great Bay. The level of the docks is 30 feet above the bay; and
+the fall of the canal in the twelve miles is 32 feet, or about one in
+2000.
+
+Mr. John Upton, the English engineer, who was employed in the
+construction of the works, estimated the expenses at about two millions
+and a half of roubles assignat (100,000_l._[85]); and calculated that the
+work would be completed in five years if 1000 workmen were constantly
+employed. But as is always the case, the estimates of the time and
+expense were much too low, and the works, begun on the 17th June, 1832,
+are not finished now, and the first ship was admitted into them in 1853.
+
+Those who have visited these works will not be astonished at this delay
+in completing them. Basins of a great size cut in the living rock, and
+cased with English cement, with gigantic locks, and such a length of
+aqueducts, tunnels, and other labours, both principal and accessory, are
+a justification of the engineer, who received the full approbation of
+the Emperor. The docks had only been completed a short time before the
+present war began.
+
+To protect the port and basins, there has been erected at Cape Paul
+(Pavleski Missok), which commands the eastern entrance, a work called
+Fort Nicholas, which has three ranges of bastions, one above the other,
+and is mounted with 260 cannons, the fire of which crosses that of the
+batteries of the admiralty.
+
+This fort, which commands the entrance to the South Bay, had just been
+completed at the time of my visit. I walked through the casemates with
+Mr. Upton, the architect, who had witnessed their construction, and who
+told me that he thought the masonry had been executed in an unworkmanlike
+manner, and that he did not believe the fort would stand the shock of its
+own fire. Such is also the opinion of the French engineer, M. Hommaire de
+Hell, with regard to the casemated batteries at Sevastopol; he says that
+in the first trial of Fort Constantine the walls cracked. The latter,
+however, seems to have withstood the attack by our ships in December last
+very successfully.
+
+On the flanks of the hills which enclose the South Bay, on the eastern
+side, are the barracks of the sailors, the hospitals of the fleet, and
+the barracks of the artillery, and there extend also a part of the
+slobodes, or faubourgs, inhabited by the married sailors, which are
+composed of uniform lines of cottages built on a given plan.
+
+I was shown over Sevastopol by Colonel Upton[86] and his sons, who
+received me very kindly, and showed me everything I wished to see. They
+had found things in a very barbarous state when they arrived—had had
+great difficulty to break in their Russian workmen to European habits
+of industry and carefulness, and they found that the Russian system,
+by which, like our own in India, so much writing is required, greatly
+impeded the prompt execution of work, and justified the observation
+of the French traveller Jacquemont about the latter country, that a
+government of stationery is in most things a stationary government.
+
+The absence of common mechanical contrivances was so great among the
+Russians, that almost up to the period of my visit wheelbarrows were
+unknown, and the troops and serfs employed in the great public works used
+to pick up the earth with their hands and carry it in bags upon their
+shoulders, so that, particularly in wet weather, vast numbers were always
+laid up in the hospital with sore backs, and the works progressed very
+slowly.
+
+The serfs were said to do so little work, that Colonel Upton, as well
+as all other Englishmen that I have known employed by the Russian
+Government, were of opinion that it would be far more economical to pay
+free labourers than to feed and keep the serfs for their gratuitous
+services. The Russian workmen quickly catch an imperfect way of doing
+what they are told, but like children, want constant watching, and never
+can be taught the value of accuracy. They execute their tasks because
+they are ordered to do so, and never reason on the object to which their
+work is to be applied.
+
+As an instance of this, Colonel Upton said, while he was building the
+dock-gates at Sevastopol, when the stone-work was prepared for the wood,
+he found to his astonishment that the parts did not fit, although he
+was certain that his calculations were right, and the work apparently
+correctly executed. At length he thought of measuring his gauge, and then
+he found that his Russian workmen, having done their work wrong, cut his
+gauge to make it appear right, and never thought that there were other
+parts of the work which must fit in with theirs, and consequently make
+their error appear.
+
+Sevastopol has naturally a very fluctuating population, almost entirely
+composed of sailors, soldiers, employés, and convicts. It was estimated
+at 15,000 souls in 1834, although Mr. Tegoborski, writing in 1852,
+declines to make any estimate of it, from the want of any reliable
+data. The non-official inhabitants are composed of a mixture of Russian
+tradesmen, Polish Jews, who are barely tolerated by the police, and
+Germans of the colony of Kronenthal, who are established here as bakers,
+brewers, and artisans of different kinds.
+
+Sevastopol in 1834, although so strongly fortified on the side of
+the sea, had not the smallest defence on the land side against a
+coup-de-main. The town in all its circumference was completely open,
+and there was not even a gate or the smallest rampart. All the streets
+debouched on an immense open place in the upper part of the town, or
+rather one might say into the Steppe itself, whence roads and paths led
+in every direction to Balaclava, Tchorgouna, and the monastery of St.
+George. To one standing in the open place and looking down on the town,
+there is to the left the newly-established reservoir for the fountains
+of Sevastopol, from springs which have been already mentioned. This
+reservoir is placed against the wall of the public garden, called the
+Boulevart, which has been made on the heights which terminate the South
+Bay. The view from hence down upon the bay, filled with men-of-war,
+is very extraordinary, as the ships seem to have arrived there by
+enchantment, and nobody would conceive that this long lake could have any
+communication with the sea. Opposite the garden, a little to the right,
+is the vineyard of Bardac.
+
+At a later period, after the discussions occasioned by the capture of
+the Vixen in 1837, when war was supposed imminent between Russia and
+England, the Cabinet of St. Petersburg grew frightened at the possibility
+of the English in case of war making a descent upon some point of the
+Heracleotic Chersonese, and defences were then ordered to be constructed
+on the land side of Sevastopol.
+
+The ground on the north side of Sevastopol is much higher than on the
+south side, and consequently the citadel of the place, an octagonal
+fortress, called the Sievarna, or Northern, Fort, which is erected
+there, commands the whole town, bay, and docks. It has been greatly
+strengthened of late years, as the most important position for the
+defence or attack of the town. For itself it can only be attacked on the
+land side, as its height above the water would render ineffective the
+fire of ships, and its precipitous shores both on the side of the Great
+Bay and the sea would make a landing very difficult for troops. This is
+the fortress which Sir Howard Douglas calls “the key of Sevastopol,”
+until we secure which we can never hope to take the place. “But this
+taken,” says Sir Howard Douglas, “the Telegraph and Wasp batteries on the
+northern heights, Fort Constantine and the forts below, being commanded
+and attacked in reverse, must soon fall; while the town, docks, arsenal,
+and barracks on the south side of the harbour would be at the mercy of
+the allies, who, by the fire of their batteries, might entirely destroy
+them all. On the contrary, by attacking the place from the south, the
+enemy holding the northern heights, although the works on the crest of
+the southern heights should be breached and taken, the town, the body
+of the place, with its docks and arsenals, will not be tenable by the
+besiegers till the great work on the northern side, and all its defensive
+dependencies, shall have been captured. These, no doubt, will have been
+greatly strengthened before the allies are in a condition to direct their
+attacks against them.”[87]
+
+The fortifications then which render Sevastopol so very strong are the
+important works on the northern side, for there is no use in taking the
+town, even if it could be done, as the strongest part of the fortress
+would yet remain. At the same time, if an army were brought sufficiently
+large to invest it completely, the place must fall, because the supplies
+of food, ammunition, and especially of water, would quickly fail. In
+water the place is very deficient, as there are no springs in the town,
+and only two sources out of the town by which it is supplied. One of
+these is the river which supplies the docks, through the tunnel which
+has been described, as reaching from near Inkerman to the town. This
+tunnel was recently (January 26) stated to be now used, not only as a
+passage for the water, but as a safe road by which the Russians introduce
+supplies into the town, and this is highly probable, as there is a
+foot-path on each side of the conduit. The old town of Kherson, as will
+be stated afterwards, was taken by the Russians in the tenth century by
+cutting off the water-pipes which supplied the town, and perhaps this
+may be the way in which the modern representative of old Kherson will
+ultimately fall.
+
+We have found to our cost how inexhaustible are the stores of Sevastopol,
+and yet it is said that a still greater amount is laid up in the chain
+of fortresses that have been erected during the last twenty years on the
+German, and particularly on the Prussian, frontier.
+
+As the nations of Europe are fully occupied in their own affairs, and as
+Russia is peculiarly inaccessible by nature, she never could fear an
+invasion, and her armaments must therefore be looked upon as threatening
+her neighbours. Besides, as will afterwards be seen, her army for the
+internal service of the country is totally distinct from the immense mass
+of men called the Grand Army, kept hovering for many years past on the
+frontiers of Germany, in a mobilized state, and ready to pour down its
+legions upon any point at a moment’s notice.
+
+Let us shortly inquire where these great military stores are laid up, and
+in what establishments they are prepared. Arsenals in Russia are divided
+into permanent and temporary: the first are at Petersburg, Bransk, Toola,
+and Kief; and the second at Petersburg, Tyraspol, and, since the Polish
+war, at Modlin. The arsenals of Petersburg, Toola, and Kief, are vast and
+elegant edifices, each of which can contain 100,000 small arms, and where
+carriages and other material for the artillery are made. The others are
+only dépôts. Up to the commencement of the seventeenth century there were
+no manufactories of iron or foundries in Russia, and the Government was
+obliged to buy all arms abroad. A Dutchman, named Andrew Vinius, was the
+first to establish foundries, which were worked by water-power. The first
+establishment of this kind was founded in the year 1632, on the little
+river of Toulitza, at fifteen versts from Toola. Since that time several
+others have been formed in the governments of Toola, Kalouga, and Moscow.
+
+In 1764, a Hamburger raised the first manufactories of steel at Olonetz.
+The first hydraulic manufactory for muskets was built in 1648, at Moscow,
+on the Taouza; in 1653, another was established in the village of
+Tchentsof, on the Skniga; and in 1700, Nikita Demidoff Antonief carried
+the arts of founding and making fire-arms to the Neva in Siberia.
+
+The principal manufactories of fire-arms are now at Toola, Votka,
+Sesterbeck, and Zlatoust. The manufactory of Toola,[88] founded in
+1712, by Peter the Great, has been much increased; and its flourishing
+period dates from 1817, when an Englishman, John Jones, undertook its
+management. Some years ago it furnished each year 50,000 muskets, and
+25,000 sabres, besides carbines, pistols, bayonets, and pikes. Seven
+thousand men, and nearly 10,000 women, are employed in it; besides 3500
+peasants, belonging to the establishment. It costs 124,000 roubles a
+year, or about 20,000_l._; and it consumes yearly 70,000 pounds of
+Siberian iron, and 10,000 of steel. The manufactory of Votka is situated
+on the little river Isch, in the district of Sarapoul, in the government
+of Viatka; and some years ago it employed 3000 workmen, and produced
+annually about 14,000 muskets.
+
+The manufactory of Sesterbeck is near Petersburg, and is modelled on that
+of Toola. It produced some years ago yearly 12,000 muskets, and the same
+number of sabres. Zlatoust, in Siberia, furnishes most of the sabres for
+the cavalry and pioneers, to the annual number of about 50,000.
+
+There are five cannon foundries in Russia, at Petersburg, Moscow, Riga,
+Kief, and Kazan. A Scotchman, Gascoigne, sixty years ago introduced as
+much improvement in the founding of cannon as Jones in the manufacture
+of fire-arms. There are two powder manufactories, one at Ochta, near
+Petersburg, and the other at Tchotersk, near Gloukhow.[89]
+
+The military stores and provisions for Sevastopol come from the interior
+of Great Russia and Siberia, down the Volga and Don to Rostof, on the
+Sea of Azof, whence in peace they were shipped, and passed through the
+straits of Kertch, the whole way by sea to Sevastopol and the other
+fortresses on the Black Sea. Since the war began, they have come, as
+usual, down the Don and across the Sea of Azof; but instead of passing
+through the straits of Kertch they have been landed near Cape Kazantip,
+on the coast of Crimea, within the Sea of Azof, and thence were carried
+across Crimea, about 100 miles to Sevastopol, during the whole time of
+the siege, till the Sea of Azof froze in November last. Cape Kazantip was
+fortified by the Russians last summer, and wharves erected near it for
+the landing of the goods, and a regular transport service arranged across
+the peninsula of Crimea.
+
+This is probably the new road to which allusion has been lately made
+in ‘The Times.’ The facts I have stated were communicated to me by
+Mr. Lander, an English merchant at Taganrok, and Mr. Carruthers, late
+Consul at that place. These gentlemen passed over the strip of land by
+the side of the Putrid Sea, called the Arabate, to Kertch, in May last,
+and saw the military stores at Rostof, and the wharves just erected on
+the Crimean coast, and the fortifications of Kazantip. The late English
+Consul at Kertch, Mr. Cattley, is now interpreter to Lord Raglan; and he
+also passed by this route last summer, and therefore neither Lord Raglan
+nor the Ministry ought to have been ignorant of these facts.
+
+Thus continual supplies were poured into Sevastopol up to last November,
+the period of the freezing of the Sea of Azof; and since that time the
+stores for Sevastopol have probably been carried across the ice to some
+point on the northern shore of the Azof, and thence by land over the
+Isthmus of Perecop. Had the latter place been occupied, it would have
+been easy to have taken possession of the Strait of Yénitchi, and to have
+commanded the tongue of Arabate. Indeed, as I have mentioned in another
+place, there is deep water (24 feet) along the Arabate, on the side of
+the Azof, and a few gun-boats in the Sea of Azof would have rendered the
+Arabate impassable to the Russians. The straits of Kertch were undefended
+up to May last; and had possession of them been taken by our Government,
+and a very small force of gun-boats been placed in the Sea of Azof, the
+supplies might have been stopped, and the Russians in Sevastopol reduced
+by this measure alone to great difficulties.
+
+Not only the military stores but also the rye-flour, for the troops at
+Sevastopol, is furnished from Rostof. M. Hagemeister, in the Russian
+official report on the commerce of the Black Sea, says: “All the
+rye-flour which annually arrives at Rostof from Voronetz, by the Don, is
+purchased by the government for the use of the army and navy; and thus
+the navy at Sevastopol and Nicolaief draw considerable quantities of rye
+from New Russia.” These provisions were lying ready for shipment with the
+military stores at Rostof in last May, and yet we made not the slightest
+efforts to intercept these supplies, which have been regularly poured
+into Sevastopol since that time, and without which the siege could not
+have been carried on. Merchants in England have informed me that the very
+lead which has formed the bullets that have killed our brave soldiers
+has been imported into Russia since the beginning of the siege, in
+consequence of there being no blockade in the Black Sea and the Azof; and
+large reinforcements which have been sent from the Caucasus to Sevastopol
+would also have been cut off.
+
+Such is a short account of Sevastopol, which is alone remarkable for its
+admirable natural situation, and its immense fortifications towards the
+sea. Although so much labour has been expended upon it, the place is so
+vast that the works of man look pigmy. The impression on the beholder is,
+how much has nature done for this place, compared with which the efforts
+of man appear as mere specks.
+
+The group of safe and commodious harbours which it presents, stretching
+out like the fingers of the human hand from the wrist, which may be
+supposed to represent the entrance to Sevastopol, between Forts Alexander
+and Constantine, contain so vast an area that all the navies of the world
+might ride securely in them. They are the only really good harbours in
+the Black Sea, with the exception of the adjoining ones between them and
+Balaclava, which, however, are greatly inferior both in size and security
+to those of Sevastopol.
+
+The latter, since the Russians have possessed them, have been closed
+against commercial vessels,[90] and every effort has for many years been
+made to accumulate here a vast amount of warlike stores, and to keep up
+an enormous fleet, although Russia has no mercantile marine to protect,
+and, as the event has proved, dares not risk a battle with any of the
+great naval powers.
+
+The object, therefore, of the fleet, to carry an invading force to the
+shores of the Bosphorus, and, under the guise of religion, to carry out
+schemes of ambition, has always been obvious, and, indeed, not denied by
+the friends of Russia.
+
+M. Haxthausen, the able author of an admirable work on Russia, to
+complete which every facility was given him by the Russian Government,
+and who, having familiar access to the leading statesmen of Russia,
+probably echoes the opinions which he has constantly heard put forth at
+Petersburg, has the following remarkable passage upon the real objects
+of the fleet and arsenals of Sevastopol: “The object of the fleet,” he
+says, “is to secure the dominion of Russia in the Black Sea, and this is
+still further assured by the construction at Sevastopol—at the present
+moment[91]—of a fortified port of war, which, according to the accounts
+of competent persons, will not have its equal in the world. When Europe
+shall have a moment of feebleness—and we may fairly expect this to come
+to pass after what we have seen to happen in 1848, and when she shall
+think the time arrived for conquests—then the establishment of Sevastopol
+will allow this power to take the offensive against Constantinople with
+equal energy and safety, by making use of the fleet, either to disembark
+her troops behind the lines of mountains and rivers which perpendicularly
+on the western shore of the Black Sea cut at a right angle the line of
+approach on Constantinople, or to strengthen the base of operations of a
+grand army, by supporting it wherever there are ports along the Euxine.
+It is impossible that the Turkish fleet, either present or future, could
+stop this result, for whatever may be done to improve it, its best
+sailors are always Greeks. Up to the battle of Navarino the case was very
+different, for till that event some confidence might still be placed by
+the Porte in the Greek sailors.”
+
+Then M. Haxthausen, a Russian in feeling, though a German by birth,
+gets quite nettled at what he calls the low, feeble policy of England
+and France, in preventing the extension of Russia. He continues: “Let
+us remark now, the strange change which has taken place in the affairs
+of the East. Formerly Christian Europe exhausted herself in efforts to
+drive back the crescent to the deserts whence it came. The noblest blood
+of Christendom had been shed before the crescent was allowed to surmount
+the cross at Jerusalem. But now it is only the Christians who prevent the
+fall of the crescent, or at least the re-appearance of the cross on the
+domes of Constantinople. In the same manner as the _social licence_ of
+Switzerland is sheltered, not behind impregnable mountain defiles, but
+simply behind the rivality of the great powers, so the anti-Christian
+empire established on the borders of the Sea of Marmora depends not
+on the force of the Mussulman, enervated by vices which belong to
+the country—not on its number, which in Turkey in Europe has always
+been inferior to that of the Rayahs—not on the fortified rocks of the
+Hellespont, which the military science of the Christians would soon have
+overturned, but solely on the fact that the Christians of the West find
+it convenient to preserve Turkey as a barrier between themselves and the
+East.”
+
+“When, in the time of the Crusades, they were fighting for Jerusalem,
+the policy of the Byzantine empire led the Greeks to aid the Saracens
+against the Roman Catholic armies. This was a policy as _mesquine_, as
+feeble, as _tracassière_ as that observed for the last eighty years with
+regard to the Turks by those Christian nations who are the inheritors of
+the Byzantine policy in the West, namely, the French and the English.
+This _mesquine_ policy of to-day, are we to consider it as one of the
+quiverings which announce the imminent dissolution of the Romano-German
+states, as it formerly preceded that of the last Roman empire?”[92]
+
+Thus this honest, patriotic German, who hates Switzerland, as is natural
+with an admirer of the Czar, is actually provoked with us for preventing
+Russian extension not only over Turkey, but over a part of his own
+country, namely, Austria, or the Romano-German states, as he calls that
+empire, whose fall he thinks imminent. A Frenchman, who knew Russia as
+well as M. Haxthausen, and whom a long residence in the country had not
+deprived either of his common sense or his patriotism, writing long
+before the present crisis, thus judiciously speaks of Russian aggression,
+and the true policy of the Western Powers:—
+
+“There are only two independent powers which draw other states into
+their sphere of action,” says M. Chopin, writing in 1838, “and those
+are Russia and England. It is plain that of these two rival forces
+the first has every chance in its favour: numerical preponderance,
+military organization, unity of will without any possible control in
+the execution, firm alliances; all these are on the side of the North.
+Russia finds in the simplicity of her government a great compensation for
+the vices of her interior administration; a profound secrecy covers her
+faults; she knows how to act at an opportune time, but she knows likewise
+how to wait. When Europe has leisure to occupy herself seriously with
+the present danger, Russia seems only to be pursuing plans of interior
+improvement, but this repose is but a preparation for other conquests,
+and thanks to the little agreement that generally reigns between rival
+Cabinets, some new question of difference continually arises in which the
+activity of a rival diplomacy is expended, and then Russia marches some
+steps in advance—but they are giant steps which crush empires, and the
+effect of which is like an actual seizure. Each of her successes adds to
+her resources in diminishing to an equal extent the resources of rival
+powers.
+
+“Nevertheless, despite this constant aggressive march, the position of
+Russia becomes more difficult than formerly, as the end and aim of all
+her efforts, the possession of the Dardanelles, becomes more clearly
+defined, and it is a spectacle full of political instruction to watch all
+the springs she puts in action to bring about the great _dénouement_.
+Sometimes she covers Turkey with her protection. According to her, it
+is France and England who meditate the ruin of the Ottoman empire, but
+thanks to the treaty of Unkiar Skelessi, Turkey, if she remains faithful
+to the stipulations which Muscovite forethought has imposed upon her,
+will have nothing to fear from foreign aggression. In the mean time
+Russia habituates the fatalism of the Turks to the sight of her flag and
+her uniforms, and the zeal of her alliance even goes so far, that she
+distributes her decorations among the Ottoman soldiers. There is always
+the same system of dissolving corruption on one hand, and intimidation on
+the other.
+
+“It is always the history of Poland, of Georgia, of Finland, of the
+Baltic provinces, of the Crimea, of Moldavia, of Wallachia, of Greece,
+of Persia,—_and Russia, from the midst of all these conquered states,
+dismembered already, or on the eve of being so, Russia dares to declare
+to Europe that she has only views of order, and justice, and moderation_.
+Europe does not believe this, but is dependent, egoist, and divided; and
+she has repeated for years past, in the official discourses of princes,
+that the general peace is not threatened, while this precious peace is
+only the result of culpable connivance.
+
+“Russia turns to her profit all these elements of feebleness and
+division; she skilfully and resolutely pursues her work, and, organised
+for conquest, she will never stop until her principle of activity,
+which is the condition of her existence, shall, from want of other
+objects, re-act on herself,—that is, until Europe and Asia become really
+Russian (Russe de fait). Mons. de Talleyrand, who had deeply studied
+the resources and spirit of Russian policy in the great phases of the
+hostility and alliance of that state with Imperial France, reduced the
+problem of the struggle against Muscovite influence to its simplest
+expression, when he concluded the treaty of the quadruple alliance, the
+vital principle of which was the Anglo-French alliance. The peril was
+then great for Russia, and she hastened, at the first cry of alarm from
+her diplomatists, to rouse the national susceptibilities of each country,
+and even to range party against party in the bosom of the two rival
+states.
+
+“Dynastic interests, constitutional opposition, radical and legitimist
+principles,—she employed all these levers; she exhausted all these
+combinations of calculations and politics, to arrive at the result she
+proposed to herself, namely, the separation of France and England. She
+succeeded, and they avowed that they dared not interfere in European
+politics from fear of Russia. These two richest and most powerful
+kingdoms of the globe, whose united population amounts to sixty millions
+of souls, these two crowns, which can dispose, the one of the military
+forces which have conquered Europe, and the other of a navy without
+a rival in the world, accepted an affront, and the responsibility of
+showing a humility more dangerous than war itself.
+
+“In good sooth, can we attribute as a crime to Russia her skill in
+profiting by the chances offered her by the faults of rival cabinets?
+With her, is not ambition confounded with the supreme law of her own
+preservation? Without the empire of the Mediterranean, which renders her
+mistress of the treasures of Asia and the principal markets of Europe,
+she must renounce entertaining an army of 800,000 men, and once disarmed,
+once the prestige of her omnipotence destroyed, her forced alliances will
+escape her, and in a few years she will have retrograded two centuries.
+But if Russia obeys a necessity in accomplishing her aggressive march,
+do not England and France, who possess the means of curbing the Russian
+power, commit a more palpable crime in knowingly running onwards to their
+discredit, and ultimately to their ruin?”[93]
+
+The spirit of the English people and the intelligence of the French
+Emperor have brought about that very alliance which the acute and
+far-seeing French writer wished without expecting, and which it is to
+be hoped will have the effect of putting a stop to Russian conquests,
+and rendering useless the enormous aggressive preparations which she has
+been making for the last twenty years at Sevastopol and other fortresses,
+in order to increase her own territory at the expense of that of her
+neighbours.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE RUSSIAN NAVY.
+
+    Its origin under Peter the Great—Early victories of the
+    Varangians, or Normans, and Cossacks—Row-boats more useful
+    in the Baltic than large vessels—The navy under Catherine
+    II.—English instructors—Difficulty in manning the fleet—No
+    mercantile navy—Organization of the Russian fleet—No
+    marines—Oak for navy—Food of sailors—Russian vessels on
+    foreign stations—Only one Russian foreign merchant—Greek
+    influence diminished in 1844—“The Twelve Apostles”—“The Teredo
+    Navalis”—The affair of Sinope—The Paixhans shell system—General
+    observations.
+
+
+The[94] Russian navy, like the army, was the creation of Peter the Great,
+who, when he came to the throne, found his empire without any port except
+Archangel, and when he died, after a reign of sixteen years, left a fleet
+of sixteen sail of the line in the Baltic, and his name feared as a naval
+hero on the Black Sea and the Caspian. In the ideas of that great man
+the army was intended to be merely supplementary to the navy, and Russia
+was to be a great commercial and maritime power instead of a military
+one. “It is thus,” he says in his will, “that Russia, which I found a
+brook and left a river, must, under my successors, grow to a mighty sea,
+destined to fertilize worn-out Europe, and advance its waves over all
+obstacles, if my successors are only capable of guiding the stream.”[95]
+
+The origin of all the numerous naval armaments of Russia in the present
+day was the little boat built by Peter’s own hands, when he returned from
+his European travels.
+
+In 1836, after a lapse of 113 years, the anniversary of the launching
+of the little boat, was for the first time celebrated with great pomp
+at Cronstadt. Twenty-six ships of the line, twenty-one frigates, ten
+brigs, and seven gun-boats, were anchored in the roads of Cronstadt, and
+saluted with 2000 cannon the tiny “grandpapa,” as the little boat was
+called, which, placed on a steamer, was carried through the lines. From
+the earliest times there has been a slight halo of maritime glory around
+the Russian name. The half fabulous Varangians, Northmen, or Normans,
+who conquered Russia as they did France and England, and from whom the
+Russian nobility still boast their descent, were victorious by sea as
+well as by land, and the glories of Ruric and Vladimir belong to the
+Russian nation as much as the victories of Alfred and the Plantagenets
+belong to us. The Varangians found out the road by water along the rivers
+of Russia from the Baltic to the Black Sea,—that very road which Peter
+the Great improved by employing his Swedish and Cossack prisoners to cut
+the canal of Ladoga.
+
+In 886 (shortly after the foundation of the German empire) the Varangians
+appeared on the Black Sea with 200 boats, each containing from forty
+to sixty men, and advanced to the attack of Constantinople, which was
+only saved by a miracle. At the end of the sixteenth century the Russian
+fleets were still feared on the Baltic, and even under the empire of the
+Tatars, Novgorod had possessed a flourishing maritime commerce, although
+in a great measure it was conducted by strangers. But after the fall of
+Novgorod, when the Baltic provinces fell into the power of the Swedes,
+the Poles, and the Germans, the maritime importance of Russia began
+to decline. The single outlet that was left her, Archangel, was only
+frequented by foreign merchant vessels, chiefly Dutch. Then, the Russians
+of that time, like those of the present day, occupied themselves entirely
+with internal commerce, and the spirit of the Varangians disappeared, or
+only lingered among the Cossacks of the Dniepr and the Don.
+
+Peter the Great, in his maritime views, had for a paramount object the
+conquest of the débouchés in the south, leading to the Mediterranean and
+the southern oceans, which were then exclusively in the hands of the
+Turks and Tatars.
+
+His first dockyards for a fleet of war were placed near Woroneje, in the
+country of the Don, and then also for the first time the Russian flag was
+seen to triumph in the Black Sea over the Turks, their national enemies.
+At a later period, in the war which Peter the Great had to sustain
+against Sweden, he employed a fleet consisting chiefly of row-boats,
+which had been constructed on the lakes of the North, and he found this
+fleet far more advantageous in the Baltic than vessels of the line or
+frigates. Even up to the present time flotillas of row-boats have always
+rendered greater services than large vessels to Russia in the shallow
+waters of the Baltic. The first result of any importance was the victory
+which Peter gained in the middle of the Séches, or low reedy islands
+of the Baltic, over the Swedish Admiral Ehrenskiold, from whom he took
+a frigate and ten row-boats, but at that time his land army was nearly
+annihilated on the Pruth, and the conquest of Azof and the possession
+of the Black Sea was in consequence postponed till the end of the last
+century. “The condemnation of Admiral Cruys,” I here quote the words of
+Haxthausen, “under Peter the Great for having lost several vessels in
+an attack which he had risked too rashly against the enemy, was of bad
+augury for the Russian fleet, although he was afterwards pardoned and
+restored to all his dignities. In England, Byng was executed, because
+near Minorca he had avoided battle with the French fleet, which was
+superior to his own. It is a rule in England always to attack, if the
+English fleet equals that of the enemy, and this rule has undoubtedly
+been the base of the maritime power of that country. In 1743 the Russian
+Admiral Golovine excused himself to Lascy, who had given him the order to
+commence the attack, by saying that the maritime laws of Peter the Great
+forbid the Russian fleet ever to engage in battle with the enemy unless
+they had three Russian vessels to two Swedes.”
+
+The Russian fleet has always been rather for show than use, owing to the
+want of boldness which the Russians have in later times shown in maritime
+enterprises, although, under Catherine II., Greig, Elphinstone, and
+Spiridoff acquired some glory in the Mediterranean.
+
+At the end of the last century the Russian fleet consisted of sixteen
+ships of the line and twenty-three frigates, which was about its force
+under Peter the Great. During the war which, after the French Revolution,
+devastated Europe, the Russian fleet played only a secondary part.
+
+When Russia was allied with England, the navy of the latter power
+commanded the sea, while Russia was to employ her forces on the
+continent. When Russia was against England her vessels were little worth.
+The English, at a later period, undertook to keep the Russian fleet, and
+in this uneasy state of relations with England she lost the excellent
+instructors of her navy, which she had before employed in great numbers.
+The English officers on board her fleet refused to serve against their
+own country, and since that epoch they have been less favourably viewed
+in Russia.
+
+The great difficulty of the Russians is to man their fleet, because they
+have no mercantile navy, and scarcely any Great Russians live on the
+sea-coast. Archangel furnishes a very few men, and after them the best
+sailors are the Finns of the Baltic, the Cossacks, and the Greeks of the
+Black Sea. The crews of the fleet are much more numerous than the whole
+of the sailors in the mercantile marine, and for this reason they are
+obliged to recruit among landsmen, and to put in practice the maxim of
+Peter the Great, that every man is fit for everything.
+
+A Russian is never allowed to say that he cannot do a thing, and whatever
+the order given him may be, he is expected to set about executing it as
+well as he can. The only answer permitted is “Schloushaiou,” “I hear,
+and will obey.” But although he attempts to do everything in a certain
+kind of way, his work is generally very imperfect, and the inaccuracy
+of Russian workmen is proverbial among the English superintendants
+employed in that country. They realise the English saying of “a Jack of
+all trades, and master of none;” or as Custine puts the point, “Le Russe
+n’est maître de rien, excepté l’art de feindre;” and this last is an
+observation which our Ministers would do well to reflect upon now that
+they are asked to open negociations.
+
+Some notion of the paucity of sailors in Russia may be formed from the
+fact that the law which obliges every captain of a merchantman to be
+of Russian origin is constantly eluded. The shipowners try to gain the
+advantages of sailing under the Russian flag, and at the same time to
+avoid the disadvantages of having a Russian captain, and therefore the
+individual who is put forward in port as the legal captain of the vessel,
+as soon as she puts out to sea descends to the humble office of the cook.
+
+The Russian fleet is manned from the common conscription with very
+little “ethnologic” distinction, excepting that in the North the Finns
+are preferred for that service, and in the South the Jew conscripts are
+generally sent to the navy, not on account of their aptitude for it, but
+because as soldiers they are considered worthless.
+
+The Imperial fleet consists of three divisions, two of which are in the
+North, and one in the Black Sea. It is manned by forty-five battalions,
+called “equipages:”[96] each equipage is composed of eighty petty
+officers, twenty-five musicians, and 1000 seamen, and is officered by
+one commander, of the rank of a colonel, two superior officers, twelve
+lieutenants, and twelve midshipmen.
+
+An equipage will man one three-decker, and one or more small vessels, or
+a two-decker and a frigate, or two frigates and one or two brigs. A ship
+of 120 guns is manned by 812 seamen and 65 petty officers. A ship of 84
+guns is manned by 625 seamen and 50 petty officers. A frigate of 60 guns
+by 375 seamen, and 30 petty officers. A frigate of 44 guns by 320 seamen
+and 20 petty officers. A corvette by 158 seamen and 12 petty officers.
+The forty-six equipages are disposed in the following manner:—From No. 1
+to No. 27, inclusive, are in the Baltic. From No. 28 to 44, inclusive,
+are in the Black Sea. No. 45, in the Caspian. No. 46, at Kamstchatka.
+There are no marines in the Russian navy, and the seamen are disciplined
+like soldiers. The term of service in the navy is, I believe, similar to
+that in the army, namely, from ten to twenty-five years, according to the
+provinces of the empire from which the sailors are drawn.
+
+The oak of which the Black Sea fleet is built comes mostly from Minsk
+and the neighbouring governments, and is of quick growth, on low land,
+in a country which was an immense lake in ancient times.[97] Herodotus
+says that both the Dniestr and the Boug took their origin in enormous
+lakes. The great portion of the timber of Kherson used to come down the
+river Pripet, which is the remains of an enormous marsh or lake, and
+is navigable for 350 miles to its junction with the Dniepr. The masts
+that come down the Dniepr are good, and drawn from the same forests that
+supply Riga, but the wood for ship-building is bad, and the Russian
+Government hopes to supply Nicolaief with the oak of Kazan, which is
+used in the dockyards of the Baltic, and which might be brought down to
+the south by the Volga and the Don to Rostof. Mr. Upton told me that
+a cannon-ball, which would lodge in one side of an English ship, would
+go right through both sides of a Russian one. For certain parts of all
+the ships they are obliged to import oak from England. The Crimean oak
+is very good, but not obtainable in large quantities. A frigate or two
+have been built of it, but none are now afloat. The only ship of the line
+built of it was the Raphael, which was taken by Captain Slade and the
+Turks in the war of 1828. The Bulgarian oak is also of a good quality.
+The timber at Nicolaief is used green, as soon as brought down the
+Dniepr, so that ships become quickly infected with dry-rot, are unsound
+in ten years, and quite unfit for service in fifteen.
+
+The sailors are fed upon rye or black bread, which they prefer to wheaten
+bread. They have meat twice a week, and drink “quass,” a fermented drink,
+made from the rye flour, and the Russian “vodka,” or brandy, which is
+likewise made from rye. The sailors are all disciplined and dressed as
+soldiers, wear helmets, and for their common dress the same long drab
+greatcoats as the army. They are, in fact, more properly sea-soldiers
+than sailors. When the Grand Duke Constantine inspected the Black Sea
+fleet, its Admiral was obliged to ask permission for the sailors to take
+off their proper uniform, as it was found impossible for them to mount
+the rigging in it.
+
+When a Russian vessel is on a foreign station, which has seldom been
+the case, except with small vessels having only picked crews, the dress
+is changed, both of officers and men, and they then, for the time, wear
+shirts and trousers, like the sailors of maritime nations; and they
+also then receive extra allowances, to enable them to live like the
+people of the country where they happen to be. The Russians have a great
+“amour-propre;” and I have often watched them on a foreign station, when
+they have been moored with French and English vessels at Constantinople
+and Athens, constantly exercising their men, until at last they succeeded
+in managing their vessels with great quickness.
+
+The immense majority of their ships, however, are confined to the Baltic
+and Black Seas, in which they are obliged to lay up during more than half
+the year. The Black Sea fleet is seldom out for more than one month’s
+cruise in summer, and sometimes for even a shorter period. Besides the
+short time they are out, the cruizing in such limited areas with a large
+fleet of vessels must be a very uninteresting operation, and there is
+nothing in it to call out a spirit of enterprise or adventure. The
+sailors are nearly all landsmen, and such they always remain. There is no
+mercantile marine, notwithstanding the great inducements held out by the
+government; and although the commerce of Russia is considerable, there
+is not a single merchantman manned and sent out by Russians Proper, by
+which I mean the Slavonic population, which forms the real strength of
+the Russian nation. The Finns are enterprising shipowners, but they are
+a totally different race, and a conquered people. I believe I am correct
+in saying that there is only one real-born Russian merchant who has an
+establishment in a foreign country. This gentleman, of considerable
+wealth, set up a house at Liverpool a few years ago, more from patriotic
+motives than in the regular way of business, and received great
+encouragement from his government, who wished to induce others to follow
+his example, but without success. Under all these disadvantages, some of
+which are inseparable from the despotic nature of the government, for
+commerce like genius requires for its development complete liberty, it is
+impossible that the Russian fleets can ever become formidable by their
+quality, although the large number of their vessels may prove a source of
+disquietude to a second-rate power.
+
+In the beginning, the Russian navy was formed entirely by foreigners, and
+principally by Englishmen, while the sailors and officers in the Black
+Sea were generally Greeks. There were, in particular, five Englishmen,
+who had been originally brought up in the English navy, who rose to
+be admirals in the Russian service, and were of great use to their
+navy,—Admirals Crown, Hamilton, Elphinstone, Dugdale, and Greig. Admiral
+Lazaref, a Russian, who commanded when I visited Sevastopol, had been
+brought up in the English navy, and fought as a midshipman at Trafalgar.
+
+At the period of my visit, in 1844, a great change was taking place in
+the Russian navy, which had its origin in a more general cause. Just
+about that time there was a strong national movement throughout the
+Empire, which was encouraged by the Court. The nation had been under the
+tutelage of foreigners for a century and a half, and now showed a wish
+to act for itself. Russian replaced French as the fashionable language
+at court, and representations were constantly made to the Emperor to
+place Russians instead of foreigners in places which the latter had till
+then exclusively occupied. There was a strong feeling against the German
+officers in the army, and the laws were strictly enforced, forbidding
+foreigners to hold land or possess manufactories, unless they made
+themselves Russian subjects, a step they were very much pressed to take
+by officials as the best way of being favourably viewed by the Emperor.
+
+At Sevastopol there was an outcry against the English engineers of the
+steam-vessels, and the Emperor consented to appoint a Russian on trial,
+who took a steamer out to sea, and damaged her machinery so much after a
+few hours, that she was towed into port again by another steamer sent out
+to fetch her. The Emperor then said that he would continue to employ the
+English until his own people were really able to undertake their duties.
+
+The great change in Sevastopol about 1844 was the getting rid of the
+Greek influence, which had till then been paramount. Both men and
+officers were replaced, as far as possible, by Russians, and the same
+change was effected as regarded the civil departments of the naval
+administration.
+
+I visited several of the large line-of-battle ships in the harbour
+of Sevastopol, with one of the Uptons, and as they were all built by
+English shipwrights, to a non-nautical eye they looked very much like
+the men-of-war in our own country. I visited in particular the Twelve
+Apostles, the largest ship there, which I have lately heard to be now
+quite useless for warlike purposes. No Russian ship in the Black Sea
+lasts more than ten years, not only on account of the bad wood of which
+it is built, but also because of the worm (_teredo navalis_) which
+infests Sevastopol and the southern coast of the Crimea, and commits
+great ravages among the ships. The project of filling the new dock with
+fresh water, by introducing into it at great expense the Tchornaya
+Retchka from Inkerman, was adopted with the view of getting rid of this
+worm, but it was found when too late that it was in the very waters of
+the Tchornaya that the worm was generated.[98]
+
+The Vixen, the English vessel which we so timorously gave up in 1837,
+lay in the harbour at the period of my visit, and the Russians were very
+proud of having taken an English ship, while the English there told me
+they never could see her without a feeling of shame. She had served as
+a model to the Russians, and I saw several vessels that had been built
+after her.
+
+The whole fleet in Sevastopol consisted, in 1853, of 18 first-rates, 7
+frigates, 30 steamers, and 36 smaller vessels. There were besides 28
+gun-boats, built for service in the Danube, and 30 transports measuring
+10,000 tons.[99]
+
+The only achievement of the Black Sea navy has been the destruction of
+the Turkish fleet in Sinope, which was characterised by their usual
+negligence on the part of the Turks, and by that cruelty in war which
+has always stained the Russian name. The Turkish ships were armed with
+small ordnance, of which the largest scarcely reached the calibre of
+24-pounders, and they placed themselves in the roadstead under the
+protection of land batteries, which were in a wretched state of defence,
+unprovided with guns that would throw shells, and armed only with cannon
+of very small calibre.
+
+The Russians, on the contrary, had availed themselves of the latest
+discoveries and improvements in naval gunnery. Many 68 and 42-pounder
+shot were picked up at Sinope, and they used with fearful effect the most
+terrible instruments of modern warfare, the Paixhans guns.
+
+This attack of the Russians at Sinope has been designated as iniquitous
+by both the French and English military authorities: in the first place,
+because the attack ought not to have been made under the political
+circumstances then existing, and next, because from their superiority
+in number and calibre of guns, instead of burning the Turkish vessels,
+and exterminating the crews, they might have taken the whole squadron
+prisoners, and brought away the surviving men as prisoners of war, while
+the ships would have served to increase their own effective force. They
+preferred, however, to use the new terrible incendiary shell, and to
+massacre without mercy the brave but negligent Turks.
+
+This affair forms an important epoch in the history of the new system of
+naval warfare, as that in which the Paixhans shell system was first used
+in war. These shells contain incendiary bodies, which, when ignited by
+the bursting of the shell, are scattered about in every direction, burn
+with far greater intensity than ‘la roche à feu,’ develope more heat, and
+give out dense smoke during the combustion, which must interrupt for a
+considerable time the working of the guns. The chances of setting fire to
+an antagonist’s ship in action are prodigiously increased, and if one
+party uses these dreadful engines, the other must adopt the same means
+of warfare, by which one or both combatants will surely be burnt. “Both
+France and England,” says Sir Howard Douglas, “are provided with these
+appalling weapons of mutual destruction, and are prepared, if unhappily
+there be occasion, to use them _à l’outrance_ against each other’s ships,
+in a barbarous and ignoble strife, in which it seems the only question
+is which shall be first burnt. What would Nelson have said to this
+incendiary warfare?”[100]
+
+The Russians, with that energy and promptitude which has been the secret
+of all their successes, have availed themselves of every improvement
+in naval gunnery, although their fleet is with them a matter of only
+secondary importance. It is impossible to read the history of Russia
+and her opponents, that is to say her neighbours, for the last 150
+years, since the peace of Carlowitz, without observing the quickness in
+seizing opportunities, the absence of prejudice, the anxious desire for
+improvement, and the alacrity in repairing errors when they have been
+committed, which are the true methods by which an individual or a nation
+can best attain the object of its desires, be they good or bad.
+
+However, notwithstanding the great care bestowed upon it, there is no
+doubt that the Russian fleet is extremely inefficient, and would be
+hardly a match for any of the second-rate powers of Europe. It was not
+to be expected that it should come out to fight the united navies of the
+two first maritime powers of the world, and there was little cause for
+the boast of the late Ministers, that we performed a great achievement in
+forcing it to act on the defensive. Still, on the other hand, there seems
+to be good sense in the remarks of Haxthausen, that the Russians have
+been too timorous on the sea, and that the Russian navy will never equal
+the high character of their army until they have suffered defeats, and
+fought their way to confidence. The natural “pluck” of the people would
+probably in the end be as successful on the sea as on the land.
+
+The Romans hated the sea as much as the Russians, and in reading of
+Peter’s little boat, and the Vixen serving for a model, the mind
+naturally recurs to the Carthaginian galley stranded on the coast, which
+served as a model for the first Roman vessels, yet, after no very long
+period, the Carthaginian state, betrayed by lust of conquest, was broken
+up, and the Romans swept the seas.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+ON THE RUSSIAN ARMY.[101]
+
+    Large proportion of Russian population in the army—Military
+    organization—Peaceable natural disposition of Russian
+    people—Strong feelings when roused—Obedience to
+    orders—Anecdotes—Commercial disposition of the Russian
+    people—Their wish to mix with European nations—Education
+    checked by the government—Military system of Peter the
+    Great—His great objects—Faults of our government with
+    respect to Russian policy—The army, whence recruited—Great
+    Russians—Poles—Little Russians—Finns, Jews, &c.—Name
+    “Ruski” or Russian—Its origin—The conscription—Soldiers’
+    marriages—The cantonists—Emperor’s efforts to improve
+    condition of common soldier generally unsuccessful—Corporal
+    punishment—Labour—“Indefinite leave”—Division of empire
+    for conscription—Amount of population per cent. taken from
+    1840-1855—Expense of the Russian soldier—Democratic system
+    of army—The cross of St. George—Classification of Russian
+    army—Into 1st, Corps d’Armée, or complete armies—2nd, Local
+    Regular Troops—3rd, Irregulars—Don, Black Sea, and Ural
+    Cossacks—Value and number of Cossack troops—Various Asiatic
+    irregulars—General observations.
+
+
+Having given a sketch of the Russian navy, perhaps another short
+digression may be permitted in order to give my readers a concise
+account of the organization and disposition of the army in Russia, which
+occupies so large a portion of the population, and consumes so much of
+the revenues of that country. Taking the army, with all the reserves, at
+a million,[102] and the male population of Russia at thirty millions,
+and the able-bodied males at fifteen millions, it follows that every
+fifteenth man is a soldier, either in active service, or liable to be
+called out, which is certainly the case at the present moment.
+
+In our own country about one man in fifty is a regular soldier, and in
+other European countries the proportion is greater, but nowhere so large
+as in Russia.
+
+We, in this industrious and commercial country, can hardly conceive
+what it is to have a military organization such as prevails in Russia,
+where nothing but a uniform is respected, and where the highest civil
+officers have military titles given them as the only means of indicating
+their rank. Indeed there are none but military titles in Russia with
+which to reward all kinds of merit. Professor Pallas relates that the
+Grand Mufti, or Chief Priest of the Tatars, was made a general after the
+conquest of the Crimea—the Professor himself was made a major-general;
+an old Armenian school-master I used to know at Tiflis, although a very
+unwarlike character, was a field officer; and all members of the civil
+service have military rank, and are called by the common people according
+to their military titles.
+
+The most singular thing is, that the people among whom this military
+organization of the whole nation prevails, is, without exception, the
+most pacific people on the face of the earth, and upon this point I
+believe no difference of opinion exists among all observers. Having
+lived for several years in a position which enabled me to mix much with
+the officers and men of the Russian army, such is my strong conviction
+of the Russian character. M. Haxthausen mentions, as a point admitting
+of no doubt, “the absence of all warlike tendency among the Russian
+people, and their excessive fear of the profession of a soldier.”[103]
+The Russian people have no pleasure in wearing arms, like the Turk or
+the Pole: even in their quarrels among themselves, which are rare, they
+hardly ever fight, and the duel, which now often takes place among
+Russian officers, is contrary to the national manners, and a custom
+imported from the West. The people take no pleasure in the fighting
+of beasts or birds, as in bull-fights, or ram-fights, or cock-fights,
+which are common amusements among some Eastern as well as most European
+nations; and when the Russian is drunk, which often happens, he is never
+quarrelsome, but on the contrary caressing and given to tears. But,
+on being roused, he exhibits a degree of patient endurance which is
+astonishing, and a steady enthusiasm which shows great power of feeling,
+and which is very deeply seated in the national character. He meets death
+and the severest punishment without fear, and strange anecdotes are told
+of the impossibility, as it seems to him, of disobeying the letter of the
+orders he has received. I have lately read a story somewhere which well
+illustrates this trait of character:—
+
+A soldier on duty at the palace of the Emperor at Petersburg, which was
+burnt a few years ago, was stationed and had been forgotten in one suite
+of apartments that was in flames: a Greek priest was the last person to
+rush through the burning rooms, at the imminent risk of his life, to save
+a crucifix in a chapel, and returning he was hailed by the sentry, who
+must in a few instants more have been suffocated. “What do you want?”
+cried the priest, “save yourself or you will be lost.” “I can’t leave,”
+replied the sentry, “because I am unrelieved, but I called to you to give
+me your blessing before I die.” The priest blessed him, and the soldier
+died at his post.
+
+The late Emperor himself on one occasion attempted to pass a sentinel in
+one of the corridors of the palace at Petersburg, who had orders to let
+no person pass, but the man resisted him, and when the Emperor tried to
+disarm him, wrestled with him, and flung him back against the wall.
+
+The patience also of the Russian peasants is astonishing, in submitting
+without a murmur to the most cruel treatment when they happen to belong
+to a bad master, until at last they rise in a body, and, armed with
+their hatchets, massacre their oppressor. When such instances occur, the
+affair is quickly hushed up. The patient sufferings of the dissenters, of
+whom it is said that there are in Russia no less than two hundred sects,
+prove their deep feeling on religious matters. I have seen thousands
+marched, with their wives and children, from their native country, into
+the Caucasus, where they were colonized on bleak plains in the month of
+October, and the greater number perished of cold and starvation.
+
+If the military organization of Russia could be once broken up, the
+people would turn to their natural pursuits, which are decidedly
+commercial and agricultural. And again, if free trade were allowed in the
+empire, and the commercial spirit could satisfy its natural cravings,
+the increased riches, luxuries, and civilization of the country would
+show such obvious advantages, that the military system could not hold its
+ground. English merchants in Russia have assured me, that although there
+are now few Russian merchants engaged in foreign commerce, no people show
+such natural aptitude for commercial concerns. The high tariff which
+is in force, and the absolute prohibition there is against educating
+their children in Europe, as no young persons between the ages of twelve
+and twenty-five are allowed under any pretext to be absent from their
+country, alone repress for political purposes their natural tendencies.
+
+The Russian people wish for European civilization, and to mix with the
+other European nations, but they are not allowed to do so by their
+Government; and to check their desire for civilization and their liberal
+tendencies, I have been informed by a German professor, who had minutely
+studied their educational system, which is under the absolute control
+of the Government throughout the whole empire, that within the last
+fifteen years the course of study has been checked and thrown back in
+all the universities and schools of the empire. It is a well-known fact
+to all who have lived in Russia, that the Government grew more and more
+jealous of education up to the breaking out of the present war. Foreign
+tutors and governesses, who are absolutely essential for all parents who
+wish to give their children a good education in Russia, were as far as
+possible prevented from entering the empire, and two years ago the Poles
+were prohibited from studying at the university of Odessa. It must be
+remembered that this town is the commercial débouché and the capital of
+all the southern provinces of Poland, the nobility of which generally
+go there to spend the fashionable season, and that it contains the only
+superior educational institutions within their reach.
+
+It is well known that the Russian army which had served in Europe
+during the wars of Napoleon, returned with very liberal tendencies,
+and preferred the manner of life of the nations they had left to their
+own. They were consequently divided, separated, sent into dangerous
+situations, and thus gradually disposed of.
+
+The military system which Peter the Great[104] so strongly recommended to
+his successors, was devised, and has been continued down to the present
+time, in order that a great framework of empire might be made, which
+should be filled up gradually by successive generations. He thought
+he could lay down a plan by which a stupendous sovereignty might be
+constructed, which should overshadow the whole earth.
+
+It is but fair to say, however, that the Tzar is, to a certain degree,
+the incarnation of the national will, and that the whole nation, from
+the highest to the lowest, have a vague, but deep-seated notion, that
+some future glories are in store for the Slavonic name, and they will
+always approve their Tzar, when they think that he is following out the
+destiny of the nation. That they do not grow wiser, however, but continue
+to attach too much importance to military glory, and the absorbing and
+conquering of all surrounding nations, is the fault of the Government
+and not of the people. The Tzars have kept them back from mixing with
+civilized nations and from commercial pursuits, in order that they might
+not learn more just notions of the qualities in which consists the true
+glory of nations, and might remain a great encamped people, content with
+a military despotism, and ready to be the instruments of restless schemes
+of ambition.
+
+The possession of India, of the Mediterranean, and of the Sound, were
+three principal objects of Peter the Great’s ambition. The Sound has been
+prospectively guaranteed to Russia by the treaty which Lord Palmerston
+concluded three years ago, in which the reversion of the Danish throne is
+secured to the Czar. Our present expedition to Sevastopol is to prevent
+her first step in the Mediterranean by the possession of Constantinople
+and the Dardanelles. With respect to India, Russia has quietly worked
+her way as far as the Sea of Aral, by advancing villages of Cossacks and
+digging wells every ten miles. The English Government have for many years
+past been remiss in noticing these aggressive measures, and even now it
+is to be feared that our agents in Persia, whence we act upon Central
+Asia, are not men fitted to oppose the experienced and able agents of
+Russia, or to give us that reasonable probability of success in our
+Eastern campaign which proper measures might command.
+
+There was something vague about the schemes of Peter and Catherine in
+the last century; and their successors, if we had been firm during the
+last twenty years in resisting the first symptoms of encroachment, would
+have given up many projects as impracticable. In necessary firmness our
+Government has throughout been deficient, and the consequence is, that we
+are involved in the present war, and have a gloomy and uncertain future
+before us.
+
+The army, the great instrument of Russian aggression, draws the main body
+of its recruits from the thirty-four millions of Great Russians who form
+a compact body round Moscow. This population is of pure Slave blood, and
+forms the heart and core of the Russian empire. They give the tone to all
+the other populations, are superior to them in energy and grandeur of
+character, as well as numbers, and stand with relation to Russia much as
+the inhabitants of Britain do to the other nations of the British empire.
+
+The Great Russians have a natural aptitude for the infantry, which is
+almost entirely composed of them, and they form also the bulk of the
+corps of officers and non-commissioned officers.
+
+The Poles are found in every part of the army, and particularly in the
+cavalry. They are born soldiers, and like no trade so well as war. After
+the Polish revolution, vast numbers of the Polish gentry were sent
+as common soldiers to the Caucasus; and at one fell swoop the whole
+University of Wilna, the capital of the Polish country of Lithuania,
+professors as well as students, were condemned to the same hard fate.
+It has often happened to me when I have been staying with officers in
+the Caucasus, to be called aside by the servant, who has whispered to
+me in French, “Sir, I am a Pole, an European, a gentleman born, but I
+was degraded and sent here for fighting for my country.” And the poor
+fellow was always very glad to have a little sly chat, and a talk on the
+forbidden subject of European politics. The Russian officers are very
+kind to these unfortunate men, for they are a thoroughly good-natured
+race, and are glad to get men of intelligence as servants, instead of
+common drunken boors.
+
+The Little Russians (Malo Ruski), as the inhabitants of the Ukraine
+are called, are reckoned peculiarly fit for the cavalry, which is not
+the case with the Slave race in general. The Great Russians never ride
+on horseback, but always travel very fast in carriages, of which they
+are remarkably skilful drivers. Even the Cossacks originally were
+not horsemen. The Little Russians are small, strong men, remarkably
+well conducted, but of very obstinate temper. The Great Russians are
+accustomed to be beaten, and indeed are so used to it at home, that it is
+difficult to keep them well behaved in the army without the free use of
+the stick. They bear no ill-will after castigation, and cheerfully amend
+their faults; but the Little Russian becomes dogged if corrected, resents
+his punishment, and is often totally ruined by its frequency. The reason
+for this is obviously that he enjoyed his freedom later than the others;
+and he still retains some sparks of independence, for serfdom was only
+introduced into the Ukraine by Paul at the close of the last century,
+while the serfs in Great Russia were “ascripti glebæ” by Boris Godounof
+about the year 1600. Little Russians may be known by their names, which
+generally end in “enko,” and one or two other well-known terminations.
+
+The Finlanders are on a totally different footing to the common Russian
+soldiers: they are enrolled in six battalions of riflemen, and are all
+volunteers, and receive high pay. They are much better educated than
+the Russians, and resemble in their ideas and habits the nations of
+Western Europe, to whom, in reality, they belong. The Jews have been
+subject to the conscription in Russia since 1827, and in Poland since
+the revolution in 1831. It is found almost impossible to make soldiers
+of them, and they generally find the means to escape. The story is told
+of the late Emperor, that on one occasion, when he was reviewing some
+troops, he found out all the Jews by snapping his fingers in each man’s
+face. If they stood immoveable they were Russians, and if they flinched
+they were invariably Jews. On the other hand, the Jews make capital
+military workmen, who in Russia are always attached to the fleet and
+the army, and they also make very fair sailors, and are often employed
+as constables in towns, on the principle, as it is said, of setting a
+thief to catch a thief. There is a Georgian and a Circassian militia, but
+these are never removed from their own country, and I do not know, at the
+present moment, whether they continue to exist.
+
+The principal nations which compose the Russian army have been enumerated
+above, but there are besides various remnants of ancient nations, such
+as the Tatars, Mordvins, Tcheremisses, Tschouvashes, Lettes, and others,
+who all furnish a small number of men. There are indeed no less than
+eighty-five of these tribes or nations in the empire, of which forty
+furnish contingents to the regular troops.[105]
+
+The soldiers and officers are generally very religious, and a priest and
+a moveable tent for divine service always accompanies each battalion, and
+often each company, when on detached duty.
+
+The number of musicians in the army is great, and the soldiers all
+sing in parts, and have songs composed on every event which they think
+redounds to their honour. In one of their favourite songs the chorus is,
+“But the weapon of the Russian soldier is the bayonet;” and this notion
+is in accordance with the advice of Souvárof, a real genius, to the
+Russian soldier, given in his celebrated Catechism, which will be found
+in the Appendix—“The bayonet is a hero, the musket a fool: stab; toss the
+Turk off your bayonet, and stab again.”
+
+There is often a buffoon attached to each company, who amuses his
+comrades by his jests and antics, and is generally a great favourite. On
+one occasion in the Caucasus, when the troops were driven back by the
+Circassians, the buffoon was wounded and left behind. A favourite jest of
+his had been to crow like a cock, and as he lay on the ground he thought
+of the only way to save himself, and crowed. This had such an effect on
+his comrades that they rallied, charged again, and saved him.
+
+The Russians are extremely proud of the name “Ruski,” or Russian, and
+feel the same patriotic pride in it as we do in the term “British.”
+Perhaps it may not be out of place here to give the origin of this name,
+out of the Chronicles of old Nestor,[106] who wrote about 200 years after
+its first application. He says, “We know that the Russian language and
+the Slavonic language are the same, and this name of ‘Russian’ was given
+us by the Varangians (the Normans), and that before that time we were
+known under the name of Slaves, and the Polanians (Poles), who were also
+among the Slaves, had no other language. The name of Polanians was given
+them from the fields they cultivated, and because they inhabited the
+plain, but they were of Slave origin, and had no other language but the
+Slavon.”[107]
+
+The greatest part of the army is raised in Russia by conscription, a
+system which was introduced among the other nations of the continent of
+Europe by the French at the time of the Revolution, but which has existed
+in Russia since the time of Peter the Great.
+
+The conscription is conducted in the following manner. A certain number
+per cent. of all persons who are not noble is demanded, and the number
+taken each second year, in time of peace, is generally about five in
+a thousand, or one-half per cent. Families which have only one male
+member, orphans, and fathers of a family of more than three children,
+are exempted, and the state leaves the choice of the conscripts to the
+lords, who generally take this opportunity of getting rid of troublesome
+characters. Formerly there were dreadful scenes when the conscripts
+were taken, and they frequently ran away, and were hunted through the
+woods like wild beasts; but of late years the condition of the soldier
+has been improved, and the dread of the service is not so great as in
+former times. The separation of the conscript from his family is still
+a heart-rending spectacle, for he may be marched to any part of the
+enormous empire, and his chance of seeing them again is but small.
+
+Formerly one-half of the recruits died from neglect within a short time
+of their joining, and, although ameliorations have been introduced,
+it is still asserted that one-third fall victims.[108] How much the
+service is still disliked may be judged of by the fact that in so poor a
+country as Russia a substitute in time of peace cannot be obtained under
+100_l._,[109] and he is never a Russian, but generally a Finn or a Pole.
+
+Formerly the conscripts were always chained like malefactors, and
+one-half of their heads was at once shaven, that they might be
+recognised. This is not now the case, but the beard, the great glory of
+the Russian peasant, is still shorn off.
+
+It must not be forgotten that the army in Russia answers the purpose
+of a penitentiary system, that all malefactors under the age of thirty
+are condemned to it as a regular sentence, and that it is viewed by the
+people very much as transportation is with us.
+
+As soon as the conscript joins the army his lord loses all power over
+him; all his children born after he enters the service belong to the
+state, and the males are trained in Government establishments, to become
+soldiers. If a wife does not follow her husband, and has no news of him
+for either three or five years, she may marry again.
+
+The state encourages marriage among the soldiers, because their children
+enable it to fill the ranks of the army, and the wives and children of
+the soldiers of Georgia, Siberia, and the military colonies, follow the
+troops, and receive certain allowances from the Government. In other
+corps the families are often left behind, but in every case the rule
+is rigidly adhered to, that the children of every soldier’s wife, no
+matter how long he has been absent, unless she has married again, are the
+property of the Emperor. There are no less than 360,000 of these widows
+in the country. The children are brought up in special establishments,
+entirely at the expense of the Government.
+
+In 1842 there were 36,000 of them who were formed into a little army,
+divided into twenty-five battalions of infantry, twenty squadrons of
+cavalry, and five batteries with wooden cannon. When they grow up
+they fill the subordinate situations in the army, such as sergeants,
+musicians, assistant-surgeons, and a very useful body of men called the
+topographers. The separation from home, however, greatly injures their
+moral character, and the Cantonists, as they are called, very often turn
+out ill.
+
+The late Emperor made great efforts to improve the condition of the
+common soldier in Russia, although it is very doubtful whether he
+succeeded in doing so. One great boon, however, granted by him, which has
+really bettered the condition of the soldier, is the diminution of his
+time of active service, or the introduction of the system of “indefinite
+leave,” which will be presently explained.
+
+There are rules against the too frequent infliction of punishment,
+and the most stringent regulations to secure to the soldier his fair
+rations; but every officer still inflicts what punishment he pleases, and
+nothing is more common than for every officer and even every foreigner
+to send their servant with a little note to the police-master of the
+town, requesting him to administer so many lashes. The officers also, in
+drilling the men, frequently strike them in the face with their fist, and
+over the body with a stick. Women, also, are constantly whipped on their
+bare bodies at the police stations in certain parts of the empire, and
+as custom is stronger than law, it has hitherto been found impossible to
+prevent these hateful abuses.
+
+The soldier lives well as long as he is in cantonments, which is the
+case with a large portion of the Russian army, for then he lives upon
+the peasants, and is a great charge upon them. He lives badly when he is
+in barracks, because he seldom gets the food to which he is entitled. He
+ought to have nearly as much food as the English soldier, according to
+M. Haxthausen, but I think there are few people who will say that in the
+great majority of instances he ever gets it. He lives in a kind of mess,
+and his rations are paid once or twice a month to those who manage the
+mess, which is called the “artel,” of which there is one or more to each
+company, and the managers are non-commissioned officers and privates,
+chosen among themselves. This artel is a fund to which all contribute
+something out of their savings, to improve their food; and when their
+time of service is over, they have a right to a certain portion of the
+balance which remains. A proportion of all they earn by their labour
+goes to the artel, and the Government recognises its existence, and by
+a recent law its funds are divided into two distinct parts,—one for the
+mess, and the other to pay back a certain sum to each man on his retiring
+from active service, so that it thus answers the purpose of a kind of
+savings-bank.
+
+In the Caucasus, Prince Woronzof very much improved the condition of the
+Russian soldier; and no less than twenty-four field officers were brought
+to courts-martial, principally about the soldier’s food, during his first
+year of office; but I fear that in the interior of Russia things remain
+in much the same state as formerly.
+
+The Russian soldier has been called by high Russian military authorities
+the most miserable being in existence; and certainly a decided difference
+is apparent between the sallow, dejected soldier, and the bluff, hearty,
+well-fed, off-hand Russian peasant.
+
+Soldiers are always employed as labourers by independent persons, and
+soldiers’ labour is to be had in the market of all towns. The merchants
+at Odessa always pay soldiers, even as porters, about 25 per cent. below
+other labourers, because they are not so strong. In Odessa, the common
+pay of a labourer is forty copecks silver, or about eighteen pence a-day,
+and a soldier is highly paid at a shilling. In harvest-time a good
+labourer near Odessa gets as much as seven shillings a-day.
+
+The time of service is still twenty-two years for the Guards; twenty-five
+years for the other troops; and twenty years for conscripts of the
+military colonies.
+
+Between 1833 and 1840 was introduced the system mentioned before, by
+which every man has the right to what is called “indefinite leave,” after
+ten or fifteen years’ service, according to the part of the empire from
+which he happens to come. During the rest of his time of service he is
+always liable to be called upon, in the case of war, to form part of one
+of the two armies of reserve, or to assist at some of the grand reviews
+that periodically take place. In the latter case a great injury is
+inflicted upon him; for he is sometimes marched two thousand miles for a
+mere parade, and of course, if he is a tradesman engaged in business, his
+interests suffer very severely.
+
+The system of indefinite leave is said to answer admirably. The poor
+soldiers may perhaps see their homes again after ten years, though they
+never could hope to survive twenty-five years’ service; and since this
+measure has been adopted, the health of the army, which is in this case
+equivalent to its happiness, has much improved.
+
+The empire is now divided into two parts, east and west, for purposes of
+the conscription, and regularly each division can only be called upon for
+recruits once in two years, although this rule, as all rules in Russia,
+has often been disregarded. The following is the amount per cent. which
+has been levied in ten years, from 1840 to 1850:—
+
+  1840. Both divisions                                      5 per 1000
+
+  Then till 1848, eight years, the regular quota of each
+    division of 5 per 1000 every other year, or 2½ per
+    1000 per annum on both divisions                       20 per 1000
+
+  1849. On account of the movements of troops in         } 12 per 1000 on
+    1848-49, and the expeditions in Hungary, Wallachia,  } both divisions
+    and Transylvania                                     } was levied.
+                                                           -----------
+                            Total                          37 per 1000
+
+Thus a total of 37 per 1000, or upwards of 3½ per cent. of the
+able-bodied male population, were taken for the military service in ten
+years. Taking the male population of Russia, subject to conscription, at
+twenty millions, this would make 700,000 able-bodied men who were drafted
+into the army in the ten years from 1840 to 1850; but the army in 1840
+already consisted of at least 700,000 men, which, added to the number of
+the recruits, would give 1,400,000 men devoted to the military service
+during that period, and, as the army in 1850 was certainly not above
+800,000, there would remain 600,000 men to be accounted for.
+
+It is not too much to suppose that in 1850-51 and 52, the ordinary number
+of 2½ per 1000 (7½ per 1000 for the three years), was levied. In 1853,
+in the Turkish campaign, the losses were probably as great as in the
+Hungarian, and the army had to be augmented. In 1854 we know that great
+efforts have been made, and therefore, in these two years, it is fair to
+suppose that 12 per 1000 were levied each year. This would make, in the
+five years since 1850, a levy of 31½ per 1000, or upwards of 3 per cent.
+on twenty millions, about 700,000 men. But the levy in the last year
+(1854) has certainly been more than 12 per 1000, for, besides the regular
+recruits, waggons, with men to attend upon them, have been pressed, and
+the waggoners have been required by the Government to be of a certain
+standard and able-bodied, and when they are at a distance from home they
+have been obliged to serve as soldiers. Including these peasants, and
+supposing the conscription in 1854 to have required a number above the
+12 per 1000 which has been allowed for it, we may perhaps add another
+200,000 men as the result of the great efforts that have been made to get
+conscripts up to the 1st of January, 1855.
+
+Then in the last fifteen years there will be a total of—
+
+                                                Men.
+  Regular army, 1840                          700,000
+  Ten years conscripts, 1840-50               700,000
+  Five years conscripts, 1850-54              600,000
+  Additional for extra conscription in 1854   200,000
+                                              -------
+              A grand total of              2,200,000
+
+—men who have passed through the Russian service since 1840, and who are
+represented now, by the very highest calculation, that of M. Tegoborski,
+by from 800,000 to 900,000 men, which he says was the number upon which
+the military budget was calculated in the year 1854. Consequently
+1,350,000 men have disappeared through the agency of the Russian army
+since 1840.
+
+This enormous sacrifice of men to the military system is very severely
+felt, and must have gone far to neutralize any increase of the
+population of late years. Haxthausen says, “These oukases for levying
+the conscriptions always spread mourning and consternation. The nobility
+suffers great losses. The Scheremeteff, the Demidoff, and the Orloffs,
+are often obliged to furnish several hundred recruits. Families lose
+their best workmen, and their fathers and their brothers; for the number
+of bad characters, who possess the physical qualities necessary to enter
+the service, is not enough to realize the number of troops demanded by
+the Emperor.”
+
+Now as to the expense of the Russian soldier to the state. It will be
+seen from the following passage that M. Tegoborski, the mouthpiece of
+the Russian Government on statistical subjects, estimates it at a very
+low figure. He says, “the military budget of Russia for 1854, for an
+effective of from 800,000 to 900,000 men, was estimated at 84,200,000
+silver roubles, and that of the navy at 14,400,000 silver roubles, or
+nearly 16,000,000_l._ altogether, which would give an average of 100
+roubles or 16_l._ per head per annum, for the maintenance of the troops.
+Admitting that the effective of the army was carried to 1,250,000 men
+in the year 1855, which would suppose an augmentation of 450,000 men,
+or 50 per cent., and adding to the military budget of 84,200,000 silver
+roubles, in a round sum 50,000,000 silver roubles, or 8,000,000_l._, the
+whole military budget of Russia for the year 1855 would then only amount
+to about 24,000,000_l._”
+
+In calculating the means of Russia to pay this sum, we do not know
+the exact amount of the Russian revenue beyond the year 1853, when,
+according to M. Tegoborski, it amounted to 37,384,660_l._ But the
+Russian revenue in the year 1839, which is the only other year he gives,
+is stated to have been upwards of one-third less, so that in the last
+fifteen years there is stated to have been the enormous increase of 36
+per cent. without the levying of any new taxes. As the accounts of the
+Russian revenue are not published, we cannot place implicit reliance
+on a mere statement of results by an interested party. But we all know
+that estimates are generally much below the real expense, and it is
+probable that the military budget, considering the enormous expenses of
+the transport of stores and materials, and the movement of troops, and
+the losses which have been sustained, must be nearly the double of M.
+Tegoborski’s calculation, or, let us say at least 40,000,000_l._ instead
+of 24,000,000_l._ On the other hand, considering the great injury to
+the peasants from the increased number of recruits and their own forced
+services for transport, and an acknowledged diminution of 20 per cent.
+in the exports and imports, which will be much greater next year if an
+efficient blockade be kept up, shall we be wrong in considering the
+Russian realized revenue of 1854 as very much below that of 1853?
+
+M. Tegoborski calculates the diminution of the revenue in 1854 at about
+2,000,000_l._ from the falling off of the customs duties alone. It
+is probable, therefore, that the revenue of the country, during the
+past year, will not have even sufficed by several millions to pay the
+expenses of the army and navy alone, while, besides these expenses, there
+is the interest of the debt and the expenditure of the civil government
+to be met, which is reckoned at about 8,000,000_l._ Thus it may be fairly
+supposed that Russia will want at least 48,000,000_l._ to cover the
+expenses of the year 1854, which is eleven millions more than the total
+amount of her revenue during the last year of peace, 1853. Her credit in
+Europe[110] is indeed pretty good, but it is notorious that she depends
+upon foreign capital for the cultivation of her soil. The precious metals
+have almost disappeared from the empire: paper alone is seen there; and
+if we press her hard during the next six months she must be reduced to
+very great straits.
+
+Although the Russian soldier has a hard life of it as a private, yet if
+he rises to be a non-commissioned officer, he then, after twelve years’
+service, becomes ennobled, and receives his commission, or retires with a
+pension. Thus a considerable number of the officers of the Russian army
+have risen from the ranks, and all who obtain commissions are obliged
+to serve as non-commissioned officers for a certain period. Formerly the
+length of time was six months, but it has lately been extended to two
+years, so that I suppose the system is found to answer.
+
+None are exempted from this condition except those who have gone through
+the military schools, in which they are allowed to pass their probation
+as non-commissioned officers, and then enter the army as officers. An
+officer in his probationary state is called a “younker,” and he wears the
+drab greatcoat, and regularly performs the duties of a sergeant. His only
+privilege is to have his dress of finer materials than that of the common
+men,—if he chooses to pay for it. Off duty he lives among his equals, and
+is often seen in his soldier’s coat at the table of generals. Thus the
+system of promotion in the army, and indeed the whole feelings of the
+Russian people, are far less aristocratic than among ourselves.
+
+The common soldiers in Russia are also frequently decorated with the
+medal which is by far the most prized, even by the highest ranks of
+officers, namely, the Soldier’s Cross of St. George. This is the one
+given only for distinguished bravery, and it is very much sought after.
+A certain number of these crosses are distributed after every remarkable
+achievement. It is given not only after great battles, but whenever any
+man has performed a signal act of valour.
+
+The cross is simply of lead, while other crosses are of more precious
+material, and it is alike for soldiers and officers. The Grand Cross
+of St. George is given for having taken the capital of an enemy, or
+having fought a battle which has decided the fate of an empire. The
+late Emperor himself wore only the Soldier’s Cross of St. George, which
+he gained under fire in the Turkish war. There were only two Grand
+Crosses in existence a few years ago, one of which was worn by our own
+Duke of Wellington, and the other by Marshal Paskiévitch, who received
+his for the taking of Arzeroom, which was considered as the capital of
+Armenia.[111]
+
+The order of St. George is universally regarded in Russia with the same
+pride and respect as the orders of “the Iron Cross,” that of “Maria
+Theresa,” and that “of Merit” are in other European countries.
+
+Since the last few years also there exists in Russia an imitation
+of the distinction accorded to Latour d’Auvergne, that of being “le
+premier grenadier de France.” Archippus Ossipof, in 1840, blew up the
+fort Michailof, and himself in it, to prevent its being taken by the
+Circassians; and his name is still kept on the lists as the first
+grenadier of the first company of the infantry regiment of Tenginsk. When
+his name is called, the second soldier always answers, “Dead for the
+honour of the Russian arms in the fort Michailof.”
+
+There also exist in Russia orders and medals of honour conferred upon
+regiments, which recall the epoch of their creation, the names of their
+founders, and their famous actions. These formerly existed in the French
+and all the German armies, but are now only found in the Austrian and
+English armies, and a few Prussian regiments. In Russia the regiments
+have continued to exist since Peter the Great, and keep up by outward
+signs the remembrance of their services. The Preobrajenski guards,
+the few companies which Peter undertook to drill ostensibly for his
+amusement, and which became the nucleus of the whole Russian army, still
+wear the original helmets of his time; and it is a glory among the men
+to have those that are the most pierced by bullets and battered by
+sabre-cuts.
+
+The regiment of Tchérnigof obtained the privilege of alone wearing
+red-stockings (probably gaiters to the knee, which were then worn all
+over Europe), because at the battle of Pultava they marched in blood up
+to their knees.
+
+The regiment of Novogínsk is allowed to carry the standard of St. George
+since the battle of the Trebbia and the passage of the Alps under
+Suvórof, in 1799; and this regiment possesses silver trumpets, given to
+it in consequence of the passage of the Gulf of Bothnia upon the ice,
+under Bagration in 1807. The Russians have also copied the system of
+giving their generals titles commemorative of the victories they have
+gained in foreign countries. Thus in ancient Rome there was Scipio
+Africanus; in modern France there are a host of titles of the time of the
+Empire, of which Soult, Duke of Dalmatia, and Ney, Prince of the Moskowa,
+are examples; and in our own country, the title of Lord Mahon perpetuates
+the victories of Lord Peterborough, and the Duke of Wellington was made
+Marquis of Douro, and Lord Kean Baron of Ghuzni. The Russians keep more
+strictly to the Roman style in their titles of honour, and thus we find a
+Suvórof Italínski, a Diébitch Sabalkánski, and a Paskiévitch Erivánski.
+
+The dress of the Russian soldier consists of a dark-green coatee, which
+he very seldom wears, except on parade; a drab greatcoat, which is his
+constant dress; two pairs of trousers, one for summer and one for winter;
+a cravat; three shirts; three pairs of boots, and a cap. The whole of
+these articles cost the Government about 2_l._, with 1_l._ 3_s._ 6_d._
+each year for renewal, and they remain the property of the soldier.
+
+It will be observed that no stockings are mentioned, as no soldiers
+wear them; and many officers cannot afford such luxuries, and only wear
+bandages wrapped round the legs, something like the piferari in Italy.
+
+All articles of clothing are made up by workmen in each battalion, and
+these amount to fifty men, who are constantly employed, and consequently
+by this system the effective force of the army is considerably reduced.
+
+Many classifications may be made of the Russian army, as into,—1st,
+regular and irregular troops; 2nd, grand army, always ready for offensive
+operations, and troops employed on local services; 3rd, the active
+army and the reserve, although all the reserves are on active service
+at the present moment; 4th, according to the system of numbering from
+each regiment upwards; or, 5th, according to its division into—first,
+corps or regular armies, each composed of a certain proportion of
+infantry, cavalry, and artillery;—second, battalions not formed into
+regiments;—and, third, irregular cavalry and militia.
+
+This is the classification which I will now follow—1st, then, as to the
+regular corps, there is:—
+
+1. The corps of Guards, consisting of 38,000 infantry, with 60 squadrons
+of regular and 17½ of irregular cavalry, one division of mounted
+engineers, and 116 pieces of artillery. The station of this corps is at
+Petersburg in time of peace; but it has recently been moved into Poland.
+
+2. The corps of Grenadiers, likewise consisting of 38,000 infantry, but
+only 32 squadrons of cavalry, and 88 pieces of artillery. Their station
+is at Novgorod, ninety miles from Petersburg, where they still remain.
+
+3-8. Six corps of infantry, as they are called, although they are
+complete armies like the two that have been named. They form the bulk
+of the Russian army, and have each 50,000 infantry, 32 squadrons of
+cavalry, and 112 pieces of artillery; making a total for the six corps of
+300,000 infantry; 192 squadrons of lancers and huzzars, and 672 pieces of
+artillery.
+
+The following are the stations of these six corps, which are echelloned
+in a semicircle round the frontiers of the Russian Empire, beginning with
+the Baltic Provinces, then passing through Poland and Bessarabia, and
+along the shores of the Black Sea and the Azof, and upwards to Moscow,
+where the 6th corps is stationed.
+
+The first four corps form the Grand Army under Prince Paskiévitch,
+whose head-quarters are at Warsaw, and who is also Viceroy of Poland.
+The regular station of the first corps of infantry is in the Baltic
+Provinces, where it generally remains more stationary than the next
+three corps. It has now recently been moved to Grodno and Bialostok, in
+Lithuania, and has been ordered to advance into the kingdom of Poland. It
+is commanded by General Sievers, a German, of Livonia.
+
+The next three corps, the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, are regularly stationed in
+the kingdom of Poland, and revolve in a certain circle of cantonments,
+being never allowed, for obvious reasons, to remain more than three years
+in the same place.
+
+The 2nd corps has now been removed to replace the third corps on the
+Dniestr and the Pruth, and is commanded by General Paniútin, a Russian.
+
+The 3rd corps has its usual head-quarters at Kremenetz in Wolhynia, and
+has now been moved to the Crimea. The arrival of one of its divisions,
+the eighth in the general system of the army, at Baktchéserai, was
+announced in our papers about the 20th of January, when it was addressed
+by Prince Gortchakoff. This corps is commanded by General Riad, who has
+served in the Caucasus.
+
+The 4th corps has been moved to the Crimea, and was commanded by General
+Dannenberg, who was deprived of it in consequence of losing the battle
+of Inkerman, on November 5th, 1854, and he has been succeeded by General
+Osten Sacken, who before that time had all the recruiting of New Russia
+under his care. Both these generals are Germans.
+
+The regular station of the 5th corps is in New Russia, and its
+head-quarters are at Odessa. One division is usually kept in the Crimea,
+one on the Dniepr and Dniestr, and one in Bessarabia. Its cavalry station
+is on the Boug, at Nemírgorod and other places. Its artillery station is
+at Tyraspol on the Dniestr, which is one of the great arsenals of Russia.
+It was borrowed to reinforce the army of Caucasus in 1843, and returned
+in 1846. One division of it was again sent there in 1854, and it has been
+commanded since about 1840 by General Luders, a German. He replaced
+General Mouravióf, a man of considerable ability, who was then disgraced,
+but has been recently restored to favour, and is now governor-general of
+the Caucasus. Since this war began, many able men, obnoxious on account
+of their liberal opinions, or from other causes, have been restored
+to favour and employed, no doubt because there is felt in the present
+crisis a great scarcity of men fitted to fill high appointments. We, on
+the contrary, have an “_embarras de richesses_” of good men, but our
+government, unlike that of Russia, unfortunately appears to have allowed
+private considerations and official routine to stand too much in the way
+of their appointment. The whole of the 5th corps has now been moved into
+the Crimea.
+
+The 6th corps is regularly stationed at Moscow in time of peace, but it
+has now been moved to the south. Of its three divisions, Nos. 16 and 17
+are in the Crimea, and No. 18 in the Caucasus. It is nominally commanded
+by Prince Gortchakoff the Third (tretiey), as he is called in Russia, but
+the real active commander is General Tchlodaieff, an officer of great
+ability. Such have been the locations and “dislocations” of the six corps
+of infantry.
+
+9thly and 10thly, in the general list of corps, come the two reserve
+corps of cavalry. The first of these consists of 80 squadrons and 48
+pieces of artillery. Its regular station is at Nemírgorod, on the Boug,
+and it has been moved to the seat of war. The second corps of cavalry
+of reserve consists of 82 squadrons, and a division of light cavalry of
+reserve of 24 squadrons, or altogether, 108 squadrons, and 72 pieces of
+artillery.[112] This is the corps of the dragoons, or soldiers intended
+to act either as infantry or cavalry, according to the ideas of those who
+first invented the Dragoon. This notion of having the same soldier fit
+for both services was given up in Europe after the wars of Napoleon, but
+revived by the Emperor of Russia, with whom it is a favourite notion. It
+is, however, generally disapproved of by Russian officers, who do not
+consider that the men gain in efficiency by having to perform double
+duties. The station of the second cavalry reserve corps is at Kharkof.
+
+11thly, The corps of the Caucasus, which a few years ago consisted
+altogether of a very mixed army of 170,000 men, so scattered over the
+country, that 20,000 men could with difficulty be got together.
+
+Besides these eleven regular corps, which are most of them complete
+armies, there are also in Russia a large body of regular infantry for the
+internal service of the country, which is supplied with the necessary
+complement of cavalry and artillery by the Cossacks. This force of
+infantry amounts altogether to 200,000 men, and is divided into separate
+battalions, called “battalions of the line,” and not into regiments.
+
+These troops are used as garrisons for fortresses and towns; they are
+placed in some turbulent countries on the frontiers of the empire, and
+are employed in various ways in the civil and military administration.
+Fifty of them are “the garrison battalions,” and together form what is
+called “the guard of the interior,” separated into ten districts, and
+the capital of each government in European Russia has generally one and
+sometimes two of these battalions. They count among their ranks many
+veterans, and are generally cantoned in open towns, as their health is
+then better and the expense of their maintenance less. In Siberia two
+battalions and a half form the interior guard of the country.
+
+Besides the garrison battalions there are 84 battalions of the line,
+disposed in various groups:—47 are placed in the Caucasus, and have
+already been counted; 12 are Finnish, and form the 22nd division of
+infantry, whose station is in Finland; 10 belong to Orenbourg, and
+compose the 23rd division of infantry; 15 are Siberian battalions, who
+have also some artillery (12 pieces), and are stationed in Siberia.
+
+There are besides these the corps of veterans and invalids, and the corps
+of military workmen, as follows:—
+
+(1.) 552 companies of veterans of infantry, of about 40 men each, who do
+duty in district towns, the imperial palaces, and other places, = 22,080
+men.
+
+(2.) 138 companies of invalids, of about 100 men each, occupied with the
+same duties, = 13,800 men.
+
+(3.) 115 companies of veterans and artillery workmen, of 150 to 200 men
+each, for the service of the artillery of the fortresses, the workshops
+of the artillery, and the manufactories of guns, powder, &c. = say 20,000
+men.
+
+(4.) 105 companies of veterans, workmen, and soldiers belonging to the
+corps of engineers, likewise of 150 to 200 men each, and = say 20,000 men.
+
+There is besides a corps of police, amounting to 3000 men, scattered over
+all the towns of the empire. The Cossacks also partly perform the duties
+of the police in the towns, and in the country there is no police at all.
+
+Thus the corps of veterans and invalids equal altogether—
+
+                                        Men.
+  Infantry veterans                   22,080
+      Ditto                           13,800
+  Veteran workmen of artillery, &c.   40,000
+                                      ------
+                          Total       75,880
+
+Add to these—
+
+  Fifty-two battalions and a half of the interior guard   52,500
+  Eighty-four battalions of the line                      84,000
+                                                         -------
+                     Total of local regular troops       212,380
+
+Haxthausen, adding in the regular troops of the corps of the Caucasus,
+makes the local regular troops = 299,800 men, and adding further the
+reserves of the battalions of the line, upwards of 15,000 men, makes a
+grand total for the local regular troops of 315,000 men.
+
+The total of the “troupes mobiles,” or aggressive army, being 699,000
+men, it follows that in the present military organization of Russia, in
+ordinary times of peace, she can furnish upwards of a million of regular
+troops.
+
+The irregular troops of the Russian army are also very numerous, and
+mostly consist of light cavalry. By far the most important of these are
+the Cossacks, who are mostly of Russian extraction.
+
+There are, however, besides the Cossacks, irregular troops taken from
+every tribe or nation which Russia has conquered, and this system is
+followed, not so much because of the value of their services, as to teach
+them to expend their military energies in her service, and by accustoming
+them to good pay and the luxuries of civilized life, to wean their
+affections from their own people.
+
+There is a regular line of Cossacks all the way from the banks of the
+Danube along the north of the Caspian, and all through Tatary and
+Mongolia, to the extreme verge of eastern Asia at Kamstchatka.
+
+Along a part of this line, from the Caspian to Kamstchatka, there is
+also a chain of tribes, the rightful possessors of the country, allied
+together, beginning with the Kirgúiz, and ending with the pacific
+population of Kamstchatka. The Cossacks prevent the Kirgúiz from
+levying a tribute on the Russian merchants and colonists, and force the
+Kamstchatkans to pay their tribute to the Russian government.
+
+The following is an enumeration from M. Haxthausen’s work of the force
+which the Cossacks, according to their constitution and ordinances, are
+bound to furnish, if a levy of the whole of them were made. In case of
+urgency, they would be able to bring into the field at least one-fourth
+more of practised warriors, especially if the State assisted them in
+their equipment.
+
+At the same time, it must not be forgotten that the Cossacks are
+occupied in the labours of agriculture, and the abstraction of so large
+a proportion of them as took place of late years in time of peace has
+been a material injury to their interests.[113] If so large a number were
+taken as M. Haxthausen supposes, the tillage of the fields could hardly
+be effected.
+
+1. The Cossacks of the Don can put on foot 58 regiments of cavalry, of
+which two belong to the Guard, and 14 batteries of horse artillery. Each
+regiment is composed of 6 sotni[114] or centuries; total = 348 sotni and
+112 guns.
+
+2. The Cossacks of the western side of the Sea of Azof. These are the
+best sailors of the south of Russia. They possess 30 gun-boats, and
+in time of peace are exclusively occupied in blockading the coasts of
+Circassia. They belong properly to the navy.
+
+3. The Cossacks of the Danube. They can put on foot 2 regiments of
+cavalry. Each regiment is composed of 6 sotni, and numbers 870 men.
+
+4. The Cossacks of the Black Sea, or the Tchernomorski Cossacks, who are
+the ancient Zaporogues of the Dniepr. These can furnish 12 regiments of
+cavalry, 1 division (2 sotni) of Cossacks of the Guard, 9 battalions of
+riflemen, 3 batteries of horse artillery, and 1 of foot artillery.
+
+Each regiment has about 6 sotni, and therefore their total would be 9
+battalions, 74 sotni of cavalry, and 32 guns.
+
+5. The Cossacks of the Line, or of the Caucasus: 18 regiments of cavalry,
+and 3 batteries of horse artillery.
+
+According to the ordinance of 1845, they were to be raised to 20
+regiments of cavalry, and of 884 men each; and, in addition, they were
+to furnish an escort for the Emperor at Petersburg, and one division (I
+suppose 2 sotni) for the active Polish army.
+
+Counting upon the old state of things before 1845, the total was 108
+sotni and 24 guns.
+
+6. The Cossacks of the Ural Mountains: 12 regiments of cavalry, of 5
+sotni each, making altogether 60 sotni.
+
+7. The Cossacks of Orenbourg: 10 regiments of cavalry, of 6 sotni each,
+and 3 batteries of horse artillery; total 60 sotni and 24 guns.
+
+8. The Cossacks of the Line of Siberia, who must not be confounded with
+the Cossacks of the towns in that country: 9 regiments of cavalry, and 3
+batteries of horse artillery; total 54 (?) sotni and 24 guns.
+
+9. The Cossacks of the frontiers of China: 8 sotni.
+
+10. The Cossacks of Astrakhan: 3 regiments of cavalry, and 1 battery of
+horse artillery; 18 sotni and 8 guns.
+
+11. The town Cossacks of Siberia: 8 regiments of infantry (? battalions).
+
+The number of the Cossack infantry is very uncertain, because the force
+of the Siberian battalions is unknown.
+
+The most important question for Europe to inquire is, as to how many of
+these Cossacks are available during a European war like the present? On
+this point the following calculation must of course be only approximative.
+
+1. If Russia continues the war of the Caucasus on its present footing.—In
+this case the Cossacks of the Don, 9 or 10 regiments of which are
+ordinarily employed in the Caucasus, would only offer of—
+
+  Disposable troops     38,000 cavalry   100 pieces of artillery.
+  Cossacks of Danube    1,700    ”              ”
+  Cossacks of Ural      5,000    ”              ”
+  Cossacks of Orenbourg 5,000    ”        10    ”
+                       ------            ---
+  Total                49,700    ”       110    ”
+
+2. If Russia restricted herself to a purely defensive war in the
+Caucasus, and abandoned her more advanced posts, without leaving
+her frontiers undefended, there might be added 2000 men of the Don,
+2000 Tchernomorski or Black Sea Cossacks, 4000 Cossacks of the Line;
+altogether 10,000 additional men.
+
+The total force available would then be 60,000 cavalry and 110 guns. In
+each of these cases 20,000 to 30,000 cavalry of the new formation might
+be drawn from Siberia, and directed successively to the theatre of war.
+
+There are, besides, a number of irregular troops not of Russian origin,
+but organized after the manner of the Cossacks; and although their
+military importance is not great, I will enumerate them.
+
+Many of the tribes that will be mentioned have long served under the
+Russian banner, as anciently the Gauls served in the armies of Cæsar.
+Their motive has been not attachment to the Russians, but fear of them.
+Long habit and traditions of submission have much modified their state of
+feeling, and has at last made these people pretty faithful servants of
+the Russian government; as, for example, the Bashkírs, who used formerly
+to have constant sanguinary collisions with the Cossacks of the Ural
+Mountains. _There are other tribes who now serve the Russians, because
+they are forced to do so, and who would willingly fight against them, if
+they had not a conviction of their own inferiority._
+
+Other tribes would suffer the supremacy of Russia pretty patiently,
+if that power was not so severe in making them respect the rights of
+property, and if she did not prevent their indulging their old habits of
+levying blackmail on their neighbours, and the merchants and travellers
+who pass through their territory.
+
+It is therefore evidently not from any great benefits to be derived from
+their military organization, but in order to watch them, that they are
+brought into close relations with the Cossack troops charged with the
+defence of the Russian authority in the countries inhabited by them.
+
+The following is a concise account of these nations:—
+
+    (A.) The Tatars of Crimea. These feeble remains of the ancient
+    sovereigns of Southern Russia belong to that horde whose Khans
+    had formerly more than once penetrated as far as the Oka, and
+    never at the head of less than 150,000 cavalry. They now furnish
+    to the Imperial Guard a squadron of fine irregular troops.
+
+    (B.) The warlike tribes of the Caucasus and Trans-Caucasia.
+    They furnish to the Russian government auxiliary troops for
+    the wars in those countries. These troops are very useful,
+    although dependence cannot be always placed on them; but for
+    wars beyond their own country, any number might be obtained by
+    voluntary enlistment. They furnish to the Russian army—
+
+        1. A squadron of the guard forming the personal escort of
+        the Emperor, and constituting, with a squadron of the
+        Cossacks of the Line, “the Tcherkess Guards.”
+
+        2. A regiment of 6 squadrons serving in the army of Poland.
+
+        3. An infantry regiment of Georgian militia to reinforce
+        the military cordon established against the Lesghins,
+        beyond the Alezan, a river of Kakhetia, in Georgia.
+        Total of these:—2 battalions and 7 squadrons.
+
+    (C.) The Bashkírs and Metschériacks. They inhabit in part as
+    nomades Perm and Orenbourg, and belong to the army of the
+    Cossacks of Orenbourg. In 1813 many of these served in Germany.
+
+    (D.) The Buriates and the Toungouses:—5 regiments of cavalry.
+
+    They form part of the Cossack force on the Chinese frontier.
+
+Russia might march forward a large portion of these irregular troops,
+but they are yet so little civilized that the Russian government does
+not like to bring them to the West, because their want of discipline
+and obedience in fighting would make them rather an impediment than an
+advantage on the field of battle. They are, however, of some importance,
+as they might be used to replace the best corps of Cossacks in the East
+and in the Caucasus, while the latter were moved away to the West.
+
+The native cavalry of the Caucasus alone, on account of their great
+courage and address, would offer a precious auxiliary force to the
+Russian army in wars on her western frontier, if they could be brought to
+fight under her banner.[115]
+
+The regiments of irregular cavalry among the Russians are principally
+intended to serve for a war of skirmishers. Their chief business is
+to provide for the security of the Russian army, and its means of
+communication, by protecting the baggage and the convoys of prisoners.
+They are also very useful in carrying orders, and forming relays for
+correspondence; and, lastly, are of the greatest importance in annoying
+the enemy with constant skirmishes.
+
+They show great skill and a liking for these various duties, which are
+not only in perfect harmony with their military habits, but which give
+them frequent opportunities of plunder. It is said that during the years
+1812-1814 they established themselves, privately, a chain of Cossack
+posts, from the Seine to the Don, to pass along their booty; and without
+some such plan it is difficult to understand how during those campaigns
+they could have sent so many precious objects home from the West to offer
+to the image of “the Mother Mary,” or “the beautiful Minka,” of the Don,
+as they called their favourite image of the Virgin.
+
+In most armies the duties of providing for the safety of the army are
+regulated in a very precise order, with vigorous dispositions relative
+to the organization and employment of patrols, guards of the camp, and
+piquets. The Cossacks know none of these arrangements. They surround
+on all sides the corps of troops which they are told to protect, and
+by the delicacy of their senses, and their instinctive quickness, it
+is possible for the Russian regular troops to give themselves up to a
+more complete security than any Western armies provided with the most
+intelligent officers and sergeants. Suvórof called the Cossacks “the eye
+of the army;” and he might have said that they were also its ears and its
+antennæ.
+
+The irregular troops are of the more utility in the Russian army, because
+the regular corps do not show much aptitude for the minor duties of
+the military service. There is therefore in the Russian army the most
+rigorous division of labour that was ever seen in any army; to the
+regular troops are allotted the labours of war, and to the irregular
+troops those of general surveillance. The Cossack has no equal for
+surprises and skirmishes. No cavalry in Europe could make such marches
+as they constantly perform, without ruining their horses. In Europe
+they often carried with them a pack-horse; but even without this they
+performed incredible feats, and fifty miles is with them an ordinary
+day’s journey. Of the 3500 men of regular troops who were sent on the
+expedition to Khiva in 1840, only 1000 returned. Of 1200 Cossacks who
+made part of that same expedition only 60 perished; and of 2000 or 3000
+Kirgúiz who accompanied it the loss was still less. If on the one hand
+this was the result of their familiarity with the steppes and the climate
+of these countries, on the other hand it was partly owing to their
+fitness for making forced marches.
+
+The Cossack, who is generally a strong man, appears to be too heavy
+for his horse, but this is not really the case. The Cossack horse is a
+wonderful animal to endure fatigue. He has a good head, a ewe neck, a
+large arm, short legs, broad chest, and a sound hoof. His back often
+seems too long; but it is said[116] that he is often found with two
+ribs more than ordinary horses. In winter he seeks his pasture in the
+snows of the steppes, and thus learns to be very hardy; and he can do
+an immense deal of work when he is fed on oaten bread or barley, wheat,
+straw, or good or bad hay, all of which he will eat. He is very active in
+climbing mountains, and swimming rivers. At Marshal Munich’s assault on
+the lines of Perecop the Cossacks arrived at the top of the rampart as
+soon as the first men of the infantry. The Cossack horse is accustomed
+to eat at all hours of the day; and his master continually feeds him
+whenever he has an opportunity. If he stops but for a moment, even under
+the fire of cannon in time of war, the Cossack always feeds his horse
+with something; and the horse never refuses any food, either on account
+of its bad quality or the time at which it is given. “He alone” (I use
+the words of Haxthausen) “who has had the pain to see his fine and
+faithful horse refuse his oats after the fatigue of a battle; he who has
+counted with anguish the minutes in time of war which have been allowed
+him to feed his horse, and which have passed without the horse being able
+to eat; he who has seen his beautiful steed, accustomed to delicate food,
+become day by day more thin and feeble from bad nourishment and forced
+marches, such a soldier can alone understand how precious in the Cossack
+horse are his strong stomach and power of endurance.”[117]
+
+The Cossacks now have trumpets, and under the cover of cannon spread
+themselves out like a swarm, dashing upon the enemy when any one of their
+number, and not their officer only, sees a favourable opportunity and
+gives the signal. They dislike to face fire-arms, because, M. Haxthausen
+says, they only come out to fight for plunder, but sometimes they will
+do a daring exploit in hope of a cross, as they are very vain, and
+love decorations even more than the Russians. Their superstition is
+remarkable; they believe in all sorts of auguries; which, although also
+the case with the Russian soldier, in him is neutralized by military
+discipline. The Cossacks, fighting singly, have no esprit-de-corps to
+counteract their natural feelings, and the crossing of a hare with them
+may lose an engagement. The meeting of a priest is also considered very
+unlucky.
+
+To sum up: it may be said that at present, with regard at least to the
+Cossacks of the Don, the horse is better than his master. They were
+of great use in the wars of Napoleon, when they were still a frontier
+people, continually exercised in war at home, and possessed of a
+democratic constitution, which allowed only merit to raise its head.
+
+Since that time the advance of the Russian frontiers to the South
+has given the Cossacks internal peace and security, and their old
+constitution has been either taken away or made a dead letter. Thus, with
+the loss of their liberty, they have become indifferent soldiers and idle
+agriculturists.
+
+Russian military men have not, I believe, a high opinion of the Don
+Cossacks, and although they still acknowledge their utility in guarding
+regular troops, and relieving them from many laborious duties, are
+well aware how much they have lost of their ancient martial spirit. I
+believe the opinion of our own military authorities is, that they are not
+very formidable in the field, and before Sevastopol have shown little
+inclination to run any great risks.
+
+Had they stood at all firmly at the affair of Balaclava, not a man of
+our unfortunate light cavalry could have been saved. When our men were
+returning from that fearful ride of death, they saw swarms of Cossacks,
+several thousand in number, descend from the hills to intercept their
+return. They thought all was over with them, as they quickened their pace
+to charge; but the Cossacks shrank from the encounter, opened to the
+right and left, and let them pass in safety.[118]
+
+
+RECAPITULATION OF EFFECTIVE COSSACKS.
+
+  +-------------------------+----------------------------------------+
+  |                         |       ENUMERATION OF THEIR FORCE.      |
+  |                         +--------+--------+-----------+----------+
+  |     Names of the        |        |        |           |          |
+  |    Cossack Corps.       |Regiment|        |           |          |
+  |                         |   of   | Sotni  |Battalions.|Batteries.|
+  |                         |Cavalry.|Cavalry.|           |          |
+  +-------------------------+--------+--------+-----------+----------+
+  | 1. Army of the Don      |   58   |  348   |           |   14     |
+  | 2.    ”        Azof     |        |        |           |          |
+  | 3.    ”        Danube   |    2   |   12   |           |          |
+  | 4.    ”        Black Sea|   12   |   74   |     9     |    4     |
+  | 5.    ”        Caucasus |   18   |  108   |           |    3     |
+  | 6.    ”        Oural    |   12   |   60   |           |          |
+  | 7.    ”        Orenburg |   10   |   60   |           |    3     |
+  | 8.    ”        Siberia  |    9   |   54   |           |    3     |
+  | 9.    ”        frontiers|        |    8   |           |          |
+  |                 of China|        |        |           |          |
+  |10.    ”        Astrakhan|    3   |   18   |           |    1     |
+  |11.    ”        Siberia  |        |        |    24     |          |
+  |                         +--------+--------+-----------+----------+
+  |      Total              |  124   |  742   |    33     |   28     |
+  +-------------------------+--------+--------+-----------+----------+
+
+  +---+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
+  |   |                 ENUMERATION OF THEIR FORCE.                     |
+  |   +-------------------------+----------------+----------------------+
+  |   |         Pieces.         | Approximative  |                      |
+  |   +--------+---------+------+     Force,     |                      |
+  |   |Cavalry.|Infantry.|Total.|    without     |     OBSERVATIONS.    |
+  |   |        |         |      |   Artillery.   |                      |
+  +---+--------+---------+------+----------------+----------------------+
+  | 1.|   112  |         |  112 | 42,000 cavalry |                      |
+  | 2.|        |         |      |                |{The Army of Azof is  |
+  |   |        |         |      |                |{ entirely employed to|
+  |   |        |         |      |                |{ man the gun-boats on|
+  |   |        |         |      |                |{ the Sea of Azof.    |
+  | 3.|        |         |      |  1,700 cavalry |                      |
+  | 4.|    24  |    8    |   32 |{ 9,000 infantry|                      |
+  |   |        |         |      |{ 9,000 cavalry |                      |
+  | 5.|    24  |         |   24 | 16,000 cavalry |                      |
+  | 6.|        |         |      |  7,500 cavalry |                      |
+  | 7.|    24  |         |   24 |  7,500 cavalry |                      |
+  | 8.|    24  |         |   24 |  6,500 cavalry |                      |
+  | 9.|        |         |      |  1,000 cavalry |                      |
+  |10.|     8  |         |    8 |  2,000 cavalry |                      |
+  |11.|        |         |      | 24,000 infantry|                      |
+  |   +--------+---------+------+----------------+----------------------+
+  |   |   216  |    8    |  224 |126,200 men     | 93,200 cavalry.      |
+  |   |        |         |      |                | 33,000 infantry.     |
+  +---+--------+---------+------+----------------+----------------------+
+
+                                       Taken from M. Haxthausen, vol. iii.
+
+I have now given a short account of the forces, regular and irregular,
+composing the whole Russian army, which is, perhaps, the most stupendous
+military engine which the world has ever yet seen.
+
+While the nations of Europe have been disarming, Russia has been
+augmenting her forces, and spending a very large proportion of her
+revenue in storing up weapons of destruction. Peaceful avocations have
+been discouraged by her, and men of peace looked upon with contempt.
+She knows no titles but military ones; and rewards no virtues except
+those calculated to support her despotism. She has resisted the natural
+influence of Europe upon her people, and kept them in poverty-stricken
+isolation; by her stupendous military force she prevents the further
+disarming of the nations of Europe. In proportion as they approach the
+Russian frontier, they are obliged to keep up larger armies, and waste
+more of their revenues on fortresses and military preparations. The
+threatening aspect of the Russian army towards its neighbours will be
+more distinctly seen if we look at it according to its division into the
+active, mobilized army, always assembled in Poland, with its reserves
+behind it to the eastward, and the local troops, which have been already
+mentioned.
+
+Every regiment is divided into a certain number of battalions for active
+service, ready immediately to enter the field, and others which form
+the reserve or dépôt, whose duty it is to instruct recruits, and, like
+the Prussian landwehr, to form skeleton battalions for veterans, and
+those absent on “indefinite leave.” The artillery is arranged in the
+same manner. The active troops, distributed in corps, are completely
+organized, with staff, engineers, train-equipage, and parks of artillery;
+and even all the necessary horses are kept ready, in time of peace, for
+entering instantly upon a campaign. To use the words of M. Haxthausen,
+writing before the present war, “there is no army in the world, with the
+exception of the Austrian army in Italy, that up to 1848 was always so
+completely ready for war as the great, active army of Russia in Poland.”
+
+The composition of this army is given in the following table, taken from
+M. Haxthausen, and its effective force is stated by him as follows (see
+p. 134):—
+
+After a deduction of 50 soldiers for the train, the musicians, and
+the superior officers, every battalion of infantry counts about 1000
+combatants, _i. e._, soldiers and non-commissioned officers; and the
+battalions of riflemen, 653 men.[119]
+
+The number of officers is 22 for each battalion; and the musicians,
+besides the band, which is very numerous in many regiments, are generally
+about 25. As there are 8 battalions of riflemen, the Grand Army counts—
+
+  360 battalions of 1050 men each = 378,000 men.
+  8 battalions of 700 men each    =   5,600  ”
+                                    -------
+  Total of infantry combatants      383,600 men.
+  Absent on “indefinite leave”       51,500  ”
+                                    -------
+                   Nominal total    332,100 infantry.
+
+A further deduction must be made for deaths, discharges, deserters,
+reducing the battalions to about 700 men, which is believed to be their
+real numbers, from which no further deduction need be made. This will
+leave 260,000 infantry combatants really under arms.
+
+A squadron of cavalry contains, on an average, 190 combatants in time of
+war, and therefore—
+
+                                                       Men.
+  460 squadrons of regular cavalry, at 190 men each = 87,400
+  10 per squadron on leave                          =  4,600
+                                                      ------
+                  Leaves                              82,800
+
+of regular cavalry, always ready to march.
+
+The above deduction will be more than sufficient, if there be allowed
+a loss of 27 or 28 men in each squadron before it can arrive at the
+frontier. The lowest force, then, of regular cavalry immediately
+disposable for the army of operation is about 70,000 men. No deduction
+need be made from the artillery, which, on the contrary, must be
+increased by the artillery of the Cossacks. The reserves are divided
+into two levies, of which the details are given in the note.[120] They
+amount—the first levy, to 98,000 men and 192 guns; and the second levy to
+115,000 men and 280 guns.
+
+
+RECAPITULATION of the DIVISIONS of TROOPS composing the GRAND ARMY,
+according to data of the Year 1852.
+
+  +----------------------------+-------------------------------------------
+  |                            |                 Infantry.
+  |                            +----------+---------+----------+-----------
+  |                            |Divisions.|Brigades.|Regiments.|Battalions.
+  |                            +----------+---------+----------+-----------
+  |Corps of the Guard          |     3    |     6   |    12    |    37
+  |Corps of Grenadiers         |     3    |     6   |    12    |    37
+  |6 Corps of Infantry         |    18    |    36   |    72    |   294
+  |1st Corps Cavalry in reserve|          |         |          |
+  |2nd Corps Cavalry in reserve|          |         |          |
+  |With a division of Light    |          |         |          |
+  |  Cavalry of reserve        |          |         |          |
+  |                            +----------+---------+----------+-----------
+  |    TOTAL TEN CORPS         |    24    |    48   |    96    |   368
+  +----------------------------+----------+---------+----------+-----------
+
+  -----------------------------------------------------
+                     Cavalry.
+  ----------+---------+----------+---------------------
+  Divisions.|Brigades.|Regiments.|      Squads.
+            |         |          +---------+-----------
+            |         |          |Regulars.|Irregulars.
+  ----------+---------+----------+---------+-----------
+      3     |     6   |    12    |     60  |    17½
+      1     |     2   |     4    |     32  |
+      6     |    12   |    24    |    192  |    ?
+      3     |     6   |    12    |     80  |
+      2     |     4   |     8    |     80  |
+      1     |     2   |     4    |     24  |
+  ----------+---------+----------+---------+-----------
+      16    |    32   |    64    |    468  |    17½
+  ----------+---------+----------+---------+-----------
+
+  ------------------------------------------------------------------------
+                              Artillery.
+  ----------+---------+----------+----------+----------+-----+-----+------
+  Divisions.|Brigades.|Batteries.|  Horse   |   Foot   |Heavy|Light|Total.
+            |         |          |Artillery.|Artillery.|Guns.|Guns.|
+  ----------+---------+----------+----------+----------+-----+-----+------
+      1     |     5   |    15½   |     44   |     72   |  56 |  60 | 116
+      1     |     4   |    14    |     16   |     72   |  48 |  40 |  88
+      6     |    24   |    84    |     96   |    576   | 192 | 480 | 672
+      1     |         |     6    |     48   |          |  16 |  32 |  48
+      1     |         |     6    |     48   |          |  16 |  32 |  48
+      1     |         |     3    |     24   |          |     |  24 |  24
+  ----------+---------+----------+----------+----------+-----+-----+------
+      11    |    33   |   128½   |    276   |    720   | 328 | 668 | 996
+  ----------+---------+----------+----------+----------+-----+-----+------
+
+  -------------------------------+
+             Engineers.          |
+  ----------------------+--------+
+  Battalions of Sappers.|Mounted.|
+  ----------------------+--------+
+             1          |    2   |
+             1          |        |
+             6          |        |
+                        |        |
+                        |    2   |
+                        |        |
+  ----------------------+--------+
+             8          |    4   |
+  ----------------------+--------+
+
+                               Taken from M. Haxthausen, vol. iii. p. 288.
+
+  There is attached to each corps a “brigade du train,” who are
+  non-combatants. The Engineers attached have their proper place
+  in the Brigades of Engineers.
+
+  The regiments of Cossacks and their batteries were even in time
+  of peace incorporated in the Grand Army; but their number used
+  to vary.
+
+Such were the numbers of the Russian active army in Poland in 1848; and
+it was further increased in 1850. At that time (the end of 1850) the
+active army of operation, according to the official account, consisted as
+follows:—
+
+                          Men.     Guns.
+  Disposable army       486,000     996
+  First levy of reserve  98,000     192
+  Second levy           115,000     280
+                        -------    ----
+  Total                 699,000    1468
+
+To which must be added the engineers, the train, and the irregular corps.
+
+Of course, as has been observed, the whole disposition of the army has
+been altered since the present war began. The Moscow corps has been
+moved to the Caucasus; the Polish corps have been moved south, and the
+Grenadiers have taken their place; and the reserves have, I believe, been
+all called out, and probably consumed in replacing those who have fallen
+in the last two years.
+
+So that when we look at the Russian forces now assembled in the Caucasus,
+the Crimea, and the German and Baltic frontiers, we see the whole of the
+Russian army, including its reserves, which cannot be easily augmented.
+Each man that falls now becomes of great importance to the Emperor; for
+the conscription is becoming more and more difficult, and bearing with
+increased severity upon all the interests of the empire. The age at which
+conscripts are taken is now raised to thirty-seven;[121] and the sons of
+aged or widowed parents, who have hitherto been exempted, are to serve,
+and be formed into separate corps. I believe that in the manufacturing
+establishments in Russia as many as 25 per cent. of the workmen have
+lately been carried off for the conscription.
+
+The difficulties of Russia are increasing every day; and it is hardly
+possible for her to carry on the war for another six months, if with our
+change of Ministry we likewise have a change of system, and if at home
+and in the Crimea our superior officials, both military and civil, have
+anything like that intelligence, activity, intrepidity, and single-minded
+love of their country displayed by the common soldiers and regimental
+officers of our army, who have hitherto been the only bulwarks to save us
+from national disgrace.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+INKERMAN, MANGOUP, AND THE HILLY COUNTRY OF THE CRIMEA.
+
+    The Bay of Sevastopol to Inkerman—Aktiar—Inkerman
+    Castle—Its history—Crypts—Fuller’s earth, or natural
+    soap—Tchorgouna—Tchouli, residence of Pallas—Crypts at
+    Karakoba—Mount Aithodor—Mangoup—Description and history—Gothic
+    architecture—Position of Mangoup—Interesting character of
+    surrounding country—The Tchatyr Dagh and the Yailas.
+
+
+From Sevastopol to Inkerman the road by land is either very long or
+very fatiguing.[122] In order to avoid the numberless ravines which cut
+up the Chersonese, a circuitous route must be taken, and it is hardly
+possible to attempt to cross in a straight line. Scarcely has the
+descent been made to the bottom of one ravine by a very steep declivity,
+than an equally precipitous ascent must be made at the other side; and
+neither the one nor the other of these routes has anything picturesque
+or interesting, except some poor ruins scattered here and there among
+the rocks. Nothing was desert here in the time of ancient Kherson.
+A laborious population, sacrificing pleasure in the noble object of
+possessing a little corner of ground, then occupied the sides of all the
+ravines, and living half in the grottoes, and half in miserable huts of
+stone and earth, devoted themselves to the cultivation of a precious
+and tolerably fertile soil, by raising terraces of earth, on which they
+planted vines and fruit-trees. Neither the north wind nor the piercing
+frost could penetrate these well-protected and sheltered spots; but
+during the heats of summer they must have been hardly supportable, unless
+some covered shelter was made on one side or the other under the rock.
+Although the land journey from Sevastopol to Inkerman be so difficult
+in times of peace, nothing used to be more interesting than the sea
+voyage, which might be performed by hiring a little boat at Sevastopol,
+and leisurely sailing or rowing down the Great Bay. It is not that the
+country is very attractive in itself by shady groves and country houses:
+on the contrary, these are rare on the shores of this bay, which are
+rather severe in aspect, from the abrupt forms and nakedness of the
+rocks. It is the bay itself, piercing nearly five miles into the land,
+which invests the scene with all its magnificence.
+
+As to the geology of the coasts of the bay, beginning at the entrance
+from the sea, the low shores are formed by beds of the recent tertiary
+volcanic formation, very much thrown out of their place. These beds
+gradually rise higher up the sides as far as the Careening Bay, and there
+appear under them brilliant beds of white clay, with layers of small
+stones and cinders, and land and lake mollusques. This formation is of
+considerable extent, and presents high cliffs of so dazzling a white
+colour, that they have generally been taken for chalk.
+
+Under the clay, and near the extremity of the bay, appears in its turn,
+in thick even layers, the nummulite limestone, rich in fossils, raised
+on the back of a new formation, that of the chalk, which has a great
+development, and of which the high walls, principally composed of green
+sandstone or chlorited chalk, encase the bottom of the bay, opening a
+large entrance at its farthest extremity for the Bouiouk Oozoun river, or
+the Tchornaya Retchka of the Russians, which is lost in a marsh before
+it mixes with the salt waves of the bay. Close to the Careening Bay are
+the first crypts cut in the rocks, and the principal ones, the entrance
+to which is very little raised above the level of the bay, are large,
+of a regular square shape, and cut in the front of the rock. On the
+northern shore, opposite the crypts, in a little valley, are the ruins
+of the village of Aktiar, which replaced Kherson, giving its name to the
+bay. This served as the first establishment of the Russians after the
+conquest of the Crimea. Here is the summer habitation and the garden of
+the admiral-commandant of Sevastopol, and here are the storehouses and
+bakehouses of the fleet, a large hospital, now abandoned, and an ancient
+hermitage cut in the rock, painted with frescoes.
+
+The extremity of the bay in ancient times was richly cultivated, but
+the sea has now been driven back by the unwholesome marshes of the
+Tchornaya Retchka, and high reeds stop the course of all vessels by their
+inextricable labyrinths. With the exception of a powder-magazine and a
+few sheds, these ravines are naked and uninhabited, and the villages
+which crowned the summits of the cliffs and extended on the plateau of
+the northern part of the Chersonese, where the second division of the
+British army is now encamped and the famous two-gun battery was erected,
+have disappeared.
+
+The ruins of the villages cover a space of two miles, and end with the
+great rock in which is cut the first of the crypt churches of Inkerman.
+These were all defended by walls from the Steppe, one of which is still
+seen, four feet in thickness. The direct road from Kherson to Inkerman
+passed by these villages, and a very steep road led from the plateau to
+the bottom of the ravine, where there is the church. The greater part
+of these remains of antiquity have disappeared before the labours of
+the engineers, who have blown up the rocks with the crypts in them to
+obtain the soft but beautiful building-stone for the construction of the
+magnificent aqueduct which carries the water of the Tchornaya Retchka to
+the docks of Sevastopol.
+
+The aqueduct is carried on 10 arches, and measures 200 feet in length;
+the piles on which it is built are 18 feet deep, as this is the only
+depth at which a firm foundation could be found. After it leaves the
+aqueduct the water is carried by a tunnel 800 feet in length. The canal
+is 4 feet deep and 9 feet broad, and the gallery through which it is
+carried is 6 feet high to the top of the vault, and 12 feet wide.
+
+From this place the road continues to Inkerman,[123] which is the modern
+name of the promontory rising at the end of the Bay of Sevastopol on
+its northern shore, and looking down upon the marshes of the Tchornaya
+Retchka. The rock is pierced all over with the subterranean dwellings
+of the ancient Tauri, and on the top are the ruins of the castle built
+by Diophantes, the general of Mithridates, who was sent to help the
+Khersonians against the Tauro-Scythians, a little before the birth of
+Christ. This castle was called Eupatorion, a name which, like many
+others, has been misapplied by the Russians, and given to the town of
+Koslof.
+
+From the castle, Diophantes made a communication with the other side, by
+filling up the valley with earth, and leaving a passage for the river by
+a bridge with three arches, of which one remained in 1834, and the bank
+itself is perfectly preserved. This was the bridge that was broken down
+by Liprandi after the battle of Inkerman, when he retired to the northern
+side of the Tchornaya Retchka, and by this act acknowledged that he had
+been defeated. In the rocks near are seen the enormous quarries for the
+building-stone, which in all times has been celebrated. Near here, and
+cut in the solid rock of the promontory of Inkerman, is a regularly
+constructed Greek church, with all its parts complete, and on the top
+of the rock in which it is cut is the fortress of Diophantes, which in
+the middle ages was called Theodori, and was the residence of some Greek
+princes dependent on Constantinople. One of them, called Alexis, took
+Balaclava from the Genoese, and was again driven out of it in A.D. 1434.
+
+In 1475 this little Greek principality suffered the same fate as the
+Gothic duchy of Mangoup; and the castle was taken by the Turks, who
+placed a garrison here, and allowed the fortress to go to ruin. In the
+time of Bronovius (A.D. 1578) Greek inscriptions and heraldic bearings
+were to be seen over the gates and public buildings, but they have now
+entirely disappeared.
+
+The crypts made by the ancient Tauri are on the south side of the rock,
+which was generally the situation they chose; and from the interior of
+the fortress there is a path leading down to numberless rows of them, in
+six or seven tiers, one above another. The simplest of these crypts have
+only one room, a part of which was raised one foot high, and two feet
+broad for a bed; and the holes may still be seen in front of the kind of
+niche in which it was placed, to which a curtain was probably attached.
+
+The more complicated crypts have many rooms, and all of these, except the
+principal chamber, have beds. The doors were of wood; the ceilings rise
+to a point; and in the centre of the floor there was a hole one foot and
+a half deep, and two feet across, which was the fireplace and the oven,
+such as is found in the crypts of Georgia, and is still used in that
+country to the present day.
+
+The crypts were innumerable, but are now rapidly diminishing. In some
+places, from natural causes, the rock has given way, and carried down
+whole stages of crypts, with the passages and staircases of communication
+between the various stories; and Lieutenant Kruse, who had a contract for
+stone for the public buildings of Sevastopol, blew up vast numbers.
+
+As the valley of Inkerman is now extremely unhealthy, it may be asked
+how it could ever have been so thickly populated as the remains would
+indicate; but its unhealthiness is caused by the stagnant marshes of the
+Tchornaya Retchka, which in ancient times were flourishing gardens, from
+which all superfluous water was drained off.[124]
+
+The same layers of green sandstone, which form one of the sides of the
+gorge of Inkerman, then take a more eastern direction; and here, facing
+the south, the strata are so full of subterranean dwellings that they
+might almost be called beds of crypts.
+
+Immediately below the second group of crypts further on, in the direction
+of Tchorgouna and Mangoup, is a layer of fuller’s earth, two feet in
+thickness, and of a grey colour, accompanied below by talk. This is used
+as fossil soap, and is exported to Constantinople, where it is known
+in the baths under the name of Keffe Kil, or clay of Caffa.[125] There
+is a similar deposit at Sabli, and on one of the banks of the Alma the
+greenish talkous fuller’s earth is mixed with silicious pebbles and
+broken ammonites, while on the other bank may be extracted from wells
+the best fuller’s earth in the Crimea. This same bed, again, appears at
+the foot of Mount Akhaia, near Karasóubazar, on the western side of the
+peninsula. Below these beds are totally different deposits. At Inkerman
+is a white or grey clay, more or less schistous, almost entirely without
+fossils, and several hundred feet thick. Its rounded forms start from
+the foot of the wall of green sandstone, cover a part of the valley
+of Balaclava, and advance as far as Tchorgouna. Tchorgouna lies in a
+gorge formed nearly of the same pudding-stones and marbles as those at
+Balaclava.
+
+The Tchornaya Retchka, coming from the valley of Baidar, here unites
+its two principal branches, which escape from wild chasms in the
+Jurassic rocks. Before forcing itself between the two last rocks of
+marble, which almost stop it, and just as it reaches the chalk valley
+of Balaclava, where it is diverted for the docks of Sevastopol, it
+receives the rivulet of Tchouli, which has quite a different course,
+and which takes its name from the village of Tchouli, the residence of
+the famous traveller Pallas. This little river may be followed up in a
+north-eastward direction to Mangoup, and presents the curious phenomenon
+of running exactly between the Jurassic and cretaceous formations. The
+stream divides these two formations, the former of which gives its
+picturesque beauty to the southern coast of the Crimea, while the latter
+is synonymous with the dull level of the Steppe; so that on its right is
+seen the Jura, with its characteristic rounded calcareous domes, well
+wooded, and cut into valleys, and on the other side the chalk presents
+its high crests and jutting buttresses, covered with a meagre vegetation,
+and surmounted by an enormous naked wall of green sandstone, prolonged
+without interruption to Mount Aithodor, which only wants a sea below it
+to become the most picturesque of promontories. Here there is a group
+of crypts like those at Inkerman, called Karakoba (the Black Grotto),
+and the high promontory which rises above Aithodor is called Elli Boroun
+(the Cape of Tempests). This high advanced rock, crowned with a few
+marine or littoral pines, forms a side of one of the great chasms that
+have been opened in the chalk; and it can hardly have been by the agency
+of any river, as none of the larger streams of the Tauric chain have
+condescended to take advantage of its opening to pass through it, so that
+there is only a very small current of water which runs into the Belbek.
+In the midst of this chasm stands an immense rock, perpendicular on all
+sides, and rising like the isolated pier of some gigantic bridge, and
+this bears on its summit the celebrated fortress of Mangoup.
+
+No position in the Crimea could be stronger, and none has been more
+celebrated. Mangoup commanded one of the gates of the Steppe, and as
+a wall was built across the valley of Inkerman, so it seems that this
+entrance was also closed in by two walls, separated by an interval of
+fifty feet, and of which there are well-preserved traces in the valley
+that leads from Koráles to Aithodor.
+
+The rock of Mangoup rises to upwards of a thousand feet, and every
+accessible place in its vicinity is fortified with walls and towers. One
+valley, called the Tabana Déréh (Tatar for the Valley of the Tannery),
+is fortified by a wall and four towers, and contains several stages of
+crypts and a fine spring of water. It was inhabited up to 1800 by some
+Karaim Jews, who were tanners, and when they quitted, no living being was
+left in the deserted town of Mangoup.[126]
+
+On mounting the plateau from the valley, there are the remains of a
+Byzantine Greek church, with frescoes, and surrounded by tombs like those
+at Laspi on the southern coast. To the left of the church is a mosque
+and a Turkish cemetery, and beyond it is another valley, closed like
+the other by a wall, with a door in the middle. The view from hence is
+magnificent, and extends over Sevastopol to the sea. In the acropolis
+of Mangoup there are the remains of a fine palace, of two stories high,
+resting on a terrace, with a handsome flight of steps. On the first
+floor of this palace there are placed, in symmetrical order, and richly
+decorated, four windows: three bead ornaments surrounded the two in the
+middle, which terminated in a flat arch: those at the end were richly
+charged with ornaments, and of larger dimensions. The workmanship of the
+arabesques, and of the roses, the fillets, and the wreaths, are in the
+Eastern style, very like that of Armenia. There is some resemblance to
+the style of Turkey, but, besides being less regular and symmetrical,
+it cannot be supposed that the Turkish conquerors, who took Mangoup in
+1475, and then abandoned it to a few soldiers, would ever have erected
+such edifices. Bronovius proves the contrary; he says, “Eighteen years
+after it was taken by the Turks, as the Christian Greeks relate, Mangoup
+was almost utterly destroyed by a horrible and sudden fire. Nothing of
+importance was saved except the Acropolis, in which there was a fine
+gateway, ornamented with marble, with Greek inscriptions, and a high
+palace in stone. It was in this house that the khans, in their barbarian
+fury, have several times shut up the Muscovite ambassadors, and made them
+suffer a severe captivity.” The door and the palace, which have been
+described, evidently date before the fire, and consequently before its
+capture by the Turks. It is a memento of the Gothic Dukes of Mangoup;
+and the Armenian style that predominates may be explained by the fact
+that, in the middle of the fourteenth century, a number of Armenians had
+quitted their country, in terror at the great earthquake of Anni, and had
+filled the Crimea with their colonies. As perhaps a solitary memorial
+of the architecture of the Goths in the Crimea, this palace possesses
+considerable interest.
+
+If the reader will now look at the map, he will see that at Mangoup we
+are about one-third of the distance from Sevastopol to Baktchéserai, and
+on the confines of the two formations that cause Steppes to the north and
+a romantic scenery to the south. A tributary of the Belbek leads down
+a wild valley from Mangoup to Koráles, which I have already noticed as
+the residence of the beautiful Tatar princess, Adel Bey; and a little
+to the west of Koráles is Tcherkess Kerman, or the fortress of the
+Tcherkess, and Tcherkess Tus, the plain of the Tcherkess, and the river
+Kabarda, which mark the spot where a colony of that noble and chivalrous
+people, whom we call the Circassians, dwelt for several centuries, and
+beyond this plain the high road is seen running to Sevastopol along
+the open Steppe. There is, therefore, little to interest the traveller
+to the north; but let him go east, south, and west of Mangoup, and he
+may make endless excursions in a most lovely country. He may wander up
+the valleys of the Belbek, the Katcha, and the Alma, and cross the
+mountainous country which divides their channels; and whether he be
+geologist, archæologist, or only an admirer of the beauties of nature,
+he will find his tastes amply gratified, and every simple want supplied
+among the primitive and hospitable Tatars.
+
+The geologist may admire and unravel the intricate system where endless
+strata have been forced up and bent, especially in the Heracleotic
+Chersonese, into the most fantastic forms, while jets of igneous rocks
+may be traced, giving the key to the wild confusion that reigns around.
+
+The archæologist will find in every hill top, and in every rock and
+valley, traces of the many nations that have inhabited the Crimea,
+from the rude crypts of the savage Tauri, to the graceful fragments of
+the Grecian column; and the traveller, who wanders simply to enjoy his
+physical existence, will ever find health and strength in a delicious
+climate, and the purest enjoyment of the senses in its exquisite rural
+beauty. Endless flocks and herds browze along the valleys, while near the
+fresh high plains, raised up in the bosom of the mountains by stupendous
+volcanic agency, Tatar villages are snugly situated in sheltered spots,
+surrounded by orchards, which supply even Petersburg with fruit, and
+where the vine has flourished from the earliest ages. Added to all these
+charms, the sea is always near, and its glorious expanse is seen from
+every mountain-top, and that coast can at all times be readily visited,
+which tempted the beauty-loving Greeks to found here some of their
+earliest and most flourishing colonies.
+
+The Ai Petri, Mount Babougan (4500 feet), and the Tchatyr Dagh (5125
+feet), the highest mountains in the Crimea, are seen from all parts, and
+from the summit of the latter there is a very beautiful view. All around
+it, in the country within the influence of the Tauric chain of mountains,
+is a succession of verdant hills and valleys, which seem, as Dubois
+says, to be a great island, surrounded by two oceans, that of the sea on
+the south, and of the Steppes on the north, so flat and uniform do the
+latter appear to be. Tchatyr Dagh means tent-mountain in Tatar, and this
+name has been given to it because of its form, the last 700 feet of which
+rise like a large oblong tent, which in ancient times procured it the
+name of Mount Trapezus. There are, all along the Tauric chain, elevated
+plains, called in Tatar, Yailas, such as are also found in the range of
+the Caucasus, covered in both countries with excellent herbage, on which,
+in summer, large flocks of sheep and goats are pastured.[127]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+THE HERACLEOTIC CHERSONESE.
+
+    The Heracleotic Chersonese—Origin of name—Defended by a
+    wall—Kherson—Its history and remains—House of Lamachus—The
+    predecessors of Vladimir and their relations with
+    Constantinople—Account of the siege by Vladimir, taken
+    out of Nestor—Vladimir’s Baptism—Springs of water—Kherson
+    destroyed by Lithuanians—The bays between Sevastopol and Cape
+    Chersonese—Cape Partheniké—The Tauric Diana—The monastery of
+    St. George—Bustards on the Chersonese.
+
+
+After taking a general view of the hill country of Crimea, there still
+remains one little corner in the south-west to be described, which will
+henceforth have a conspicuous place in the history of the world, and,
+as we hope under Providence, will be famous as the spot where Russian
+tyranny was checked, and France and England cemented a permanent alliance
+based upon a common civilization, and fraught with the blessings of
+freedom and peace to the whole world.
+
+The submarine volcanoes which raised up the whole Tauric chain of the
+southern coast of Crimea, here raged with the greatest fury, and have
+torn up the land into a succession of deep and sheltered bays from
+Balaclava to Sevastopol, which, fourteen[128] in number, offer convenient
+shelter either to commercial or warlike navies.
+
+The ancient name of the peninsula was the Heracleotic Chersonese,
+which is derived from two Greek words—Heracleotic, signifying of or
+belonging to the Heracleans, and Chersonese, a peninsula. It was called
+Heracleotic, because the famous city of Kherson, which was built here,
+was originally a colony from Heraclea, a town on the opposite coast of
+the Black Sea in Bithynia, where the coal-mines have been lately opened
+to supply our fleets, and the city of Kherson, or Khersonesus as it
+was sometimes called, received that name because it was situated on a
+peninsula.
+
+[Illustration: PLAN OF RUINS OCCUPYING THE SITE OF THE CAMP OF THE
+ALLIES AT SEVASTOPOL. 1855.
+
+_Published by John Murray Albemarle Sᵗ. 1855._
+
+_Ford & West. Lithʳˢ._]
+
+This little peninsula, high and rocky, and on three sides surrounded by
+water, is cut off from the rest of the Crimea by a low valley, running
+between Inkerman and Balaclava, above which, upon a line of heights, is
+now placed the French and British camp. A wall, which divided it off from
+the rest of the Crimea, may still be traced running from the Tchornaya
+Retchka, a little above Inkerman, to Balaclava, for a distance of five
+miles,[129] at the foot of the hills running parallel with the valley,
+on which the main part of our army, and, since the affair of Balaclava,
+a French division under General Bosquet, have been encamped. The whole
+of this enclosure was in ancient times occupied with the gardens and
+villas of the inhabitants of Kherson, and the space within the wall is
+covered with ruins, among which the boundary marks of the fields and
+gardens, and the plans of many houses, may still be distinctly traced.
+The colony of Kherson was founded in the seventh century before Christ,
+by the Heracleans and the Delians, and quickly attained great commercial
+importance.
+
+The Khersonians, who were Dorians, were great rivals of the Bosphorians
+at Panticápœa or Kertch, who were a colony of Miletus, and consequently
+Ionians, and the two cities were continually at war, until both were
+united under the sway of Mithridates the Great, king of Pontus, who,
+when driven out of his own kingdom by Pompey, succeeded in obtaining the
+kingdom of the Bosphorus in the last century before the Christian era.
+
+Kherson, like all the adjacent countries, afterwards fell under the sway
+of the Romans, and continued an important place during the greatness and
+decline of the empire, down to the epoch when the dispersed Slavonic
+tribes were united into one nation, called Russians, by Norman princes,
+in the ninth century. From that time Kherson, situated about half-way
+between Kief and Constantinople, was constantly a subject of dispute
+between the Russians and the Greeks.
+
+There are many remains of the ancient town, the site of which is on the
+promontory between the Quarantine and Streletska bays, where a French
+battery is now erected.
+
+The wall which defended it was on the land side, running at the head
+of Quarantine Bay, passing across the plateau of the isthmus, and then
+descending by zigzags to the Bay of Soses, now called Streletska Bay.
+The wall was nearly two miles in length, and built of limestone, five or
+six feet thick. There were three towers, of which the largest was placed
+on the top of the isthmus, and defended the principal gate, a massive
+edifice, vaulted, with a guard-house belonging to it. Part of this was
+still standing up to the time of the occupation of this site by the
+French. An inscription was found in the ruins, which declared the tower
+to have been restored about the year 491 A.D. The traces of the ancient
+roads and gardens that covered the little territory of the colony, and
+the plan of the town, are distinctly traceable. The principal street
+through it was about twenty feet wide, and on the left in descending was
+the great market-place, which is easily recognised by the heaps of earth
+in the shape of a great tumulus, of which further mention will afterwards
+be made.
+
+The remains of a large palace stand on one side of the small street
+leading to the market-place, which is doubtless one of those which Nestor
+mentions as being near the Church of the Virgin.
+
+Lieutenant Kruse was commissioned by the Russian Government to excavate
+whatever seemed of interest in the ruins, and he began by the churches,
+three of which he uncovered. One of these, the nearest to the
+market-place, is most probably the ancient cathedral of Kherson, built
+by the piety of Vladimir, in memory of his taking the city, and of his
+own conversion to Christianity; and this is probably the church which has
+unfortunately been injured[130] by the French, and of which such frequent
+mention has been made of late in the Russian proclamations. When it was
+discovered, the remains of a semicircular apse were visible; and columns
+of a fine white crystalline marble, striped with blue, showed in the
+nave of the edifice the position of the transepts and the dome. Great
+Byzantine crosses ornamented the capitals of the columns and many parts
+of the interior. The whole exterior wall remained to about the height of
+three or four feet, and within its precincts Lieutenant Kruse collected
+all the columns and other remains that were found, the greater part of
+which were drawn out of what he called “a great cistern” underneath the
+dome, which was probably an ancient crypt.
+
+The second church that was discovered was larger than the cathedral,
+built in the form of a Greek cross, and fifty-three feet each way. The
+semicircular seats for the clergy were found entire in the apse, and a
+coarse mosaic still existed as the pavement.
+
+This edifice was remarkable, because it was evidently a beautiful Greek
+temple metamorphosed into a Christian church, and bases and capitals of
+Ionic columns, and other parts of Greek architecture, were built into its
+walls. Perhaps this had been the Parthenon of Kherson, dedicated to the
+famous Virgin divinity of the ancient Tauri. Lieutenant Kruse excavated
+a third church, and then discontinued his labours. The positions of
+a mass of streets can be traced, tortuous and narrow, like those of
+Eastern towns to this day, and as the whole Chersonese was built over,
+we may suppose that there existed here 5000 houses and 40,000 or 50,000
+inhabitants.
+
+The high level plain was bordered with houses, from which steps were cut
+in the rock down to the water’s edge, and half way between the two bays,
+where the rock naturally sloped down, was a landing-place and a market;
+and there remains a perfect well and the traces of an aqueduct. There
+were only two springs of water in the Chersonese, both near Balaclava.
+From one near Khouter Oukhákof the water was conveyed in pipes, some of
+which have been lately found, and it was this conduit which Vladimir
+cut when he took the town of Kherson. The water of the other spring has
+been carried to Sevastopol, which for a long time was only supplied by
+some wells and small sources of water at the extremity of the South bay.
+This principal spring, which used to be private property, was taken for
+public use by the Russian Government, and supplies only thirty-six pints
+a minute. Immense reservoirs were constructed in ancient times near the
+Quarantine Bay to catch rain-water, but they are now filled up, and three
+modern wells have been dug.
+
+The place of one single monument of the ancient Greek times is clearly
+marked among the remains of this ancient city, and that is the house of
+Lamachus.
+
+At all times I have said there was a great rivalry between the
+Bosphorians and the Khersonians, and the latter were probably, for the
+first time, subjected to the former during the reign of Praisades I.
+Kherson underwent a second time the same fate when hardly pressed by
+the Tauro-Scythians, under their king, Skilouros, and the city was then
+obliged to place itself under the protection of the great Mithridates,
+to whom and his successors, kings of Bosphorus, it remained subject,
+until it recovered its independence under the Romans.[131] After this
+time there was again constant hostility and war between the two cities,
+and when one of the kings of the Bosphorus undertook an expedition into
+Asia Minor,[132] the Khersonians took the opportunity of conquering his
+capital, Panticápœa (Kertch). Again, in the fourth century, the grandson
+of this king was defeated by the Khersonians at Kaffa, or Theodosia,
+which then became the boundary of the two States. In a second war soon
+afterwards, Pharnáces, the Stephanóphorus of Kherson, killed this king in
+single combat, and carried the boundaries of his city close to the walls
+of Panticápœa.
+
+Of course these victories of the Khersonians increased the hatred of the
+Bosphorians against them, and in the year 334 or 336 A.D., Assander,
+the last king of the Bosphorus, thought he had found an effectual way
+of meddling in their affairs. He asked in marriage for one of his sons
+the daughter of Lamachus, the Stephanóphorus, or chief magistrate of
+Kherson, the most powerful man in the town, famous for his riches in
+gold, silver, slaves, serving-women, horses, and lands. He also possessed
+a house with four courts, occupying all one quarter of the town, lying
+near the exterior port of the Bay of Soses (now Streletzka Bay), where
+he had a private door pierced in the walls of the town, which is the
+only one which now remains entire. Four magnificent gateways guarded
+the approaches to his house, and each herd of oxen and cows, horses and
+mares, sheep and asses, returning from pasture, had its own particular
+entrance and stables.
+
+The eldest of the sons of Assander married Glycia, the daughter of
+Lamachus, under the express condition that he should never return to
+Panticápœa, to visit his father, not even at the hour of his death.
+After two years Lamachus died, and Glycia the following year wished,
+according to the general custom, on the anniversary of her father’s
+death, to give a grand feast to all the people of Kherson, and her
+riches were sufficient to provide them all with wine, bread, oil, meat,
+poultry, and fish, and she promised to renew this festival each year. The
+son of Assander, deeply vexed at such prodigality, pretended to praise
+her filial affection, but secretly determined to revenge himself by
+seizing this occasion to hatch a plot against the town. He wrote to his
+father to send him from time to time a dozen young Bosphorians, strong
+and active, to be introduced into the town under pretext of a visit.
+Disembarking at the port of Symbols (Balaclava), where they left their
+vessel, they came on foot to Kherson, spent some days there, and then,
+pretending to return, passed out at the great gate in the evening, and
+crossed the Chersonese; but when night came on, they retraced their steps
+by circuitous paths, till they reached the Great Harbour (Sevastopol),
+where a boat was in readiness to bring them round to the foot of the Bay
+of Soses (Streletzka Bay) on the other side. Here a friend expected them,
+and opened for them the little door into the house of Lamachus. Concealed
+in the vast palace, they waited for the next anniversary, in order to
+seize the town and massacre the people, overcome by wine and good cheer.
+
+A lucky accident caused the treachery to be discovered. On the eve of
+the feast, one of the servants of Glycia having disobeyed her mistress,
+was shut up in a distant chamber, which happened to be just above that
+in which the Bosphorians were concealed. The loss of her spindle, which
+rolled into a hole near the wall, induced the girl to lift up a square of
+the floor in search of it. She then saw the Bosphorians assembled, and
+hastened to inform her mistress, who forgave her fault, and told her to
+keep the secret until she should be prepared to deal with the traitors.
+She then in strict confidence conferred with three delegates from the
+town, and having made them swear that in recompense for her patriotism,
+they would, contrary to established custom, bury her inside the town,
+she communicated to them the astounding news, and gave them directions
+how to act. She made them celebrate the festival gaily as if nothing was
+to happen, and only bid each man prepare some faggots and torches. Then,
+having drugged her husband’s wine and escaped from the house with her
+maids, carrying her trinkets and gold, she ordered the faggots to be
+piled round the house and fired, and thus made all the traitors perish in
+the flames.
+
+The citizens of Kherson wished to rebuild the house of Glycia at the
+public expense, but this she strongly opposed, and, on the contrary,
+caused them to heap up every kind of filth and refuse on the place
+stained by treachery, which was called ever afterwards “the Den of
+Lamachus.”
+
+This monument, more indestructible than brass or marble, is still there,
+and, without knowing the story of Glycia, the stranger is astonished to
+find the rubbish of all the town piled on the top of the plain, which
+borders Streletzka Bay, in one of the finest situations of Kherson. On
+passing through the little door which is near the landing-place outside
+the walls, the remains of a mole are still to be seen below the level of
+the water.
+
+The Khersonians raised two statues of brass on the public place in honour
+of Glycia, in one of which she was represented modestly and carefully
+attired, receiving the three deputies of the town, and in the other she
+was clothed in warrior garments, in the act of avenging the betrayed
+citizens. At the time when Constantine Porphyrogenitus wrote the account
+from which this has been extracted, every citizen considered it his duty
+to keep clean and bright the inscription which the gratitude of the city
+had caused to be engraven upon her monument.
+
+Kherson was little distinguished during the time of the Byzantine Empire,
+except as occasionally taking part in the frequent revolutions at
+Constantinople. As it stood near the route through the plains of Southern
+Russia by which the barbarians invaded the empire, it was exposed to
+constant wars, and kept up a close intimacy with the Greek emperors, who
+frequently sent it succours, and sometimes received from it valuable
+assistance. At length, in the tenth century, it underwent a famous siege
+by Vladimir, Grand Duke of Russia, which, as it marks the important
+period of the conversion of the Russian nation to Christianity, I will
+shortly narrate out of the Russian Chronicles, premising a few words
+on the early Norman rulers of Russia, to explain the relations of that
+people with the Greeks at the period to which I allude.
+
+Rurik[133] the Norman was called over from Scandinavia by the Slave
+nations to govern them about the year 862 A.D., as at that time their
+chiefs were fighting among themselves, and the people said, in the
+words of the old Chronicler, “Let us seek a foreign prince who shall
+govern us, and speak justly to us.” An embassy, therefore, was sent to
+the Russ Varangians or Normans across the Baltic in Scandinavia, and in
+consequence Rurik arrived and reigned till 879 A.D.
+
+Already during his reign some Normans had led a force down the Dniepr
+against Constantinople, which is always called in the early chronicles
+Tzaragrad, or the city of the Tzar,[134] the title given to the Greek
+emperor. Oleg, the successor of Rurik, made another expedition against
+Constantinople in 907, which he successfully attacked according to Nestor
+by placing his vessels on wheels and sailing across the narrow strip of
+land that intervenes between the upper part of the Golden Horn and the
+Black Sea. The city was ransomed, and the fleet returned with silken
+sails for the Russian and cotton ones for the Slaves, and in 912 a treaty
+was concluded “to fix the limits of Russia and Greece.”
+
+Under the next prince, Igor, the Russians made two more attacks against
+Constantinople, in the first of which they were defeated by the Greek
+fire. The second was successful, and gave rise to a treaty in which
+Kherson is mentioned in a way that shows that this city had always
+been allied with the Greek emperors, and continually harassed by the
+Russians. It is said, “as to the country of Kherson, the Russian princes
+are not in future to have any troops in it, or in any of the towns that
+are dependent on it, still less to make war with this country and to
+endeavour to conquer it. But if the Russian prince requires aid, we the
+Tzar (the Greek Emperor) promise to furnish it, to replace under his
+authority those of the surrounding countries which have thrown it off.
+And if the Russians meet at the mouth the Dniepr Khersonian fishermen,
+they shall not injure them, and they shall not have the right to winter
+at the mouth of the Dniepr, nor at Bielo Bejie (Berislaf), but at the
+approach of autumn they shall return into their own country, into Russia.
+If the Black Bulgarians attack the country of Kherson, we recommend the
+Russian prince to drive them back, and not to allow them to disturb the
+peace.”[135]
+
+Olga, the widow of Igor, reigned after him till 955. She visited
+Constantinople as a guest, and became a Christian. Indeed many of the
+Russians were christened before this epoch, and the Bible had been
+translated into Slavonic nearly a hundred years before. The Emperor
+Constantine, or Romanus II., wished to marry Olga, then more than sixty
+years old, but she refused him.
+
+Sviatoslaw her son (955-963) twice conquered Bulgaria, and advancing with
+a victorious army to the walls of Constantinople, was as usual bought
+off, and a new treaty was made, in which Kherson is again mentioned.
+
+Vladimir began to reign in 980, and though in the beginning a determined
+idolator, in later times he sent ambassadors to various countries to see
+which was the best religion. They visited the Mahometan Bulgarians, Roman
+Catholic Germans, the Jews and the Greeks, and struck with the splendour
+of their service, they reported in favour of the Greeks.
+
+Upon this nothing took place till, in the words of Nestor, “It happened
+that in the course of the next year (988 A.D.) Vladimir with his army
+invaded Kherson. The inhabitants shut themselves up in the walls of the
+town, and Vladimir established his camp on each side, near the harbour,
+just within shot of the said town. The besieged defended themselves
+valiantly, yet, as Vladimir always pressed on the siege, they began to
+lose courage, and he said to them, ‘If you do not surrender, I swear that
+I will remain here three years.’
+
+“To this threat the besieged paid no attention, and Vladimir made his
+soldiers take up their arms, and ordered the assault, but while they were
+engaged in it, the Khersonians, having made a way into the ditches, took
+out the earth which the besieged had thrown into them to fill them up,
+and brought it into the town, and the more the Russians threw into the
+ditches, the more the besieged took out of them. But while Vladimir was
+besieging Kherson, and constraining its inhabitants, a certain Athanasius
+shot into the enemy’s camp an arrow bearing this advice, ‘Thou canst stop
+or turn aside the source of the springs which are behind thee, towards
+the east: it is thence that the waters of the town are brought to us.’
+At this news Vladimir lifted his eyes to heaven and cried out, ‘If this
+be true, I promise to receive baptism.’ And forthwith he gave the order
+to stop the pipes and turn off the water. Soon the besieged, worn
+out, and dying of thirst, surrendered, and Vladimir, with his people,
+made his entry into the town. Vladimir then asked the Emperors Basil
+and Constantine for their sister Anne in marriage, and she was granted
+him on condition of his baptism, and was received into the port by the
+Khersonians, who conducted her to the palace.
+
+“The baptism of Vladimir[136] took place in the church of the Holy Mother
+of God at Kherson, situated in the midst of the town on the market-place.
+It is here near the church, by the side of the altar, that is to be seen
+to this day the palace of Vladimir and that of the princess. Immediately
+after the baptism, the bishop conducted the princess for another
+ceremony, that of marriage. Vladimir ordered to be built a church in
+Kherson, on the hill made with the earth which the inhabitants had piled
+up in the centre of the town during the siege, which church may still be
+seen in our days.”[137]
+
+Nothing can be more simple than this church, the remains of which have
+been uncovered by Lieutenant Kruse, and which is a model of the antique
+Byzantine style. Vladimir received from the Greeks, as the dowry of the
+princess, the city of Kherson.
+
+When he returned to Kief he determined, in true autocratic style, that
+all his people should follow his own example. So he cast the favourite
+idol Peroun, the God of Thunder, into the Dniepr, and then proclaimed
+that whoever did not appear on its banks should be treated as a rebel,
+and when all the people were assembled, men, women, and children were
+sent into the water to be baptized all together.
+
+There has been a question about two gates of Corinthian brass, which
+were said to have been carried from Kherson to Kiew by Vladimir, and
+to have been removed thence by Boleslas II., king of Poland, who placed
+them at the entrance of the cathedral of Grodno, while other authors
+pretend that they now exist in the cathedral of St. Sophia at Great
+Novgorod.[138] Nestor makes no mention of the doors, but only says that
+Vladimir brought back from Kherson the Tzarina Anastasia, the priests of
+Kherson, the relics of St. Clement, and his disciple Phira, and vases
+and instruments for burning incense, and that he did all this for the
+welfare of his soul. He also says that the prince carried away with him
+two images of brass, and four horses in metal, which in his time stood
+behind the church of the Holy Mother of God in Kiew, and were thought by
+the ignorant to be made of marble. It is possible that later writers may
+have confounded the “images” with the “gates of brass.”
+
+Kherson was finally destroyed, after 2000 years’ existence, by Olgerd,
+the nephew of Gedimine the Lithuanian, the founder of Vilna, the ancestor
+of the Jagellons, and the conqueror of Kief and all Southern Russia.[139]
+
+After its pillage by the Lithuanians, Kherson was almost deserted,
+and when the Turks, in 1475, took possession of the Crimea, they only
+found in it empty houses and deserted churches, from which they removed
+the finest marbles for their buildings at Constantinople. Bronovius
+visited the city at the end of the sixteenth century, and says that the
+Turks called it Sari Kerman, or the Yellow Castle, on account of the
+yellow colour of the ground, and it had then been uninhabited for many
+centuries. The ruins, however, of what he calls this “proud, delicate,
+and illustrious city,” were then wonderful. The wall and its towers,
+built of enormous blocks of hewn stone, were perfect, and a beautiful
+aqueduct still brought the purest water. The palace of the kings, itself
+as large as a city, with magnificent entrance gates, continued to exist.
+The churches were despoiled, because of their valuable marbles, and
+the largest Greek monastery alone remained entire.[140] After three
+more centuries, what the Turks and the Tatars had spared was taken by
+the Russians, when they built Sevastopol. Sailors were sent to collect
+materials, and no ancient remains respected. The walls and fine gateways
+which still existed were pulled down to build the Quarantine, and when
+the Emperor Alexander issued orders to stop this Vandalism, the ruin
+of every thing precious had been already consummated. The last remains
+of works of art, which Lieutenant Kruse had collected with persevering
+industry, disappeared after a detachment of soldiers had been lodged in
+the ruins for a few years at the time of the plague.
+
+Between Sevastopol and Cape Chersonese, at the extremity of the
+peninsula, there are no less than six large bays, which succeed each
+other in the following order: the Quarantine Bay and Streletzka Bay,
+which have been already mentioned; Krougly Bay, or the Round Bay;
+Cosatcha Bay, Bay of Cossacks, and Dvoiny Bay, or Double Bay, where the
+Heracleans first settled themselves before they moved to the Kherson,
+which has been described. One branch of Dvoiny Bay is also called
+Kamiesch, or the Reedy Bay, and it is here that the French ships are
+anchored and the stores for their army disembarked. The Chersonese is
+terminated to the west by Cape Chersonese, called also Cape Fanar, on
+account of the lighthouse, and the whole of the promontory on which it
+stands is covered with the ruins of the first Kherson.[141] Crossing
+then in a south-east direction for several miles, over a plain covered
+with ruins, we arrive at another cape, called in ancient times Cape
+Partheniké, or that of the Virgin, and now Cape Violente or St. George,
+from the monastery of the same name which is near it, on a spot
+interesting for several reasons.
+
+The cape derived its ancient name from the cruel Virgin divinity of the
+Tauri, so famous in early history, to whom all strangers were sacrificed
+who suffered shipwreck on this inhospitable coast. When the Greeks
+arrived from Heraclea they brought in the worship of Hercules and Diana,
+and, as they always respected the religion of the countries they visited,
+and found a great resemblance between their own Diana and the Virgin of
+the Tauri, they probably merged the two into one under the name of the
+Tauric Diana, discontinuing the ancient barbarous custom of offering
+human victims. At a later period, Iphigenia was confounded with the
+other two divinities, as Herodotus expressly says that in his time she
+was worshipped as a goddess.[142] The Tauric goddess had her parthenon
+in Kherson, and her chapel on Cape Partheniké. The road is still visible
+by which the worshippers passed from Kherson to the promontory, crossing
+a ridge of rocks, on which the traces of the ancient chariot-wheels are
+distinctly visible.
+
+The cape is remarkable as being the exact limit between the most ancient
+and the most modern geological formations in the Crimea. Here, on the top
+of the precipice, an immense rock of Jurassic limestone juts out from the
+coast, on a level with the steppe, and bordered by sheer precipices on
+every side, except where it is connected with the mainland. In the centre
+are the foundations of an isolated edifice, almost square, constructed
+of hewn stone, like the Donjons of the houses on the Chersonese. It was
+placed at the angle of the two walls, which, advancing one to the west,
+and the other to the south, on the edge of the precipice, formed of the
+rest of the platform a kind of court, of which the entrance-gate looked
+towards the Chersonese and the road. This could only have been a temple,
+for here are neither the wells nor buildings which always characterize a
+dwelling-house. This was also the fittest situation for the worship of
+the Tauric Virgin, for at this point only could the sea be reached on
+this side of the Chersonese, and close to it is a gorge in the form of an
+amphitheatre, where doubtless, in the earliest times, crowds assembled to
+witness the precipitation of the unhappy victims into the sea.
+
+Near it, ensconced in a ledge of the precipice, is the famous monastery
+of St. George.[143] From the plateau above, which has all the aridity
+and monotony of the Steppes,[144] its ancient walls are not visible,
+and it is not till the traveller approaches the edge of the cliffs, and
+looks over, that he sees, instead of a frightful wave-beaten precipice,
+a most charming little village, nestled in the rocks at about fifty
+feet below him. There are a church, and houses, and terraces, cut one
+below the other, and ancient poplars, and gardens irrigated by a fine
+rivulet of water. The spot looks like a little oasis suspended, as if by
+enchantment, at several hundred feet above the sea, in the midst of an
+amphitheatre of black basaltic rocks, which rise majestically around,
+and form a striking contrast to the rich verdure in which the monastery
+is hidden. A door and staircase, cut in the rock, form the only entrance
+to this great Hermitage, which was no doubt first created by the ancient
+Troglodytes, or dwellers under ground, whose remains are so numerous
+in the Crimea, as all the rocks near the monastery, which are composed
+of chalk, are pierced by ancient grottoes, which are now only used as
+cellars and poultry-yards, although they were inhabited by the monks
+so lately as the time of Pallas, in 1794. The monastery consists of
+many large buildings, several of which are devoted to the reception of
+strangers. The church has unfortunately been rebuilt, and the ancient
+chapel that stood here has been totally destroyed. A rivulet runs in
+front of the houses, and trickles into a stone basin, shaded by poplars,
+while below it are terraced gardens and small vineyards.
+
+This little nook generally enjoys a most unbroken quiet, but on the 23rd
+of April, St. George’s-day—when crowds arrive, and the plateau above is
+covered with huts and tents—the Greeks, from all parts of Crimea, flock
+to the place, and the women especially frequent the fête, and embellish
+the scene by their picturesque dresses and traditional beauty. As in most
+religious festivals, the world always claims its part, and a kind of fair
+is held here in the early part of the day, at which much business is
+done. But all at once the scene changes—the hour of divine service has
+arrived, the crowd flocks to the church, and, as soon as the benediction
+has been given, there is a rush to the basin containing the water, which
+is supposed at this season to be a remedy against all kinds of diseases.
+
+On a terrace, close to the monastery, there are traces of several Greek
+temples. A dreary and barren road leads past the village of Karany,
+through a valley, to Balaklava, at which town terminates the Chersonese.
+The Chersonese in winter serves as a refuge to a great quantity of
+bustards, that are driven from the plains by the snow. Thousands may be
+seen at once, and the hunters conceal themselves in little cabins and
+shoot them as they pass, for the birds, tired and thin at this season
+of the year, fly very low, and may be almost caught by the hand. There
+are two kinds, a large and a small; the latter are better eating, and
+both are very cheap, and a favourite article of food in Sevastopol.[145]
+When the snow covers the Chersonese, and the cold reaches sometimes 16°
+Fahrenheit, the bustards fly to the southern coast, to Laspi, where it is
+always warm.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+ON THE ANCIENT INHABITANTS OF THE CRIMEA.
+
+    The Cimmerii—The Tauri—Connexion of Greece with the
+    Black Sea—Digression on the Crypts of the Crimea—B.C.
+    600: The Scythians—The Greek colonies, B.C. 650—Milesian
+    emigration—Dorian emigration—Trade of these early
+    times—Mithridates, reigned B.C. 120-63—A.D. 62: The Alans—A.D.
+    100-200: The Goths—A.D. 376: The Huns—Second attack of the
+    Huns—Justinian, reigned A.D. 527-565—A.D. 679: The Khazars—A.D.
+    900-1000: The Petchenegues—About 1204: The Comans—1226: The
+    Tatars—The Genoese—1473: Kaffa taken by the Turks—The Black Sea
+    then shut up to European nations—Mixture of races in present
+    inhabitants of Crimea.
+
+
+Having had occasion to mention various nations who have occupied the
+Crimea, it will perhaps be useful to bring together in one succinct view
+the numerous revolutions which the peninsula has undergone, and the order
+in which the various races of its inhabitants succeeded one another from
+the earliest times.
+
+First of all come the Cimmerians, who belong partly to history and
+partly to fable. The story in the ‘Odyssey’ describes them as dwelling
+beyond the ocean stream, plunged in darkness, and unblest by the rays
+of Helios (the sun). According to Herodotus, they originally occupied
+the Steppes of Southern Russia, or the country between the Borysthenes
+and the Tanais, and being expelled from their country by the Scythians,
+skirted the shores of the Euxine, and devastated, for a number of years,
+the highly civilized countries of Asia Minor. The poets of that age
+lament the destruction of every exquisite production of Greek genius by
+this barbarian people, who were nomadic “milkers of mares,” like the
+Scythians, and wandered in tents over their grassy Steppes. They had
+already disappeared in the time of Herodotus, at which time the tombs of
+their kings were shown near the Dniestr. They left their name in the
+Cimmerian Bosphorus, while the darkness in which they were supposed to
+have lived has perpetuated their memory down to our own times—
+
+    “In black Cimmerian darkness ever dwell.”
+
+There was another people mentioned as early as the time of Homer, who,
+being mountaineers, were able to preserve their nationality for a very
+long period of time. These were the Tauri, who appear to have been a
+people of a most savage and unamiable character.
+
+It has been already said that they sacrificed to a cruel goddess all
+shipwrecked mariners, and they sometimes not only made offerings but
+feasts of human victims. These habits have procured them an immortal
+infamy in the writings of the Greeks and Romans, and, through the story
+of Iphigenia, have made the Crimea associated with one of the most famous
+legends of the Greek mythology. Her history and that of her fate-urged
+family, connected with great events, abounding in scenes of concentrated
+action, laid in mysterious and wild countries—contained much matter
+calculated to rouse the passions, and have made it a favourite subject
+for poets both in ancient and modern times.
+
+The works of almost every great poet of antiquity contain allusions to
+the tragic history of the Atridæ, and the fate of Iphigenia has occupied
+in modern times the pen of Racine and Göthe. It was also a popular
+subject with ancient painters, and Timanthes, having represented her just
+about to be sacrificed, after exhausting all his art in depicting the
+grief of the other bystanders, drew a veil over the face of her father as
+the best means of representing his inexpressible anguish.
+
+The story of Iphigenia is not an isolated instance of the attention which
+the most ancient Greeks seem in numerous cases to have directed to the
+East, and the expeditions of Phrixus and Helle, of the Argonauts, the
+long wanderings of Ulysses on the coasts of Colchis, the Crimea, and the
+Cimmerian Bosphorus, and the Achæans, who were said, in returning from
+Troy, to have settled on the Circassian coast,—all have the same tendency.
+
+In the time of Herodotus the Tauri occupied the hill-country of the
+Crimea, and were in all probability the people who formed the numberless
+dwellings and towns cut in the solid rock, which are found in many parts
+of the country. The chalk or green-sandstone formation, easily wrought,
+homogeneous, with few fissures, and horizontal beds, was peculiarly
+adapted for this purpose; and wherever it crops out of the soil, there
+are sure to be found these subterranean dwellings.
+
+These crypts are the most curious remains of antiquity in the Crimea,
+and abound chiefly in the south-western parts, forming perhaps the only
+relics of its most ancient inhabitants. Not that the use of crypts was
+confined solely to the most ancient times, for many Christian churches
+are found in them, and they must therefore have been inhabited at least
+down to the fourth or fifth centuries of the Christian era, when the
+inhabitants of the Crimea were converted to Christianity. Although there
+are few countries of the world in which they exist in such great numbers
+as in a portion of the Crimea, still this habit of living in subterranean
+dwellings was very common among ancient nations, and instances of it are
+familiar to all. The crypts are the only relics of those ages in the
+infancy of the world, when, according to mythic legends, men dwelt in
+caverns and were nourished on acorns.
+
+A large portion of the populations of Asia, when they became fixed, began
+by burrowing out holes for themselves in the rocks. Caverns were then
+used as their temples and their sepulchres.
+
+The rock temples scattered over various parts of India are some of them
+imperishable monuments of times on which history is silent.
+
+Persia has its crypt tombs and cities, that have called forth the
+admiration of all travellers. Egypt, Nubia, and Abyssinia began by
+crypts, and the rock temples, palaces, and immense necropoleis (which
+were at first towns for the living) attest the art and industry of one of
+the most remarkable of ancient nations. The traditions of Greece point
+back to a time when caverns were common dwellings. In Sicily the rocks
+are pierced with crypt towns of very ingenious workmanship. In Magna
+Græcia and Etruria crypt tombs are common, and the labyrinth of Crete was
+the theatre of some of the earliest Greek myths. In Asia Minor, and even
+in Thrace, the same sort of works may be found.
+
+Notices of them are also frequent in the Bible. The Kaphtorians or
+Phœnicians came from the southern coasts of the Red Sea, and disembarked
+at its northern extremity under Edom, who gave his name to the country,
+so that it is no wonder that we find the Idumæans or Edomites dwelling
+in caves down to a late period. The antique towns in the valley of the
+Jordan and the Dead Sea are crypt towns, like those of the Crimea, but
+executed by a people in a higher state of civilization. The Edomites or
+Phœnicians played a great part, before the arrival of the Hebrews in
+Egypt, and their commerce embraced the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf.
+They extended their mercantile relations as far as Sidon and Tyre, and
+carried at the same time to the foot of Mount Lebanon their custom of
+excavation. The northern valley of the Jordan, the Ard el Hule, is
+pierced with crypt towns, of which the most remarkable are Hatsor and
+Bostra. Their inhabitants were proud of their dwellings in the rocks,
+which they regarded as impregnable, which made the prophet Jeremiah
+exclaim, ch. xlix. v. 16, “Thy terribleness hath deceived thee, and the
+pride of thine heart, O thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock,
+that boldest the heights of the hill, though thou shouldest make thy nest
+as high as the hill, I will bring thee down, saith the Lord.” Every
+reader is familiar with the caves of Makeda, Adullam, and Engeddi, in
+the patriarchal history, and Jerusalem itself was surrounded with crypt
+tombs. In the country of Tubal, the modern Georgia, the ancestors of that
+ancient and chivalrous people dwelt in subterranean dwellings, such as
+are now to be seen at Ouphlitsikhé and Armasi. In Armenia, which enjoys
+the high privilege of having been the first Christian nation, and of
+having suffered more than any other for its faith, the art of the crypt
+has always been in great favour, and innumerable specimens are to be seen
+at Hrachegapert, and at the monasteries of Airivauk, Kieghart, and other
+places.[146]
+
+On the banks of the Upper Kour, in Imeritia, a country adjoining on
+Georgia, there are many places, such as Vardsic and others, where these
+dwellings are to be found, and the termination “kvabi,” or cavern, in the
+names of places always indicates their existence.
+
+In Mingrelia, the ancient Colchis, there are an infinity of grottoes on
+the banks of the Upper Phasis (modern Krivila), and one whole district,
+Semokvákana (the high dwellings), takes its name from them.
+
+Lastly, in the centre of the Caucasus, in the valley of the Kouir, and
+near Kislavodsk and other places, are to be found the dwellings of the
+Troglodytes of Strabo.
+
+Thus it appears how largely the crypt enters into the early history of
+mankind, and how much of human labour has been expended upon a species of
+dwelling which is so widely spread over the Crimea.[147]
+
+Even among the modern Tatars in that country their habitations are seldom
+wholly detached from the rocks. They generally choose some shady sloping
+place for their villages, and supporting two sides of their houses by
+walls of brick or mud, with a little verandah in front, they let the
+other parts rest either in a niche cut in the earth, or against the
+side of a precipice. In Georgia it is often dangerous riding from the
+subterranean villages formed in the sloping sides of hills, the flat
+roofs of which look just like the common earth, and a person unused to
+the country might easily sink into the midst of an astonished family,
+did not the wreath of smoke generally prove a warning of the treacherous
+nature of the soil.
+
+Returning from this digression to the history of the Tauri, I will only
+further remark that, from a similarity of manners, and other causes, they
+are considered to belong to the Tchud or Finnish race of nations, and
+thus to be related to the Lesghins and Tchetchens of the Caucasus, and
+the famous Finnish pirates who infested the shores of the Baltic down to
+the tenth and eleventh centuries.
+
+The resemblance of the Virgin goddess of the Greeks and the cruel
+divinity of the Tauri, perhaps may arise from the fact of the Greek
+nation itself being composed of the two elements of an Indo-Germanic
+graft upon a primitive Finnish stock. When the Indo-Germanic wave of
+population rolled towards the West it drove the earlier races before it,
+or forced them aside into the mountains as the only secure resting-place.
+Thus the mountain chain of the Crimea played on a small scale the part
+of the Caucasus, and served as a refuge for the remnant of the Finns
+against the Indo-Germanic races who surrounded them, of which the most
+ancient known to us were the Kimmerians. The word Tauri probably means
+mountaineers.[148]
+
+In B.C. 600 the Scythians, who were also a nation of Finnish origin,
+invaded the Crimea, and mixing with the Tauri formed the nation of the
+Tauro-Scythians, whose principal seat was in the valleys to the north of
+the Tauric chain.
+
+A short time before the Scythian invasion, about B.C. 650, the Greeks,
+who, as I have said, had been before connected with these countries,
+began to plant colonies about which we have definite historical
+information. The Milesians first established themselves on the peninsula
+of Kertch, an open country of easy cultivation. Their agricultural
+prosperity was quickly known in Greece, and new and important emigrations
+took place. Theodosia, Nymphæum, Panticapæum, and Myrmékium quickly
+raised their heads on the shores of the little peninsula, and served as
+ports for the rich establishments of the colonists.[149]
+
+Stimulated by the success of the Milesians, the Heracleans endeavoured
+on their side to found some colonies in the Crimea. They turned to
+the western part of the peninsula, and disembarked not far from the
+celebrated Cape Partheniké, and, having beaten and driven back into the
+mountains the savage Tauri, they fixed themselves in the Heracleotic
+Chersonese. Thus was founded the celebrated republic of Kherson, which,
+conquered for a moment by a Grand Duke of Russia in the tenth century, as
+has been related, became the point of departure of that great religious
+revolution which completely changed the character and destinies of the
+Russian Empire.
+
+While the Heracleans were consolidating their power by their manufactures
+and commerce, the Milesian establishments on the Bosphorus were rising
+with extraordinary rapidity, and spread to the Asiatic side, where the
+towns of Phanagoria, Hermonássa, and Cépos were founded. At first,
+independent one of the other, all these different Milesian colonies
+were influenced by an inevitable chain of events, and, 480 B.C., their
+political union gave rise to the kingdom of the Bosphorus. As has been
+said, agriculture was the essential basis of the public wealth of the
+Milesians, and the attention of the new government was directed specially
+to this branch of employment.
+
+As soon as Leucon ascended the throne he released the Athenians from
+the thirtieth, which they had hitherto paid as an export duty on grain.
+By this liberal measure the exportation of it increased enormously, and
+the Cimmerian or Panticapæan peninsula became the granary of Greece, and
+merchants flocked for grain to Theodosia and Panticapæum, where they also
+bought woollen cloths, furs, and the salted fish which still forms one
+of the staples of Southern Russia. The imports are little spoken of in
+history, but it is evident from the late excavations at Kertch that they
+must have consisted of articles of luxury.
+
+The Bosphorians, then, no doubt received in return for their productions
+all the manufactured articles which luxury and riches had introduced into
+usage at Athens, and it is probably to the artists of Greece that are due
+the magnificent works of art which are admired in the Museums of Kertch
+and Petersburg, which prove that the agricultural colonists of the Crimea
+were not behind their kinsmen of the brilliant metropolis of Athens in
+their love for the arts and the refinements of civilised life. Materials
+for building must also have formed an important part of the imports.
+There is no trace of white marble in the Crimea, nor on the northern
+shores of the Black Sea, although immense quantities of it are found in
+the excavations at Kertch, and there is every reason to believe that the
+enormous pieces of sculpture which were employed there in the public and
+private buildings were brought ready worked from the quarries of Greece.
+Notwithstanding the dangerous neighbourhood of the Sarmatians, the
+kingdom of the Bosphorus enjoyed perfect tranquillity for more than three
+hundred years, and, thanks to a policy as firm as it was intelligent, it
+increased in riches and prosperity up to the moment when the conquest of
+Greece by the Romans upset all the commercial relations of the East.
+
+At this epoch the Bosphorians attacked by the Scythians, and too feeble
+to resist them, threw themselves into the arms of Mithridates, who made
+their state a province of Pontus, and gave it as an appanage to his son
+Macharés.
+
+After the defeat and death of her implacable enemy, Rome preserved to
+the traitor Pharnáces the crown of the Bosphorus; but the sovereignty
+of the new prince was only nominal, and the successors of the son of
+Mithridates, without power, and despoiled of their possessions on the
+Asiatic side of the Bosphorus, depended on the caprice of the Roman
+emperors.
+
+In the sixty-second year of our era the Alans ravaged the country, and
+attacked the Tauri even in their mountains. They devastated the country,
+and utterly destroyed Theodosia, which offered them some resistance.
+They continued masters of the country, without changing their vagabond
+life, till they were conquered by the Goths in the middle of the second
+century.[150] The Goths, although they have undeservedly gained a bad
+reputation in Europe, were the only people who brought the germs of
+peace and civilization to this much-disputed peninsula; and they kept
+possession of it longer than any other people, for the remnant of them,
+and its name of Gothia, remained to it more than a thousand years—till
+nearly the end of the sixteenth century. They mixed intimately with the
+vanquished people, founded many colonies in the vast plains situated
+to the north of the mountains, and quickly gave themselves up to their
+taste for a sedentary and agricultural life. Then there began for the
+Crimea a new period of tranquillity, which might also have been one of
+agricultural prosperity; but, unfortunately, Greece, conquered by the
+Romans, was at this period rapidly falling, and Rome, become the capital
+of the world, was supplied with grain by Egypt, Sicily, and Africa. The
+Crimea, notwithstanding its efforts, could not rise from the obscurity to
+which it was condemned by the great political events which signalized the
+first century of the Christian era. In the midst of the first invasions
+of the barbarians, the little republic of Kherson, protected by its
+remote and inaccessible situation, preserved its independence. In the
+reign of the Emperor Diocletian, the Khersonites, who possessed nearly
+all the high country, had centered in themselves the commerce which
+existed between the Crimea and some parts of the shores of the Black Sea,
+and their republic was the most powerful state in the Crimea, until a war
+broke out between them and the Sarmatians, who had seized the kingdom
+of the Bosphorus, in which they were defeated. The struggle between
+the rival nations at the Bosphorus lasted nearly a century, until the
+Sarmatians were driven out, and the Bosphorians again enjoyed some years
+of liberty and internal prosperity.
+
+This peace, however, was of short duration, and like a calm before
+a terrible tempest. After a few years, the Huns poured down from
+the interior of Asia, and at first occupied the Asiatic side of the
+Bosphorus; then, crossing the Sea of Azof, they annihilated for ever the
+ancient kingdom of the Milesians, A.D. 375. The numerous colonies of the
+Goths, united with the Alans, were overcome, and all their agricultural
+establishments were reduced to ruins. Protected by their western
+position, the Khersonians alone escaped.
+
+Fortunately for the Goths of the Crimea, the Huns only passed through
+the country, for they were attracted to the banks of the Dniestr and the
+Danube by the great events which were there taking place, after the death
+of Ermanrich the Ostrogoth, which had just removed the only obstacle
+to their progress. The Goths of the Crimea, who had yielded to the
+torrent and retired to the mountains, again spread themselves over the
+country. After the death of Attila the Huns again appeared, and this time
+Kherson was threatened, and implored the assistance of the Greek emperor.
+Justinian hastened to accede to their demand, and, being also friendly to
+the Goths, built long walls to protect their country against the nomades
+of the Steppes, and two fortresses, Aloushton and Gorzubita (Alouchta
+and Oursouf), on the southern coast of the Crimea. He built no towns or
+fortresses to the north of the mountains, because the Goths did not like
+to be shut up within walls, but to live freely in the open country.
+
+They had at this time the reputation of being excellent warriors,
+laborious husbandmen, and the most hospitable of mankind towards
+strangers. They then occupied both sides of the Cimmerian Bosphorus,
+and, becoming converts to Christianity, they sent four deputies to
+Constantinople to ask the emperor to send them a bishop in the place of
+their autistes, who had died.[151]
+
+Near the end of the seventh century, A.D. 679, the Crimea was invaded by
+the Khazars, whose hordes at first accompanied the Huns, and afterwards
+established themselves in Lithuania (Bersilia), and constituted a
+kingdom independent even of Attila. The apparition of these new
+conquerors, already masters of a vast territory, made such a sensation at
+Constantinople, that the sovereigns of the East sought their alliance,
+and the court of Byzantium even asked in marriage the daughter of the
+Khakan, as the chief of the nation was called, for the son of the Emperor
+Leo.
+
+The forebodings of the imperial government about the Khazars were quickly
+realized, and in the short space of 150 years, this people, who had given
+their name to the peninsula of the Crimea, founded a vast monarchy, the
+limits of which reached in Europe to the Danube, and in Asia to the foot
+of the Caucasus, while even the Caspian was known in the middle ages as
+the Sea of the Khazars.
+
+After the Khazars, whose fall was in part hastened by the attacks of
+the Russians, and who then disappeared completely from history, the
+Petchenegues, or Patzinates, their conquerors, who are constantly
+mentioned in the annals of Constantinople and the early Russian history,
+succeeded to their dominions, with the exception of Kherson, which was
+incorporated in the empire of Constantinople. Under the rule of this
+people, who also came from Asia, the commerce and manufactures of the
+Crimea revived,—its relations with Constantinople increased, and its
+ports furnished to the merchants of the Greeks, purple, fine stuffs,
+embroidered cloths, ermines, and leopard skins, furs of all kinds, pepper
+and fine spices, which the Petchenegues bought on the south of the Kuban,
+and in the Trans-Caucasian countries, which extend as far as the Cyrus
+and the Araxes. Thus recommenced for this unhappy country, which had
+been so often devastated, the new era of a prosperity, which it had not
+enjoyed for several centuries. The empire of the Petchenegues lasted
+for about 150 years, and then they had to deplore similar calamities to
+those which they had inflicted on the Khazars. Attacked by the Comans,
+whom the extension of the Mongol power in Asia had expelled from their
+territory, they were vanquished in the struggle which ensued, and forced
+to retire into Asia. The Comans, a warlike people, took possession of
+the Crimea, and made Soldaya (Soudak) their capital. They had, however,
+hardly consolidated their power, when they were obliged to yield to other
+conquerors, and seek a refuge in more western countries.
+
+With the expulsion of the Comans ceased all those temporary invasions,
+which for ten centuries desolated the Crimea. To all these different
+hordes, of whom the greater number have left no trace but their name,
+there succeeded two remarkable nations. One of these, the conqueror of
+Asia, was just founding the most gigantic empire of the middle ages; and
+the other, issuing from a merchant city of Italy, was destined to make
+Khazaria the centre and the point of junction of the commercial relations
+between Europe and Asia. In 1226 took place the memorable invasion of
+the Mongol Tatars, a notice of which has been already given, and from
+that moment the establishment of peace and security was sufficient to
+develope the great natural resources which this celebrated country
+possessed. Soldaya, taken from the Comans by the Tatars, and given back
+to the Christians, quickly became the most important port on the Black
+Sea, and a principal station in the commercial route between Europe and
+Asia. Soldaya, however, had but a short duration, and another people, as
+intelligent, and active as the Greeks, and endowed with a still bolder
+mercantile instinct, was, at this epoch, destined to enjoy a greater
+commercial grandeur than any since the time when the Milesians founded
+their first colonies on the Cimmerian Bosphorus. Already masters of the
+important factories at Constantinople, the Genoese had long been able
+to appreciate the position of the Black Sea, and the immense resources
+which it placed at the disposition of enterprising men, who might there
+centralize the relations of Europe with Russia, Persia and the Indies.
+
+The rivality which then existed between them and the Venetians
+accelerated the execution of their projects, and in 1280, after having
+acquired, partly by stratagem and partly by force, the territory
+of ancient Theodosia, they laid the foundation of the celebrated
+Kaffa, which secured to the republic the empire of the Black Sea and
+the exclusive command of its commerce. With the Genoese, the Crimea
+saw revived one of the most brilliant epochs of its history. Kaffa,
+by its size, its population, and its opulence, became the rival of
+Constantinople, and soon its consuls of Cerco (Kertch), Soldaya
+(Soudak), and Cembalo (Balaclava), rendered themselves masters of all
+the southern coast of the Crimea. At a later period, they gained, beyond
+the peninsula, other conquests, not less important. The galleys of the
+republic penetrated into the Sea of Azof, and Tana, situated at the
+mouth of the Don, was taken from the Tatars; a fortress was erected at
+the mouth of the Dniestr, in Modern Bessarabia, and numerous factories
+rose in Colchis and the shore of the Caucasus, while the imperial town
+of Trebizonde itself was obliged to allow the establishment there of one
+of the largest factories of the republic in the Black Sea. The Genoese
+colonies thus became a general entrepôt for the rich productions of
+Russia, Asia Minor, Persia, and the Indies, and during more than two
+centuries monopolising to their profit all mercantile exchanges between
+Europe and Asia, they presented a wonderful spectacle of prosperity and
+riches. The term of all this glory at last arrived. In 1453 the standard
+of Mahomet was displayed on the dome of St. Sophia, and the relations
+of the Crimea with the Mediterranean were broken. The destruction of
+the Genoese establishments became inevitable, and the republic itself,
+despairing of preserving, decided upon abandoning them to the bank of St.
+George on the 15th November, 1453. This cession, by politically detaching
+the colonies from the metropolis, naturally led to fatal results. A
+general discouragement took place in the colonies, each man thought only
+of himself, and the consular government, formerly so remarkable for its
+integrity and virtue, instead of making friends of the Tatars to defend
+them from the Porte, completely alienated them by their want of good
+faith, and by selling their assistance for gold to the various parties
+who at that time were desolating the Crimea. So many faults were followed
+by a fatal catastrophe. On the 6th of June, 1473, Kaffa was obliged to
+surrender at discretion to the Turks, and some months later, all the
+points occupied by the Genoese fell successively into the power of the
+Ottomans. After the disaster of the Genoese colonies, the great lines
+of communication with the Trans-Caucasian countries, the shores of the
+Caspian Sea, and those down the Volga, the Don, and the Kuban, deprived
+of their support, were broken up, and all commercial relations with
+Central Asia were momentarily suspended. The Venetians, who had obtained
+from the Turks the right of navigating the Black Sea, on the condition
+of paying 10,000 ducats a-year, endeavoured without success to take the
+place of their rivals. They were in their turn expelled, the passage
+of the Bosphorus was interdicted to the nations of the West, and the
+Ottomans, with the Greeks of the Archipelago, subjects of the Porte,
+had alone the right of navigating the Black Sea and the Sea of Azof.
+The commerce of the East then found for itself new débouchés by way of
+Smyrna, and the discovery of Vasco de Gama produced a complete revolution
+in the trade.
+
+A slight sketch of the Crimea when it formed the seat of government
+of the khans of Little Tatary has already been given, and during all
+that period the Black Sea was unfrequented by the European nations. The
+English, however, always had the nominal right of navigating it; there
+are some vestiges of our having had a footing there in the days of
+Queen Elizabeth or James I., and when we ceased to frequent it is not
+ascertained. In the treaty made in 1675 between England and Turkey by Sir
+John Finch, there is an express article giving a general permission of
+ingress and egress into the Black Sea, “to enable English merchants and
+all under their banner to go by the way of the Tanais into Moscovia, and
+also to and from Persia, and to traffic by land and by sea through all
+their confines.” There is even a provision for the protection of English
+vessels should they be forced by stress of weather into Kaffa.[152]
+
+This permission, however, remained a dead letter until the beginning of
+the present century, when our right to navigate the Black Sea having been
+claimed afresh and allowed, an active trade sprung up, which has been
+yearly increasing in importance.
+
+It might naturally be expected, after so many different nations had
+occupied the Crimea, that its population would be of a very mixed
+character, and such indeed is the case. It is not, however, in the
+plains, which are inhabited chiefly by Nogai Tatars of late date, nor in
+any of the towns, that the remnants of the ancient inhabitants of the
+country are to be sought. The mountains are in every country the refuge
+of the oppressed, and it is in the mountains of the Crimea, among the
+so-called Tatars, who are, however, a very different race from those of
+the plains, that a people is to be found of very mixed origin.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+BALACLAVA AND VALLEY OF BAIDAR.
+
+    Balaclava—Karl Ritter’s views of the importance of
+    the Black Sea in very early times—Homer’s account of
+    Balaclava—The Cembalo of the Genoese—Tatar occupation
+    of it—Arnaouts—Tchorgouna—Mackenzie’s Farm—Valley of
+    Baidar—Manners of the Tatars—Woronzof road.
+
+
+Balaclava is now a busy scene; the little bay is crowded with transports;
+thousands of our countrymen disembark here to exercise their perilous
+profession, and as many re-embark, poor wounded soldiers, shattered in
+constitution, or with the loss of limbs, but henceforth immortal heroes,
+whose deeds will be the theme of the historian and the poet, whose future
+welfare will be a subject of anxious solicitude to their country, and who
+henceforth, however humble their rank, in whatever country they visit,
+will be marked men; marked for honour, and distinction, and respect, from
+all who admire chivalrous boldness, and that still rarer quality, calm
+unimpassioned endurance. Sevastopol is the grandest theatre of events
+that has yet been seen. The audience, so to speak, is the largest, and,
+for the first time, really comprehends the whole world. Even the wars
+of Napoleon were a subject of little interest in China, or Australia,
+or California; but each swaying to and fro of the mighty combatants at
+Sevastopol interests literally the whole globe, and that interest is
+doubled by the speed with which the news is carried, and the increased
+knowledge which all nations now possess of each other.
+
+When I visited Balaclava before the present war, nothing could be more
+quiet than this little port, and a few Greeks sauntering about, or
+exercising their peddling occupations in the village bazar, were the only
+persons to be met with. Yet even then, like most out-of-the-way places
+in the world, there were some representatives of the British nation to
+be found, and I was asked to go and visit a crew of shipwrecked English
+sailors in the lazaretto, who had been saved with difficulty on the rocks
+at the entrance of the harbour. The ship had struck; the poor fellows
+were thrown on a ledge of the cliffs, where they remained for nearly a
+day and a night before they could be rescued; yet when they were brought
+in at last, exhausted, and at death’s door, nothing could induce them
+to touch the hot brandy that was brought them, lest they should break
+their pledge as teetotalers. It was impossible not to admire in them that
+British firmness of purpose, which was the same quality which showed
+itself in the defence of Inkerman, however mistaken in this application
+of it.
+
+Balaclava is the only bay on the southern coast resembling those about
+Sevastopol, where the land rises suddenly on each side, and the water
+is so deep that the largest ships may anchor close to the shore. On
+approaching it from the East, the geological formation is seen at once
+to change in its vicinity; the summits of the rocks are still, like the
+rest of the Tauric chain, calcareous; but they have been changed by
+violent action into red, blue, and grey marbles, below which reappears
+the coarse red pudding-stone of the Tchatyr-Dagh mountain, while a great
+rent, which opens on the sea, and was called the Valley of the Devil
+(Shaitan Déréh), shows a black or yellowish schist. I will here quote the
+words in which Dubois describes his arrival on this singular spot: “Each
+step,” he says, “in approaching Balaclava is an enigma to me, such an
+inconceivable disorder reigns among these masses of pudding-stone with
+enormous pebbles, which alternate with layers of marble and sandstone;
+and the marble finishes this strange series, which seems like a world
+turned topsy-turvy. When arrived at the top of the sterile mountain that
+overhangs Balaclava, I cry out with astonishment, What are these white
+antique towers perched on the top of rocks descending so rapidly to
+the water? What is this brilliant lake shut in by the steep mountains?
+And that red promontory reflected in the waves of the sea? Can this
+be Balaclava? Nothing but ruins are visible, where then is the town?
+Contemplating with admiration this romantic scene, I descended the
+mountain, looking continually for the town, of which I saw no vestige. My
+guide at last directed me suddenly to the left, and like magic, I found
+myself in Balaclava, which, placed on the narrow strip of land between
+the mountain with the ruins and the tranquil bay, is not seen till it is
+entered.”[153]
+
+Like many other places in the Crimea, Balaclava has a very ancient
+history. Our first notice of it is in the dim twilight of archaic times.
+We have the high authority of Karl Ritter for supposing that it is
+the port of the Læstrigons mentioned in the Odyssey; and the extreme
+accuracy of Homer’s description of it, as will be presently more fully
+shown, seems to make Ritter’s supposition extremely probable. But before
+entering into the particular identification of Balaclava, I will shortly
+state what Ritter’s views are as to the part which the shores of the
+Black Sea played in very early times.[154] He has undertaken to prove,
+from the most ancient monuments which are offered to us by ancient
+geography, archæology, mythology, architecture, and religious systems,
+that colonies of Indian priests, having departed with the ancient worship
+of Buddha from the centre of Asia, came directly or indirectly, before
+the historic times of Greece, to establish themselves on the banks of
+the Phasis, around the Euxine Sea, in Thrace, on the Ister, and in many
+countries of Western Europe, and even in Greece; that these colonies
+exercised a remarkable religious influence, and that these facts are
+proved, not only from the relations of the Asiatics, but principally
+from the study of the most ancient fragments of the historians of
+Greece and Asia Minor. We in Europe, receiving our lights from Greece,
+are habituated to adopt all the illusions of the national pride of the
+Greeks; and, according to them, Greece was the focus of all light, whence
+science, and civilization, and religion had their origin. But in looking
+back to their myths, in reading Homer, and the history of the Argonauts,
+and of Phrixus and Helle, and others, it would seem that the Greeks were
+always civilized by those whom they called barbarians. The king and
+the people who received the Argonauts, the Tyrians, the Trojans, were
+all superior in civilization to the armies of adventurers, who, like
+the Normans of the middle ages, came to plunder them, in violating the
+laws of hospitality. All the ancient poets and historians seem to have
+chosen the Black Sea for the theatre of the exploits of their heroes.
+All their relations look towards it as the point whence civilization and
+wealth proceeded. Up to our days the wanderings of Ulysses, in the 10th,
+11th, and 12th Books of the Odyssey, were supposed to be on the shores
+of Italy and Sicily. There were sought the Læstrigons, the Cyclops, and
+Scylla and Charybdis; but this is certainly wrong, and the poet wished
+to make Ulysses wander on that inhospitable shore, which appeared to him
+at the extremity of the world. The moment that Ulysses reaches the coast
+of the Læstrigons, we must recognize ourselves as on the shores of the
+Black Sea. Their country can be no other than the barbarous Crimea, and
+he evidently called the Tauri the Læstrigons, from the Greek “lêstês,”
+meaning pirate or brigand.
+
+After leaving them, Ulysses was driven on a low coast, the island of
+Æa, where the enchantress Circe reigned, the sister of Æetes. This was
+evidently Colchis or Mingrelia, which may be easily recognised by the
+broad river (the modern Rion) which received the fleet of Ulysses, the
+vast forests which covered its banks, and the palace hidden in the trees,
+which exactly represents the Nikolakévi of our days. The wine there is as
+tempting as ever, the honey as fresh, and the women still pass their time
+in embroidery as in the time of Homer. From the beauty of the country and
+its inhabitants it is still the land of enchantment.
+
+That there may be no mistake about the position of Æa, here the poet
+places the palace of Aurora in which take place the songs and dances of
+the Hours, and where the sun renews its birth. After leaving Colchis
+Circe sends Ulysses to consult the oracle of the infernal gods, and when
+the hero has crossed the empire of Neptune, which he thinks the end of
+the world, he finds a coast of easy access, shaded with high poplars and
+sterile willows, where are the habitations of the Cimmerians covered with
+thick clouds and black obscurity.
+
+The Cimmerians, we know from later authors, lived at Kertch and in the
+island of Taman, at the extremity of the Black Sea, which to Ulysses
+appeared the end of the kingdom of Neptune. There he is described as
+finding one of the entrances to the infernal regions, and there to this
+moment exist the springs of black and burning naphtha, which roll their
+stinking waters like the Cocytus and the Acheron; and there also are the
+mud volcanoes, belching forth a mixture of fire and water, which have
+altered the form of all the country round.
+
+Then Ulysses returns to Circe, and starts for Ithaca, and leaves the
+Black Sea by passing through Scylla and Charybdis, which closed the
+entrance with their rocks surrounded by whirlpools. These are the
+islands of the “blue Symplegades,” familiar to all who have passed from
+Constantinople to the Crimea, standing at the entrance of the Bosphorus;
+and Homer cannot mean the straits of Messina, because he says that the
+only ship which had passed these straits was the Argo, when it went to
+Colchis on the expedition for the golden fleece.
+
+Thus it seems almost beyond a doubt that the shores of the Black Sea were
+the mysterious regions where some of the scenes of Homer were laid, and
+in parts of which in the very earliest times, as in Colchis, were settled
+highly civilized communities. Let us now observe Homer’s description of
+Balaclava, as Pope has translated it:—
+
+    “Within a long recess a bay there lies
+    Edged round with cliffs, high pointing to the skies.
+    The jutting shores, that swell on either side,
+    Contract its mouth, and break the rushing tide.
+    Our eager sailors seize the fair retreat,
+    And bound within the port their crowded fleet;
+    For here retired the sinking billows sleep,
+    And smiling calmness silvered o’er the deep.
+    I only in the bay refused to moor,
+    And fixed without my hawsers to the shore:
+    From thence we climbed a point, whose airy brow
+    Commands the prospect of the plains below;
+    No tracks of beasts, or signs of men, we found,
+    But smoky volumes rolling from the ground.”
+
+                                   _Od._, b. 10, v. 101.
+
+It is impossible to give a truer or clearer picture of Balaclava than
+that which was thus drawn by old Homer nearly three thousand years ago.
+The two high rocks which advance into the bosom of the waves, and seem
+approaching to embrace one another, are there, and only leave a narrow
+passage turned towards the south, which barely allows two vessels to
+cross one another. Its width is eight hundred feet and its greatest depth
+one hundred fathoms, and the water of the bay looks very black. When the
+narrow passage is passed, the port enlarges to a width of twelve hundred
+feet, and its depth goes on diminishing from ninety to six fathoms, its
+entire length being nearly a mile.
+
+This bay is a phenomenon in geology, deeply encased as it is at its
+entrance in rocks of calcareous marble and pudding-stone, and finishing
+in a black schist, which opens on a basin of chalk.
+
+Wherever Ulysses landed, whether on the right hand or the left, terrible
+rocks border the shore; and after scaling them, he could only see, as we
+do now, an unfruitful rocky soil, with no plants but a few juniper trees,
+and no trace of the labour, either of men or oxen. The smoke could alone
+show him the town of the Læstrigons hidden in the rocks.
+
+Homer then continues:—
+
+    “Two with our herald thither we command
+    With speed to learn what men possessed the land.
+    They went, and kept the wheels’ smooth beaten road,
+    Which to the city drew the mountain wood.
+    When, lo! they met beside a crystal spring
+    The daughter of Antiphates the king;
+    She to Artacia’s silver streams came down
+    (Artacia’s streams alone supply the town):
+    The damsel they approach, and ask what race
+    The people were? Who monarch of the place?
+    With joy the maid the unwary strangers heard,
+    And showed them where the royal dome appeared.
+    They went, but as they entering saw the queen,
+    Of size enormous, and terrific mien,
+    Not yielding to some bulky mountain’s height,
+    A sudden horror struck their aching sight.
+    Swift at her call her husband scoured away,
+    To wreak his hunger on the destined prey.
+    One for his food the raging glutton slew,
+    But two rushed out, and to the navy flew.
+    Balked of his prey, the yelling monster flies
+    And fills the city with his hideous cries:
+    A ghastly band of giants hear the roar,
+    And pouring down the mountains crowd the shore.
+    Fragments they rend from off the craggy brow
+    And dash the ruins on the ships below!
+    The crackling vessels burst; hoarse groans arise,
+    And mingled horrors echo to the skies:
+    The men like fish they stuck upon the flood,
+    And crammed their filthy throats with human blood!”
+
+The herald and the two companions whom Ulysses sent, whether they went
+to the right or the left, must have come out on the chalky valley of
+Balaclava, where the people, as is done to this day, export the spoils
+of the forests on the neighbouring mountains, while the environs of
+Balaclava are quite naked. By following this road they arrived at the
+extremity of the port, where is still the only spring of water, or, as
+it was then called, the fountain of the nymph Artacia, which was free
+to all the citizens. The younger daughter of Antiphates, the King of
+the Læstrigons, showed them the lofty gates of a palace which touched
+heaven, which stood no doubt where now are the ruins of the fortress of
+Balaclava. This was the palace of her father, which had been built by
+Lamus, an ancient King of the Læstrigons.
+
+The savage Antiphates, faithful to the character which the ancients
+always attributed to the Tauri, seized one of the ambassadors to devour
+him, while the other two fled away. Meanwhile the alarm had been given in
+the town; the people had seen the fleet of Ulysses enter, and they rushed
+to it from all parts.
+
+Balaclava was called the port of Symbols by the Greeks, and this name
+was corrupted into Cembalo by the Genoese, and the place was taken by
+them from the Greek dukes of the Crimea in 1365, and they then built the
+fortress which now exists, and by their enterprise greatly increased the
+commerce of the port. In 1433, the Greeks, who had remained at Cembalo,
+having conspired, drove out the Genoese, and replaced the town and castle
+in the hands of a noble Greek, called Alexis, the lord of Theodori
+(Inkerman). He was driven out in the following year by Charles Somellin,
+who was sent from Genoa with a fleet of twenty vessels, further augmented
+in passing through the Greek islands, so that he arrived with 6000 men.
+
+In 1475 Balaclava experienced the fate of Soudak, and was taken by the
+Turks, who gave it up uninjured to the Tatars, by whom it was held for
+several centuries, till they were driven out by its present inhabitants,
+the Arnaout Greeks, in 1780.
+
+When Catherine II. took the Crimea, the Tatars were still a powerful
+people, with a strong nationality. The object of Catherine was to
+break this up, and to prepare the country for the future habitation
+of the great Slave people. She, therefore, encouraged as many of the
+inhabitants of the Crimea, as she could influence, to emigrate, and
+appealing to the religious sentiments of the Greeks, and their hereditary
+hatred of the Turks, she called in Greek soldiers to assist her in
+expelling the Tatars that were refractory.
+
+A regiment of Albanians was raised, chiefly from the Greeks who had
+been in the Russian service in the Archipelago, and they were first
+called Arnaouts at Balaclava. The Tatars having emigrated, or been
+dispersed, this town, together with the surrounding country, extending
+to the banks of the Bouiouk Ouzéne, including the villages of Kadikói,
+Karáni, Kámara, and Alsou (after removing the rest of the Tatar families
+to other places), was given to the Albanians as a settlement.[155] A
+few years before the breaking out of the present war they numbered 600
+fighting men, and each colonist was liable to be called out for four
+months of active service, and had the other eight at his disposal for the
+cultivation of his lands. Each soldier had twenty-eight roubles yearly
+pay (about 4_l._ 10_s._), and found his own equipment.
+
+The town of Balaclava has probably received its modern name from the
+strong Greek castle of Pallakium,[156] which stood here, although some
+suppose it to have been taken from “Bella clava,” or “the beautiful
+port,” a derivation which every traveller would willingly concede as
+probable. It is mentioned by one Italian traveller of the seventeenth
+century under the name of Baluchlacca, and at that time it was inhabited
+by Turks, Greeks, and Armenians. “Its unrivalled beauty and security,” he
+says, “tempted him to stay there several days, and at that time its fine
+Genoese fortifications were entire.”[157] This old fortress, like all the
+strong places of the Genoese and Greeks in the peninsula, is erected on
+inaccessible rocks, close to the mouth of the harbour, on the adjoining
+eastern hill, and is fortified with high walls and towers.
+
+When Clarke visited this magnificent fortress, the arms of Genoa were
+still upon the walls. “The mountain on the north-east side,” he says,
+“is covered with its mouldering towers, and the rock itself has been
+excavated, so as to exhibit stately magazines and chambers, the sides of
+which were lined with coloured stucco. It is surprising,” he continues,
+“that the inhabitants of Balaclava do not use these caves, for they are
+very habitable, and the stucco is still in the highest preservation. We
+entered one, which was a spacious oblong chamber, lined throughout with
+stucco, and somewhat resembling the famous _piscina mirabile_, near the
+supposed villa of Lucullus at Baiæ. We could form no conjecture for what
+purpose this place was intended, except as a granary or storeroom; it
+bore no marks of any aqueous deposit on its sides, and was at the same
+time dry, and in perfect preservation; it could not, therefore, have
+served as a reservoir for water.”[158] Might not some use be made of
+these dry caves for the stores of our army, if they be not situated at
+too high an elevation?
+
+The port of Balaclava is frequented by fish of passage, especially by
+mackerel, by the _mugil cephalus_, in great numbers, and also by the red
+mullet, a most delicate fish, whether eaten in a fresh or pickled state,
+which is also caught in the lakes of the interior. The mackerels become
+as tender and savoury as herrings, after being kept twelve months in
+brine.[159] The fishermen, when our army arrived at Balaclava, came with
+their nets to Lord Raglan, and offered, if they were allowed protection,
+to supply our army with fish, as the season was just commencing, but,
+from some mistake, their offer was neglected.
+
+By the shortest road, Tchorgouna is about four miles from Balaclava, and
+occupies a romantic situation, in a gradually contracting valley, through
+which the Tchornaya Retchka discharges itself into the bay of Sevastopol.
+Here is, or was, a lofty octagonal tower, which dated probably from the
+time of the Genoese, and placed half way between Balaclava and Mangoup,
+was intended to keep open the communication between them, when Mangoup
+was an important fortress. At four miles from Tchorgouna, in a north-east
+direction, is the “_Muilnaya gora_,” or Soap-hill of the Russians, which
+is literally burrowed with pits for extracting the fuller’s-earth, which
+is found under chalky marl, at a depth of about forty feet. The soap-hill
+is a gentle elevation, in a broad tract of level country, about six
+miles wide, at the foot of the steep mountain called Mackenzie’s Farm.
+It received this name, because Admiral Mackenzie, who was commander of
+the fleet at Sevastopol, towards the end of the last century, established
+a farm on the summit of this mountain, for the erection of which a
+considerable portion of the woods was granted to him, but subsequently
+repurchased by the Crown for the use of the navy. The Tatar name for the
+mountain is Kok-agatch, from the numerous white beech trees which once
+covered it. The oak, Christ’s thorn, and cornel-tree also grew here, and
+of the latter the long pipes were made, in such request among the Turks.
+In spring the ground is covered with large-flowered primroses, bearing
+white, and yellow, and pale violet blossoms. Veronicas, euphorbias,
+hyacinths, broad pionies, asphodels, and yellow irises, also deck the
+ground in spring, and the clematis, wild vine, and wild rose may be found
+among the shrubs in the neighbourhood of Inkerman.[160]
+
+On leaving Balaclava for the southern coast, the traveller regains the
+high road, before it enters the celebrated valley of Baidar, which was
+much praised by the first travellers who wrote after the occupation of
+the Crimea by the Russians, even before its real beauties were fully
+known.
+
+The valley is rather more than ten miles in length and six in breadth;
+so beautifully cultivated, that the eye roams over meadows, woods, and
+rich corn-fields, enclosed and intersected by green hedges and garden
+plantations. The villages are neat, and the inhabitants healthy. It is
+protected on every side from the winds that blow with great fury on the
+northern slopes of the mountains, and is irrigated by clear streams,
+that fall imperceptibly through the fields. The mode of enclosure, and
+the manner of cultivation, are like those of our own country, and there
+is much to remind the traveller of the vales of Kent and Surrey. The
+mountains, as well as the plain, were formerly thick set with oak, wild
+pear, crab, and cornelian cherry trees, which shaded the road, and kept
+off the scorching rays of the sun, but all these have now disappeared.
+
+The domestic habits of the Tatars are very simple, and resemble those of
+other Oriental nations, except that they have been to a certain degree
+modified by contact with the Russians. When a stranger, says Clarke,
+arrives at a Tatar house, they conduct him to the apartment destined
+for the men, and present him with a bason, water, and a clean napkin,
+to wash his hands. They then place before him whatever their dwelling
+affords, of curd, cream, honey in the comb, poached eggs, roasted fowls,
+and fruit. After the meal is over, the bason and water are brought in
+as before, because all the Tatars, like the Turks and other Oriental
+nations, eat with their fingers, and use no forks. Then, if in the house
+of a rich Tatar, a long pipe is presented, of cherry-wood, which grows
+in the mountains, and with amber or ivory. After this, carpets and
+cushions are laid for the guests, that they may repose. All the houses
+of the Tatars, even the cottages of the poor, are extremely clean, being
+often white-washed. The floor is generally of earth, but smooth, firm,
+dry, and covered with mats and carpets. The meanest Tatar possesses a
+humble dwelling, one for himself and his guest, and the other for his
+women. They do not allow their most intimate friends to enter the place
+allotted for the female part of the family. With so much cleanliness, it
+is surprising to find the itch prevalent. It is also difficult to escape
+venomous insects and vermin. The tarantula, the scorpion, cockroach,
+lice, bugs, fleas, flies, and ants, are more or less to be met with
+everywhere, but, with proper precautions, the traveller need not be much
+incommoded by them.
+
+A favourite beverage of sour milk, mixed with water, the yaourt of the
+Turks, is found in request with the Tatars, as among the Laplanders.
+They all shave their heads, both young and old, and wear in their houses
+a sort of scull-cap, over which, in winter, is placed a kind of helmet
+of wool, and in summer a turban. Their legs in winter are swathed in
+cloth bandages, like those worn throughout Russia, and their feet are
+covered by a kind of sandal. In summer both legs and feet are naked.
+Their shirts, like those of Turkey, are wide and loose at the sleeves,
+hanging down below the ends of their fingers. If they have occasion to
+use their hands, either to eat or work, they cast back the sleeve of the
+shirt upon the shoulder, and leave the arm bare. The jacket or waistcoat
+is generally of silk or cotton, and the trousers being made very large,
+full, and loose, though bound tight below the knee, fall over in thick
+folds on the calf of the leg.
+
+They have no chairs in their houses, and a little short stool, about
+three inches high, is used for supporting a tray during their meals.
+This stool is often ornamented, either by carved work or inlaid
+mother-of-pearl. During the summer months the chief delight of the men
+consists in the open air, sleeping at night either beneath the shed
+before the door, or under the shade of the fine spreading trees which
+they cultivate near their houses. In the principal part of a Tatar
+dwelling there is a particular part which bears the name of Sopha. This
+is a platform raised twelve inches from the floor, occupying the entire
+side of the apartment, not for the purpose of a seat, but as a place for
+their household chests, the _dii domestici_, and heaps of carpets, mats,
+cushions, and clothes. The same custom may be observed in the tents of
+the Kalmucks.
+
+In some things the Tatars display a taste for finery. Their pillows
+are covered with coloured linen, and the napkins for their frequent
+ablutions, which hang upon their walls, are embroidered and fringed.
+
+If one of their guests falls asleep, although but for a few minutes,
+and by accident, during the day, they bring him water to wash himself
+as soon as they perceive he is awake. In their diet they make great use
+of honey, and their mode of keeping and taking bees accords with the
+normal simplicity of their lives. From the trunks of young trees, about
+six inches in diameter, they form cylinders, by scooping out almost all
+except the bark, and then closing their extremities with plaster or mud,
+they place them horizontally, piled one upon another, in the gardens for
+hives. They often open these cylinders to give their guests fresh honey,
+and the bees are detached merely by being held over a piece of burning
+paper, without any aid of sulphur. The honey of the Crimea is of a very
+superior quality; the bees, as in Greece, feeding on blossoms of the wild
+thyme of the mountains, and such flowers as the garden spontaneously
+affords. Every Tatar cottage has its garden, in the cultivation of which
+the owner finds his principal amusement. Vegetation is so rapid, that,
+in two years, vines not only shoot up so as to form a shade before the
+doors, but are actually laden with fruit. They delight to have their
+houses as it were buried in foliage. These, consisting only of one story,
+with low flat roofs, beneath trees which spread numerous branches quite
+over them, constitute villages, which, at a distance, are only known by
+the tufted grove in which they lie concealed. When the traveller arrives,
+not a building is to be seen; it is only after passing between the trees,
+and beneath their branches, that he begins to perceive the cottages
+overshadowed by an exuberant vegetation of the walnut, the mulberry, the
+vine, the fig, the olive, the pomegranate, the peach, the apricot, the
+plum, the cherry, and the tall black poplar; all of which, intermingling
+their clustering produce, form the most beautiful and fragrant canopies
+that can be imagined.[161]
+
+Through this beautiful valley, now devastated by contending armies, the
+high road, called the Woronzof road, leads past the villages of Miskomia
+and Arnoutka, to reach the southern coast, and crosses the mountain
+barrier, which shuts out the valley from the sea by the pass of Phoros,
+which, till the road was made, was only accessible by stone stairs cut in
+the rock, perilous alike to man and beast.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+THE SOUTHERN COAST, AS FAR AS ALOUCHTA.
+
+    Pass of Phoros—First view of the Southern Coast—The
+    climate—Valley of Laspi—Mount Aia, or Cape Saritch—Modern
+    Laspi—Phoros to Kíkineis—Land slips—Liméne—Singular
+    appearance of Tatars—Aloupka—Prince Woronzof’s
+    palace—Gardens—Luxuriant vegetation Craters—Account
+    of Prince Woronzof—Miskhor—Koureis, seat of Princess
+    Galitzin—Madame de Krudener and Comtesse La Mothe—Gaspra—Mount
+    A’ithodor—Imperial Oriánda—Ouchansóu—Yalta—The
+    mountain pass to Baktchéserai—Marsánda—Cyclopean
+    remains—Magaratch—Nikita—Botanical gardens—St.
+    Daniel—Oursouf—Ancient castle of Justinian—Cyclopean
+    remains—Mount Aioudágh, the ancient Kriumetôpon Prom—Village of
+    Partheníte—Great and Little Lambat—The Chaos—Numberless ancient
+    remains—The pass of Mount Castéle—The descent to Alouchta.
+
+
+From the top of the pass of Phoros, over which a good macadamised road
+has been made, the traveller enjoys his first glimpse of the celebrated
+southern coast of the Crimea.
+
+The sea lies at his feet at the distance of a mile, and the high
+precipitous mountains, which rise in an amphitheatre on his left hand,
+recede a short distance from the coast, and leave a narrow margin of
+fertile country, with a climate like that of Greece or Italy. The
+glittering haze of the blue sea, the balmy air, the lofty mountains,
+with clear outline drawn against a cloudless sky, and softened by the
+delicate tints of a southern atmosphere, are natural phenomena of which
+no description can give an idea, but which once seen enrich the mind
+with a new stock of images. To a traveller who like myself had just left
+the shores of Greece, this beautiful region seemed like a continuation
+of the same scenery. I felt pleasure at the view stretched out before
+me, but not that astonishment which many travellers from the north
+have expressed. The country from here to Alouchta is, however, quite an
+exceptional region, and although I think the coast of Italy about Amalfi,
+the south of Sicily, Corfu, or the bay of Corinth, offer spots still
+more striking and beautiful, there is nevertheless a great charm in the
+wildness and richness of the Crimean coast.
+
+We cannot be astonished at the Russians themselves being much struck with
+it, for after a weary journey over the flat steppes from Petersburg or
+Moscow, the total change which it presents to the gloomy and monotonous
+aspect of their own country must make it seem to them like a land of
+enchantment. The temperament of the Russians also, like that of all the
+Slavonic race, is highly poetical, and it is no wonder that they should
+be strongly affected by their first glimpse of a southern land—that they
+flock to the only spot in their empire (except the Caucasus) where they
+can feel the genial warmth and admire the beauties of the Mediterranean
+region, or that they covet a larger share of those countries where such
+charms can always be enjoyed.
+
+The climate of the southern coast is completely different from that of
+every other part of the Crimea. To the north of the mountains, even as
+far as Balaclava and the valley of Baidar, there is always a severe
+winter, and the ground, as we too well know, is covered with snow. But
+when once the pass of Phoros is crossed, the climate entirely changes. No
+snow ever falls on the sea region, but a perpetual spring reigns there.
+Thus our poor soldiers, during this lamentable winter, have been within
+a few miles of a genial climate, where they would have wanted no warm
+clothing and no huts. The call of duty, the necessity of guarding the
+trenches and watching Sevastopol, has kept them at a tantalizing distance
+from it. It may indeed be a matter of doubt, whether, if our army had
+left Sevastopol in November, and then entered into winter quarters on the
+southern coast, we should not have been as far advanced towards taking
+the place as we now are. Its capture depends upon beating the army in
+the field; and if the bivouac on the Chersonese could have been avoided,
+we should now have a complete army of veterans, instead of the skeleton
+regiments which survive. Unfortunately also the mountains jut out to
+the sea between Balaclava and the southern coast, thus preventing any
+communication with it, except through the Valley of Baidar. Were this not
+the case, perhaps some warm spot might have been occupied, where at least
+the sick and convalescent might have regained their health and strength.
+
+From Phoros there runs an excellent macadamised road all the way along
+the coast for forty miles to Alouchta, which was made by Mr. Hunt, an
+English gentleman, who came over to superintend the building of the
+palace of Prince Woronzof, at Aloupka. On descending from the pass of
+Phoros, the road leads to the left, but before we follow it we will visit
+one beautiful site to the right, the furthest on the southern coast
+before the mountains reach the sea. This secluded nook, being out of the
+high road, is seldom visited, although it was a favourite spot in early
+Greek times.[162]
+
+The sheltered little valley of Laspi has been created by an igneous
+agency, which has detached Mount Ilia from the principal Tauric chain,
+to which it is united by a ridge of schist and sandstone, about six
+hundred feet broad. On the top of this ridge arise at intervals about
+a dozen enormous aiguilles, forty or fifty feet high, which look as
+if, like Stonehenge, they belonged to some gigantic work of man. Here,
+however, a close inspection shows them to be natural, as the strata of
+the neighbouring mountains are vertical, and these are débris of rocks
+of similar formation, that were raised up in this way at the time of the
+convulsion which tore away Mount Ilia.[163] All the way from Phoros to
+Laspi, the ground, although a labyrinth of trees and verdure, is covered
+by vast blocks of porphyry, and in some places there are jets of it
+rising to the height of a thousand feet.
+
+The ancient village of Laspi was on the side of the valley, high up on
+the connecting ridge, touching the aiguilles, and its inhabitants thus
+enjoyed a magnificent view over the valley and the sea, and far away
+along the coast on the other side of the bay, which is terminated by
+the promontory of Mount Aia. Just below the village are the ruins of a
+church of the early Christian times, surrounded by a cemetery in which
+are tombs in the shape of long sarcophagi, with a square tower at the
+head, entered by a small door, which is finished above in a triangle.
+Over this a cross is sculptured, and some attribute, as a pastoral staff,
+or a Tatar hatchet with two edges, a pick-axe, a spur, a plough, or a
+table,[164] emblematic of the occupation of those who sleep below. These
+tombs belonged to the Greeks, who inhabited many places in this part of
+the Crimea;[165] but there are no inscriptions remaining here, except one
+of the late date of 1772. Around the church of the cemetery are the ruins
+of houses and esplanades, with allées of fruit-trees now become wild,
+among which one observer counted not less than five thousand plum-trees.
+
+The village of Laspi, true to the ancient Greek traditions, according to
+which they placed their temples on elevated sites, whence the majesty
+of the gods might be recognised from all parts, had on the summit of
+Mount Ilia a church which might be recognised from the vast plains of
+the sea around it, dedicated to St. Elias, and still a favourite place
+of pilgrimage. From the top of the ridge it is easily approached by a
+winding path across the mossy turf, on each side of which are the ruins
+of houses. The church, now a ruin, occupied the highest point of the
+mountain, and near it is a sacred cavern, vaulted with the stone of
+Inkerman, of which the church itself was built. A sculptured cross marks
+this as a Christian construction, and a warm damp air that escapes from
+it is the cause of the superstition attributing to it miraculous powers
+for the recovery of health. A sheer precipice is in front, and the view
+from it splendid.[166]
+
+From ancient Laspi the road descends through a fine wooded valley to
+modern Laspi, an estate belonging to General Potier,[167] and one of the
+most beautiful along the southern coast. It is placed in the centre of
+the amphitheatre of mountains, which terminate on each side respectively
+in Mount Ilia and Mount Aia; the view all around is delicious, and the
+sea advances to the port of Laspi, which is commodious and safe for the
+exportation of the timber of the surrounding forests. The valley in
+ancient times was thickly peopled, and the ruins of seven villages have
+already been discovered. In the month of February there was no frost,
+the yellow crocuses were in full flower, and, with the exception of
+two rainy days, the weather was constantly beautiful. Mr. Rouvier, the
+father-in-law of General Potier, introduced the vine here, and brought
+his plants from Malaga.[168] On the summit of Mount Aia there are the
+remains of an ancient fortress, and beyond the mountain, between it
+and Balaclava, is another little valley, filled with ruins, but now
+uninhabited.
+
+Returning to the high road at Phoros we travel to Kíkineis, over twenty
+versts of a road comparatively uninteresting, since it is bounded on
+the side of the mountains by a regular precipice of Jurassic limestone,
+from five hundred to eight hundred feet high, which, having as an
+understratum a crumbling schist, is continually falling down in huge
+masses, which sometimes bury whole villages.[169] Pallas observes that
+the Tatar mountaineers of the three villages of Kíkineis, Liméne, and
+Simëis, have a strange physiognomy, different from that of all the
+other inhabitants of Crim Tatary. Faces of uncommon length, as well as
+arched noses exceedingly long, and a high head compressed with a view
+to render them unusually flat, all contribute to produce diversified
+caricatures, so that the greater part of these persons have distorted
+countenances, and the least deformed resemble the figures of Satyrs.
+There was an ancient habit of the Genoese that may perhaps account for
+their peculiarities. They had adopted from their predecessors, the Moors,
+the custom of compressing the heads of the new-born infants about the
+temples, so that perhaps these villagers, with their singular faces,
+are the remaining descendants of the ancient Genoese who inhabited the
+Crimea, and, notwithstanding the lapse of time, have preserved their
+extraordinary visages. It is farther remarkable that the hair and beards
+of these mountaineers are almost uniformly light reddish or even flaxen;
+a circumstance seldom occurring in the Crimea. It is certain all the
+inhabitants who at present occupy the villages situated on the southern
+coast, though regarded as Tatars, are nevertheless the offspring of other
+nations, who have either landed here or have been driven thither from the
+interior, and who were strangers to the later race, but especially to
+that of the Mongols; hence the original natives of Crim Tatary consider
+them as aliens, and point them out by the contemptible name of Tat.[170]
+
+From Kíkineis to Aloupka is twelve versts, or about eight miles, and
+between them lie Liméne and Simëis, with very ancient olive-groves
+and splendid fig-trees, and country houses occupying each favourable
+spot.[171] Liméne was one of the most important fortresses along the
+coast, placed on a high, steep rock, only approachable by one path,
+and defended by a strong wall, the construction of which the Tatars
+attributed to the Genoese.
+
+Liméne is about three English miles from Kíkineis, and here the traces
+of a violent volcanic action are apparent. The whole space, from the top
+of the mountains to the sea below, is covered with stupendous blocks of
+stone thrown pell-mell one upon another, some even half-buried in the
+sea, whence only their tops are visible beaten by the waves; one of the
+largest of these erratic blocks is called Pánea, and upon it are the
+ruins of an ancient castle. The agents of all these convulsions are to
+be seen in two jets of porphyry, which, piercing through the schists
+underlying the limestone, have struck against the stupendous walls of
+the limestone itself, which forms the flat table-land or yaila of the
+mountains above. In one place the yaila is broken, and through the
+limestone there appears forced up the schists and the porphyry mixed
+together in a paste, which proves that they were in a liquified state
+when the jets arose.[172]
+
+Passing on now a few miles further through the same kind of scenery
+we come to Aloupka, the seat of Prince Woronzof, where he has built a
+magnificent palace on a spot where the rocks approach very near to the
+sea, and are tossed about with great violence. The promontory of Aithídor
+is seen to the East jutting out into the sea, and giving a curve to the
+coast, which adds greatly to its beauty; while immediately behind the
+palace rises Mount Ai Petri, or Mount St. Peter, to a height of nearly
+four thousand feet.[173]
+
+The strata of schist, from the promontory to the mountain, may be seen
+rising in a great arch up to about thirteen hundred feet above the level
+of the sea, heaved up by the volcanic rocks which are seen beneath, and
+bearing on its stupendous span the limestone aiguilles which form the
+mountain.
+
+The palace of Aloupka is built after the design of Mr. Blore, the English
+architect, in the Moorish style, and was at first intended to be a small
+villa, which afterwards grew to be a vast palace. The whole exterior is
+faced with a green granite, which is extremely difficult to cut, but
+takes a beautiful polish. In consequence of the immense labour required
+to work it, the green sandstone from Nikita and Oursouf, which is soft
+and of the same colour, has been used for the less important parts of
+the buildings. The palace stands at the height of about one hundred and
+fifty-five feet above the level of the sea, and the gardens descend to
+the shore. Behind it the mountains rise at once precipitously, so that
+there is no room for the stables, which were intended to have been built
+on the other side of the public road running close behind the palace. The
+gardens and the park extend to the east of it, where the view is more
+open, in the direction of Miskhor, and here cascades, and fountains,
+and lawns, and shady thickets succeed one another. The vegetation is
+most luxuriant, and the trees grow to an enormous size. M. de Castelnau
+measured three walnut trees, which were respectively sixteen, eighteen,
+and twenty-one feet in circumference, and an olive tree, at four feet
+from the ground, measured eleven feet round, and several vines from
+two to three feet.[174] There are also two remarkable cypresses, said
+to have been planted by Prince Potemkin, when the Empress Catherine
+visited the Crimea in 1787. In the midst of all this vegetation vast
+masses of granite rock are seen lying about, in some places piled into
+grottoes, or bordering the edges of a beautiful little lake, fed by the
+purest streams, and inhabited by a number of trout. Behind the garden
+the visitor is led to a very different scene, which is the solution of
+the whole enigma of the appearance of the surrounding country. Here is a
+large hollow basin, filled with masses of granite of every conceivable
+shape, both angular and rounded, forming the crater of a volcano, while
+around rise the perpendicular walls of schist, through which the fiery
+agent forced its way. There is a second crater like this near the village
+of Aloupka, and both have a depression on the south side, next the sea.
+The explanation of these phenomena appears to be, that the granite formed
+a solid bed, which, by a violent commotion from underneath it, was broken
+and forced up to the point of eruption, and some of the blocks rolling
+down over the ground as far as the sea-shore, are scattered over the
+garden, and give to it so picturesque an appearance.
+
+Such is the character of this singular spot, which has been chosen by the
+venerable Prince Woronzof as his favourite residence, and in which he
+hoped to spend the declining years of his life. No man in Russia holds so
+high a position in public estimation as Prince Woronzof, who is valued
+equally by the Emperor and the people. He was born at Petersburg, but
+educated in England, where his father was for a long time ambassador,
+and afterwards lived till his death as a private individual. His son,
+the present Prince Michael Woronzof, remained here till he was sixteen
+years old, when he entered the military service, and from an early age
+has held high appointments in the service of his country. When Russia
+was pressed for money, at the commencement of the revolutionary wars,
+father and son placed a considerable portion of their immense fortunes at
+the disposal of the late Emperor Alexander, and materially assisted in
+relieving his financial difficulties. At the age of twenty the son was
+“_chef d’état-major_” to General Tiziánof when Georgia was taken, and
+the Russian army narrowly escaped annihilation before Erivan, by cutting
+their way during the night through the Persian force which surrounded
+them. He greatly distinguished himself in the wars of Napoleon, and
+commanded a division of 12,000 men at the battle of Borodino, in which he
+was severely wounded, and had the whole of his division cut to pieces,
+so that I have heard that the next morning a serjeant-major was left in
+command of the survivors, all the officers having been either killed or
+wounded.[175] He commanded the Russian cavalry at the battle of Leipsic,
+and offered so obstinate a resistance to Napoleon himself at the battle
+of Craon, in the campaign of 1814, as to elicit from the emperor the
+flattering observation, “Voilà le bois dont on fait des maréchaux.” He
+subsequently commanded the Russian army of occupation in France after
+the peace of 1815, and when, on leaving, many of his officers, seduced
+by the temptations of that delightful country, had contracted debts, and
+left the country without paying, he, in order to save the honour of the
+Russian name, ordered all the bills to be brought to him, paid them out
+of his own pocket, and burnt the whole of them. For the last twenty-five
+years he has been Governor-general of New Russia, and governor of
+Bessarabia, and in 1844 was made Lieutenant[176] of the Emperor in the
+Caucasian provinces, commander-in-chief of the army of the Caucasus,[177]
+and admiral of the Caspian Sea, so that he held the supreme command over
+all the country from Poland to Persia.
+
+Since his assumption of the reins of government in the Caucasus, the
+whole aspect of the country has changed. Towns have been built, roads
+made, peculation checked, honourable feelings stimulated in the officers,
+and the condition of the private soldiers greatly improved. The natives
+have been raised to a level with the Russians, and all have been alike
+treated with respect and urbanity. He displayed administrative abilities
+of the highest order, and possessed the rare quality of securing the
+affection and raising the tone of all around him. The soldiers admired
+him for his calm intrepidity, and loved him for his never-failing
+generosity and kindness, and the officers feared him for his inflexible
+justice. Those who hated the Russian name made an exception in his
+favour, and the chivalrous Georgians would have died to serve him; in
+short, I never yet have met an individual in whom the fundamental virtues
+of courage, prudence, generosity, and magnanimity were enhanced by such
+acute sagacity, such delicate refinement of sentiment, such simplicity of
+manners, and a modesty which when it survives the trial of power is the
+surest sign of a superior mind.
+
+A German poet once observed to me that although the general average of
+them was low, the most perfect women he had ever seen for charms both
+physical and mental were Russian women, and in the same way, although the
+character of the men is often chequered by various failings, we sometimes
+find among them wise men like Prince Woronzof, whom it is no sin to
+covet for our own country. Prince Woronzof, although a true Russian
+patriot, has always been a great admirer of England, the country of his
+education, and he is understood to have been much opposed to the present
+war between Russia and England, believing that the two countries might
+long have pursued their glorious careers without clashing. Intemperate
+pride in the ruling power on one side, and lamentable incompetence on
+the other, have brought about a struggle which skill and firmness would
+probably have averted; and the French and English have lately visited as
+enemies the halls of Aloupka, where in years gone by so many of their
+countrymen have found the heartiest welcome.
+
+At two or three miles from Aloupka is Miskhor, the seat of the late
+General Leon Narishkin, a celebrated beau, who followed the prevailing
+fashion of having a villa on the southern coast, and a vineyard of six
+hundred acres, which produces a wine something like hock. Adjoining it is
+the estate of the Princess Galitzin, called Koureis, one of the earliest
+formed upon the coast. Princess Galitzin was one of a celebrated trio
+of ladies who, under the reign of the impressionable Emperor Alexander,
+first exercised a great influence at the Court, and then, turning from
+the world to heaven, endeavoured to form a religious society for the
+immediate conversion of the whole world to Christ, which they thought
+had been too long delayed. The poor surrounded their doors in crowds at
+Petersburg, for they were very charitable of alms for the body as well as
+the soul, and their influence rose so rapidly, that the ministers grew
+frightened lest the Emperor himself should join them. He was therefore
+induced to sign the order for their banishment to the Crimea, a sentence
+which they accepted with joy as a mission from heaven to evangelize the
+Tatars.
+
+The other two ladies were the celebrated Madame de Krudener and a
+mysterious personage who went under the name of the Countess Guacher.
+
+After their arrival in the Crimea, the police soon put an end to all
+their efforts at conversion, and Madame de Krudener died within a year,
+worn out by her strong religious feelings, which were not permitted
+to exercise themselves. The Princess Galitzin renounced the russet
+conventual dress which she had adopted, and the mystic principles of
+Madame de Krudener, to return to the free Voltairian ideas in which she
+had been brought up. Endowed with a masculine intellect, a prodigious
+memory, wonderful powers of conversation, once the admiration and fear
+of Paris and Petersburg, and possessing an immense fortune, she made
+herself the centre of a little court of _beaux esprits_ at Koureis, and
+lived there till her death in 1839. Her daughter married the Baron de
+Berckheim, and is a permanent resident on the coast. The third of the
+trio, the Countess Guacher, gave up her dress as a nun and her religious
+enthusiasm very soon after her arrival, and lived at a romantic cottage
+on the wild sea-shore, perfectly secluded, and only seen occasionally in
+her gallops along the beach. Both she and Princess Galitzin adopted a
+kind of male attire suited to their independent mode of life. When she
+died, after a few years, it was discovered that she was the Countess de
+la Mothe, who was publicly whipped and branded on the Place de la Grève
+as an accomplice in the scandalous affair of the diamond necklace of
+Marie Antoinette.[178]
+
+At each moment from this spot the coast widens, and leaves a greater
+space between the overhanging mountains and the sea. Around the little
+village of Gaspra the ground undulates prettily, and every spot is
+cultivated, and covered with rich woods, orchards, vineyards, and
+gardens, in the midst of which peep out villas and country houses. It
+resembles a view in the neighbourhood of Naples. On the top of a hill
+not far from the road and near some old ruined fortresses is an ancient
+monument we should little expect to find in Crim Tatary, namely, rocks
+piled up exactly like the Celtic remains of Brittany and Cornwall.[179]
+
+Beyond Gaspra the road winds inwards in order to pass the high limestone
+strata of the promontory of Aithodor. A wild path of two miles leads
+from the road to the summit of the promontory, in the midst of oriental
+juniper-trees and ruins at every step. On the top are five columns of
+white marble, and the remains of an ancient monastery, which probably
+occupies the site of some ancient Greek temple, placed like that at
+Sunium. Beyond it is Mourgoudoú or Oriánda de Witt, the palace of Count
+de Witt, built on a terrace nine hundred feet above the sea, and forming
+a fantastic assemblage of buildings in a mixed oriental Gothic and Greek
+style. Around it is a kind of natural park, in which splendid trees
+grow on the broken ground interspersed with enormous masses of rock at
+the foot of the precipice of Mount Megábi, and here the arbutus and
+juniper-tree grow to an enormous size.
+
+The width of the plain is here nearly four miles, and Mount Megábi rises
+in the midst of it, and close to the sea-shore is the spot chosen by
+the Emperor Alexander to build a retreat, which he called Oriánda. In
+the midst of the picturesque chaos peculiar to the coast, he formed an
+English garden, and planted a vineyard and olive-grounds near the modest
+dwelling-house. The late emperor, however, erected here a splendid
+palace, having the disposition of an old Greek house, and richly
+ornamented with wall-painting. The celebrated Schinkel was the architect,
+and a beautiful work has been published upon it at Berlin. Its low
+situation on the sea-shore, with high cliffs and tall trees overshadowing
+it, render it gloomy, but suited to the health and taste of the Empress
+Dowager of Russia, who has spent here several winters. In the grounds
+are shown two celebrated fig-trees seventy feet high. Here the Emperor
+Alexander intended to retire, surrounded by his friends, to whom he meant
+to allot estates near his own. His sudden death put an end to these
+projects, and Marshal Diébitch, who afterwards commanded in the Turkish
+and Polish wars, was the only one who had already received a property of
+about one hundred acres adjoining the emperor’s garden. Just where the
+two estates meet is a precipitous hill, with many traces of a settlement
+of the ancient Tauri, whose acropolis occupied its summit. At a mile from
+Oriánda is the little Greek village of Livadia, which now belongs to
+Count Leon Potócki, and near it is the castle of Outchansoú, in a gloomy
+gorge of the mountains, which was used by the Turks as a prison, for
+which it was well suited.
+
+About three miles further on is the port of Yalta, which is quite a new
+town, in an admirable position, whence in time of peace steamers ply
+regularly to and from Odessa. Its proximity to the finest scenery of
+the coast, a good port, and a charming situation, make Yalta the great
+rendezvous of the tourists, who flock in great numbers to the Crimea
+during the summer season. The quay then presents an animated scene, and
+small craft from all parts lie at anchor in the little bay. Nothing then
+can be more pleasing than the effect of the white town placed at the
+extremity of the bay, surrounded by rich scenery, with the high crests
+of the hills behind, also covered with verdure. The elegant buildings,
+the handsome hotels, and the general appearance of the population, all
+announce it as a town favoured by the rich and pleasure-seeking. In fact
+Yalta depends entirely upon tourists, who fill the hotels for several
+months, and rich people who live in its neighbourhood. There is here
+a custom-house and a garrison. The valley of Yalta is very beautiful,
+and there is nothing on the whole coast more grand than to look down
+upon it in descending the hill from Magaratch, stretched out in a noble
+amphitheatre at the foot of the precipices of the Tauric chain.
+
+Mount Megábi is then in front, with the village and vineyards of Aoutka
+at its foot; and Oriánda and Cape Aithodor may be seen behind it. On the
+right looking down upon Yalta, a great promontory of the Tauric chain,
+called Mount Yoprákl, about four thousand feet high, divides the valley
+into two parts, and at its foot is the little village of Derekoi, hidden
+by the trees. The right branch of the valley is called Ai Vassili; and
+a village whence it takes its name is situated at the foot of Mount
+Lapata.[180] To judge by the steep rough aspect of this mountain one
+would not imagine that down its sides is one of the principal roads
+leading from Baktchéserai to the coast. The road as far as Ai Vassili
+follows the course of a rivulet, and the surrounding country has the
+appearance of a natural English park, with magnificent trees and
+cascades. At Ai Vassili the gardens are filled with date plum trees, ash,
+turpentine trees, figs, and walnuts. Around the village and above it are
+seen the sandstone and the schists, and the oak and the elm cover the
+ground, but at the height of one thousand feet the limestone is reached,
+and the Tauric pine takes the place of other trees, and grows to a great
+size. It lasts over the first layers of the limestone for about seven
+hundred feet, and is succeeded by the beech and wich elm.
+
+Above these is the naked summit of the mountain, and then on passing a
+narrow gorge in the rocks, the traveller emerges on one of the mountain
+plains, called Yailas. As far as the crest of the mountain, the sunny
+landscape of the valley of Yalta in all its beauty is spread out, with
+a glorious expanse of sea beyond it shining through a warm and clear
+atmosphere. Upon the Yaila everything becomes changed in a moment, and
+to the warm rays of the sun succeed a cold damp air and the thick icy
+fog of a northern region. To mark the road across it, lest travellers
+should lose their way, heaps of stones are placed at distances of twenty
+yards, as far as the woods on the northern slope which extend nearly to
+Baktchéserai.
+
+But to return to Yalta. The road on leaving the town ascends a hill, and
+on the left are some Cyclopean remains, the stones of which have been
+partly removed to build the new pier at Yalta. At the top of the hill is
+the church of Marsánda, which has been rebuilt by Prince Woronzof, in the
+Doric style, on the ruins of an ancient chapel famous for its spring of
+water, which bubbled forth beneath the altar. The spring still follows
+its ancient course undisturbed, and escapes from the church by an arch in
+the wall, and here the weary traveller may refresh himself with a cool
+draught, and rest under the fine trees which surround the church, among
+which is one of the largest and most venerable oaks on the whole southern
+coast. Near it is the village of Magaratch, which the crown has divided
+among a number of wealthy colonists, who have planted vineyards and built
+houses, and form an agreeable little society of their own.
+
+About three miles further on is Nikita, where are the Imperial botanical
+gardens, a vast establishment for experiments on acclimatation and
+practical studies on the plants and trees which might be profitably
+introduced into the Crimea.[181] Here on the public road may be observed
+distinctly the three formations of which the Tauric chain is composed,
+and which have been raised up by volcanic action. First the schists from
+the sea to the road, then the sandstone, and above that all the strata of
+the jurassic limestone.[182]
+
+After passing Cape Nikita and the mountain of St. Daniel, which belongs
+to Prince Woronzof, we enter the valley of Ourzouf, the Gorzubita of
+ancient times, where the emperor Justinian built a castle, the walls
+and towers of which still crown an immense rock on one side of the
+valley. The part built by Justinian is easily distinguished from a
+second system of defence round it, which appears to be Genoese, on
+the walls of which Pallas saw embrasures for cannon which have since
+disappeared. The country here is still extremely rich, and the view from
+the ruins magnificent. Enormous walnut trees, fig-trees, and poplars,
+form labyrinths of verdure, and here is situated the retreat which the
+Duke de Richelieu, the second founder of Odessa, created for himself
+among the wild Tatar population, when as yet there was no road along the
+coast. This was the first of the modern Russian attempts at colonisation
+on the coast, and the Duke bought this estate in 1817, with rights upon
+the village of Ourzouf for 120_l._ Up to 1825, this and Kutchuk Lambat
+and Nikita were the only European establishments in this now fashionable
+locality.
+
+A mole and a tower are still visible defending the little bay of Ourzouf.
+The eastern side of it is formed by the mountain of Aioudágh which juts
+out into the sea to the height of about 1800 feet, presenting a precipice
+on the side of Ourzouf, and only to be ascended from the village of
+Partheníte, on the opposite side. On the summit are the remains of an
+ancient castle, the walls of which are composed of enormous blocks of
+stone without cement. The fortifications are in a large semicircle, the
+diameter wall of which is about seven hundred feet in length, and the
+thickness of the walls about five feet. Where the wall can be approached
+from the land thirteen towers defend it, but on the side of the precipice
+there are none.
+
+In looking at the style of this construction, it is impossible to
+recognise in it a work of the Byzantine Greeks, or the Genoese, who
+always used lime and mortar, as may be seen in the ruins of Alouchta,
+Ourzouf, Soudak, Theodosia, and Balaclava. These ruins are built like
+those at little Castéle, Demir Kapou, and other of the most ancient
+remains in the Crimea. They resemble the Cyclopean walls of Kimmericum
+(Opouk), and the Tumuli of the Gold Mountain near Kertch, and Dubois
+attributes them to the Tauri, and the Tauro-Scythians.[183]
+
+This little fortress has not been inhabited since 1475, that is to say,
+since the destruction of the Genoese power in the Crimea, but there is no
+reason to think that it was ever inhabited by the Genoese or the Greeks.
+There is no trace of temple or other edifice within it, and the only
+remains of such are to be found immediately on arriving at the top of
+the mountain, where, nestled among some large trees, rise the ruins of
+a monastery dedicated to St. Constantine and St. Helen. It immediately
+overlooked the village of Partheníte; and Dubois, who imagines that it
+occupied the site of the ancient temple of the Tauric Diana, thinks that
+this would be a most interesting place to commence some excavations. He
+believes that, while the temple at Cape St. George in the Chersonese was
+also dedicated to the goddess, this one of Aioudágh was the particular
+temple where Iphigenia exercised her cruel mission; that it was here that
+Orestes and Pylades appeared to her; hence the bodies of the victims were
+precipitated from the top of the rock into the sea below; hence she gazed
+over the wide horizon, and watched for the vessels of her victims.[184]
+
+There has been much discussion as to the cape which was really the
+Kriumetôpon, or “ram face,” promontory at which Iphigenia arrived.[185]
+Some have placed it at Ai Petri near Aloupka, others at Mount Ilia near
+Laspi, others at Aithodor; but Clarke, Heber, Mouravief Apostol, Koeppen,
+and Dubois, consider it to apply to the Aioudágh.[186] Its position
+is very distinctly indicated by Strabo where he says, “far along the
+Tauric coast there detaches itself into the sea a promontory, which
+looks towards Paphlagonia and the city of Amastris, and this is called
+Kriumetôpon. Opposite to it corresponds Cape Carambis in Paphlagonia,
+and they divide the Euxine Sea into two parts.” “At Kriumetôpon,” says
+Scymnus,[187] “arrived Iphigenia, when she disappeared from Aulis. The
+Tauri abound here, and their numerous tribes lead a wandering life in
+the mountains. Barbarians by their cruelties and murders, they adore
+a divinity which resembles them in its impious crimes.” An additional
+reason for believing this to have been the place alluded to by the
+ancients is the fact that the Tatar village at the foot of the promontory
+is still called Partheníte, or the village of the Virgin. Partheníte is
+situated in a beautiful valley, and a sandy beach enables the inhabitants
+still, as in the Homeric times, to draw their barks up on the land. Two
+little streams irrigate the orchards and fields, in which are cultivated
+flax and the best flavoured tobacco along the whole coast. Here is a
+celebrated walnut-tree of enormous size, surrounded by benches, under
+the shade of which the Prince de Ligne wrote the letter to the Empress
+Catherine, describing to her his astonishment at the extraordinary beauty
+of the southern coast.
+
+Pursuing our road we come to the two Lambats, Bouiouk and Kutchuk (great
+and little). The word Lambat is the old Greek name of the place, and
+means the town of the Lamps (Lampadôn). The Little Lambat is now a
+village on the shore of the bay, defended from the East by the promontory
+Plaka, and there is in it a good anchorage. Between the two Lambats the
+ground is covered with ruins of every age, from the most early at the
+Great Lambat to the most recent on the sea-shore. It is called Halmites
+by Arrian, and this name may have its origin in the Greek word to leap,
+as rough ground on which one is obliged to leap, and it may also have
+some connexion with the river Alma, which rises on the other side of
+the Tauric chain exactly opposite the plateau on which Great Lambat is
+situated.[188]
+
+After passing Cape Plaka, between Great Lambat and the sea-shore is one
+of the most extraordinary spectacles that can be witnessed.[189] There
+suddenly appears a place which is called, by the moderns the Chaos, and
+by the Tatars Sunenkáia. It is a vast assemblage of enormous masses of
+rock, as large as houses, and as high as towers, composed of fetid black
+limestone, thrown together in confusion and sometimes leaning against one
+another, somewhat in the same way as at the Trossachs in Scotland. In one
+place they look like aiguilles or pyramids, in another place like the
+enormous ruins of some Cyclopean edifice, while further on they have the
+wild and broken appearance of the moraine of a glacier.[190] The shumac,
+the walnut, the wild vine, and many different kinds of thorns grow in the
+deep crevices, and push their roots down to the water that filters below.
+Numbers of these blocks also have fallen into the sea, and form a chain
+on which the waves vent their fury. The Chaos lasts for about half a mile
+along the sea-shore, and is terminated by the black porphyry of Cape
+Plaka. This great amphitheatre of confusion goes on widening for a mile
+and a half inland, up to Great Lambat, and on crossing the high road,
+and going up towards the mountains, a new Chaos is met with, composed
+of blocks of ophitic granite instead of the limestone. From the highest
+point of the mountain all through the Chaos down to the sea-shore the
+ground is covered with ancient ruins, and the place was evidently chosen
+by the barbarous population of ancient times, as one secure from attack
+on account of the difficult nature of the country.
+
+Above the second Chaos may be observed the solution of the whole scene.
+There is the enormous mouth of a crater, whence these vast fragments,
+broken in the bosom of the earth, have been vomited forth. The limestone,
+situated upon the ophitone, was rolled down to the sea-shore, while the
+ophitone itself appears only at the mouth of the crater, or near it, in
+a disturbed state. The schist and the grey limestone, whose beds were
+broken by the eruption of the ophitone, have been turned into red marble
+at the points of contact with it, which shows it to have been erupted
+in a heated state. The best situation for observing these interesting
+phenomena, is Mount Aithodor, or the hill of St. Theodore,[191] so
+called from the ruins of a Greek church on the summit. Hence may be
+contemplated, as a whole, the mighty agency by which the Tauric chain,
+which towers above us, has been raised up, and the igneous domes of
+Kastele, Ouraga, and Aithodor itself are perceived as the immense levers
+which have raised up Mount Babougan, and the plains surrounding it, for
+several thousand feet.
+
+At a place called Karabagh, near Bouiouk Lambat, is the country-house of
+M. Peter de Koeppen, whose valuable works on the statistics and geography
+of Russia are well known.
+
+Further on, Mount Kastele completely bars all passage along the coast,
+and the road is carried through a defile between it and the main
+chain, which the Tatars call Demir Kapou, or the gate of iron, and,
+according to their usual system, the Tauri had here established one of
+their fortresses, in the narrowest part of the gorge, to defend their
+settlements at Lambat.
+
+Three walls formed the enceinte; two, about two hundred paces long,
+run from the perpendicular flanks of Mount Kastele, and meet a third
+nearly at right angles on the opposite side of the valley.[192] They
+are composed of great blocks of granite piled one on the other without
+cement, and sometimes as much as six feet in thickness and in height, and
+the interior forms a narrow enclosure, in which are the remains of some
+rude edifices. Everything here shows the infancy of art, and recalls the
+Cyclopean constructions of Greece, or even the Gaulish camps of France
+and Switzerland.
+
+On the eastern side of the Kastele, the only remains of the Greeks or
+Genoese, are the foundations of a little edifice outside the fort in the
+midst of some trees looking towards Alouchta. The Tauri are probably the
+builders of a second fortress much more considerable than the first,
+and occupying a part of the summit of the mountain. A wall, constructed
+without cement, here runs from north to south from one precipice to
+another, and encloses numerous traces[193] of habitations, and fragments
+of pottery. The traveller, after passing the gorge, soon finds himself at
+the top of the descent leading to Alouchta, with the town placed on the
+opposite side of the valley, which here widens out again considerably,
+presenting its usual features of wildness and Asiatic luxuriance. Here
+ends the really fine scenery of the southern coast, which extends over a
+distance of about forty miles from Phoros to Alouchta.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+THE EASTERN COAST AND SOUDAK.
+
+    Alouchta—The Eastern and Western Coast—Oulou Ouzéne,
+    the property of Mrs. Lang—Mdlle. Jacquemart—The Bay of
+    Soudak—Ruins of the triple fortress—The Kiz Koullé, or Girl’s
+    Tower—Ancient Soldaya—Its history—Remains—Vandalism of the
+    Russians—Ruined barracks—The Crimean Wine Company—The wines of
+    the Crimea—Prices of land in the Crimea—Road to Theodosia—Tatar
+    hospitality—Koktebel.
+
+
+Alouchta[194] is beautifully placed on the sloping side of a gentle
+elevation, near the sea-shore, and the cultivation of the vine has made
+here rapid progress. Its situation, in a wide and fertile valley, at
+nearly the centre of the southern coast, must always have rendered it
+an important place, although the only mention of it in ancient times is
+with reference to the castle built here by Justinian, the remains of
+which are to be seen on a little hill near the sea-shore. The ancient
+town of Alouchta was built in front of the fort on the right bank of
+the river Oulou Ouzéne, but the place is now deserted and covered
+with the wild vine and tamarisk. Some remains may still be discovered
+of houses and of several Greek churches placed on the most elevated
+positions. The churches are nearly as large as those of Kherson; and in
+the principal one a semicircular apse shows that either a bishop or at
+least a priest of high rank presided over the clergy attached to it.
+Alouchta is the limit between the eastern and western coast, which are
+great rivals for public favour. There can, however, be no doubt that in
+remarkable scenery and romantic beauty the western coast has greatly the
+advantage. The igneous jets of ophitic granite do not come further east
+than Alouchta; and while the granite domes of Kastele, Aioudágh, and
+Liméne form promontories and bays, and sublime variations of scenery, the
+eastern coast is a monotonous repetition of narrow ravines, covered with
+meagre vegetation, of the wich elm (the commonest tree in the Crimea),
+the turpentine-tree, and the oriental juniper, some specimens of which
+measure as much as a foot and a half in diameter.
+
+A ride of eight miles along a sterile and desert shore of the eastern
+coast brings the traveller to the valley of another river, called
+Oulou Ouzéne, the property of Mrs. Lang, who has planted vineyards and
+orchards, and converted it into one of the most agreeable residences
+along the coast. Some miles further on is the bay of Soudak, and the
+residence of an eccentric French lady, Mdlle. Jacquemart, who, having
+originally gone to Russia as a governess, and then, by her brilliant
+conversation and wit having gained a great reputation in the highest
+circles, both in Petersburg and Vienna, suddenly renounced the world,
+and retired to solitude on the shores of the Crimea. Marshal Marmont, in
+his works, tells a romantic tale about a rejected and despairing lover,
+who in a paroxysm of fury attempted her life; but according to Mdlle.
+Jacquemart’s own account the story differs wonderfully from the unpoetic
+truth, which was, that a Greek, whom she had never seen before, brutally
+attacked and nearly murdered her, as she was returning home one evening
+to her solitary dwelling.[195]
+
+The view of the bay of Soudak, on approaching it from the west, is very
+striking. Its shores present a charming rural prospect; and the valley
+which leads down to the water is entirely occupied with orchards and
+vineyards. Near the extremity of the bay, on the right, the rocks jut out
+boldly, and the fortifications of the old Genoese town crown the heights.
+Soudak, as will presently be more fully explained, was in ancient times
+a very important place, and its beautiful position attracted here the
+population of a town even in time of the ancient Greeks. The Russians,
+since they have possessed it, have done much injury to the ancient
+remains; but even the ruins of the fortress and citadel, which alone
+have been spared, possess great interest. The traveller threading his
+way among the vineyards may approach the pyramidal rock, on which is
+built the three stages of the vast and carefully-constructed fortress,
+which once protected the surrounding city of Soldaya,[196] as Soudak was
+anciently called. The rock is inaccessible on the side of the sea, but
+may easily be approached from the interior of the valley, where it opens
+on a broad terrace, defended by an immense rampart, flanked by ten towers.
+
+The entrance-gate is defended by an exterior work; and in front of it,
+where a German colony has lately been planted, there formerly stood the
+Genoese part of the town of Soldaya. Between the colony and the gate is a
+beautiful fountain, of ancient workmanship, the water of which formerly
+supplied the fortress; and above it is placed a bas-relief, which has
+been brought from the ruins, of St. George killing the Dragon, and the
+scutcheon of the Doge Adorno. Over the gate is an inscription, declaring
+it to have been built in the year 1385, when the noble and puissant lord,
+James Gorsevi, was the consul and castellan of Soldaya.
+
+On entering the gate the traveller stands within the lower fortress, and
+finds the ground covered with ruins. Here are the immense brick cisterns
+which contained enough water to supply the garrison for several years;
+and the aqueducts of earthen tubes, which conducted the rain-water from
+the rocks above are still visible. Near them are the remains of some
+Genoese houses in the Gothic style, with dates and scutcheons; the only
+ones which escaped destruction when the Russians occupied the place.
+
+Here are also the most uninteresting remains of the huge Russian
+barracks, to construct which, the beautiful architectural erections of
+the Genoese were destroyed. These barracks were built by Prince Potemkin
+after the conquest of the Crimea, when he entertained an idea, which
+was afterwards abandoned, of making Soldaya the Russian capital of the
+peninsula.
+
+Beyond the ruins of the barracks, in the north-east corner of the
+platform, where the rock overhangs the sea with a sheer precipice, is a
+curious edifice, which bears traces of many styles of architecture. It
+must have been originally built as a mosque, because it does not look
+east and west, like a Christian church, but north and south, with the
+altar, formerly the _maharab_ of the mosque, turned in the direction of
+Mecca.[197] It was probably raised by the Tatars, when, in a moment of
+fanaticism, they drove the Greek Christians from Soudak in the beginning
+of the fourteenth century, as the arrangement of the parts and the style
+of the ornaments are of an earlier date than the Turkish occupation. In
+1323, on the demand of Pope John XXII., Soldaya was restored to the Greek
+Christians; and it was from them that the Genoese captured it in 1365,
+when the Greek churches were turned into Catholic ones. In 1575 Soudak
+was taken by the Ottomans, and all the churches were again turned into
+mosques; and thus they remained till, on the conquest of the Crimea by
+the Russians, the mosques were once more devoted to the Greek form of
+Christianity. Thus this church has undergone no less than five changes of
+religious destination, having first been built as a Tatar-Mongol mosque,
+then converted into a Greek Christian church, then changed to a Latin
+Catholic church, then once more a mosque, and being at the present day,
+for the second time, a Greek church.[198]
+
+A steep path leads from near the church to the middle fortress, called
+Katara Koullé, built in a ledge of the precipitous rock, with the sea
+chafing round its base. The principal tower is constructed in the noble
+style of the fifteenth century.
+
+A narrow path along the edge of the precipice leads to the third and
+highest fortress, called the Kiz Koullé (The Girl’s Tower), which is
+the real acropolis on the summit of the rock, and consists of a simple
+square tower, placed like the eyrie of an eagle, commanding a view of
+the expanse of the sea, the whole of the fortifications, the recesses of
+the valley, and the circuit of the ancient town of Soudak, in which the
+smallest details may be observed.
+
+The eye also follows the windings of the coast as far as Kastele and
+Aiondagh, and wanders over the terraces of the Tauric chain that rise
+one above another, while turning round and looking inland, the traveller
+sees the Swiss colony which has replaced the Scythians, Greeks, Komans,
+Genoese, and Turks, and occupies the entrance of the beautiful gulf of
+verdure which stretches inland in the midst of the dark grey rocks.
+
+As early as the eighth century, Soldaya, or Sougdai, the origin of which
+goes back to the remotest times, was the seat of a bishop, and although
+then depending on the empire of the East, had its own sovereign princes.
+Four hundred years later the Komans, an Asiatic people, driven from its
+seats in Asia towards the West by the hordes of Zingis Khan, arrived
+in the Crimea, and were the precursors of the terrible invasion of the
+Mongols, which occurred soon afterwards. The arrival of the Komans in
+their flight was fatal to the Greek establishments in the Crimea, and the
+princes of Soldaya were exterminated, and the conquerors seized on their
+capital.
+
+The Tatars soon followed, and the Komans, after thirty years’ possession,
+were obliged to abandon the Crimea, and seek an asylum in the more
+western countries of Thrace.
+
+Under the Tatar domination the Greeks re-entered Soldaya, which again
+became a Christian city, and the most important port in the peninsula.
+Although it was certainly tributary to the Tatars, it had a bishop, and
+governed itself.
+
+In the beginning of the fourteenth century, when the Tatars of Kiptchak
+adopted the Mahometan religion, Musselman fanaticism predominated for a
+moment in the Crimea, and the Christians, driven from Soldaya, saw all
+their churches converted into mosques. But it is a remarkable fact, that
+the remonstrance of the Pope John XXII. was sufficient in 1323 to procure
+from Usbek Khan the restitution of the city to the Christians, and the
+restoration of their ancient privileges.
+
+Thirty years had hardly elapsed when a new revolution, arising from
+intestine discord, annihilated in Soldaya the Greek power. On the 18th
+June, 1365, the Genoese, already masters of Kaffa for nearly a century,
+incorporated in their dominions the ancient capital of the Komans. It was
+then that these bold merchants, to secure the possession of the fertile
+country of Soudak and to defend it from the Tatars, constructed on the
+most inaccessible part of the rock commanding the entrance to the town
+the formidable fortress with three stages, that has been mentioned,
+crowned by the gigantic Maiden Tower (Kiz Koullé), whence sentinels were
+ever on the alert to watch over the port, the sea, and the neighbouring
+country.
+
+The Genoese remained undisturbed possessors of their castle for more
+than a century; but after the taking of Constantinople by Mahomet II.,
+and the immediate destruction of Kaffa, the capital of their colonies
+in the Crimea, the last hour arrived for unfortunate Soldaya. In 1475
+the Turks besieged the place,—the resistance was long and obstinate, and
+famine alone achieved the triumph of the besiegers over the valour and
+heroism of the garrison. With the Genoese possession terminated the
+glory and prosperity of Soldaya, which had lasted for so many centuries.
+The population of the town was expelled and dispersed; the port, once
+so animated, became desert, and grass grew in the streets, formerly
+trodden by the elegant Greeks of Byzantium, the victorious Komans, and
+the proud citizens of Genoa. To all these various populations, so rich or
+so powerful, succeeded a feeble Turkish garrison, which witnessed during
+three centuries with indifference the degradation and solitude of one of
+the most ancient and famous cities on the shores of the Black Sea.
+
+In 1781 the imperial eagle of the Czar floated on the towers of
+Soldaya, and then began, for the monuments of the Genoese colony, that
+destruction which everywhere characterizes the conquests of Russia.
+All the public and private buildings, which Pallas in his first voyage
+had so much admired for their beautiful architecture, disappeared, and
+their precious remains were used by the Muscovite Vandals to build huge
+barracks, which were utterly useless, and which now form themselves the
+most uninteresting of ruins. At this day Soldaya, utterly effaced from
+the list of towns and fortresses, does not possess even a guard to watch
+over its walls and magnificent towers with their proud inscriptions. Each
+year new mutilations take place, and soon there will remain none of the
+tablets of marble, with elegant arabesques, which adorn each tower and
+gateway, retracing their origin and history. Certainly the absence of
+all Russian authorities is the only thing that can preserve the Genoese
+castle from utter destruction.
+
+Unfortunately the government seems now to wish for its preservation,
+and no doubt the remains of Soldaya will be threatened with entire
+destruction the moment an employé, having nothing to live upon but his
+wretched pay, becomes officially invested with the right of protecting
+them from the ravages of time and men.
+
+The best view of the valley of Soudak and the surrounding country is
+from the monastery of St. George, placed on a high mountain, a projection
+from which runs into the sea, and forms the eastern side of the bay.
+There are few eminences in the Crimea that offer so vast and varied a
+landscape. Every detail of the valley is visible; and the vast fortress
+is below, a pyramid of ruins, without a living soul near them, except a
+stray traveller, or the children from the neighbouring German colony, who
+make it their play-ground. The coast is visible far beyond Alouchta; and
+in the interior of the country the dark and barren mountains are thrown
+pell-mell; while among them penetrates, in pleasing contrast, the bright
+green valley of Soudak. Here the dark foliage of the fruit-trees and the
+tall poplars is mixed with the pale green of the vineyards; and white
+houses are dotted about, each in their own domain. Although there is a
+considerable population, there is no town at modern Soudak; and the only
+spots where a few houses are placed together is near the church, where a
+Greek has built a hotel.
+
+Near here, also, are the vast establishments of the wine company of the
+Crimea, and the house of their manager, M. Larguier, a French gentleman.
+As the wine company have chosen Soudak as their head-quarters, and the
+wine of this neighbourhood has always been famous, this will, perhaps,
+be a proper place to say a few words upon the cultivation of the vine in
+the Crimea.[199] The Crimean wine company has been established to make
+known the different kinds of Crimean wines in the markets of the world,
+and to facilitate the sale of them. The production of wine has received
+an immense development in the Crimea since the beginning of the present
+century, and especially since Prince Woronzof has been governor-general
+of New Russia; but a great difficulty has always been found in disposing
+of the produce.
+
+In all times, the Crimea has exported wine into Southern Russia.
+Bronevski,[200] in the middle of the sixteenth century, says that Soudak
+had large vineyards which gave the best wine in the Crimea. De la
+Motraye, in 1711, speaks of a wine of Soudak, which did not differ from
+Burgundy in colour, and was not inferior to it in taste. He also mentions
+a wine of Katche (Katchik) which sparkled in the glass like Burgundy
+or Champagne, and was sold at a farthing a bottle. At a later period,
+Peyssonel, in 1762, speaks of the wines of the Crimea, and praises their
+excellence and abundance. They were white, light, and wholesome; and the
+wine of Soudak was the only one that was strong. The best qualities then
+came from Soudak and the banks of the Belbek, the Alma, and the Katcha.
+The price was about a penny a quart for the best wine of Soudak, and the
+Cossacks of the Ukraine and the Zaporogues bought a large quantity every
+year.
+
+The wines of the Crimea could not, however, compete with those of France
+or Greece, and they were consumed only among the people; while the rich
+classes, accustomed to the wines of Sauterne, Bordeaux, Hungary, and the
+Rhine, despised the productions of Soudak or the Katcha, where the vine,
+cultivated after the Greek or Tatar method, at the best, produced only
+a feeble aqueous beverage, without body, and impossible to keep. The
+wines of the Crimea, therefore, had no reputation; the mode of making
+them was defective; and it was necessary that there should be a complete
+revolution in the whole system of culture and manufacture before the
+vines of this country could enter into competition with those of foreign
+ones.
+
+A number of proprietors in the Crimea resolutely undertook this task,
+and, with Prince Woronzof at their head, spared neither money nor
+encouragement of every kind. They procured from Spain and France, and
+the Rhine, plants from the most celebrated vineyards; and Prince
+Woronzof collected 200 sorts, in small quantities, at Aloupka, for
+experiments. They also brought over good vine-dressers, and consulted
+the best works on the subject. The most suitable lands on the coast
+were carefully prepared and covered with fine plantations. Experienced
+persons were brought over to teach the art of treating the wines; vast
+cellars were built and fitted up with immense vases; in short, neither
+trouble nor expense were spared to perfect the qualities of the wine.
+The enterprise, however, still failed, because the rich continued to
+drink Bordeaux and Burgundy, and the common consumers the cheap wine
+of Soudak and the Katcha; so that the bad old kinds of Crimean wines
+still found a market, and the good remained unsold in the cellars of the
+proprietors. As a remedy, the Crimean wine company was established, with
+a considerable capital, managed by M. Larguier, to buy the choice wines
+of the proprietors, and to place itself in relation with the principal
+towns of Russia; to make known by their travellers the best sorts of
+Crimean wines; and to have dépôts in the towns; and try, by every means,
+to remove the prejudices against them. This was the more necessary, as
+the common wine-merchants, by adulteration, continually depreciated them
+in the public estimation. The greater part of the weak wines of Soudak
+and the Katcha, which they bought cheap at the time of the vintage, and
+carried immediately to their cellars at Moscow, and elsewhere, were
+mixed with all kinds of substances, and lost their reputation as soon as
+tasted: the pure wine was nowhere procurable.
+
+The head-quarters of the company were fixed at Soudak, and cellars and an
+office were established at Simpherópol. The commencement was difficult,
+as relations had to be established; and only inferior sorts could at
+first be bought with any chance of obtaining a profit. As the proprietors
+had been at great expense, they asked an enormous price for the good
+wines; and, besides this, their quality could never be depended upon, on
+account of the newness of the vineyards, and the consequently uncertain
+and variable flavour of the grapes.
+
+The ancient culture of the vine by the Greeks and Tatars, who looked only
+to quantity, was carried on entirely on the flat grounds in the bottom of
+valleys, which were easy to irrigate. The valley of Soudak, which runs
+in nearly two miles from the sea to Taraktache, was adapted for this
+cultivation; and no doubt the vine was planted here in the early Greek
+times, when Athenæon flourished where Soudak was afterwards founded. At
+Alouchta, also, there was then much wine made, as is evident from the
+immense quantity of amphoræ found there.
+
+The other vineyards of the Crimea were on the Katcha, the Belbek, and the
+Alma; where the clayey or limestone soil was favourable, and the valleys
+easy to irrigate. The climate however was inferior to Soudak, and so were
+the wines, with the exception of some parts of the valley of the Belbek
+near the sea. The vine is buried each winter in these valleys; and its
+culture must be very ancient, as wine-presses are found cut in the living
+rock in the grottoes of Katchi Kalene.
+
+Such were the ancient vineyards of the Crimea.
+
+The new vineyards extend all along the southern coast from a place
+near Kertch to Laspi. One of the first plantations was that of Laspi.
+M. Rouvier entered into an engagement with the government to introduce
+merino sheep, and plant with vines a certain extent of ground which
+should be given him; and, bringing his plants from Malaga, his wine
+retains some qualities of the original. In 1826, Prince Woronzof began
+the first vineyard of Ai Daniel. The Princess Galitzin began at the same
+time; and the example once set, vineyards quickly sprung up all along the
+coast; and already, in 1834, 2,000,000 of vines had been planted.
+
+The climate of the coast is very like that of Provence. The winters are
+mild, the spring early, the summer hot and stormy, and the autumns long.
+In winter the thermometer seldom falls below 6° or 7° Réaumur. The soil
+is generally a black decomposed schist, mixed with limestone, and forms
+into a grey clay, more or less stony, very compact, and in dry weather
+impossible to work, so that it can only be broken up in winter, when
+softened by the rain. The vines are planted in terraces, and in winter
+have plenty of water from springs, which disappear in the dry time of
+the year. The grapes are retarded by this cause, and by the great heats
+of the coast, so that their development is checked till the rains of
+September, and then, being gathered very late, the fine quality of the
+wine is injured. Alouchta is the only place that never suffers from
+drought.
+
+From wherever the plants come, they all, after a certain time, have
+a tendency to the strong qualities of the Spanish wines. In a new
+plantation, when the first grapes appear, they give a wine like that of
+the country from which they have been transplanted; but scarcely two more
+years pass before there is a change; and from year to year the difference
+becomes greater, till at the end of ten years there is no longer Burgundy
+or Bordeaux, but a particular sort of wine, far less delicate and strong.
+
+The vineyards of Prince Woronzof at the Ai Daniel, and those of the
+Baron of Berckheim at the same place, where the plants have been kept
+totally distinct, give the results that have been mentioned. In the other
+vineyards the plants are much mixed, and Gros Bourgogne, and Pincan
+Fleuri, Rissling, Bordeaux, and Kakour, are all mixed together. The
+last plant, of uncertain origin, is said to give a very good flavour,
+and a bouquet which would make it sought even in Europe, as it differs
+greatly from all known wines. Here is planted also a certain quantity
+of Aleatico, and some ancient Crimean plants from the Katcha. The grape
+which loses the most of its primitive qualities by the change of climate
+is the Rissling from the banks of the Rhine. It has been particularly
+grown in the valley of Alouchta, where a schistous soil, mixed with
+calcareous particles and the detritus of sandstone, lighter, and less
+exposed to drought than the rest of the coast, would seem to recall the
+qualities of its primitive soil. At Miskhor also, Mr. Leon Narishkin
+planted, in 1834, a vineyard of Rissling, which produced a good wine, of
+a fine taste, but without the exquisite qualities of Rhine wine.
+
+Everything then proves that the wines of the coast of the Crimea are
+still in a state of transition, and cannot have a fixed reputation for
+some time to come. Then alone can the wines of the Crimea be spoken of
+as a class, and their place will probably be between the fine wines of
+the north and the strong wines of Spain. The Crimea has so many different
+climates, and soils, and situations, that if the stony lands of the
+coast will not give the qualities desired, they may be found elsewhere.
+Long experience has shown that the soil and climate of the Heracleotic
+Chersonese is as favourable to the cultivation of the vine as that of
+the coast of the Crimea, for already in ancient times this peninsula
+had vineyards and cellars and amphoræ. This fact is, besides, proved
+by an inscription found in 1794 in the ruins of Kherson, stating that
+the people had voted a crown of ivy to Agazikletos, “who had made the
+cultivation of the vine to flourish in the country;”[201] so that this
+cultivation was a branch of the industry and commerce of the Khersonians.
+
+Mr. Bardac, captain of the port of Sevastopol in 1803, again introduced
+the vine on the soil of the Chersonese, where the flocks of sheep and
+goats of the Tatars had extirpated it. He planted with vines from Smyrna
+some land near Sevastopol, on the ravine running into South Bay, and
+the successful results encouraged other proprietors. In 1834 a wine was
+made at least equal to any other in the Crimea, and this may perhaps
+be accounted for by the nature of the soil, which is a detritus of
+limestone, mixed with cinders and volcanic remains, the whole reposing on
+the rock as a subsoil.
+
+I will now give some account of the prices of land in the Crimea. At the
+beginning of the present century the coast-lands were worth nothing, and
+persons were able to buy large tracts for a trifling sum, which they
+afterwards sold for fifty times their value. The Duc de Richelieu bought
+in 1817, for 140_l._, the estate of Oursouf, and laid out upon it about
+800_l._ In 1834 the Prince Woronzof, who had become the proprietor,
+retained 200 acres, and resold the house and the remaining 80 acres for
+4000_l._ The estate of Khanime, containing 160 acres, was bought by M.
+Poniatowski for 240_l._, and was valued in 1834 at upwards of 3000_l._
+The lands fit for the vine in the valley of Alouchta, which were first
+sold at 15_s._ and 1_l._ an acre, now cost 30_l._ or 40_l._, and this
+is about the average price along the coast. The valuation of the new
+vineyards that have been planted can be only approximative, as no
+proprietors of them are inclined to sell. The valuation of a vineyard is
+made according to the number of plants it contains, and not according
+to the extent of the ground it covers. The number of plants varies
+considerably according to the nature of the soil, and there are generally
+12,000 plants an acre in the heavy land, and 17,000 in the light land.
+
+There were vineyards sold in 1842 at 600_l._ an acre, and afterwards at
+as much as 1000_l._ an acre, while on the gravelly soil they were not
+worth more than 80_l._ an acre.
+
+In 1834 the Crimea possessed in new and ancient plantations 7,100,000
+plants, distributed as follows:—
+
+                                    Vines.
+  South-east Coast of the Crimea  1,600,000
+  Soudak, &c.                     2,000,000
+  Valley of the Katcha            2,000,000
+        ”       Alma                500,000
+        ”       Belbek              500,000
+  German colonies.                  500,000
+
+Since that time the number of vineyards has enormously increased, but I
+have not been able to procure any details upon the subject.
+
+The road from Soldaya to Theodosia is very mountainous, and the country
+thinly peopled. The great calcareous chain of mountains here recede
+from the sea, and are barely covered with a meagre vegetation, and only
+a few Tatar villages occupy the low valleys. Completely abandoned by
+the aristocracy, with impracticable roads, and none of the luxurious
+habitations which fashion has raised about Yalta, the shore between
+Alouchta and Theodosia is rarely visited by tourists, and only
+occasionally explored by some scientific traveller.
+
+Although the coasts of Soudak are abandoned by the Russian nobles,
+although there are there no Italian villas, or Gothic mansions built in
+porphyry, there is instead a hearty welcome to the traveller and real
+Oriental hospitality. Far from the centres of civilization which the
+Russians have raised in the Crimea in the last twenty years, the Tatars
+of these regions have preserved intact the traditions of the past,
+and all the remarkable traits of their primitive character. In every
+village the traveller, especially if he be not a Russian, is received
+with the most affectionate care. Everywhere the best house, the most
+beautiful cushions and carpets, are placed at his disposal, and he is
+installed in a good apartment with coffee and a tchibouk, in a way which
+can be appreciated only by those who know the inconveniences as well
+as pleasures of travelling in the East. At Toklouk, Kouz, and Otouz,
+the Tatar dwellings, with their flat roofs, are raised against the
+hills which border the valley, and by this arrangement the inhabitants
+communicate generally by the terraces of their houses. Nothing can be
+more picturesque than the appearance of these terraces of an evening: at
+that moment the whole population, men, women, and children, are on the
+alert, and desert their dark chambers, where they seek a refuge against
+the sun during the heat of the day, to install themselves on the roofs of
+the houses.
+
+The most agreeable animation succeeds the silence of the day, loud
+conversations are heard on all sides, and a very picturesque effect
+is produced by the various groups, who, still employed in household
+occupations, thus enjoy the coolness of the evening.
+
+At Koktebel, a little village situated on the borders of the sea,
+about twenty miles from Soudak, near the sombre Cape Karadagh, are the
+really mountainous parts of the Crimea. Beyond it the country possesses
+no features of picturesque beauty; vast plains gradually succeed to
+the hills, and at a distance the Steppes, which form all the northern
+part of the peninsula, extend to the east of Theodosia as far as the
+Cimmerian Bosphorus. On all the line from Soudak to Theodosia there is
+no ancient monument or ruin; and the nature of the coast, sometimes
+abrupt, sometimes open and undefended, appears little favourable for
+the foundations of a town, or the establishment of either a military or
+commercial port.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+FROM ALOUCHTA TO SIMPHERÓPOL, KARASOUBAZAR, ESKI KRIM, AND THEODOSIA.
+
+    Valley of Alouchta—Obelisk—Valley of the Angar—Tavshan
+    Bazar—Fortified Gorge—Yenisála, a Greek Colony—Aian and the
+    source of the Salghír—Ascent of the Tchatyr-Dagh—Yaila—Snow
+    reservoirs—From Tchafki to Simpherópol—Excursion up valley
+    of Little Salghír to caves of Kisilkoba—Caverns—Simpherópol
+    to Karasóubazar—The Shireen family—Eski Krim—Theodosia, or
+    Kaffa—B.C. 700, Theodosia founded by Milesians—A.D. 250,
+    totally destroyed by the Huns—Desert for 1000 years—A.D. 1280,
+    Kaffa founded by Genoese on site of Theodosia—Short history of
+    it—A.D. 1475, taken by Turks—Its decline—Revival in seventeenth
+    century—1781, taken by Russians—Description of ruins—Their
+    destruction by the Russians—Position of Kaffa in commercial
+    point of view—Arabat—The wall of Asander—The approach to Kertch.
+
+
+The macadamised road does not extend along the coast further than
+Alouchta, and here turns off northwards to Simpherópol, a distance of
+about forty miles. It mounts for the first twelve miles through the rich
+valley of Alouchta, till an obelisk marks the highest point, whence it
+descends through the cheerful little valley of the Angar, which runs into
+the Salghír. Here the Tchatyr-Dagh, the highest mountain in the Crimea,
+rises immediately on the left, and the valley is an enormous rent in the
+red pudding stone of which the mountain itself is composed.
+
+A little further on, a shady spot, called Tavshan Bazar (the Hare
+market), serves as a resting-place for carriages coming from Simpherópol,
+before they encounter the hilly part of the journey to the coast, and
+from Tavshan Bazar to Simpherópol the road is good and even.
+
+Two limestone mountains[202] here rise above the road on the right, and
+vast blocks which have rolled down from them nearly fill up the valley of
+the Angar, and advantage has been taken of the narrow passage, called
+Demirkapou, or the gates of iron, to erect one of the walls so common in
+the Crimea, by which the southern coast was protected against invasions
+from the north.
+
+A little beyond Tavshan Bazar,[203] to the right, is the village of
+Yenisála, occupying the bottom of the valley. This was a Greek village,
+abandoned in 1778, of which there only remain now the ruins of a chapel
+and some tombs. The inhabitants were induced to remove at the great
+emigration which took place five years before the Russian conquest of
+the Crimea, and were transferred to the shores of the Sea of Azof, near
+Mariopol, where they founded a new Yenisála. They never, however, forgot
+their old abodes, and the present possessor of the village, M. Grot,
+has seen old men arrive to visit the scenes of their youth, and find
+out among the tangled bushes their ancient home, which they came once
+to revisit before their strength failed them. A little beyond Yenisála
+the Angar falls into the Salghír, and the high road follows the banks
+of the latter river all the way to Simpherópol. There are no remains of
+antiquity, except an old Tatar palace, called Eski Serai; but the country
+around is rich and wooded, with fine poplars and aspens, and Tatar
+villages are dotted thickly over it, with tiled houses and white minarets
+rising among the trees.
+
+It is worth while, however, to stop on the high road at Tchafki and
+make an excursion to the source of the Salghír and the summit of the
+Tchatyr-Dagh. From Tchafki the ride is short to the little Tatar village
+of Aian,[204] which is close to the sources of the Salghír, to visit
+which the traveller must descend from the limestone terrace, on which
+the village is situated, into the neighbouring narrow valley, which is
+a rent in the red marble rocks, terminating, at a few hundred yards
+distance, in a great chasm in the flank of the mountain. There, under an
+enormous rock, surmounted by other broken fragments, is a large mouth,
+which vomits forth the Salghír in the midst of mossy blocks of stone.
+The wave, scarcely escaped from its cavern, falls in a cascade over
+a mass of marble, and the noise of the waterfall is mingled with the
+roaring of the waters in the gulf from which it issues in the very bowels
+of the mountain. From a grotto above it the water may be seen boiling
+and foaming in the dark abyss. These subterranean gulfs penetrate into
+the heart of the mountain, where they communicate with other gulfs and
+abysses, which reach the whole way through the mountain from near its
+summit, and, preserving the snow during the whole year like glaciers,
+continually feed the river.
+
+To mount the Tchatyr-Dagh,[205] on its eastern side, the first part of
+the ascent is in the direction of Tchafki, over the schists, which to a
+considerable height compose the western side of the valley of the Angar.
+Then follows the red marble, and a very steep ascent, which leads to the
+table-land or Yaila of the mountain, four or five miles in length and two
+miles broad, and upwards of 4000 feet above the level of the sea. It is
+very even and covered with fine pasture, on which feed numerous flocks of
+sheep; but strange to say the strata of black limestone which compose it
+are not horizontal, as might have been expected from its even surface,
+but vertical, at right angles to the surface of the earth, and planed
+off by some agency which nobody has been able to determine. The heads of
+the beds may be seen running east and west, and the harder strata rise
+slightly above the others, and have scarcely any vegetation upon them.
+There are frequent slight depressions in the soil, from 40 to 100 feet
+in diameter, and about 10 feet deep; but sometimes they sink into the
+unfathomable abysses which have been mentioned as forming reservoirs of
+snow to supply the rivers which issue from the Tauric chain. From this
+lower table rises another, 700 or 800 feet high, which forms the summit
+of the mountain, offering the magnificent view I have already described
+in a former chapter.
+
+Nothing of interest occurs on the road from Tchafki to Simpherópol;
+from which latter place there is an agreeable excursion up the valley
+of the Little Salghír, which runs on the east, parallel to the great
+river of the same name.[206] After passing the village of Mamak, at
+a short distance from Simpherópol, a vast wall of porphyry, fifteen
+miles long, closes the valley to the east, and extends from Djamatai to
+Yenisála, which has been mentioned as being close to the high road to
+Alouchta. This wall is the eastern side of the great circular crater,
+in the midst of which Mount Tchatyr-Dagh has been raised up, and along
+it there are rents, which form narrow valleys to the east, in many of
+which villages are situated. At Terenair is some black schistous earth,
+somewhat resembling coal in appearance; but although it would no more
+burn than so much granite, the possessor of it, Mr. Kortchan, always
+uses his utmost endeavours to obtain a certificate of its carbonaceous
+virtues from geological travellers, that he may enter into contracts to
+supply it as coal to the fleet at Sevastopol. Higher up is the valley
+of the Kisilkoba, with a village of the same name at its entrance, and
+a rivulet running through it, shaded by high trees. After passing the
+village, and following, for a short distance, a narrow path by the
+side of the stream, we come to a very steep ascent among the rocks,
+where numberless fragments of pottery mark the spot as once having been
+inhabited. Ascending the sombre and narrow glen, we then arrive at an
+even terrace, some acres square, covered with fine trees, and surrounded
+by high rocks, in which grottoes have been excavated. It is impossible to
+conceive a spot more fitted for a hermitage, where the world is only seen
+at a distance through the entrance of the little valley. At the back of
+the terrace the stream bursts forth from subterranean canals, like those
+under the Tchatyr-Dagh, and at the time of the melting of the snows a
+great body of water issues forth.
+
+The course of the stream appears to have been several times changed, for
+above its present place of exit, there are two other stages of the empty
+canals, which form a series of majestic grottoes. The least elevated, but
+the most beautiful, rise above the cascade, with a fine entrance about
+twenty feet high, and within them the ground is found to be sandy, and
+the cavern descends into the interior of the mountain. At half its depth
+there is a passage of rising ground, which leads into other canals, of
+such extent, that a French gentleman, having taken provisions and lights,
+walked for a whole day with the guide, Mambet, without reaching the
+extremity.[207] In the lower grotto, at sixty paces from the entrance,
+there is a basin of limpid water, and between the strata of the limestone
+the Tatars of Karasóubazar collect a red and yellow clay for the
+manufacture of pipe bowls. The upper grottoes are two hundred feet above
+the terrace, and the access to them is difficult. Their entrance is low,
+but the passage rapidly increases in height and breadth in a north-east
+direction. It then turns towards the north-west, and three more caverns
+are passed, covered with white stalactites, which, by the light of the
+flambeaux, make a beautiful contrast with the red rocks around. The
+length of these caverns, as far as they are generally followed, is seven
+hundred feet, and supposing that the dislocation of the strata, which
+formed them, dates from the raising up of the Jurassic island of the
+Crimea, fossil bones might perhaps be found here of great importance.
+
+At a mile and a half[208] from Kisilkoba is another gorge, Koutchouk
+Yankoi, which much resembles the one I have described, and here ends
+the valley of the Salghír, between the foot of the Tchatyr-Dagh and the
+heights of the Samarkaia.[209]
+
+We will now return to Simpherópol, and follow the post-road thence
+to Theodosia. From Simpherópol to Karasóubazar the road is very
+uninteresting, and runs over a chalky undulating ground with little
+cultivation and few trees. Half way is the post station of Konia, near
+which are two large tumuli.
+
+Karasóubazar,[210] or the market of the black water, is one of the two
+towns reserved by Catherine II. at the conquest of the Crimea, for the
+exclusive occupation of the Tatars, and it therefore retains a strictly
+Oriental character, which has quite disappeared from the towns inhabited
+by the Russians.
+
+The only public edifices of any importance here are the khans or
+caravanserais, where merchants rest on their journeys, and of these
+there are between twenty and thirty, not equalling in architectural
+beauty those of Georgia and Persia. The largest, called the Tachekhan,
+was built in 1656 by Sefir Ghazi Atcheiou, minister of Mehmet Geray,
+and is an immense square edifice, presenting outside only four blank
+walls, but in the inside there is a large court occupied with rooms for
+travellers and a number of shops. One of the last constructed khans
+is that of the Armenians, which contrasts favourably with the others
+in point of luxury and comfort. It is built like one of the covered
+arcades or the “_passages_” of Paris, on a much greater scale, with
+wider arcades, lighted by large apertures in its lofty roof. The shops
+are ranged on each side, and there is a large passage or street between
+them always filled with busy groups. There are also twenty-two mosques in
+Karasóubazar, but none of them remarkable for beauty.
+
+The Greek church deserves a visit for its originality; it is built in
+the shape of a cross with a dome which lights the centre. Karasóubazar
+was in former times celebrated for its cutlery, and about 1755 it
+exported to the Caucasus and Mingrelia as many as 400,000 small knives or
+daggers, such as are commonly worn in the girdle in eastern countries.
+The cemeteries round the town are of enormous extent, and from that of
+the Greeks there is an admirable view of the town, with its red-tiled
+houses, winding streets, and shady gardens.
+
+Between Karasóubazar and Kertch are situated the vast domains of the
+Shireen family, which was the second in rank in the Crimea after that of
+the Gerays, and so powerful that they were almost their rivals. Their
+importance dated from the time when a certain Dangey Bey of this family,
+in a general revolt, saved the last scion of the Geray family, who was
+afterwards raised to the dignity of khan, and showed his gratitude to the
+Shireens by conferring upon them many privileges. They alone could marry
+the princesses of the Geray family, and near Karasóubazar is a mountain,
+called by the Russians Shireenskaia Gora, or the Hill of the Shireens,
+where they used to hold meetings of their dependents, when, as was often
+the case, they disapproved of the conduct of the khans, and wished to
+influence their government. According to one tradition, the ancestor of
+this family was the companion in arms of Zingis Khan, and conquered the
+Crimea for him, so that they might be even said to have some claims to
+the throne itself.[211]
+
+The only point of interest between Karasóubazar and Theodosia are the
+ruins of Eski Krim, which was the most ancient capital of the Tatars
+after their conquest of the Crimea. The date of its foundation is
+unknown, but already in 1266 it was the appanage of Oran Timour. Under
+the Mongols it was one of the greatest towns in Asia, and a well-mounted
+horseman required half a day to ride round it. It is now almost deserted,
+and scarce any traces remain of the great city where the rich caravans
+of olden times used to come laden with all the precious products of
+Asia. The traces of the pavements of the streets may be observed in the
+fields that now occupy its site. The ruins of five mosques and large
+vaulted baths remain; and one Greek church and one mosque are still
+used for religious purposes. The Armenians are the only inhabitants who
+have remained here, and they still retain their church and a convent,
+dedicated to St. George, on the neighbouring hill of Karasou, which is
+the object of numerous pilgrimages. The best view of the town is from the
+hill of Aghermiche, which embraces the whole valley, once occupied by
+buildings, and on one side may be traced the remains of the ancient wall,
+flanked with towers, which surrounded the city, and included an enormous
+cemetery, in which tombs may still be seen of every variety of form.
+
+Near Eski Krim is the post-station of Krinitski, and beyond it begins the
+flat uncultivated peninsula of Kertch.[212] There is now no sign of a
+tree or a shrub, although traces exist in some parts of ancient forests,
+and there is so great a want of water that the Tatars are obliged to dig
+ponds in the soil to water their flocks.
+
+At fifteen miles from Krinitski is the once famous town of Theodosia or
+Kaffa, situated on the shores of the finest bay on the northern coasts of
+the Black Sea after those of Sevastopol.
+
+Twice have the commercial advantages of this situation been recognised,
+and twice has a proud city arisen on the gentle slopes of this bay.
+The Milesians, at the time of their first expedition into the Black
+Sea, founded here a flourishing colony, which prospered long in an
+independent state, and was then incorporated into the kingdom of the
+Bosphorus. After an existence of 900 years, from the seventh century
+before Christ to the third of our æra, there then intervened a period of
+ten centuries, during which the plough passed over the site of Theodosia,
+and it is barely mentioned by contemporary historians. Thus it remained
+a ruin during the millennium, from the third to the thirteenth century,
+when so many nations in succession made the Crimea their temporary
+dwelling-place. Then, in the thirteenth century, soon after the Tatars
+had made their first inroad, there landed on the shores of the Crimea
+navigators, not less intelligent and enterprising than the Milesians, and
+soon, on the site of the ancient Greek city of Theodosia, arose Kaffa,
+the annals of which form undoubtedly one of the brightest pages in the
+political and commercial history of the Black Sea.[213]
+
+In the middle of the thirteenth century, after the conquest of the
+Crimea by the Mongols, at the moment when three powerful republics were
+disputing the empire of the seas, the Genoese, landing in the bay of
+Theodosia, on the deserted spot, which was then called Kaffa, obtained
+from Prince Oran Timour a small territory on the shore. In 1280 the
+colony was founded, and its rise was so rapid, that nine years afterwards
+it was enabled, without neglecting its own defence, to send three
+galleys to the relief of Tripoli besieged by the Saracens. The Genoese
+obtained from the Tatars the monopoly of wheat and salt, and established
+themselves at Kertch (Cerco), Taman (Materca), and Tana at the mouths
+of the Don. The foundation of Kaffa increased the hatred between the
+Genoese and the Venetians, and in 1295 the former massacred the latter
+at Constantinople, and the next year, in 1296, the Venetians took their
+revenge, defeated the Genoese in a great battle on the Bosphorus, near
+Constantinople, and, having surprised Kaffa with a fleet of twenty
+galleys, utterly destroyed the town. Such was the energy and vitality
+of the Italian republics at that time, however, that the next year the
+Genoese again took possession of their territory,—Kaffa arose quickly
+from its ruins, and in 1318 Pope John XXII. erected it into a bishopric.
+It was then governed by a consul, and the Podesta, the supreme ruler of
+all the Genoese establishments in the Black Sea, resided at Galata.
+
+In 1343 a war having broken out with the Tatars, Djanibek Khan, the King
+of Kiptchak, besieged Kaffa, and a crusade was preached in its favour by
+Clement VI. The Genoese were victorious, but the dangers to which they
+had been exposed made them feel the necessity of a formidable system
+of fortification. The southern ramparts and palisades of the town were
+replaced by high and thick walls, flanked with towers, and surrounded
+by a deep ditch, lined with masonry. These magnificent works, of which
+even the traveller at the present day may admire the admirable execution,
+were commenced in 1353, by Godefrey de Zoaglio, and finished in 1386
+by Benedict Grimaldi. The most remarkable tower of the enceinte, the
+southern one, which commands the whole town, was consecrated to the
+memory of Pope Clement VI., with an inscription relating to the crusade
+preached by him at the moment the Tatars were besieging the colony. The
+Genoese probably drew the materials for their fortifications from the
+ancient Greek city of Kimmericum, now Opouk. In 1365 they conquered
+the Greek colonies of Cembalo (Balaclava), and Soldaya (Soudak), which
+were tributary to the khan of the Tatars, and in 1380 obtained from him
+a grant of Gothia, or all the sea-coast between Balaclava and Soudak,
+which was inhabited by the Christians.[214] After that time Kaffa went
+on increasing in prosperity, and had commercial relations with the most
+distant countries of Asia, and soon, according to its historians, it
+equalled in size and population the capital of the Greek empire, and
+surpassed it in trade and wealth.
+
+The Genoese colony thus arrived, in the middle of the fifteenth century,
+at the zenith of its glory and power, when the capture of Constantinople
+by Mahomet II. isolated it from the mother city, and prepared the way
+for its entire destruction. On the 1st of June, 1475, four hundred and
+eighty-two sail of galleys, commanded by the grand Admiral Achmet Pasha,
+appeared before Kaffa, and some hours afterwards the Genoese town saw its
+walls bombarded by the formidable artillery of the Ottomans. The siege
+lasted only a short time, and a large portion of the enceinte, raised at
+a time when artillery was unknown, gave way; breaches were multiplied,
+and on the 6th of June, 1475, the besieged surrendered at discretion,
+after having in vain attempted to obtain a capitulation. Achmet Pasha
+entered Kaffa irritated by resistance and hostile to the Christian
+name. After taking possession of the consular palace, he disarmed the
+population, levied a large sum of money on the town, and seized half
+the property of the inhabitants, as well as all slaves of both sexes.
+The Latin Catholics were then embarked on board the Turkish fleet and
+carried to Constantinople, where the Sultan established them by force in
+the faubourgs of his new capital, after taking fifteen hundred of their
+male children, to incorporate in his guards. Thus in the space of a few
+days, after a glorious existence of two hundred years, was ruined this
+celebrated city, which European genius had raised in this remote country,
+and which had developed a most important traffic with Eastern Europe and
+Asia.
+
+Kaffa, the ruin of which was followed immediately by that of Soldaya
+and Cembalo, was directly united to the Ottoman Empire, and was not,
+like the rest of the Crimea, left as a fief in the hands of the Tatars.
+During one hundred and fifty years it had no other importance than that
+which it derived from being the seat of a Turkish garrison, and a strong
+military position on the borders of a Mussulman state, which the Sultans
+were always anxious to conquer. In the middle of the seventeenth century
+the ancient Genoese city again became considerable on account of the
+great commercial and manufacturing movement which took place at that time
+among the Tatars, and which caused it to become once more an important
+commercial port of the Black Sea.
+
+In 1663 Chardin found in the bay of Kaffa more than 400 ships. The town
+was then called by the Turks Kutchuk Stamboul (little Constantinople)
+and had 4000 houses, and more than 80,000 inhabitants. The prosperity
+of Kaffa, however, did not last long. Since the time of Peter the
+Great, Russia has been continually advancing towards the Black Sea,
+and already in the time of that monarch, she had pushed her victorious
+armies to the Danube. In this progressive march towards the south, the
+Crimea especially excited the ambition of the Tzars, and in the reign of
+Catherine II., was incorporated into the Russian Empire.
+
+Under the Muscovite dominion Kaffa sunk again. It lost even officially
+the name under which it had pursued so glorious a career in modern times,
+to resume at the caprice of the Emperor Alexander its ancient Greek
+name, and it now does not possess more than 4500 inhabitants. At Kaffa,
+as at Soldaya, the erection of useless barracks was the signal for the
+destruction of the ancient Genoese monuments. The revêtements of the
+ditches were first carried away, and then, owing to the indifference of
+the government, the walls themselves disappeared. The magnificent towers
+which defended them were successively thrown down, and at this day there
+only exist three remnants of the remarkable bastion, christened in honour
+of Pope Clement VI.
+
+The Genoese fortifications once destroyed, the vandalism of the
+administrative authorities next attacked the civil monuments. When the
+Russians took possession of the place, two imposing buildings ornamented
+the principal square of Kaffa; the great Turkish baths, an admirable
+monument of Oriental architecture, and the ancient episcopal church
+of the Genoese, an edifice built in the fourteenth century, and then
+converted into a mosque after the Turkish conquest. Under the reign of
+Catherine II., it was decided to restore the mosque to the Christian
+faith, and it was given to the established Greek church of Russia.
+Unfortunately, instead of preserving it intact, they entertained the
+fatal idea of decorating it with a miserable portico in the quasi Doric
+style, such as is seen from one end of Russia to the other. The elegant
+domes, which surrounded in a graceful manner the principal part of the
+building, were then demolished, and the bases of the new columns were
+hardly laid, when money failed, and the government refused to make
+further advances. The beautiful mosque, from which the lead had been
+torn off, doubtless to be sold for the profit of the employés, was thus
+abandoned to the injuries of the weather and the public, and soon became
+a perfect ruin.
+
+In 1833 the civil governor, M. Kasnatcháief, in a most barbarous and
+ignorant manner, completed the work of destruction, by attacking the
+great baths which had hitherto remained intact. He asked permission from
+Prince Woronzof to enlarge the great square, because it was too small for
+a parade ground, and the instant he obtained it (knowing that he would
+be stopped when his intentions were found out), he set about destroying
+the mosque and the baths.[215] In the space of a fortnight, by the aid
+of the pick-axe and powder, both these admirable monuments, with which
+the Genoese and Turkish occupations had enriched the town, completely
+disappeared. In 1840 the great square was filled with their precious
+materials, which the local administration were selling at the price of
+common stone.
+
+Of all the splendid edifices of the Genoese colony, only two churches
+have escaped the Russian vandalism; having been granted to the Catholics
+and the Armenians, and preserved by them. For a long time, these two
+foreign communities struggled against the indifference of the government,
+and endeavoured to obtain assistance to repair their churches; and having
+been unsuccessful, they in a spirited manner restored them at their own
+expense.
+
+If from the interior of the town we cast our eyes to the environs,
+the same spectacle of destruction saddens the view. All the beautiful
+gardens, and the rich orchards, which surrounded the town in the time of
+the Tatars, have disappeared. One single winter was sufficient for two
+Russian regiments to annihilate every trace of the brilliant cultivation
+which formerly covered the hills.
+
+From[216] the fort of the tower of Clement VI. there is a fine view of
+the town and the bay. In the midst of the panorama rises the ancient
+Genoese citadel, now dismantled, with its walls threatening to fall down.
+Before the citadel, a building, remarkable by its two massive groups of
+building, but without any exterior ornament, is the principal Armenian
+church, which the emigrants of that nation constructed when they arrived
+here under the protection of the Genoese, after the terrible earthquake
+of 1319, which destroyed Anni,[217] and so terrified one portion of the
+Armenian nation, that they took refuge with the Tatars of Kiptchak, in
+the environs of Astrakhan. Hence they sent colonies into the Crimea and
+established themselves, with the consent of the Genoese, at Kaffa, Eski
+Krim, and in the environs of Soudak.
+
+Before the Russian conquest, in 1713, Peyssonel relates that the
+Armenians had twenty-four churches at Kaffa, and Levasseur de Beauplan, a
+century earlier, counted thirty-two.
+
+The church in question is now converted into a warehouse, but its
+interior has preserved the distribution of the religious edifices of
+Armenia—a grand oratory as an entrance, then a nave, a dome, and a choir
+with lateral sacristies. The other Armenian church, which has been
+already mentioned, deserves a careful study as a good and well preserved
+specimen of Armenian architecture, and is an exact copy of those still
+to be seen in Armenia. The portico is the most ornamental part of the
+edifice, and the mouldings and roses are as varied as in Gothic and
+Byzantine styles. There are two images of St. George, the saint in which
+the Georgians and the Armenians have so much confidence, and the walls
+of the church are covered both inside and outside with funeral crosses,
+as in Armenia.[218] In every detail it is interesting to observe how
+faithfully the Armenians, in their distant colonizations, preserved the
+artistic traditions of their country.[219]
+
+Hommaire de Hell is not the only traveller who deplores the vandalism
+of the Russians. Dubois says, “that he dare not express his feelings at
+seeing the noble works of the Genoese so uselessly ruined.”
+
+The “mild and amiable” Pallas was a Russian subject, and dared not
+express his indignation at the atrocities he saw perpetrated. When he
+first visited Theodosia, the great mosque was complete, with its noble
+cupola 54 feet in diameter, surrounded on three sides by eleven smaller
+domes. “There were also,” as Pallas says, “two minarets 96 feet high,
+furnished with serpentine staircases leading to the top; _though both
+structures have been since destroyed_.”[220]
+
+Clarke, it appears, was an eye-witness of this last barbarous proceeding,
+and describes the painful feelings it occasioned to all the civilized
+persons who beheld it. “The melancholy devastation,” he says,[221] “while
+it draws tears down the cheeks of the Tatars, and extorts many a sigh
+from the Anatolian Turks who resort to Kaffa for commercial purposes,
+cannot fail to excite the indignation of every enlightened people.
+At Kaffa, during the time we remained, the soldiers were allowed to
+overthrow the beautiful mosques, or to convert them into magazines, to
+pull down the minarets, to tear up the public fountains, and to destroy
+all the public aqueducts, for the sake of a small quantity of lead, which
+they were thereby enabled to obtain.
+
+“Such is the true nature of Russian protection; such the sort of alliance
+which Russians endeavour to form with every nation weak enough to submit
+to their power, or to become their dupe. While these works of destruction
+were going on, the officers were amusing themselves in beholding the
+mischief. Tall and stately minarets, whose lofty spires added such grace
+and dignity to the town, were daily levelled with the ground, which,
+besides their connection with the religious establishments for whose
+maintenance the Russian empire had been pledged, were of no other value
+to their destroyers than to supply a few soldiers with bullets, or their
+officers with a dram. I was in a Turkish coffeehouse, at Kaffa, when
+the principal minaret, one of the ancient and characteristic monuments
+of the country, to which the Russians had been some days employed in
+fixing ropes and blocks, came down with such violence that its fall
+shook every house in the place. The Turks, seated on divans, were all
+smoking, and when such is the case, an earthquake will scarcely rouse
+them; nevertheless, at this flagrant act of impiety and dishonour,
+they rose, breathing out deep and bitter curses against the enemies
+of their Prophet. Even the Greeks who were present testified their
+anger by similar imprecations. One of them, turning to me, said, with
+a countenance of contempt and indignation, Εκυθαι! Scythians! which I
+afterwards found to be a common term of reproach; for though the Greeks
+profess the same religion as the Russians, they detest the latter as
+cordially as the Turks or Tatars. The most lamentable part of the injury
+thus sustained has been in the destruction of the conduits and public
+fountains which conveyed, together with the purest water from distant
+mountains, a source of health and comfort to the people. They first carry
+off the leaden pipes to make bullets; they then take down all the marble
+slabs and large stones for building materials, which they employ in the
+construction of barracks; lastly, they blow up the channels which convey
+water, because they say the water-porters cannot earn a livelihood where
+there are public fountains.”
+
+In spite of all the depredations of the authorities, and the stupid
+ignorance of the governor, Kaffa has never been completely metamorphosed
+into a Russian town. Its principal monuments have been demolished, its
+walls razed to the ground, its later population expelled, but the general
+appearance of the town, the private dwellings, the streets paved with
+large flags, all announce a different people. It is to be hoped the town
+may long preserve this picturesque aspect, which resembles that of many
+little ports on the shores of the Mediterranean.[222]
+
+There is a museum at Theodosia, which is an ancient Turkish mosque, with
+two lions at its entrance, which were brought from Phanagoria. Whatever
+ancient Greek monuments are here have been brought from Kertch, when
+Theodosia was the capital of this part of the Crimea; and among them is
+a griffin of fine workmanship. But there are no inscriptions or important
+monuments of the ancient Theodosia, which, indeed, Clarke and others
+suppose to have been at some distance from the site of Kaffa.[223] There
+are, however, many Genoese inscriptions in the museum, and among them an
+important one found on the tower of Pope Clement VI.[224]
+
+The peninsula of Kertch was formerly closed by three ramparts, which
+were raised for political reasons to defend it from dangerous enemies.
+The most ancient is that of Asander. It starts from the extremity of the
+Tauric chain, and finishes at the sea of Azof, near the commencement
+of the tongue of Arabat. The Scythian slaves of Sindic origin raised
+it to defend themselves against their masters when they returned from
+Asia. Asander, King of the Bosphorus from 49 B.C. to 14 B.C., renewed it
+and fortified it with towers as a defence against the invasions of the
+Scythians, and it has ever since borne his name. It may still be traced
+with the places for the towers. The rampart of the Golden Mountain, at a
+few miles from Kertch, was the primitive frontier of the kingdom of the
+Bosphorus and the colony of Panticapæum. The success of the Leuconides
+in the 4th century before Christ had carried it beyond the peninsula
+of Kertch, by uniting Nymphæum and Theodosia to the kingdom. Asander
+fixed it at the rampart of the Scythian Slaves, and this was for several
+centuries its limit. In the mean time the Chersonians replaced the
+Scythians as the predominant people in the Crimea, and they had taken
+Panticapæum during the absence of Sauromates V., who had gone to pillage
+Asia Minor in the third century after Christ, notwithstanding the army
+which the Emperor Constance opposed to him. In order to re-enter his
+capital, Sauromates was obliged to give up his prisoners and booty.
+His grandson, Sauromates VI., who reigned A.D. 302 to 310, wished to
+avenge himself on the Chersonians; he was however beaten by them near
+the rampart of Asander, and obliged to swear never to pass it in arms.
+Violating his oath, he again appeared in the field, and consented to
+terminate the war by a single combat with Pharnáces, the chief of the
+Chersonians. He was killed, and his army, undergoing the yoke of the
+conquerors, was obliged to retire half-way from Theodosia to Kertch,
+where the Chersonians permitted the limits of the kingdom to be fixed.
+Then was erected the rampart of Akkos, or Cybernicus, which commences at
+the salt lake of Itar Altchiek and finishes at the Sea of Azof. It is
+very well preserved; the ditch turned towards the Crimea is still very
+deep, and the mounds along the rampart would lead to the belief that it
+had been supported by towers. These three ramparts are almost the only
+ancient monuments between Theodosia and Kertch; and the road is most
+uninteresting and monotonous, passing through a thinly-peopled steppe,
+covered with deserted Tatar villages and vast cemeteries.
+
+The first station from Theodosia is Porpatche, at 22 versts distance.
+The second is Arghin, at 27 versts; and between these two is passed the
+rampart of Asander. At Arghin travellers turn off who wish to visit
+or to pass along the Arabat. The third station is Suftanofka, at 28
+versts distance, and in this stage the rampart of Akkos is passed. At
+this station there are springs and a well, and here for the first time
+the horizon is seen crowned by the tumuli and coral-rag peaks which
+characterize the environs of Kertch. Those who go to Simpherópol from
+Kertch, and have their own horses with them, may avoid the détour by
+Theodosia, and continue their road straight across the Isthmus to
+Krinitski. The road then lies through Ormeil and Karagos, celebrated for
+its ancient mosque in the primitive style of Tatar architecture. This is
+one of the four most ancient mosques in the Crimea, in the architecture
+of which are to be observed only straight lines or semicircles.[225]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+KERTCH.
+
+    Approach to Kertch—The Cimmerian Bosphorus—Russian
+    Conquest of Kertch in 1771—Its rise since 1833—Its
+    chance of becoming the emporium of trade for the Sea of
+    Azof—Russian authorities—Ancient church—Kertch, the ancient
+    Panticapæum—Acropolis—Arm-chair of Mithridates—Allée of
+    Tumuli on Theodosian road—The Tumulus a sign of Milesian
+    occupation—Contents of Tumuli on Theodosian road—Etruscan Vases
+    at Kertch—Burial-places of the Poor—Tomb of the Pigmies—The
+    Catacombs—The Tombs of the Kings—The Golden Mountain—The
+    rich discoveries at Kouloba—Description of the contents of
+    the Tomb—Pillaged by the people—Probably that of Leucon I.,
+    or Paerisádes I.—The Museum—Myrmékium—Mud Volcanoes—Naphtha
+    Springs—Cape Akboroun—Nymphæum—Herring fishery—Opouk, the
+    ancient Kimmericum.
+
+
+After[226] a long journey across an uninterrupted flat steppe, slight
+undulations appear above the horizon on approaching the Cimmerian
+Bosphorus, and shortly after this appearance the traveller finds himself
+in a principal necropolis of the ancient Milesian city. Immense cones
+of earth rise on each side of the road, and ridges of coral rag lying
+among these sepulchral monuments, give a grand aspect to this singular
+field of death. On arriving at the extremity of the plateau, the view
+extends over the whole Bosphorus. On an evening in summer the last rays
+of the setting sun tint the cliffs on the Asiatic side, and light up the
+triangular sails of a few fishing boats lazily floating down the current.
+The outline of the tumuli of Phanagoria becomes distinctly traced on the
+blue sky, and, as the sheet of water of the straits gradually assumes the
+sombre colouring of evening, the shadow of Cape Akboroun stretches over
+the water. These fine effects of light and shade are visible but for a
+few moments; the sun descends with tropical quickness below the horizon,
+and the uniform tones of the dark twilight envelop the Bosphorus, its
+shores, and the solitary barks upon its waters.
+
+Descending from the plateau, the traveller enters the town of Kertch,
+which is completely Russianized, of new construction, occupying the
+site of the ancient Greek colony of Panticapæum, once the queen city
+of the Bosphorus. The straits on which it stands, called the Cimmerian
+Bosphorus, leading from the Black Sea to the Sea of Azof,[227] and
+separating Europe from Asia, are about eight miles wide, and in parts
+so shallow, that they do not admit vessels drawing more than twelve
+feet of water, although in the time of Peter the Great, at the taking
+of Azof, corvettes of forty guns could pass through them. Kertch is a
+corruption of the name Gherséti, which the Turks gave to the fortress
+erected here by the Genoese, which was called by the geographers of the
+fourteenth and fifteenth centuries Bospro, Vospro, and Pandico. The
+Russians took possession of Kertch in 1771, and then 500 or 600 huts
+surrounded the Turkish fortress, which was circular. This the Russians at
+first strengthened, but afterwards abandoned, because it was completely
+commanded from behind.
+
+Yenicáleh, at a few miles distance, was then fortified for the defence
+of the straits, and Kertch dwindled away, until, in 1821, the Emperor
+Alexander, appreciating its commercial importance, declared it a port
+of the empire, and raised it to the rank of a town, with an independent
+municipality.[228] Since that time Kertch has slowly increased, although
+it has scarcely now as many inhabitants as it had during the occupation
+of the Turks; for Peyssonel allowed it, in 1787, from 3000 to 4000 souls.
+It is now the chief town of a little government, comprising Yenicáleh
+and about 13,000 acres of land, which form the eastern point of the
+peninsula; and the whole number of inhabitants in Kertch and Yenicáleh
+together is only 2800 souls, living in 680 houses.
+
+[Illustration: PLAN OF PANTICAPÆUM NOW KERTCH, ANCIENT CAPITAL OF THE
+KINGDOM OF THE BOSPHORUS.
+
+_Published by John Murray Albemarle Sᵗ. 1855._
+
+_Ford & West. Lithʳˢ._]
+
+On the proposition of Prince Woronzof in 1833, the suggestion which
+Pallas[229] had made forty years before was acted upon, and Kertch was
+declared the place of general quarantine for the Sea of Azof, and since
+that time no vessel has been allowed to pass the straits without a clean
+bill of health obtained here. The object of the Russian government in
+this measure was to do away with all quarantine establishments in the
+Azof, which has been effected, and to throw into the hands of natives
+the carrying trade between the ports of the Azof and Kertch, which has
+not been found so easy of accomplishment. Kertch has not become, as was
+expected, the emporium for all the valuable commerce between the Black
+Sea and eastern Russia; this still remains in the ports of the Azof; and
+Rostof, notwithstanding the difficulty of reaching it with large vessels,
+still goes on increasing in importance far more rapidly than Kertch.
+Of all the ships that frequent the Azof, by far the greater number are
+content to pass a long quarantine at Kertch, and to ascend the sea to
+load, although, if Kertch were the emporium, and merchants had large
+stores there, ships might arrive at the straits, load at once, and be
+off with their cargoes without any quarantine at all.[230] In accounting
+for the fact that advantage has not been taken of the great privileges
+accorded to Kertch, something is doubtless due to the difficulty of
+changing any established course of trade; and merchants who have laid out
+capital in establishments at Taganrok and Rostof have, of course, been
+unwilling to remove to a new town. There are, however, real advantages
+for commerce at the towns of the Azof, which Kertch does not possess.
+The trade of that sea is almost entirely confined to exports, and the
+merchants at the ports on its shores are nearer to the country which
+supplies them, and to their agents who are scattered over it, and with
+whom they want to maintain a constant communication, than they would be
+at Kertch. At present there is no steam communication in the Azof, and
+the means of transit across it must be very much improved before it will
+be possible to transfer to its southern extremity the point of rendezvous
+between the internal and external commerce. And, again, if Kertch should
+become the emporium of trade, a larger capital would be required for
+carrying on business there, because stocks would be longer on the road,
+and more of them would have to be kept in store. The necessity for a
+larger capital is a great objection to the change, because capital is
+very scarce in Russia, as in all new or ill-governed countries, so that
+even that which is required for the tillage of the ground is supplied by
+foreigners, as will afterwards be explained. It is besides doubtful, if
+an emporium were established on the Black Sea, whether Kertch is the most
+eligible place for it. The merchants generally are in favour of Theodosia
+rather than Kertch, because the anchorage at the former place is better,
+and the bay of Theodosia does not freeze in winter, like the Bosphorus.
+A glance at the map will also show, that a railway might be made, or a
+canal cut across the peninsula of Kertch, which at Theodosia is only
+forty miles broad, to some point between Arabat and Cape Kazantip, where
+the Russians landed their stores last autumn for Sevastopol, and then
+the difficulties of the navigation of the Bosphorus would be avoided,
+the distance shortened, and the communications would be easier with the
+western parts of new Russia.
+
+Kertch, like all Greek colonies, is charmingly situated. A hill, called
+the Arm-chair of Mithridates, on the top of which the rock is scooped
+out in a peculiar way, rises at a short distance from the shore, and
+gently slopes down to the sea. Around this hill was originally built the
+old Greek town, and on its sides were once clustered a variety of Greek
+temples, crowned on the top by the acropolis, which in Greek cities was
+nothing more than the walls surrounding the sacred spot in which was
+placed the tutelary deity, upon the safe custody of which the security of
+the town was supposed to depend. The Turkish fortress below the hill has
+now been cleared away to make room for a handsome open square surrounded
+by arcades, from which streets are building in all directions.
+
+I was kindly lodged during my stay here by Mr. Cattley, the English
+vice-consul, a son of one of the great Russian merchants of St.
+Petersburg, whom I had met at Sevastopol, and who is now the interpreter
+to Lord Raglan in the Crimea.
+
+The civil Governor was Prince Herkheolídze, of Georgian extraction; and
+the military Governor, whose command extends all down the eastern coast
+of the Black Sea, and includes all the fortresses erected against the
+Circassians as far as Redout-kalè, was General Budberg, who had been the
+aide-de-camp of Marshal Diébitch in the first Turkish and Polish wars,
+and who was lately commissioner to the Emperor in the Principalities.
+
+General Budberg was exceedingly polite, but would not allow me a passage
+to Redout-kalè, down the eastern coast of the Black Sea, in one of the
+Government vessels, which then occasionally plied there, although as soon
+as Prince Woronzof came to the Caucasus he made them start at stated
+times, and receive passengers at fixed charges, to the great convenience
+of travellers and merchants. During the ten days I staid in Kertch I
+spent the time very agreeably in visiting the numberless ancient remains
+in the neighbourhood, and profiting by the kind hospitality of the
+society there.
+
+As I was going to visit a country so little known as the Caucasus, having
+obtained leave to take the road along the line of the Kuban, and across
+the mountains to Tiflis, I was anxious to obtain every information
+in my power, and met with many officers at Kertch who had served in
+various parts of the mountains, and were very obliging in satisfying my
+curiosity. General Budberg told me of the anthracite which is found in
+large quantities on the banks of the Don, and which was found to be, he
+said, better than coal for the steamers. He had just been superintending
+the experiments which two new English engineers had been making with it,
+and they found that a ship could be provided with it for one-third time
+longer than with coal, although it required a different arrangement of
+some parts of the machinery of the vessels.
+
+I met here several educated Russians, of what I may call the middle
+classes, and was pleased to find in the unguarded moments of familiar
+conversation a tone of sound good sense in all their remarks, which
+I believe fairly represents the general state of feeling through the
+country.
+
+Giving generally the fruit of my observations among many classes of
+Russians for several years, I believe they think their government a wise
+and good one on the whole, although they are not slow to criticise it
+in its details. They believe that an iron hand is necessary to keep the
+empire together, and that a great destiny is in store for it, and as long
+as progress is made, and the Slavonic name upheld, it has always seemed
+to me, and I think my opinion has been borne out by recent events, that
+they would be willing to rally round their Government, and make every
+sacrifice required by it.
+
+Great efforts have been made of late years by the Government to rouse a
+national feeling in the people, and for this reason almost insurmountable
+obstacles are placed in the way of Russians either leaving Russia, or
+having their children educated abroad. As a general rule, to which very
+few exceptions are allowed, no Russian can be absent from his country
+between the age of twelve years old and twenty-five, or the whole time
+during which the character is supposed to be forming; and after the age
+of twenty-five a medical certificate is necessary in order to obtain
+permission to travel, and a tax of one hundred silver roubles, or about
+16_l._, is levied during each year of absence as the price of a passport.
+No Russian can be absent more than five years from his country without
+ceasing to be a Russian subject, and forfeiting all his property. These
+rules were a good deal the subject of conversation while I was at Kertch,
+and they seemed generally approved of, on the grounds that young Russians
+came back with such very absurd notions after having been to foreign
+countries, and that, without understanding what was good in them, they
+aped everything that was bad. It was also observed that the revolution
+of 1824 originated entirely with the army that had served in Western
+Europe, which brought home notions of freedom that were impracticable in
+their native country. A constitution it was said was now impossible in
+Russia, and so little was the meaning of the term known by the people
+when they called out for it at the revolution of 1824, that they thought
+“Constitutia”[231] meant the wife of the Grand Duke Constantine, who
+resigned his rights to the throne in favour of the late Emperor Nicholas.
+
+The church of Kertch, which formerly stood in the fortress, is a curious
+specimen of Byzantine architecture, and the date of its erection engraven
+on one of its columns, viz. the year of the world 6225 (757 A.D.), proves
+it to be the oldest Byzantine temple now remaining in the Crimea.
+
+The plan of the church is that of a cross with very short transepts, and
+a cupola rising in the middle, which lights the centre by eight narrow
+windows. The cupola is supported by four short marble columns of the
+Corinthian order, and some idea may be formed of the small dimensions of
+the church, as the distance between these columns is only twelve feet.
+
+The appearance of the whole is mean and gloomy, and resembles the
+churches which may be seen in various parts of Greece. Under the
+Justinians and their successors, in the sixth and seventh centuries of
+the Christian era, architecture had degenerated, and leaving more and
+more the beautiful models of Greece, had changed into a new style suited
+to the wants of the Christian ritual, and therefore continually less
+like the old Greek edifices. This new style, which took its origin at
+Constantinople, was called the Byzantine style, and all the countries
+which bordered on the Black Sea adopted it. The cupola was necessary
+for the church service, as its light being shed on the table of the
+love feast, or the altar, was considered emblematic of the divine light
+descending from heaven.
+
+Such was the origin of the Byzantine style, and it was natural that the
+Crimea, which was so near Constantinople, should be greatly influenced
+by it, and that the traces of it should be everywhere found throughout
+the peninsula. There are the remains of such churches at Phanagoria
+and Taman, and the churches of Kherson, Aithodor, and Aioudágh, in the
+Crimea, are built in the same style. There were several in Kertch, the
+remains of which may still be seen.
+
+The marble that was commonly used at this period was white with large
+grains, striped with blue bands. Dubois supposes that there was a quarry
+of it near Constantinople, and that it was a great manufactory for
+church columns and ornaments, which were exported all round the Black
+Sea, because it is in all the principal ports that traces of churches
+are found, adorned with this marble. It is not found in buildings
+erected before the foundation of Constantinople, and the two kinds,
+then most usual, were the marble of Paros, of which fragments are found
+belonging to all ages, and a streaked marble of blue, or grey, or white,
+called “cipolino” by the Italians, the use of which is confined almost
+exclusively to the Bosphorus.[232]
+
+The ancient name of Kertch was Panticapæum,[233] and it was one of the
+many Milesian colonies founded in the Black Sea, in the seventh century
+before Christ. After about half a century of independent existence, it
+became the centre of a kingdom the political limits of which varied
+considerably. In its palmiest days the territory extended as far north as
+the Tanais, while to the west it was bounded on the inland side by the
+mountains of Theodosia. This fertile and narrow region was the granary
+of Greece, especially of Athens, which drew annually from it a supply
+of 400,000 medimni of corn.[234] Although there are no fine buildings,
+or even fragments left standing, as at Athens and Rome, to attest the
+ancient magnificence of Panticapæum, heaps of brick and pottery and the
+foundations of buildings encumber the soil for a considerable distance
+round the Hill of Mithridates, and show how great was the extent of the
+ancient city.
+
+The acropolis occupied the summit of the Hill of Mithridates, in shape an
+irregular polygon, and the ditches and some parts of the walls, the last
+in the coarse limestone of Kertch, may still be traced. The fortified
+town touched the acropolis in the form of a long square, of which the
+acropolis occupied the south-east angle. The wall in its circuit enclosed
+only the summit and the northern slope of the Hill of Mithridates. The
+southern side seems never to have been fortified, although there are
+numerous traces of the foundations of buildings.
+
+It is probable that, in very early times, the bay advanced much further
+into the land. Not to speak of the groups of tumuli which seem to mark
+the ancient limits of the water, the alluvial nature of the soil, its
+low level, which is almost that of the sea, and the absence of all
+buildings on this space, make it probable that this ground was formerly
+covered by the water. This was the case with all the other bays of the
+Bosphorus, and particularly of one to the south of Mount Mithridates,
+which formed in ancient times a second port, but is now covered with
+a salt-lake, separated from the sea by a bar of sand, which the waves
+sometimes overleap in stormy weather.
+
+Thus in ancient times the hill of Panticapæum was bounded on three sides
+by the sea. The principal faubourg extended from the mole, the remains of
+which are still visible, along the sea-shore to the foot of the mountain,
+and as far as the southern port. In the midst of the immense heaps of
+ruins which cover the surrounding country, may be traced the principal
+streets which ended at the gates of the town, and among them one of the
+most distinct is that leading from the port to the acropolis, entering it
+at what seems to have been its only gate. This is probably the gate that
+is seen on the coins of the king, T. J. Reskóuporis, because it is not
+placed in the middle of the wall of the polygon, and the same peculiarity
+may be observed on the coins. The street after entering the acropolis,
+ascended the hill by a zigzag, until it reached the peak at the top
+called the Arm-chair of Mithridates. The base of the peak is hidden
+under a mass of ruins, and the whole rock has been carefully hewn. This
+is especially the case on the western side, where a niche is excavated,
+eight feet wide with steps leading up to it, and evidently intended for
+a statue, and this is the work which has given rise to the name of the
+“Arm-chair” of Mithridates. This “Arm-chair” is evidently only part of an
+ancient edifice in which it was included, the form of which may be traced
+by the foundations of the walls.
+
+This edifice had probably a religious destination, as in the excavations
+which M. Scassi made at the foot of the rock, he discovered a fine torso
+of a colossal statue of Cybele in white marble, which forms one of the
+chief ornaments of the museum. There are also friezes and cornices which
+came from the same spot. The head of Cybele is found on the coins of some
+of the kings,[235] although not on those of the town of Panticapæum, and
+Cybele is the same divinity as Astarte, or the Eastern Venus.
+
+The interior of the acropolis, which was 200 yards square, allowed plenty
+of room for the erection of two sanctuaries, one to Cybele and the other
+to Ceres, and still left space for the lodgings of the priests, and the
+garrison, and for a palace for Mithridates the Great, who came here to
+die. The acropolis of Athens had not more available room than that of
+Panticapæum. The plateau of the Hill enclosed in the walls of the town
+was also ornamented with palaces and perhaps temples, for several peaks
+of rock have been sculptured like the Arm-chair of Mithridates, and the
+inscriptions and medals of Panticapæum show that there was the worship of
+several other divinities besides Cybele and Ceres.
+
+There are no signs of aqueducts in the acropolis, but the lower town
+was probably supplied with water from two springs at the bottom of the
+valley, which now furnish the two principal fountains of Kertch. One is
+within the old fortifications, and has been repaired by the Turks with
+the fragments of ancient marbles, on one of which is an inscription,
+showing it to have belonged to a monument which Sauromates III. raised to
+his father Mithridates Eupator (A.D. 162).
+
+The principal gate of the town was turned towards the interior of the
+peninsula in the centre of the western wall. It led to Nymphæum and
+Theodosia, and the place is easily recognized by the interruption of the
+deep ditch which ran along it. At 240 yards from the gate the road which
+led to Theodosia reached an allée of tumuli ranged several rows deep on
+each side in an irregular manner, and continuing for two-thirds of a
+mile. This long series of tombs seems to date in great measure from the
+foundation of the town by the Milesians. At a later period the dwellings
+of the dead became more extended, and occupied the range of hills in
+continuation of Mount Mithridates for six or seven miles in length, and
+here are found the tombs of the kings. Tumuli are also found on the
+other side of the low plain to the north, where they form three grand
+groups, the best known of which is near the modern quarantine. The gate
+to the north of the Theodosian gate led to the Greek city of Dia, near
+Kamishboroun, and the road crossed the hill through a gentle dip. Along
+it were the tombs of the poorer inhabitants, who buried their urns and
+cinders around a coral-rag peak, 245 feet above the level of the bay.
+
+Such is a short sketch of the Milesian Panticapæum. Afterwards, as the
+bay became filled up, and the low ground between the mountain and the
+sea increased, the population descended and left the old site of the
+town, until in the fourth century, soon after Kertch became converted
+to Christianity, its Kings disappeared, and barbarous hordes destroyed
+all the cities of the Bosphorus. The population then became very much
+reduced, and the Panticapæum of the Eastern empire was a decayed and
+unimportant town.
+
+As soon as there was space enough on the sea-shore, the inhabitants
+fortified themselves there; and the Milesian acropolis, on the summit
+of the mountain, with its temples and palaces, has ever since served
+as a cemetery. This was proved by the excavations which were made for
+building a mortuary chapel for Mr. Stempkovsky, who wished to be buried
+on the highest point. To the depth of eight or ten feet were found
+broken Etruscan pottery, fragments of marble, and building stones with
+inscriptions. In the midst of this new soil were a number of tombs,
+irregularly placed one on the other, containing stone coffins made of
+thin layers of Kertch limestone, filled simply with bones, which proved
+them to be Christian.
+
+The Greeks never allowed the dead to be placed near the temples of the
+Gods, as their contact was considered pollution. Even close to the
+Arm-chair of Mithridates was found a sarcophagus, like those of Inkerman
+and Tepekerman, 7½ feet long and 1½ feet broad, and the eastern end, that
+of the head, cut in the shape of a semicircle. The tomb was covered with
+a great slab, and approached by five steps cut in the southern side of
+the rock. The Arm-chair itself was perhaps the apse of a little Christian
+chapel.
+
+The enormous quantity of tumuli round Kertch form one of the
+distinguishing features of the place—many of them have been opened, and
+unfortunately without sufficient care. The tumulus on the shores of the
+Bosphorus is essentially Milesian. This is also remarkable on the Asiatic
+side, where the towns of the Sindes have no monuments of this kind, while
+Phanogoria, Kepos, and Kimmericum, which are known Milesian colonies,
+are surrounded by them. The same is the case on the European shore
+where Panticapæum, Myrmékium, Porthmium, Nymphæum, Milesian towns, are
+distinguishable from a distance by the multitude of their tumuli, while
+the other Kimmericum, now Opouk, and Kherson, colonies of Heraclea, and
+consequently Dorian, have none. The same is the case with the towns of
+the Tauri; except the residence of Skilouros near Simpherópol, which has
+a few tumuli near its walls.
+
+It would be curious to inquire what is the reason of the tumulus being
+peculiar to the Ionic race. Does it arise from their differing with the
+Dorians in their religious ideas respecting the dead? and are the same
+facts observable in Greece and other Greek colonies? Must we go back for
+an explanation to the origin of the Greek nation, of the Ionians from the
+Pelasgians, and of the Dorians from the Hellenes?
+
+The group of tumuli near the Theodosian gate[236] are the most ancient,
+as is proved both by the nature of the objects found in them, and by
+their worn appearance. Mr. Blaremberg was the first to excavate them in
+1824; and he has left in the museum of Kertch a list of the articles
+which he found in four, which had not been previously opened.
+
+The head was generally surrounded by leaves of beaten gold, of which
+it was the custom to make a crown; and the following is a list of the
+articles found in one tomb, which he calls, without any good reason, that
+of the wife of King Eúmeles.
+
+1. A bust of Isis in terra cotta.
+
+2. Two doves in terra cotta.
+
+3. A fragment of a Serapis in plaster.
+
+4. A fragment of a large necklace in carbonated silver, finished by two
+heads of lions.
+
+5. Ornaments in a vitreous paste imitating glass.
+
+6. Fragments in oxided iron.
+
+7. Two medals in bronze of King Eúmeles (died B.C. 304), having on one
+side a head of Apollo, and on the reverse a Priapus before a branch of
+myrtle.
+
+8. A pair of golden bracelets, beautifully worked.
+
+9. Two golden ear-rings, with small cupids, ornamented with precious
+stones.
+
+10. Two golden rings, with convex green stones.
+
+11. A golden ring, with an engraved stone of Minerva, very fine.
+
+12. A golden pin, with a stone, on which is a butterfly.
+
+13. A silver pin, with an engraved stone, with a head.
+
+14. Four chalcedony ear-drops, and some leaves in beaten gold.
+
+The tumuli near the quarantine are clearly less ancient than those on
+the road to Theodosia. They are less worn by time, of more colossal
+dimensions, and their interior construction, and the objects contained in
+them, show a more advanced state of civilisation. These tumuli were also
+crossed by a public road, which branched off on the right to Myrmékium,
+and on the left to Porthmium. The greater number contain vaults built of
+masonry, instead of excavations in the limestone, and their floor is on
+the same level as the ground outside. The arch of the ceiling is formed
+by each row of stones projecting more than the one below, until they
+almost touch at the top; and there are several tombs in the same tumulus.
+On cutting through one, on the new road to Yenicáleh, three tombs were
+found. The two first were those of men, as was proved by two swords and
+a lance which were found in them, and in the third was a skeleton of a
+woman, crowned with leaves of golden laurel.
+
+There were also the following golden ornaments, which evidently belonged
+to a lady of high rank. Ear-rings two inches long; a necklace in filigree
+an inch broad, with ornaments below like the points of lances; two
+fibulæ, four inches long, worked with beads; a large bulla, like the
+fastening of a belt, with a head of Mercury upon it. Besides these,
+there were many plates of gold, which had fallen from the dress, now
+disappeared, on which were embossed vine-leaves and bunches of grapes;
+pearls of gold, with little tubes, separated by small enameled flowers,
+composed necklaces of various patterns. There were two rings, one very
+massive, with a stone having a head upon it, and the other with a stone
+cut into the shape of a lion couchant; and there was another representing
+two owls. By the side of the body was a gold coin of Philip of Macedon,
+a metal mirror, a clay vase two feet high, and a shallow covered vessel
+a foot and a half in diameter. At the same time another discovery was
+made by chance; by the side of the third tomb a fourth was found, in
+which were two large Etruscan urns, and one amphora about the head of the
+dead, who was crowned with a crown of golden laurel; with it were two
+necklaces, a pair of precious ear-rings, and a coin, all of gold.
+
+It is interesting to find, on the shores of the Cimmerian Bosphorus, the
+same vases which in Italy are called Etruscan, from the place in which
+they were first found. They were soon known, however, not to be peculiar
+to Etruria, and Magna Græcia was discovered to be a still more prolific
+mine of them. Further researches established the fact, that wherever
+Greece had carried her civilisation and her colonies, these vases were
+found, and that there was not a spot within those limits, even as far as
+the banks of the Kuban and the Sea of Azof, which did not possess this
+kind of pottery, manufactured on the spot.
+
+The number of these vases found at Kertch is small, but many were broken
+when the tombs were first opened, and fragments of them are scattered
+in great quantities all over the ruins of the town. The late Empress
+possessed two at Petersburg. General Potier and Prince Volkhonsky each
+had one, and a fourth was sold by Count de Betencourt for 160_l._ The
+Chevalier Gamba, in his Atlas, gives a drawing of one found at Kertch.
+There is a fine series in the museum there, and many private persons in
+the Crimea and Odessa possess others.
+
+The following is a short account of the form and destination of these
+vases:—[237]
+
+In the East manners and customs have always remained in a singular degree
+unchanged, and this remark applies to all the objects of exterior life,
+and even to the vases. Each form had its particular destination, and,
+when manners do not change, forms likewise remain the same.
+
+The Greeks partook with the East of this stability and uniformity in
+their vases. This may be observed from one end of Greece to the other,
+and both the fine and coarse vases of Italy are precisely on the same
+model as those of the Greek islands and Panticapæum.
+
+They may be divided into two categories—profane and sacred. First, those
+for domestic use, or ornaments and offerings, as the _kados_, cups,
+bowls, viols, and lacrymatories; and secondly, the sacred or funeral
+vases, which formed a distinct kind. The latter are always of the shape
+of an urn with two handles, more or less large. The forms of all the
+vases are Greek, and, with few exceptions, they are ornamented with
+designs upon them.
+
+Of the profane vases, or those for common use, the _kados_ was that one
+used for drawing water; and for this all the people of the East, and the
+Greeks, had a peculiar form, varying in different countries according as
+the pitcher was carried on the head or the shoulder. Rebecca carried it
+on her shoulder when she met the servant of Abraham near the fountain of
+Charan.[238]
+
+The Greeks gave to this vase the name of _kados_; and with them it had
+three handles, of which the one in the middle served to hold it while
+water was poured out into smaller vessels, and the other two were to
+balance it upon the head. The _kados_ of the Tatars of the Crimea has two
+handles, because they carry it on the head, like the Greeks. The Georgian
+_kados_ is very broad below, and has only one handle, being carried on
+the shoulder. The Armenians use tinned copper vessels ornamented with
+designs.
+
+The funeral vases, wide below, with narrow necks, nine to fifteen
+inches high, are found in the tombs, always with two handles, and two
+compositions painted on them, one on each side, differing both in
+execution and the style of the subject. On comparing them with those
+found in Italy, they will be seen to be precisely similar, even to the
+singular difference in the two compositions which ornament them. The one
+is always some scene in private or public life; and the design is elegant
+and the execution very careful. The other is a coarse sketch, hastily
+done in a rough way, and an eternal repetition of the same personages,
+with some variations in the pose, the number of figures, and the emblems
+which accompany them.
+
+The personages in the long cloaks are the initiated during some scene
+of the mysteries of Ceres Thesmophora, as may be seen by comparing them
+with the relief on the altar of that goddess, found in the acropolis of
+Panticapæum, where the whole scene is precisely the same. These vases
+placed in the tombs must, therefore, be regarded as a kind of certificate
+of baptism, to prove that the dead had been initiated into such or such
+a grade of the mysteries. As the principal object of these mysteries
+was to teach, that there was an Almighty Divinity, punishing vice and
+recompensing virtue, the presence of these vases would be a proof of
+their faith in this doctrine, by which they hoped to reap eternal
+happiness after death. Some of the scenes relate to the mysteries of
+Bacchus, as well as Ceres, and the two have an intimate relation with
+each other, as they both come from the mysteries of Isis and Osiris.
+The essential elements in the mysteries of Ceres are the ample cloak,
+or _pallium_, without sleeves, descending to the feet, and was the same
+as was used in the mysteries of Eleusis. The initiated, on the vases,
+have the head bare, and with some the hair is bound by a narrow white
+fillet, which seems worn only by those of superior rank. This fillet has
+a little ornament in front, which may be the leaf _persea_, or the little
+serpent _knouphis_, the good demon so often seen on the images of Isis
+and Osiris. The crown of laurel and myrtle belongs only to an important
+personage, perhaps an hierophant. There is also a white stick held in the
+right hand, and sometimes the _strigillum_, or scraper. There is also an
+altar in the form of a truncated pyramid, and a large branch, and sacred
+cakes, _placenta_, oval, round, triangular, or square, placed in baskets,
+which were not to be seen by profane eyes. They were generally marked by
+one of four mystic signs: 1st, — or ꖌ; 2nd, +, or ⁜, or + +; 3rd, Ϲ,
+or Ͽ 4th, ☉ —. These scenes were so completely considered, merely as a
+general emblem, that on some vases the figures can hardly be made out;
+and the whole care of the artist was devoted to the scenes of life on the
+other side of the vase. The subjects chosen go far to prove that they
+were manufactured at Panticapæum, for the _griffin_, which was the emblem
+of Panticapæum, constantly appears, and various details of Scythian
+costume. On one there is a warrior with the Scythian cap; in front the
+crest of his horse; behind him the griffin. On another is a Scythian
+on horseback, in his costume, covered with little plates of gold,
+fighting the griffin. On a third the griffin follows in a procession by
+torchlight, and carries on its back a personage with a sacred emblem. On
+another is the history of the Amazons, evidently a Panticapæan subject;
+for the Sauromatæ, governed by women, were in daily contact with the
+Bosphorians; and the Amazons on the vase wear a complete Caucasian
+dress, the _bachelik_, or covering for the head, worn still universally
+in the Caucasus, of precisely the same form; the narrow trousers, the
+Tcherkess coat, the little morocco shoes, without soles,—in short, the
+whole Scythian costume is represented on this vase in the dress of the
+Amazons, but elegant and coquette, as it would be, if adopted by women.
+In the Hamilton vases of Naples[239] there is likewise one scene of three
+Amazons fighting three griffins, which may, perhaps, have come from the
+Bosphorus.
+
+Three classes of tombs must still be mentioned—those of the poor, the
+catacombs, and the tombs of the kings. On going out of the gate leading
+to Dia, along the mountain of Mithridates, there is an eminence, which a
+gentleman began to excavate. His labours, however, seemed to end in the
+solid rock, below a mass of amphoræ, which contained the cinders of the
+poor population. At last he remarked a sepulchral slab, and, lifting
+it up, found the entrance to a funeral cavern. This was built with an
+Egyptian roof,[240] and had been despoiled of everything precious, but
+was still most interesting, from a suite of small pictures drawn on the
+wall below the commencement of the roof, about a foot high, representing
+the war of the cranes and the pigmies. In one place there is seen a
+pigmy, armed with lance and shield, struggling against a crane; in
+another place he is overthrown by his desperate adversary; in another he
+is attacking him by the tail, and the crane is turning round to punish
+him; in another he is running away, or defending himself with his hands
+and feet against the terrible pecks of his enemy; while another pigmy is
+wrestling with a crane, and succeeds in vanquishing it by pressing its
+neck. The roof was ornamented with garlands and arabesques to suit the
+pictures, and at the end of the cavern are two peacocks drinking from
+the same vase,[241] and a winged genius, with a basket of flowers in his
+hand, is over the entrance door. Unfortunately, soon after this tomb was
+discovered, it was completely defaced by visitors.
+
+The catacombs are among the tumuli on the road to Theodosia, and are deep
+excavations 15 or 20 feet deep, 7 or 8 feet long, and 2½ feet broad, and,
+on descending and entering by an arched door, large subterranean chambers
+are found, cut in the white calcareous clay, with niches all around for
+the bodies. Some remains of coffins are to be found, and the whole is
+probably a Christian work.
+
+The last group of tumuli to be mentioned are those of the kings, at what
+was called the Golden Mountain. After following the old road to Theodosia
+for two miles, Mount Mithridates is seen to offer a passage across it by
+a narrow valley. The mountain rises again directly, and continues in a
+north-west direction to the Sea of Azof. This continuation is called the
+Golden Mountain. An enormous tumulus, which rises above the road, where
+it passes between the hills, seems to announce a more powerful race than
+that which raised the tombs of the plain. On the crest of the mountain,
+at 323 feet above the level of the sea, rises the tumulus, in the form
+of a cone, 100 feet high and 150 feet in diameter, different from those
+of the neighbourhood, because it is walled from top to bottom like a
+Cyclopean monument. It is cased on its exterior, like the Pyramids,
+with large blocks of Kertch stone, cubes of three or four feet, placed
+without cement or mortar. This monument, almost unique of its kind from
+its size, was a tomb, and from all times had been the object of a number
+of mysterious legends. The Tatar, Turk, and more ancient traditions,
+spoke of immense treasures hidden in this tomb, which was known by the
+name of Altun Obo, or the Golden Mountain. It was even added that, on
+each feast of St. John, a virgin was seen on the summit of the tumulus,
+waiting for him whom she had chosen to share with her the treasures of
+the Cyclopean monument. It may be observed that there is the same style
+of legend from the north to the south of Europe, and this of the Golden
+Mountain is similar to that, which the Tatars relate of the Kisiltach
+rock, the Lithuanians of the golden table buried in the swamps of Vokroi,
+and the Rughians of the stone of the Virgin at Stubenkammer.[242] The
+tradition existed that there was an entrance to the tomb, which the
+Tatars had often tried to find, without success. It was not until 1832
+that Mr. Kareiche carefully sought for it, and employed thirty-five men
+for fifteen days in attacking the tumulus from the south-west. At last
+he had the good fortune to find the entrance to a gallery, by which he
+penetrated without obstacle to the centre of the tumulus. The gallery
+was constructed of layers of worked stone, without cement, and was 60
+feet long, 10 feet high—taking in the Egyptian roof, and three or four
+feet broad. Arrived at the end, M. Kareiche found himself on the edge of
+a precipice which opened before him. He saw with astonishment that the
+centre of the tomb was formed of a circular tower 25 feet high and 20
+feet in diameter. The floor of this construction was 10 feet below the
+floor of the gallery, and the vaulted roof was composed of four rows of
+advancing stones.
+
+At length M. Kareiche perceived that he could descend into the tomb by
+stones placed at distances in the side, and was hastening to reap the
+treasures promised in the legend, when to his stupefaction he perceived
+that the tomb was empty. On the ground was a large square stone, on which
+a sarcophagus might have been deposited, and half way up the wall was a
+large empty niche. He searched in vain to penetrate further, supposing
+that the tower was only a well to arrive at other hidden caverns: nothing
+indicated any passage, or any loose stone, and it is still an enigma what
+was the object of this expensive and magnificent monument, the rival
+of the pyramids. The tower is not in the centre of the tumulus, and it
+is possible that there may be other interior chambers. The distance
+between the interior tower and the exterior Cyclopean wall is filled with
+fragments of stone from the fine quarries in the neighbourhood.[243]
+
+The modern Greek legend made this the tomb of Mithridates, although it is
+well known that he was buried at Sinope, and Souvorof, deceived by this
+account, is said to have made a pilgrimage to this tumulus as the tomb of
+the great king, and to have knelt and shed tears here.
+
+This tumulus is placed exactly at the spot where the two branches of the
+long rampart meet, which extends from the Black Sea to the Sea of Azof.
+It is visible, extending from the foot of the tumulus to the gorge of
+Katerles, which opens in a second range of hills parallel to the Golden
+Mountain and Mount Mithridates, and the peaks above it are covered with
+ruins. To the south the rampart is quite effaced, where the road to
+Theodosia crosses it, but beyond it its zigzags are seen as far as the
+White Cape, where it of course terminates.
+
+This rampart was probably the ancient boundary of the territory of
+Panticapæum, and the primitive kingdom of the Bosphorus, before the
+conquest of Nymphæum and Theodosia, which were added to the kingdom, the
+first in B.C. 410, and the second about B.C. 390.
+
+Within the rampart, at 150 paces to the east, near Kertch, there is
+another monument of the same kind as the other, but unfinished. It
+consists of a circular esplanade, 500 paces round and 166 in diameter,
+with an exterior covering of Cyclopean masonry, built of worked stones,
+3 feet long and high. There are five layers of these; but it seems to
+have been the intention of the builders to raise a monument like the one
+before mentioned. Perhaps a revolution, or the death of the prince who
+was building his own monument, like the kings of Egypt, caused the works
+to be abandoned. Several ranges of enormous stones between this and the
+first monument indicate ancient walls of houses, and adjoining these are
+traces of ancient gardens, while on the slope of the mountain, in the
+midst of the ruins near the Khouter Scassi, there is a fine well in good
+preservation, cased with wrought stone and full of water. This seems
+extraordinary in the midst of a country now so dry, desert, and devoid of
+wood; but proves that in the time of Panticapæum the general aspect of
+the land was very different, since country houses and trees existed where
+there are now only wild rocks.
+
+The view from the summit of the hill, and still more so from the top of
+the tumulus, is magnificent, and extends as far as the rock of Opouk, the
+ancient Kimmericum, which is 24 miles distant. To the north it extends
+over several pretty country houses, situated at the foot of the mountain.
+That of M. de Scassi is a real Italian _villa_, surrounded by gardens and
+orchards, where the proprietor has planted 30,000 plants of vines and
+more than 2000 fruit-trees, which he imported from France. There is in
+the park the ash and the elm, and the red pine of the Caucasus. There are
+several small tumuli around; but a detailed description must now be given
+of the great discovery of all, which was made by accident.
+
+There is a spur of the Golden Mountain running south, called by the
+Tatars _Kouloba_,[244] or the hill of cinders, beyond the ancient
+rampart, and four miles from Kertch. Near it is a tumulus 165 feet in
+diameter, and some soldiers, carrying away stones from it, discovered an
+interior construction. They soon arrived at a vestibule, 6 feet square,
+turned to the north, covered by an Egyptian roof of three rows of stones,
+which they were obliged to remove in order to penetrate further, because
+this roof was supported by beams reduced to dust. At the end of the
+vestibule was a door, 8 feet 10 inches high and 5 feet 9 inches wide,
+closed half way up by large wrought stones, and above by those of the
+common size. Large pieces of wood formed the covering, but the beams
+were reduced to dust, and the stones which closed the entrance supported
+the upper part, which threatened soon to fall. This difficulty was soon
+removed, and two _savans_, Mr. Dubrux and Dr. Lang, were commissioned by
+the governor to enter alone and take an inventory of the contents. An
+immense crowd besieged the approaches, which were guarded by soldiers,
+while the commissioners entered the funeral dwelling of one who had
+evidently been an important personage.
+
+[Illustration: INTERIOR OF ROYAL TOMB OF KOULOBA, NEAR KERTCH.
+
+From Dubois’ Atlas. 1 archine = 28 inches.
+
+  A. Vestibule.
+  B. Tomb of king.
+  C. Bones of the King.
+  D. Bones of the Queen.
+  1. Heap of sharp flints.
+  2. Arms and whip of king.
+  3. Five statuettes in electrum.
+  4. Attendant of the king.
+  5. Bones of a horse, with greaves and helmet.
+  6. Hundreds of arrow-heads.
+  7. Two large lances.
+  8. Queen’s golden vase.
+  9. _Crater_ in silver.
+  10. Second crater.
+  11. Amphoræ, containing wine of Thasos.
+  12. Bronze vase.
+  13. Silver-gilt plate.
+  14. Bronze saucepans, with mutton bones.]
+
+The tomb was almost square, measuring 15 feet from east to west, and 14
+feet from north to south, and the entrance-door was not in the centre
+of the wall. The walls were built of hewn stones, each 3 feet long and
+2 feet high. Five rows of stones raised it to 7 feet 8 inches, and
+then began the spring of the Egyptian arch, formed by seven rows of
+advancing stones, the front row advancing 5 inches and the upper rows
+6 or 8 inches, so that at the top there only remained a space 2 feet
+square, filled by a single stone: the tomb was thus 16 feet high. At 10
+feet 10 inches above the pavement began the wooden ceiling, which had
+fallen, when the beams which supported it gave way. The floor had a stone
+pavement, and the principal place was occupied by a sarcophagus formed
+of a case of yew wood, 8 feet 9 inches long and 10 inches high, and was
+joined by thick beams, on which the outward planks were fitted. The side
+facing the interior of the tomb was open, and the interior was divided
+into two parts by a plank. In one of the compartments, larger than the
+other and nearest to the wall, was extended the body of a man of great
+stature. The thigh bone was 17½ inches long, and the skull extremely
+thick. On his brow were the remains of a _mitra_, or Persian cap, of
+which the top is more narrow than the base. Two plates of gold ornamented
+the top and the bottom: the one below was 1½ inches broad, ornamented
+with festoons and griffins, the emblem of Panticapæum, and was of less
+careful workmanship than the upper plate, ornamented with figures,
+leaves, and arabesques. Around the neck was a grand necklace in massive
+gold, of beautiful workmanship, in the form of an open ring, and twisted
+like a cord, with the extremities passing one over the other. At each
+end was a Scythian on horseback, and the extremities were for a distance
+of 2 inches enameled with blue and green. Similar ones have frequently
+been found of copper, and rarely of any other metal, in the tombs of the
+north, and, among others, in those of the ancient Lithuanians.
+
+The arms were extended on each side of the body, and on the right arm,
+above the elbow, was a circle or bracelet in gold, an inch broad, and
+adorned with reliefs. Below the elbows were two other bracelets in
+electrum,[245] 1½ inches broad. A third pair of open bracelets in fine
+gold encircled the wrists, and finished in Persian winged sphinxes, the
+claws of which held the thick thread of gold which served to close the
+bracelet when it was passed on the wrist. The workmanship was very fine,
+and their thickness about half an inch. At the feet of the king were a
+multitude of little sharp flints piled up. In Scythian mourning it was a
+custom to tear the face and the rest of the body with such instruments,
+and they were then placed in the tombs as a mark of grief; some bodies
+found in a tumulus near Simpherópol were covered with them. In the
+narrower compartment of the sarcophagus were placed the gods and arms of
+the king—first there was his iron sword, the handle of which, covered
+with leaves of gold, was adorned with figures of hares and foxes embossed
+on the gold. Beside the sword lay the Tcherkess or Cossack whip (called
+_nogaik_), adorned with a leaf of gold, and above it was the shield in
+fine gold. The thickness of the latter was about that of a five-franc
+piece, and its shape showed that it was principally a protection for the
+shoulder, and fitted to the arm. It was 8½ inches long and 7½ broad, and
+its weight was 1½ lbs. of fine gold. The _umbo_ or centre of the shield
+was surrounded by a simple circular fillet, and one with the egg pattern,
+leaving an interval of 3½ lines, on which were chiselled dolphins and
+other fishes. The rest of the shield was divided into twelve compartments
+by a fillet, and was covered with masques imitating the head of Medusa,
+alternating with faces with pointed beards, and flies and heads of
+seahorses.
+
+The bow and its wooden case[246] were reduced to dust, and there only
+remained the plate, in _electrum_, which ornamented the quiver. It was
+adorned with embossed work, representing a wild goat seized by a tiger,
+and a deer attacked in front by the griffin of Panticapæum, and behind
+by the lion of Phanagoria. The deer was the emblem of the town of Diana,
+which was Kherson. A seahorse filled the wider part of the plate, and a
+masque the other extremity. Above the tail of the tiger was written the
+Greek word ΠΟΡΝΑΧΟ, engraven on the metal. Some suppose this to mean
+Pharnáces the son of Mithridates, whose tomb this may be, but Dubois
+considers it the name of the artist, which, under the more recent form,
+ΦΑΡΝΑΚΟϹ, frequently recurs in the inscriptions of Sindika, now Anapa.
+
+Among these arms was found one boot in bronze, and the fellow was on the
+right of the king, opposite the head. In the same compartment, and near
+the head of the king, were found, in the exterior angle, five statuettes
+in _electrum_. One figure represented two Scythians embracing one
+another, and tightly holding a horn, probably filled with hydromel. The
+horn is like those which all the statues, or _babas_, so often found in
+one part of Southern Russia, hold with both hands. Another figure holds
+a purse in its right hand, and a strange instrument in the left, and is
+like a Celtic Mercury. There was likewise the Scythian Hercules among
+these divinities. Their costume recalled the Slavonic and Tatar dress,
+and particularly the tunic of sheepskin, which the Tatars call _toun_ or
+_teretoun_, the Russians _touloup_, and the Poles _kozuch_, which was
+the Scythian garment found in the most ancient monuments. The fleece is
+turned inwards, or the garment is only edged with fur, and it is found of
+all lengths, from the short Tatar tunic, and the Slavonic _katskaveika_,
+to the long sheepskin gown of the Russian peasant. These different kinds
+are all visible in the different dresses of the figures of this tomb,
+where may be recognized the real Lithuanian _sermedje_ and the Tcherkess
+_tchok_.
+
+[Illustration: 1. Ornament found in the Tomb of Kouloba.
+
+2. Electrum Vase for perfumes, found near the Queen’s remains. See page
+282.
+
+3. Embossed Work running round the Vase.]
+
+Thus was arranged the sarcophagus of the king, and around it, on the
+pavement, were the objects which completed the furniture of the tomb, in
+which nothing had been forgotten which could contribute to the material
+wants of life. At his feet a kind hand had placed three large cauldrons
+of molten bronze. Two were oval or oblong, and one was spherical, and all
+reposed on a cylindrical foot, of which the base spread out into three
+hooks to fix it on the soil. These three vases had been often on the
+fire and used for cooking; there was a thick coat of suet still on them,
+and the interior was filled with mutton bones.[247]
+
+There was another oblong vase, near the door, filled in the same
+manner. After the kitchen of the king came his provision of wine, and
+his drinking-cups. The wine was contained in four clay amphoræ, placed
+upright against the wall on the right. On the handle of one was inscribed
+ΘΑΣΙ, and below ΑΡΕΤΩΝ, and in the midst was a fish. These then were
+filled with wine of Thasos, which, to judge by the quantity of amphoræ
+found in the tombs, bearing this name, was the favourite kind of wine.
+Two large _crateres_ were naturally placed near the amphoræ, because the
+Scythians always drank wine mixed with water. The first, the nearest
+to the door, was of silver, nearly eighteen inches in diameter, and
+contained four drinking cups in silver, two of which were of beautiful
+workmanship, particularly the one which terminates below in the head of
+a ram. The second _crater_ in bronze contained also four silver drinking
+cups, the largest of which is ornamented with chiseled work gilt, on
+which may be recognised the birds and fish of the Black Sea and the
+Cimmerian Bosphorus. On the right is a duck plunging and seizing a fish;
+under it swims a _labra_ and a sturgeon, and further on a cormorant with
+extended wings is seizing while flying a small fish. On another is a
+combat of a wild boar about to yield under the claws of a lion.
+
+On the right is a _toura_[248] of the Caucasus, brought to the ground by
+two griffins of Panticapæum. On the left the deer of Kherson suffers the
+same fate, being torn by a lion, while a female leopard, with open mouth,
+is about to seize it by the throat. In the part which the wild-boar, the
+deer, and the toura play in the midst of griffins and lions, there is a
+manifest design. The lion of Phanagoria and the griffin of Panticapæum
+are not always represented as victorious without intention, while the
+deer of Kherson, the toura of the Caucasus, and the wild-boar of the
+Kuban, are always vanquished by them.
+
+Beyond the drinking-cups were the arsenal of the king, composed of two
+lances and several bundles of arrows, laid along the wall. The last had
+triangular points in bronze, with three barbs, to prevent their being
+drawn out of the flesh, and are similar to those found in Scythian
+monuments in Southern Russia. Between the arrows and the sarcophagus
+there appeared a second skeleton, laid on the pavement, and much covered
+with earth, but adorned so richly that it was impossible not to recognise
+the wife of the king, who thus accompanied him to his last resting-place.
+She was laid in the same direction as the king, and wore on her forehead
+a mitre like him, with a plate in electrum terminating it, which showed
+a skilful workman. Four women, in Greek costume, sit in the midst of
+garlands of _lotuses_, the stalks of which form seats and backs. Four
+masques of lions formed on each side the means by which the plate was
+attached to the mitre. On the bottom the mitre was bordered by a diadem
+of gold, adorned all round with small enameled rosettes. The queen bore
+on her neck, like the king, a grand necklace with the ends moveable, and,
+instead of horsemen, the extremities were formed of couchant lions. She
+had on besides another necklace of gold filigree, to which were suspended
+small chains, supporting little bottles of fine gold. Five medallions
+of exquisite workmanship, and different sizes, descended on her bosom,
+and they were fastened together by small chains and bottles. These were
+enameled blue and green, like other objects that have been mentioned.
+The two largest of these medallions represented Greek Minervas, but
+evidently worked at Panticapæum, because of the chiseled griffins on the
+wings of her helmet. The attributes of Minerva, besides the owl and the
+winged Pegasus, are the serpents of Medusa, which ought to ornament her
+shield, a winged sphinx like that on the bracelets of the king, and a row
+of deer’s heads on the viser of the helmet. The arabesque which surrounds
+the helmet is also enameled.
+
+At the foot of the skeleton was discovered a magnificent vase in
+_electrum_, resembling in form and size those in the second _crater_,
+which stands on a foot. It probably contained perfumes, particularly as
+some of the little bottles usually called lacrymatories were found, as
+in the other tombs. The exquisite chiselings upon it are of the greatest
+interest for art and history. (See Plate.) Four groups of figures succeed
+each other as episodes in the same history, in which the personage
+playing the principal part reappears three times. In the first group,
+beginning from left to right, he is seated, the two hands and the head
+leaning on the lance, listening attentively to the report of a warrior.
+The king is known by the royal band round his head, perhaps the very one
+which is placed in the tomb. His costume is completely Scythian: he has
+the narrow trousers, the boots, and the _tchok_ which has been described.
+The warrior who makes the report is also a Scythian, kneeling before
+him, dressed as on the Etruscan vases, and armed with lance and buckler.
+Neither the one nor the other has the warlike quiver; their hair is long,
+and spread over their shoulders; but the bearer of the despatch has no
+diadem; he wears only the _bachelik_ of the Caucasus, or the Phrygian
+bonnet, or rather the Lithuanian bonnet, which has for many centuries
+remained the same. The next figure turns its back to the messenger, and,
+kneeling on one knee, is much occupied in bending a bow, which may be
+that of the king, for this warrior has his own by his side. They are
+preparing for war. This war then takes place; and next are depicted the
+fruits of it, for the king has been badly wounded. He is recognised in
+the half sitting, half kneeling, figure, from whom the Scythian _magus_
+is extracting a tooth from the left side of the jaw. On examining the
+skull of the king, deposited in the museum, it may be seen that the lower
+jaw presents the marks of a wound, with a fracture which has carried away
+several teeth; for the two large teeth are wanting, and a third, shorter
+than the others, has been attacked by a disease which has made the jaw
+swell.
+
+A fourth episode represents the king wounded in the leg; a warrior is
+fomenting it with bandages. In this place the trousers and a part of the
+_tchok_ are covered with something that looks like embroidery. These
+are the little golden and electrum scales sewn on the garments. Strabo
+says that the Aorses, on the banks of the Tanais, wear gold on their
+garments.[249] These little scales are embossed, pierced with holes at
+the sides to sew them on, and represent an infinity of subjects. This
+tomb furnishes some very rich examples of them.
+
+On attentively examining the interior when it was first opened, it was
+perceived that at the foot of the walls were heaped up an infinity
+of these little plates. The walls showed signs of having had pegs of
+wood fixed in them, to which were suspended the rich wardrobe of these
+great personages. The clothes had fallen, and nothing was found but
+a mass of dust, mixed with these little plates, which were carefully
+collected. The greater number were in the form of triangles or roses, of
+different sizes, without any relief; on others were fine heads of women
+or divinities, and figures of griffins, lions, hares, foxes, and other
+animals. One of them, with the figure of a woman upon it, proves that if
+the men of that period wore the Caucasian dress, the same was the case
+with the women, whose long veil or _tchadra_ seems just the same as that
+which the Caucasian women still wear. The robe is flowing. One of the
+women bears in her hand a goblet, and in the other a key. Another little
+plate represents two Scythian archers, back to back, ready to shoot their
+arrows. Two others represent Scythian hunters on horseback, pursuing a
+hare. In the left hand they hold the reins, and in the right the javelin.
+
+By the side of the body of the queen were found two golden bracelets with
+bas-reliefs in two ranges, that is to say, six figures on each bracelet,
+the breadth of which is three and half inches. Around the head were
+disposed six knives, with handles of ivory, the blades of which were
+like surgical instruments. A seventh knife had a handle of gold, and
+reliefs upon it. A bronze mirror, with a handle of gold, ornamented with
+a griffin pursuing a deer, in relief, was also one of the objects which
+surrounded the queen.
+
+According to the Scythian customs, the queen must have been strangled
+before being placed in the tomb of her husband; and the same cruel laws
+required the presence of the king’s servant. He was found accordingly
+stretched across the tomb, along the southern wall, and round him were
+many plates of gold. His helmet and greaves, in silver, very much
+oxidised, were laid with the bones of a horse in an excavation two feet
+square, which occupied the south-east corner of the tomb. Among the
+things which were taken out of the cavern were several highly-worked
+pieces of wood, which belonged to musical instruments, the only thing
+wanting to complete the whole establishment. Several of the pieces showed
+designs executed with an engraver’s point, of exquisite workmanship.
+There was a chariot, a woman holding a helmet in her hand, a slave with a
+large bowl giving drink to a horse, some women seated, and other designs.
+
+If all the objects which adorned the inside of the tomb bear the stamp
+of Scythian ideas and the customs and usages of that nation, the same
+cannot be said of the ornaments and pictures of the sarcophagus of yew
+wood, which presents in perfect preservation paintings on wood, which
+have resisted upwards of twenty centuries. These paintings covered the
+pannels of the sarcophagus. The principal subject is entirely Greek,
+and proves that if they buried a king surrounded by Scythian luxury,
+Greek artists were employed at his interment. Two Victories, mounted
+on chariots, turned one against the other, filled the extremity of the
+picture, of which seven Greek figures, in different positions, occupied
+the centre, three women and four men. A goose and a swan are mixed with
+these figures, all represented as very agitated, running, gesticulating,
+with expressions of joy, which is justified by the approach of the two
+triumphal cars. The chariots are drawn by four white horses, two of which
+are spotted. On the frieze, which surrounded the pannel above, the artist
+has represented warriors drawing the bow.
+
+When the tomb was opened, the savans deputed for the purpose were busy
+in making a plan and putting down the position of each object which
+they found. This occupied the whole day, while two soldiers guarded the
+entrance. These gentlemen in the evening thought their work was finished,
+but for greater precaution the sentinels kept at their post, with orders
+to let no one pass. The crowd which visited the tomb during the night
+from curiosity was so great, that the sentinels could not keep it back.
+The people penetrated into the tomb, examined everything, and then were
+discovered the little plates of gold which covered the pavement.
+
+While they were thus occupied in examining and disputing about the
+smallest spoils, some persons perceived that the tomb resounded as if
+there was something hollow underneath. Raising the stones of the hollow
+square in the corner, they discovered a second tomb below much richer
+than the first, and from this the masses of gold were drawn which for
+several years afterwards were in circulation at Kertch. There was not a
+Greek woman there who did not retain some relic of this great discovery,
+especially in the form of ear-rings. It was said that no less than 120
+lbs. weight of gold jewellery were extracted from these tombs, of which
+the Government obtained about 15 lbs., and the rest was dispersed. In
+this pillage the people acted in the most barbarous manner: they tore
+the objects from one another, and chopped up the most precious with the
+hatchet. Such was the fate of the golden shield of the lower tomb, part
+of which the Government bought back piece by piece for the weight of the
+gold. On one of the pieces recovered there is a Greek woman, like a Fury,
+with her long hair blown by a tempest, bearing in her hands a lance and
+torch: wolves, of which one carries a _labrus_ in its mouth, surround her
+and complete the picture of this terrible divinity. The tomb is probably
+anterior in date to the reign of Mithridates, both from the style of the
+ornaments and various minor circumstances. The letter 𐅃 (P) is often
+repeated on the reliefs, and is written with one side shorter than the
+other, a form which quite disappears before the time of Mithridates
+the Great. It is so written on the great vase in electrum, which is of
+extraordinary enigmatical shape, representing a deer lying down, while on
+its sides are chiselled a griffin, a ram, like the one of Jupiter Ammon,
+a lion, and a dog turning its head, all of which appear on the most
+ancient medals of Panticapæum. Again the two medallions of Minerva, with
+her attributes, of exquisite workmanship, must have been made at a time
+when the kings of the Bosphorus were proud of their alliance with Athens,
+and of being citizens of that city, as were Leucon, Paerisádes I., and
+Eúmeles. At a later period the connexion ceased between the Bosphorus and
+Athens. There is, besides, no sign of the influence of Rome in any part
+of the tomb. Its construction is very ancient, and the idea of propping
+the ceiling with posts is not found in any more recent tombs.
+
+The Scythian costume also was much in vogue under the Leuconides, as
+most of the figures on the vases wear it. We might indeed expect at that
+period to find the Scythian manners and costumes by the side of the Greek
+worship. The Scythians who had invaded Central Asia, destroyed by the
+stratagem of Cyaxares in 605 B.C., returned in small number, hoping to
+re-enter upon the territory which they had abandoned on the shores of the
+Bosphorus; but they were opposed by the children of their wives and their
+slaves, during the long absence of their husbands. Repulsed on every
+side, they renounced the idea of crossing the Cimmerian Bosphorus; and
+making the circuit of the Sea of Azof, they thought to force the rebels
+in their retreat in the peninsula of Kertch. They passed the Isthmus
+of Perecop and the Crimea; but their slaves were beforehand with them,
+and raised a rampart of earth from the Sea of Azof to the Tauric chain.
+The Scythians in despair are said to have then had recourse to their
+whips, when from old recollections the slaves ran away, and the Scythians
+re-entered on the possession of their domains, which their Sindic slaves
+cultivated for them. The Sindes of the peninsula of Kertch were then the
+ancient inhabitants of the peninsula and of the island of Taman, a race
+mixed with Mæotes and the remains of the Kimmerian population, while the
+aristocrats of the country were the Scythians, who levied tributes upon
+them.
+
+It was among this Sinde people, governed by Scythians, that the Milesians
+came to found the colonies of Panticapæum, Nymphæum, Theodosia,
+Phanagoria, Kepos, and others, sixty years after the return of the
+Scythians. These colonies depended at first directly on the metropolis,
+paying a tribute for their establishment on foreign soil. Their commerce
+and industry enriched them and increased their population, and they
+then took up an independent position, and thus Panticapæum was governed
+by its proper _archianactides_, who remained at the head of the
+municipality from 480 to 438 B.C. But by the side of those magistrates
+there existed in the Bosphorus of Europe, as well as in that of Asia,
+an indigenous Scythian or Mætic power, whose ambition it was to conquer
+the Greek towns. In 437 B.C. a certain Spartocus seized on Panticapæum,
+and replaced the _archianactides_. Not to offend the Greeks, whom a
+royal title would have frightened, he called himself _archon_ of the
+Bosphorus (_i. e._ Panticapæum and Phanagoria), while he took the title
+of _king_ of the countries which surrounded the colonies, and which
+were his patrimony. The colonies preserved their municipal forms (which
+resembled the Swiss municipalities and the imperial towns in Germany)
+during 402 years, until Asander took the title of king of the Bosphorus
+in 36 B.C. Under the first Archon and his successor Seleucus, the rampart
+of the Golden Mountain was the limit of the territory of Panticapæum and
+Nymphæum; and the latter colony was in the power of Athens. The treachery
+of a certain Gelo, the maternal grandfather of Demosthenes, opened the
+gates of Nymphæum to Spartocus II., B.C. 410, and the Athenians were
+dispossessed.[250]
+
+Satyrus I. (B.C. 407), son of Spartocus II., was nevertheless a great
+friend of Athens. He increased the kingdom on the Asiatic side, and,
+having been killed at the siege of Theodosia, Strabo says that the
+tumulus of Koukóuoba was raised in his honour.
+
+Leucon I., son of Satyrus (reigned 393-353 B.C.), was made a citizen of
+Athens, and took Theodosia, to which he left its municipal administration.
+
+Paerisádes I. (349 B.C.) son of Leucon, increased the power of the
+Bosphorus, by his successful wars in the Crimea and in Asia; and one part
+of the Tauric chain and the valleys of the Caucasus obeyed him. There is
+a medal of Kherson, with his effigy on one side and a Diana on the other,
+that makes it probable that he also took Kherson, although there is no
+mention of this fact in history.[251]
+
+Diodorus relates the tragic history of three sons of Paerisádes—Satyrus,
+Eúmeles, and Prýtanas—who all died a violent death. Satyrus, the eldest,
+trying to appease the revolt of Eúmeles in Asia, was wounded in the
+arm, and died the next night. The body, it is said, was brought to
+Panticapæum, and buried with magnificence in the tomb of his ancestors.
+Thus we have mention of a family burial-place.
+
+Dubois thinks that the king found in the tomb was either Leucon or
+Paerisádes I., on account of the allegories on the reliefs. Unfortunately
+the contents of the lower tomb were never investigated, so that the only
+thing that can be considered certain is that they belonged to the dynasty
+of the Leuconides, from the emblems, the allegorical scenes, the form of
+the letters, and the architecture.
+
+The value and abundance of the remains of antiquity found at Kertch
+naturally required a Museum, which has been built by the government on
+the Hill of Mithridates. It is an exact copy of the Temple of Theseus at
+Athens, with a flight of steps leading up to it, and has a good effect
+overlooking the sea. Situated, as is Kertch, on the confines of Scythia,
+the Caucasus, the Sauromatæ, and other nations little known, it would
+require a very experienced antiquarian to arrange the contents of the
+museum; but, unfortunately, none such are to be found there, and its
+precious contents are thrown pell-mell, and daily plundered. When Dubois
+visited the Museum in 1832, there were three very curious skulls in it,
+with remarkably high foreheads, found in a very ancient tumulus near
+Yenicáleh, which probably belonged to the ancient Kimmerians. The only
+perfect skull had disappeared a few months afterwards, having been sold
+by the conservator for 100 francs to a stranger, who fortunately destined
+it for the museum of Munich, where it will be preserved.
+
+The quarantine is about three miles distant from Kertch, and within its
+boundary are the ruins of Myrmékium, the highest part of which is on a
+little promontory overlooking the sea. Here, to hoist a flagstaff, some
+sailors made a hole in the rock, and were surprised to find the mast
+suddenly run down a considerable distance. On examining the ground they
+found that there was a tomb underneath, which had, however, been opened,
+and nothing remained in it but a very fine sarcophagus, ornamented with
+bas-reliefs, which had been dragged towards the entrance, and then left
+mutilated.
+
+Yenicáleh is at the point of the peninsula, about seven miles from Kertch
+to the north-east, and its castle was built by the Turks to command
+the passage of the Bosphorus: it is inhabited by a few Greeks, who are
+occupied in the fishery for turbot. Two ranges of hills, with coral-rag
+peaks, cross the peninsula of Kertch, and terminate at the Bosphorus—the
+one at Yenicáleh, and the other a little higher up; on one is built the
+castle of Yenicáleh, and on the other the lighthouse. Between them was
+formerly a bay, which is now a salt lake, closed by a bar of sand.
+
+Higher up the valley, ranged in an amphitheatre, are many different kinds
+of springs, and the celebrated mud volcanoes. The springs and the mud
+volcanoes have their principal seat in the formations of the foliated
+clay and the white chalk; and starting from the west, near the Khouter
+Khronevi, the series begins by a sulphurous spring rising at the foot
+of a limestone peak, and the sulphur is seen floating on the water.
+There are other springs in the neighbourhood, which seem to take their
+origin in the midst of a black, bituminous, brilliant mud, which when
+stirred sends forth a strong smell of hydrogenetted sulphur. The cattle
+are very fond of this water. To the east are pure springs, which supply
+the aqueduct of Yenicáleh; and near the lighthouse are the springs of
+naphtha and the mud volcanoes. These have continually been in activity
+for a very long period of time. The principal crater, which seems the
+patriarch of all this volcanic formation, is a tumulus completely
+isolated, of 500 feet in diameter and 35 feet in height. Its summit
+presents a depression of 6 feet, filled by a pond of mud and water, 70
+feet long and 35 feet wide. The mud is grey and thick, and gives out a
+strong smell of sulphur and bitumen. Here and there on the thick mud are
+liquid spots, whence bubbles of hydrogen gas rise, of a foot in diameter,
+and sometimes they burst into fire, and the volcano is in a blaze. When
+this violent commotion happens, the mud flows on all sides over the
+borders; but in ordinary times it escapes in a little steam. Naphtha
+springs, of 14° temperature, rise at 150 paces from the crater, in the
+midst of a fine black mud, from a stream of water which passes near the
+tumulus. They have a very strange appearance, and seem like the chimneys
+of the infernal regions, as the crust of the soil is pierced with black
+holes surmounted by little cones, from whence the mud and gas bubble up
+together. The whole soil around trembles when walked upon, and one fears
+to sink into the bowels of the earth.
+
+To complete our view of the peninsula of Kertch, I will now follow the
+coast line to the south of Kertch by Nymphæum and Kimmericum to Theodosia.
+
+At Cape Akboroun, or the white cape, there are two groups of tumuli. One
+group has seven of enormous size. The other extends along a ridge which
+joins the southern spur of the Golden Mountain. Near the last there is
+a high cliff, with a depression beyond it, which has the appearance of
+an immense theatre overlooking the sea. This was the site of the old
+quarantine, and was originally covered with vineyards, whence it received
+its old Greek name of Ambeláki, from _ampelos_, a vine. There is here
+a rich mine of phosphated iron, where the fossils published by M. de
+Verneuil are found in great quantities. From the colour of the soil, this
+cape is called Kamish Boroun, the blue cape, in opposition to Ak Boroun,
+the white cape.
+
+Between the iron mine and a country house of the same name as the cape
+are the ruins of Dia, which occupied the extreme southern point of the
+entrance of the _ancient_ gulf of Nymphæum, now the Lake of Tchourbach,
+for the flow of the current of the Bosphorus has closed the entrance of
+the gulf, and no less than four lakes bordered with sand occupy its site.
+Their formation is recent, and up to 1830 merchant vessels of Kertch used
+to come and winter in the northernmost lake. Since then a bar of sand
+has closed the port; for, owing to the zigzag shape of the Bosphorus,
+it may be seen that the long bar of sand, called that of the South, in
+increasing, has driven the current to the European coast, and against the
+southern point of the bay of Nymphæum, which presented itself like a spur
+to catch the sand.
+
+The ancient town of Nymphæum occupied exactly this southern point; but to
+visit it, it is necessary to go round the gulf, at the end of which is
+the village of Tchourbach, and the country-house of M. Gourief. There is
+salt on the lake, but its naphthous nature prevents its being used for
+salting purposes; and in the whole peninsula there is only the salt of
+Tchokrak which is perfectly pure.
+
+Following a little rivulet which runs into the lake of Tchourbach, the
+rocks increase in height, and an ancient road leads to the summit of one
+of them, on which are the ruins of a large square castle, surrounded by
+a wall almost buried under the turf. There was a deep ditch outside, and
+there are no tumuli round it, but many tombs cut in the rock. It is about
+eight miles from Kertch, and may be the Tyrictaca of Ptolemy. Nymphæum
+is four miles from Tchourbach, and the road, which appears to be the
+ancient Greek road, leads to it amidst coral-rag peaks and a profusion of
+tumuli.
+
+On the angle between the ancient gulf and the Bosphorus was situated the
+town, built on a kind of platform. The rampart is easily traced, and the
+faubourgs were around the metropolis. There are large masses of ruins
+everywhere, and the soil is several feet deep in broken pottery, much
+of which is Etruscan. At about one-third of a mile from the town the
+tumuli begin, and encircle it in great numbers; but nothing valuable has
+been found here, as at Panticapæum. The excellent port, of which Strabo
+speaks, is of course filled up, but three roads leading down to it from
+the town may still be seen. A small colony of Russians is established
+at the foot of the Acropolis, on the side of the Bosphorus; and here
+are wells of excellent water, which date from the time of Nymphæum. The
+colony is employed in the herring fishery, as masses of these fish come
+close to the shore: at a single haul 50,000 have sometimes been caught.
+In 1833 the government brought here from Holland a master-salter to
+teach the art of salting and curing them. According to his account the
+herrings of the Black Sea are not inferior to those of Holland; but those
+of Kamish Boroun are fatter and more delicate than those of the Danube.
+The fishery lasts from 15th October to the 15th of March, and as many as
+two millions of herrings are yearly caught here.[252] Very possibly the
+Greeks also carried on this commerce, for their mother country drew from
+the Bosphorus their largest supplies of salt-fish.
+
+Nymphæum was founded at the same time as Panticapæum, and fell into the
+power of the Athenians in the time of Pericles. It was betrayed into the
+hands of the Bosphorians in B.C. 410. In the time of Mithridates it was
+still a strong place, where he lodged the greater part of his army which
+he destined for his grand expedition by the Danube and the Alps against
+the Romans. Nymphæum afterwards rapidly decayed, and in the time of Pliny
+existed only as a name.
+
+Takil-boroun, the promontory at the entrance of the Black Sea, where
+there is the lighthouse, was probably the site of Akra, another Greek
+town, mentioned by Strabo.
+
+At thirty miles from Kertch, on the coast of the Black Sea, is Opouk, a
+Tatar village at the extremity of the fine roadstead which is defended by
+Cape Elkenkáleh from the north and east winds. Here a volcanic effort has
+raised the horizontal tertiary limestone of the peninsula of Kertch, and
+lifted the fragments to different heights, without very much disturbing
+their horizontal position. The largest is the hill of Opouk, about
+two-thirds of a mile long. The surface is raised about fifty feet above a
+chaotic mass of rocks below, which descend like steps to the sea, forming
+on one side Cape Elkenkáleh, which closes the western entrance to the bay
+of Opouk, and on the other side a similar cape which marks the entrance
+of another ancient gulf, now closed by a bar of sand. Here in very
+ancient times a numerous population was established, taking advantage
+of the strong and advantageous position, where the rocks advanced like
+a magnificent mole between two fine ports. Although the eastern one is
+filled up, the western one still affords a safe and convenient anchorage
+for vessels of war, which are here completely sheltered from northern and
+westerly winds. At a short distance from the shore are two rocky islands,
+called Karavi, and by these the place is identified as the ancient
+_Kimmericum_.[253] Like all the towns of the peninsula of Kertch, it was
+almost desert in the time of Strabo, and at a later period was called
+Kibernicus. The south-east extremity of the rock was the acropolis, cut
+off from the plain by a wall 200 feet long and 9 feet thick. The corner
+of this wall touched on a construction of extreme solidity. The walls of
+it, about 50 feet square and 12 feet thick, and a ditch cut in the living
+rock, separated it from the exterior town. There are ruins and grottoes
+all around, and there is a block cut into the form of a pedestal, on
+which stood the statue of a divinity. There is likewise a well cut in the
+rock, and a great deal of pottery. A great gate communicated from the
+acropolis to the town. The most populous part was that to the south-east,
+and numberless remains of houses may here be traced. There were also
+exterior fortifications, and a polygonal wall defended the whole of the
+peninsula between the bay and the gulf, embracing a space of about four
+square miles. Thus there were two castles and two ports, and probably
+villas and gardens, within the circuit of the wall. An excellent fountain
+of water, which never fails, is the only thing which interrupts the
+solitude that reigns in this vast assemblage of ruins. There is not
+a single tumulus to be seen, probably because, as has been observed,
+Kimmericum was not a Milesian city. The Genoese are supposed to have
+carried away the remains of Kimmericum, in order to build Caffa.[254]
+Opouk is twenty miles from the post station of Arghin.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+THE SEA OF AZOF.
+
+    The Sea of Azof—Its extent and boundaries—Its depth
+    continually diminishes—Its sweet water—Its rivers—Currents—The
+    Straits of Kertch—The Russian defences of it—The eastern
+    shores—Temróuk-Okhtor—Cape Obriv—The fishing huts—Bay and new
+    town of Yeisk—Cape Tchimborsk—Mouths of Don—Bars of the Don—Old
+    town of Azof—Rostof—Its commercial importance—Shallowness
+    of water in Gulf of the Don—The Azof frozen in winter—Ruins
+    of ancient Tana—Taganrok founded by Peter the Great—Its
+    history—Its importance—Mariopol—Cape Bielo-Serái—Berdiansk—Its
+    foundation—Port is filling up—Lake Moloshenska—Peninsula of
+    Berútchi—Straits of Yénitchi.
+
+
+The Sea of Azof[255] is situated from latitude 45° to 47° and in
+longitude 32° to 36°. From the straits of Kertch to the point of
+Bielo-Serái at the entrance of the gulf of the Don, is 90 miles, and from
+Bielo-Serái, to the mouths of the Don, is 76 miles, so that the total
+length of the Sea of Azof is 166 miles. Its breadth from the extremity
+of the Tonka, on the west, to the lagoon of Beislitz on the east, is 142
+miles.
+
+The north coast of this sea is from 84 to 132 feet in height, and is
+generally flat, although in some parts it is bordered by low hills and
+reddish cliffs. Extensive strips of land, bordered by sand banks, have
+formed around all the promontories, and, subjected as they are to the
+influence of the currents of the Don, have a tendency to move towards the
+west. The east coast of the Sea of Azof is inhabited by the Tchernomorski
+Cossacks, and, beginning at Temróuk, it is very low, often sandy, and
+cut up by lagoons and rushy marshes. There are also on the coast many
+sand banks, particularly in the gulf of the Don, which, like those of the
+opposite shore, incline towards the west. The Tonka,[256] a low narrow
+long peninsula (called also the “Streolka” or arrow, or the Arabate),
+forms the west coast of this sea, which by it is separated from the
+_Shiváshe_ or mud sea, an immense lagoon, into which all the rivers
+of the western side of the Crimea flow. The Sea of Azof is bounded on
+the south by the Crimea and the peninsula of Taman, on the east by the
+country of the Tchernomorski Cossacks, and the Don Cossacks, on the north
+by the country of the Don Cossacks and governments of Ekaterinoslaf and
+the Tauride, and on the west by the Tonka. Its greatest depth at present
+is 46 feet between the straits of Kertch and the point of Bielo-Serái,
+where the passage is narrow, on account of two vast sand banks. A little
+further on the depth diminishes to 26 feet and there are but 8 or 10
+feet water in the greater part of the roadstead of Taganrok. It extends
+however southwards beyond the Greek bank, where there is about 18 or 20
+feet of water, and where most vessels finish taking in their cargoes.
+
+It has been remarked that from the year 1706 to the year 1808, the depth
+of this sea has diminished 3 feet; and from this latter date to the year
+1833, it has again diminished 3 feet, so that it has lost 6 feet of depth
+in 127 years. This diminution in depth is caused by the accumulation of
+sand and mud from the Don, and in some measure likewise by the large
+quantities of ballast that are yearly thrown into the sea, by vessels
+loading in the roadstead of Taganrok. The sand banks have increased in
+extent, and new ones have been formed; which render the navigation of
+this sea daily more difficult and perilous. The bottom is everywhere mud
+and shells, and the water is of a dull yellow colour. The Don sweetens
+this sea, and the water of it is used for the provisioning of ships as
+far as 20 miles to the west of Taganrok. Besides the Don, several small
+rivers run into it on the north and east coasts, beyond the lagoon of
+Temróuk.
+
+The current is not so rapid in the Sea of Azof as it is in the straits
+of Kertch. In the sea it rarely runs beyond one knot an hour, even with
+a violent north-east wind, and with a south wind it runs in an opposite
+direction. From the Don to the point of Bielo-Serái, it runs west, and
+then divides into two; the largest portion of the water runs direct for
+the straits of Kertch, and the other portion round the north coast,
+until it meets the waters of the Shiváshe, and, uniting with them, flows
+down the steep shore of the Tonka, and along the coast of the Crimea to
+Kertch. During the winter the ice renders this sea unnavigable, and it
+is available to shipping only from the middle of April to the latter end
+of October. When a vessel approaches the straits of Kertch, with a view
+of passing them from the Black Sea, she steers at about equal distances
+between Cape Panaghia on her right, and Cape Takli Coolári on her left.
+The latter cape is crowned with a lighthouse. The distance between the
+two capes is about 8 miles, and the depth of the water 55 feet. The
+course of the vessel is then nearly due north for about 8 miles, till she
+reaches Cape Karaboroun, which is remarkable for several hillocks and
+buildings which precede it. Here there is a sandy beach at a quarter of
+a mile distance, and 20 feet of water. About a mile and a half further
+on is Cape Kamishboroun, where there is a good anchorage, and a small
+lake near it, which has 12 feet water and communicates with the sea by a
+channel 5 or 6 feet deep.
+
+The course of the ship is now nearly due east, and the narrowest part
+of the whole straits is approached. In them the water is 26 feet deep,
+the passage is very confined, and ships are obliged to pass near the
+western shore. This spot has therefore been chosen for the defence of
+the straits, and a battery, called the battery of Paul, has been placed
+there. It is a little to the northward of this narrow passage that
+thirty-three ships have been sunk to defend it, in the same mode that
+has been adopted at Sevastopol. The ships were only sunk in May 1854,
+two months after our declaration of war with Russia; and while our
+enormous fleet was inactive in the Black Sea, this passage was free and
+undefended, except by a few hundred invalids, who formed the garrison of
+Kertch. Cape Akboroun ends the passage, and immediately afterwards there
+opens on the left the snug little bay of Kertch, around which, as has
+been related, were situated the Greek colonies of Nymphæum, Panticapæum,
+and Myrmékium. When a vessel has passed Cape Akboroun, if she wish to
+continue her course to the Sea of Azof, without stopping at Kertch, she
+steers nearly due east, and having passed in 14 feet water the little
+town of Yenicáleh, about six miles from Kertch and further on the Cape
+Poritálo, on which there is a lighthouse, the water deepens to 30 feet,
+and the muddy expanse of the Sea of Azof opens before her. It is to be
+observed that the very shallow part of the straits does not occur till
+after Kertch, which is by far the most important place on the straits,
+and which is undefended by any fortifications.
+
+The shores on both sides of the straits are very thinly inhabited: on the
+Asiatic side by the Tchernomorski Cossacks, the descendants of the famous
+Zaporogues, who were transplanted here by Catherine II., and on the
+European side by remnants of the broken nation of the Tatars, and a mixed
+population of Russians, Greeks, and Levantines, who only occupy the towns.
+
+I will now make a periplus of the Sea of Azof, pointing out the most
+important places in the desolate countries that for the most part
+surround it. Beginning to the east, we first come to Temróuk, occupied
+by the Tchernomorski Cossacks, which is only a small village, situated
+on the border of a lagoon, celebrated for the immense quantities of fish
+caught in it. Vessels coming for their cargoes of fish anchor to the
+north at the mouth of the lagoon, in 17 feet water, with a sandy bottom.
+At 53 miles further up the coast is Okhtor, situated on the banks of a
+wide and shallow bay. In its vicinity there are salt lakes and fisheries.
+The bay terminates in Cape Kamishavát,[257] which is 36½ miles from
+Bielo-Serái,[258] on the opposite coast, and 56 miles from Kertch. At 12
+miles further north is Cape Obriv,[259] where there are two extensive
+sandbanks jutting out like horns, on the northernmost of which, that of
+Dolgoi,[260] there is a beacon. At 9½ miles hence is seen the lighthouse
+on Bielo-Serái point, and the church of Mariopol almost due north.
+
+Fishing-huts are to be found on nearly all the sandy points of the Sea
+of Azof. These buildings are raised on posts in order to preserve them
+from being carried away by the inundations, and seen from a distance they
+have an extraordinary appearance as if floating on the water. Beyond
+Cape Obriv, the coast runs 19 miles to the east as far as the mouth of
+the bay of Yeisk, which is 13 miles in length from east to west, and 6½
+from north to south. This bay would be one of the very best anchorages
+in the sea had it a few feet greater depth; but as it is, the lead marks
+only 5 feet, and its entrance is five miles wide and from 13 to 7 feet
+deep. This is a populous locality, and the old town of Yeisk is situated
+to the south-east, near the river Yé. A new town was founded here in
+1848 by Prince Woronzof, at Yeisk, on the western sandy point of the
+bay; but it will probably not answer the expectations formed of it, as
+the sea is so shallow that vessels cannot approach it, and the produce
+of the surrounding countries is too small to induce commercial men to
+settle there, notwithstanding the privileges accorded to it. One of these
+privileges is, that merchants settled here do not pay the personal tax
+levied on them, which is very heavy. Merchants in Russia are divided
+into three guilds, and the tax on a merchant of the first guild is about
+150_l._ a-year, and every partner and clerk who has a power of attorney
+to act for the firm must pay the tax. By being the possessor of a house
+at Yeisk, exemption is obtained from it. From the mouth of this bay the
+coast runs 6¼ miles to the north, and forms Cape Sazanitskoi, near which
+are several fisheries. At 17 miles further east is Cape Tchimborsk,
+whence it is about 18 miles to Kagalnik, situated on the southernmost
+branch of the Don, called Staroi[261] Don, and at the commencement of
+its delta. The whole country between Yeisk and the Don, and likewise all
+around Rostof, is cultivated with wheat. The land is similar to that on
+the opposite coast, and very fertile. It bears a crop of wheat once every
+three years, and lies fallow for the intermediate time. The inhabitants
+are Don Cossacks and Russian proprietors, who have bought lands and
+brought down peasants from the interior of Russia. There are no Calmucks
+or Nogais here.
+
+The Don has several mouths between Kagalnik and Siniávka, the
+northernmost point of its delta, which measures 12 miles across in its
+widest part. The delta is uncultivated, and covered with rushes and high
+reeds, and the whole forms an immense lake in the month of June, when
+the waters rise. The climate of all this country is very dry, like that
+of the steppes in general, and the want of water often occasions severe
+injury to the crops. It is not unhealthy, although dysentery prevails
+in the hot weather at Rostof, which is to be attributed to imprudence
+in eating the melons, cucumbers, and other fruits, which grow there in
+wonderful abundance and perfection. Proceeding from south to north, the
+first mouth, called _the_ mouth of the Don, used to be the principal
+one, and upon it, at 6 miles inland, is the town of Azof, which is now
+only a large village, with the remains of an old fort. The second mouth
+is the Kalántcha; the third the Perevóloki; the fourth the Kasterna; and
+the fifth the Donetse,[262] near Siniávka. At present the only branches
+available for navigation are the Kalántcha and the Perevóloki.
+
+The town of Rostof is placed on the north bank of the Don, 22½ miles from
+the sea before the commencement of the delta. Vessels of low draught can
+alone proceed to it, because of the bars at the entrance of the river.
+The town of Rostof is one of the most important on the shores of the Sea
+of Azof, and a great centre for commercial dealings with eastern Russia.
+A full account of it will be given in the next chapter.
+
+In May and June the water of the Don rises to a great height, and the
+whole country is flooded. It then suddenly falls, although it is liable
+at all times to rise again when the wind blows up the river. This
+increases the difficulty of navigation, and a vessel of 100 tons can only
+take in a part of her cargo at the mouth of the river. She is obliged
+to take in the rest of it gradually, dropping down the gulf of the Don,
+followed by lighters. In this way she sometimes proceeds for 40 miles
+before she is completely loaded, and then she must again unload a part
+of her cargo at Yenicáleh if she draws more than 12 or 13 feet of water,
+in order to pass the straits. Shipments through the Azof are, therefore,
+very expensive. The bed which the waters of the Kalántcha have formed has
+6 and 8 feet in depth at 2½ miles from the shore, and 9 at the mouth of
+the river. There are three successive bars at the entrance of the Don,
+but when these are passed, on nearing Rostof, the river becomes deep,
+and continues navigable for many hundred miles.
+
+Taganrok is by sea about 8½ miles from the Perevóloki mouth of the Don,
+and the water may be said to average 8 feet. The depth of the water is,
+however, extremely variable in all the upper part of the gulf of the Don,
+and the common question asked by merchants at Taganrok and Rostof every
+morning is as to what is the depth of the water. South and east winds
+increase the depth, and north and west winds diminish it to 2 or 3 feet,
+so that with a strong north-east wind, the small bay to the eastward of
+Taganrok is sometimes quite dry. The water also varies much, according
+to the season of the year. When the snows have melted in Russia, and the
+Don becomes unfrozen, the whole country is one great lake, and this lasts
+for a couple of months, during which time the water is very deep, and
+vessels of any tonnage can come up to Rostof. Messrs. Yeames, at their
+wool washeries there, which are constructed on low ground, choose this
+season to bring the coals[263] necessary for their establishment. The
+lighters, when they get to a certain point, pitch the coals overboard
+into the water, and when the river goes down they find them ready for
+use. Their houses, being of wood, are uninjured by remaining under water,
+and the stoves are rebuilt every year. The sheep are sheared in May, the
+wool comes in in June, and is washed in July and September. The water
+of the gulf of the Don is yearly becoming more shallow, one reason of
+which is, the quantity of ballast yearly thrown into it. As the trade is
+almost entirely an export trade, and ships come up to Rostof empty, the
+masters are in the habit of throwing their ballast overboard when they
+receive their cargoes. This is strictly forbidden by the government;
+and every vessel is measured at Kertch, and again at Taganrok, to see
+that there has been no alteration in the lading. A fee, however, to the
+harbour-master gets rid of all difficulties; and the constant practice
+is to throw the ballast overboard, and it forms nuclei round which the
+alluvium of the Don continually accumulates.
+
+Both the Don and the Volga are frozen up in winter, and this is the case
+with the greater part of the Sea of Azof, which is then used as a means
+of communication between the opposite shores, considerably further down
+than Cape Obriv. The ice is very irregular, and, while in some places
+there are smooth plains many miles long, in others it is what is called
+“hummocky,” or raised in ridges as high as a house. The year before last
+year there was a regular mountain-chain of ice for many miles in length,
+between Cape Obriv and Yeisk; and an English vessel which was lost there,
+whose position was accurately known, was searched for in vain for many
+weeks, and at last only discovered by one of her masts that was seen
+sticking out of the ridge of ice.
+
+Russians never skate, and communication is carried on by horses and
+carts, as on the land. At Medvidovka, on the Donetse mouth, some ancient
+ruins have been discovered on the estate of an enterprising gentleman
+who has excavated them; and they are supposed to be those of the ancient
+city of Tana, which was formerly considered to have stood near Azof. A
+commission of antiquaries has been appointed at Petersburg to investigate
+the matter, but their report, I believe, has not yet been received.
+
+The town of Taganrok is prettily situated on high ground, on the cape of
+the same name, and contains 27,000 inhabitants, of whom one-third are
+Greeks. It stands in the government of Ekaterinoslaf, and is about 300
+miles distant from the town of that name, and 50 miles from Rostof. It
+forms, however, with a small territory round it, a separate government
+of its own, and pays in taxes of all kinds a total sum of about
+360,000_l._ Peter the Great laid the first foundations of it in 1706,
+after the capture of Azof, on the spot where there was at that time a
+lighthouse. The town was demolished in 1711, according to an article in
+the disastrous treaty of the Pruth. It was only rebuilt in 1769, at the
+commencement of the war between Russia and the Turks. The port was then
+deepened, and the place fortified. The fortress is constructed on the end
+of the tongue of land on which the town is built. The Emperor Alexander
+died here in 1824, and his bedroom is kept exactly as he left it, and is
+lighted with tapers, and shown to the public.
+
+“The port of Taganrok,” says Vsevolovski, “is an absolute necessity for
+the Russians, independent of all commercial considerations, because
+this is the only means of procuring the masts,[264] iron, and all
+stores which come down the Don and Volga from Russia and Siberia for
+Kherson, Nicolaief, Odessa, and Sevastopol. A coal of good quality is
+also exported from here, which comes from the sources of the Kryneka and
+Severny Donetse, at a distance of about 80 miles.”[265]
+
+The greatest depth of the basin of Taganrok is 10, 11, and 18 feet; but
+all measurements are very uncertain, and sometimes there is no water at
+all in the bay, and vessels stick in the mud for a length of time. At all
+the ports of the Sea of Azof the water is too shallow to admit loaded
+vessels to approach near the shore, and cargoes are, therefore, taken
+in with the aid of lighters in the manner that has been described. At
+the extremity of Cape Taganrok exist the remains of a port, 570 yards in
+length and 220 in breadth, constructed by Peter the Great: it offers at
+present but 2 feet water. Near this port, towards the north, a great quay
+has been constructed since 1847, ending in a mole resting on piles, which
+now forms the east side of Peter the Great’s port. The water which runs
+from the rivulet of Sambek, four miles beyond, into the bay of Taganrok,
+gives at its extremity a depth of 7 feet, and sometimes more, during high
+water.
+
+Mariopol is eighty miles from Taganrok, on the right bank of the river
+Kalmiousse, and at two miles from the shore is an anchoring ground, in 15
+feet water, with a muddy bottom. The mouth of the Kalmiousse forms a port
+for the lighters, which load and discharge the vessels in the roads. The
+port might be made a few feet deeper, if measures were taken for dredging
+the bar which obstructs the mouth of the river, where the water has only
+a depth of 3 or 4 feet. Mariopol is exclusively a Greek town, and was
+founded for the Greeks of the Crimea, who were induced to emigrate by
+the Russians in 1778, five years before its conquest. It is difficult
+to conceive how the Russian Government could ever have induced them to
+leave their beautiful seats for this dreary and comfortless town, or why
+since that period they have not made an effort to return to their old
+haunts, which they have never ceased to regret. Commercial considerations
+probably keep them at Mariopol, as the town has a good deal of business,
+and the wheat exported hence is the finest Russian wheat that comes to
+the English market, and bears the highest price.
+
+Beyond Mariopol the coast for nearly 10 miles is bold, until it reaches
+Cape Bielo-Serái,[266] which forms one side of the entrance to the
+Gulf of the Don; there is the whole way about 14 feet water at one
+mile distance from the shore. At Cape Bielo-Serái there are a number
+of fishing huts, and previous to arriving at the point, there is a
+lighthouse 81 feet above the level of the sea, and 72 feet above the
+level of the ground. Its light is fixed, and seen at 14¾ miles distance.
+At 23 miles south-west of Cape Bielo-Serái, the river Berda empties
+itself into the sea, but its mouth is barred by a strip of sand two
+miles long, called the tongue of Berdiansk, at the extremity of which,
+jutting out into the sea, is a lighthouse 85 feet above the level of
+the sea, with a light which is seen from minute to minute, and which is
+visible at a distance of 15 miles.
+
+The town of Berdiansk is situated near the right bank of the Berda, at
+seven miles from the lighthouse, and at the foot of the bold table-land
+which backs it. It was founded about 1840 by Prince Woronzof, and has
+gone on increasing in population and commercial prosperity. I can find
+no account of its population, but its exports were upwards of a million,
+and its imports about 7000_l._, in the year 1853.[267] This is the port
+where there is the best anchorage in the Sea of Azof, and there are 12
+or 14 feet of water at a quarter of a mile from the landing place. The
+Bay of Obitochnia close by, with a river of the same name, is still more
+favourable for shipping, but no town has been founded on its shores. The
+land, however, gains ground every day in the roadstead of Berdiansk,
+which fills up, on account of the sea winds depositing great quantities
+of sand. A jetty, which was constructed some five or six years ago, is
+now completely useless, from being surrounded with sand, and a second,
+that has been constructed 220 yards in length, will evidently be soon
+in the same predicament. The commercial community of Berdiansk proposes
+to construct a barrier of 700 or 800 yards to protect it, and at the
+same time shelter coasting crafts of low draught. This will be useless,
+unless they previously concert means for dredging it, as the sands will
+accumulate all round it, and form a lagoon. At four miles to the south of
+Berdiansk, a large point running to the north forms a port which is the
+resort of coasters for wintering, where there is shelter from all winds,
+and 7 or 8 feet of water. Shallows extend to the west and north, and
+these are increasing, so that in time this port will become a salt lake,
+like many others that are found in the vicinity. Berdiansk is the port
+of shipment for the produce of the flourishing German colonies of the
+Moloshna, which are not distant from it.
+
+At 33 miles from the mouth of the Berda, there is a lagoon, called Lake
+Moloshenska, into which the waters of the river Moloshnia Vodi have their
+issue. Cape Fedotov, on which several houses and windmills stand, is near
+it to the south. Here commences the Isthmus of the Peninsula of Berútchi,
+which, intercepted by a small table-land, detached from the mainland,
+runs to the S.S.W. for 12 miles, with a breadth of several yards. The
+peninsula of Berútchi, called also the tongue of Yedotov, turning to
+the west towards the Tonka, is 11 miles in length. At three quarters of
+a mile from the shore of this isthmus and peninsula, there are 18 feet
+of water, but much less towards the extremity of the peninsula opposite
+the Tonka. Between Berútchi and Vizariónov is a strong current running
+to the east, formed by the waters of the Shiváshe, which flow into the
+sea of Azof by the narrow strait of Yénitchi. This strait is 129 yards
+wide, and 18 feet deep, but at the entrance there is only 4 feet water.
+On its northern shore is the village of Yénitchi, which is eight miles
+from Point Berútchi, the last bold table-land which borders the sea of
+Azof. There is a very good roadstead between Berútchi and the Tonka,
+exposed only to the S.S.E. wind. The depth between the two shores at one
+and two miles is in 18 and 21 feet, muddy bottom. Behind the peninsula of
+Berútchi, and commencing just opposite the straits of Yénitchi, there is
+a vast gulf 20 miles long, but of its depth there are no accounts. At the
+bottom of the gulf there is a great lagoon, and on its western shore the
+Lake of Atsuanai.[268]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+ON THE COMMERCE OF THE SEA OF AZOF.
+
+    Rostof, key to commercial system of Eastern Russia—A
+    district of the Government of Ekaterinoslaf—Its gradual rise
+    since 1835—Articles of export—Wheat—Linseed—Rye—Military
+    stores sent hence to Sevastopol,
+    &c.—Salt-fish—Caviare—Tallow—Wool—Iron—Iron foundries of
+    Lugan—The system of advances on produce—Made through agents at
+    Pavlosk—Exports paid for, not by imports, but by cash—Political
+    reasons for high tariff—Attempt to make Kertch the emporium for
+    the Sea of Azof—Failure of it—Lighters of the Azof—Passage of
+    exports from the great producing countries of the North—By the
+    Don and the Volga—Dubofka and Katchálin—Loss to Russia from
+    high tariff—Commercial and peaceable disposition of Russian
+    people—Advantages of free trade to them.
+
+
+Rostof is the key to all the trade of the Sea of Azof and the
+south-eastern parts of the Russian empire.[269] It is a town of about
+12,000 inhabitants, composed of Russians, Cossacks, Armenians, Greeks,
+and a few foreigners. The merchants generally have only their offices
+here, and live at Taganrok, which is 50 miles distant. They go to
+Rostof once or twice a week, and send there the orders for their
+purchases. Rostof is the capital of a district (Uezd) in the government
+of Ekaterinoslaf, and is the station of one of the two brigades of the
+reserve division of the army of the Caucasus. In the course of last year
+these troops were marched away to the Caucasus, and the town was left
+undefended, as it appeared in no danger of being attacked. Rostof has
+grown up from a small fishing village to its present importance, solely
+on account of its admirable geographical position with respect to trade,
+and so gradual has been its rise, that it would be difficult to say at
+what period it was first founded. It is since the year 1835 that its
+trade has undergone a marked yearly increase. Rostof enjoys no special
+privileges, and its flourishing state is entirely due to its convenient
+site, and to the large amount of foreign capital of which it is the
+centre, which has drawn to it the produce of the interior of the empire,
+and made it one of the most important commercial towns.
+
+As Odessa is the outlet for the produce of the southern Polish provinces,
+and from this circumstance derives its importance, so Rostof is one of
+the principal débouchés for the agricultural produce of Great Russia, and
+consequently likely to become a place still more flourishing than it is
+at present. Great Russia, as the governments around Moscow are called, is
+the most thickly peopled and most productive part of the Russian empire,
+containing an industrious and active population, and the principal seats
+of agriculture and manufactures. It formerly sent its produce almost
+entirely to the Baltic for exportation, but of late years there has been
+a tendency in growers to avail themselves of the great arteries of the
+Don and the Volga, and shipments from the Azof and the other ports of
+southern Russia have consequently much increased.
+
+Rostof from its situation may also compete with the North of Russia
+for a portion of the Asiatic trade, for it has a nearly complete water
+communication with the Caspian, and has likewise constant dealings with
+the northern parts of the Caucasus. Its great importance, however, arises
+from the fact that it stands at the point of communication between the
+widely extended river system of Great Russia and the Southern Seas.
+
+The ports of the Azof are Taganrok, which is so intimately connected
+with Rostof, Mariopol, Berdiansk, and the nominal port of Yeisk.
+There is no import trade of any importance carried on in any of them,
+because of the high duties of the Russian tariff. The total amount of
+the imports at all the ports of the Sea of Azof was only 300,000_l._
+for the year 1853, while the exports exceeded 3,350,000_l._[270] The
+imports consisted wholly of articles of luxury chiefly the produce
+of the Levant, such as fruits, oil, and wines, and the largest item
+was Greek wines, of which there was a demand for no less than 600,000
+gallons. There can be no doubt that the imports are checked by the high
+tariff, for the exports have more than trebled in the last four years
+from 1850 to 1854, having increased from 1,100,000_l._ to 3,350,000_l._,
+while the imports in the same time have only increased 40,000_l._ It is
+true that the same population which finds it more convenient to export
+their produce by the Azof, may have the same reason for receiving their
+imports by Petersburg, and such to a certain extent is the case, for
+while the whole exports[271] from all Russia amounted in the year 1852
+to nearly 18,000,000_l._, the imports in the same year were upwards of
+16,000,000_l._, so that the sum which had to be paid in cash was about
+1,800,000_l._, and on looking to the tables of the imports and exports of
+bullion, it appears that in the year 1852 there was imported in gold and
+silver 1,988,000_l._[272]
+
+The principal articles of exportation from the Azof are wheat,[273]
+linseed, rye, wool, tallow, iron, and military stores. The stock of
+wheat, under ordinary circumstances, is comparatively small, as the
+vessels which carry it abroad reach the shipping port about the time when
+the chief supplies from the interior, either by water or by land, arrive.
+The wheat shipped from Rostof may be classed as follows:—First, the wheat
+from the country of the Line, that is, the districts occupied by the Line
+and Tchernomorski Cossacks, which are situated to the northward of the
+Terek and Kuban rivers, between the territory of the Don Cossacks and
+Circassia, and the Black and Caspian seas. Secondly, the wheat that is
+grown on the lands watered by the Don, which is superior to the former in
+quality and condition. Thirdly, the Volga wheat, which is with justice
+preferred to the Don and Line wheats, and is chiefly grown by the wealthy
+German colonies situated on both banks of the Volga and its tributary
+rivers northwards of Saratof. The bulk of the wheat shipped from the port
+of Taganrok consists of hard wheat which is principally consumed in the
+Mediterranean, where it is used for the manufacture of maccaroni, but a
+small quantity is imported into this country.
+
+Hard wheat requires a virgin soil, and this accounts for its being
+in Europe almost entirely grown in the south of Russia.[274] It is
+remarkable for its bright yellow colour, heavy weight and hard grain. Of
+late years the proprietors, whose estates are situated in the vicinity
+of Taganrok, have directed their attention to the growth of soft wheat,
+and their crops have yielded a wheat whose quality has been found quite
+equal to that of Mariopol and Berdiansk. It is worthy of notice that in
+some districts, if the same wheat be sown for three or four consecutive
+years, it gradually loses its original character, and finally turns into
+hard wheat. The wheat, whilst in this state of transition, bearing at the
+same time the character both of hard and soft wheat, is called by the
+Russians, “Pererodka” (from the verb _perachadit_, to go over). The wheat
+shipped from Mariopol and Berdiansk is grown in the immediate vicinity
+of those towns by the German and Greek colonists, and likewise by the
+Russians. It is of a reddish colour, weighing on an average from 60 to
+63 lbs. per bushel English, and commands a higher price than either the
+hard wheat of Taganrok, or the soft Polish that is shipped from Odessa.
+Most of it was formerly shipped to the Mediterranean, but of late years
+the English millers have learnt to appreciate the peculiar qualities it
+possesses, which principally consist in the strength of the flour it
+produces, and since 1851 and 1852 large quantities have been imported
+into this country.
+
+The linseed, which is shipped from Rostof, is grown throughout those
+districts that are watered by the Don and the Volga, as far as the
+point where, making a bend in their course, these two rivers approach
+for a short space, within 45 miles of each other. The linseed plant is
+cultivated by proprietors, as well as by the peasantry. The plant is of
+a coarse kind, and the fibre is thrown away as useless;[275] but many
+good authorities consider, as the demand for flax is so great in Europe,
+that the stalk of the plant might be turned to account at least for the
+coarser kinds of linen.
+
+Rye is grown over the whole country principally for home consumption
+in the shape either of flour or brandy. Russian brandy, “Vodka,” is
+extremely strong, measuring about 30°, which is nearly equal to common
+spirits of wine.[276] A small quantity of rye has been lately exported to
+Holland, for the manufacture of Schiedam. The Government are the chief
+purchasers for the rye brought to Rostof for exportation. They contract
+for it in the shape of flour, which comes down the river packed in mat
+bags, of which 500,000 or 600,000 Tchetwerts[277] are yearly received,
+and shipped from Rostof to the Crimea, and the coasts of Circassia. It is
+ground by windmills, and watermills high up in Great Russia.
+
+Besides the rye flour, munitions of war, such as anchors, chains, cables,
+shells, shot, cannon, and ironware of every description, are shipped
+hence for Sevastopol and other places. The ammunition stores of metallic
+composition come firstly from Lugan, at the confluence of that tributary
+of the Don called the Donetse,[278] and the river Lugan about 100 miles
+from Rostof. Here are iron-works, and a cannon foundry belonging to the
+crown, which in the time of Dr. Clarke were all under the direction of an
+Englishman named Gascoigne, formerly superintendent of the Carron works
+in Scotland, whose improvements he betrayed to the Russian Government.
+“From thence,” says Dr. Clarke, “the Emperor’s artillery passes by
+water to the Black Sea. Mr. Gascoigne found excellent coal at Lugan, in
+consequence of which discovery, as well as its convenient situation for
+water carriage, the foundry was there established.” Probably some of
+the finer articles required for military use come from Toola, which is
+the Birmingham of Russia, and famous for its guns and pistols, and many
+articles are now supplied from some parts of Siberia.
+
+The exports of wool from the Sea of Azof have not kept pace with the
+large increase which has taken place in other articles of export. The
+amount exported in 1853 was 5,196,708 lbs., being a decrease of nearly
+2 millions of lbs. on the quantity exported in 1852, and an increase
+on that of the preceding years, the average exports of which seem to
+have been about 4 millions of lbs. The decrease may be ascribed to the
+great competition offered in the western markets by the shipments made
+from Australia, and by the increasing home consumption in Russia. In
+the trade carried on by caravans through Siberia, between Russia and
+China,[279] cloth is the chief article of barter, and the prices of
+the wool in the grease are less influenced by those which the exporter,
+guided by the state of the London market, is able to pay, than by the
+greater or lesser demand for Russian cloths at home and in China. There
+is little or none of the wool shipped in its original greasy state. It
+is either brook-washed previous to the sheep being clipped, which is
+accomplished by driving them through a stream, or hand-washed in warm
+and then rinsed in cold water. This latter operation, which cleanses the
+wool much more effectually than the former, is generally managed by the
+foreign merchants themselves, who for that object have large wash-houses
+established at Rostof and Kherson. The Merino fleeces require particular
+care, for previous to their being washed they have to be assorted
+according to the fineness of the hair. This process requires some skill
+and considerable experience, as a parcel of wool seldom consists of less
+than five or six assortments.
+
+The common Russian sheep, which is raised as well by the rich landed
+proprietor as by the poorest serf, requires little care. Its wool is of
+a long staple, coarse and wiry, and at all times finds a ready demand in
+the English market, where it is particularly well suited for purposes
+where a long stapled wool is the chief requisite. The best wool of this
+kind is produced in the Cossack territories, and goes in the trade under
+the denomination of Donskoy. The Tatar broad-tailed sheep is generally
+of a brown greyish colour, and is found in all the steppes inhabited
+by the Nogais Tatars, Kalmuks, Khirgiz, and other eastern tribes. It
+produces a wool of considerably less value than Donskoy, which is used
+by the natives in the manufacture of coarse cloths and carpets. The
+Merino sheep was introduced into the south of Russia about forty years
+ago. The climate is not altogether favourable for the growth of fine
+wool, and the losses incurred during and after long and severe winters
+are great. The quality of the wool is generally good, and there are
+flocks which produce an article equal in texture and fineness to the
+best Silesian wool. The Merino sheep are spread all over the country,
+but are principally to be found in New Russia, and in the government of
+Saratof and others adjoining it. They require considerable care, and as
+the rearing of them is attended with great expenses they are only to
+be found on the lands of the German colonists and of wealthy Russian
+proprietors. The Merino sheep of South Russia is a descendant of the
+Saxon breed originally introduced into this country, which it still
+closely resembles. The Valachian sheep, otherwise called Zigay, has been
+successfully crossed with the Merinos, and the breed thus produced, which
+has retained much of the character of the Spanish sheep, generally goes
+under the name of Metis or Schlonsky.
+
+The quantity of fine wool produced in Russia has not, I believe,
+increased of late years. Some five or six years ago, in the governments
+of Ekaterinoslaf and Kharkof, it was estimated that upwards of one-third
+of the Merino sheep reared in those governments had perished through
+disease and want of fodder. On the whole the proprietor of Merino sheep
+is exposed to greater risks and losses than those incurred in any other
+branch of husbandry. Cases often occur, when, in the course of a few
+days, the toil of many years is irrecoverably lost. A late spring, with
+frosty nights in April, is sometimes the cause of the greatest mischief;
+the fodder collected during the autumn proving insufficient for the
+maintenance of the sheep, and the frost killing the lambs the moment
+they are dropped by their mother. Most of the flocks are under the care
+of a German shepherd, and on many estates no expense has been spared in
+introducing in the management of the sheep every possible amelioration.
+Amongst the finest flocks in the south of Russia is that belonging to
+Don Baguer, the Spanish Consul-General at Odessa, and his brother, an
+establishment which dates from about the year 1839, and numbering lately
+15,000 head of Merino sheep. In 1844 he shipped a cargo of rams to the
+Sultan, some of which were of the value of 40_l._, which presents a great
+contrast to the common price of sheep in Southern Russia, which is from
+4_s._ to 6_s._ a-head. In well-managed flocks a regular register is kept
+of the rams and ewes and of the quality of their offsprings. Every sheep
+is branded with a number in the ear, and it is the art of the shepherd to
+take care that the breed is so mixed as to keep one uniform average in
+the wool and raise the standard. The lambing time is in April, shortly
+after the sheep quit the sheepfolds, in which they are sheltered during
+the winter.
+
+The exports of tallow from the Sea of Azof in the year 1853 amounted
+to 35,926 cwt. In the south-east part of Russia the principal melting
+establishments are at Bachmut, Slavansk, and the neighbouring towns. In
+the early part of the spring the melters proceed to the various cattle
+fairs held in the governments of Ekaterinoslaf, Kharkof, the Tauride, and
+the lands of the Cossacks, to effect their purchases. After they have
+collected the quantity of cattle which their means allow them, their
+next care is to select and rent tracts of land on either side of the Sea
+of Azof for them to feed upon. Considerable experience is required in
+the selection of the pasturage grounds, for the profit which the melter
+derives, after his cattle have been converted into tallow, depends less
+on the price paid for them and the price he receives for the tallow,
+than on the fat state of the cattle and the amount of tallow which they
+consequently yield. Thus, in years of drought, when the cattle can but
+barely subsist on a scanty vegetation, and hundreds perish through want
+of water, the tallow-dealer incurs losses against which it is impossible
+to guard. In the beginning of September the herds of cattle quit their
+summer pasturages, and are slowly driven towards the melting stations,
+where the process of slaughtering and melting generally commences about
+the 10th of October.
+
+The animal, after being killed and stripped of its hide, and after the
+head and the legs (at the knees) have been cut off and the inside taken
+out, is then divided into four parts, which are thrown into the cauldron.
+With the exception of two strips of flesh taken from off each side of
+the spine, the whole of the meat is converted into tallow. The bones
+are crushed, and a small quantity of fine tallow is collected from the
+marrow contained within them. Old sheep, especially of the Merino breed,
+whose wool deteriorates after they have reached their fourth or fifth
+year, are likewise converted into tallow, which may be valued at about
+1_l._ less per ton than that produced from cattle. The average price of
+tallow on the spot is 25_l._ to 28_l._ per ton. There is a large home
+consumption for hides, and of late years very few have been shipped
+abroad, although the export duty has been considerably reduced. Oxen
+being found more valuable when used for draught, cows are principally
+used in the manufacture of tallow. Some twenty years ago there was hardly
+any tallow shipped from the Azof; all that was produced in the districts
+surrounding it being sent to the fairs which are held at Belgorod, where
+it was bought up by the Petersburg dealers, who sent it over land to the
+North.
+
+The cattle in the South of Russia are of the same breed which is found
+in Bulgaria and the Danubian Principalities, of a uniform white-greyish
+colour, long horned and with large bones. The German colonists have
+imported cattle from their own country, and their cows are found,
+especially for dairy purposes, much superior to those of Russia. A
+Russian cow costs about 9 or 10 R. = about 1_l._ 10_s._; a German
+cow from 20 to 25 R. = from 3_l._ to 4_l._ In the South of Russia no
+cheese or butter is made beyond what is required for the wants of the
+inhabitants, but a considerable quantity of salt-butter is brought down
+the Volga and the Don from Siberia, and is shipped to Turkey and the
+Greek Archipelago.
+
+Formerly wheat was the only article of importance shipped at Rostof for
+a foreign market. Linseed, wool, and tallow were first introduced as
+articles of export by the house of Messrs. William Yeames and Co., the
+only English merchants on the shores of the Sea of Azof.
+
+The exports of Russia consist almost wholly of articles of raw produce,
+which are raised by the assistance of foreign capital. Of the whole
+exports of the empire, which of late years have reached a total of
+nearly 18 millions sterling, about 7 millions are yearly sent from this
+country as an advance upon goods that are to be delivered afterwards.
+Thus upwards of one-third of the price of the whole exports is paid
+from three to nine months before the merchant receives his goods.[280]
+This system is necessary because there is a great dearth of capital in
+Russia; and if money were not advanced to her beforehand by foreigners,
+she would not be able to pay the expense of raising and forwarding so
+large a quantity of agricultural produce as she at present exports. From
+the difficulty of communication in Russia, and the great distances that
+have to be traversed, the expense of carriage frequently forms a more
+considerable item in the price of the article at the port of shipment
+than the original cost paid to the producer. Thus a quarter of wheat
+which costs at Rostof in store 22_s._, its average price in ordinary
+years, has been bought of the grower of the wheat for about 10_s._ The
+expense of carriage has amounted to about 8_s._, so that about 4_s._ per
+quarter remains to the exporter as interest on his money, remuneration
+for his labour, and other incidental charges.
+
+Russia is a poor country; she has not had time and opportunity to lay up,
+as we have done, a vast amount of money, always seeking for employment in
+all parts of the world. With a rich soil and an industrious population,
+she has numberless opportunities of laying out money so as to bring in
+large profits, as is proved by the current rate of interest, which is
+about 12 per cent.[281]
+
+Most of the purchases of Russian produce are made on contract during the
+autumn and winter months, when two-thirds, three-fourths, and sometimes
+even more, of the total amount is paid for in advance in hard cash. The
+foreign merchant established on the shores of the Sea of Azof reimburses
+himself for the produce he has shipped abroad by emitting bills at
+three months’ date; and as the import trade, as has been shown, is
+comparatively insignificant, and hitherto no banks have been established,
+he is obliged to send his bills for negotiation either to St. Petersburg
+or to Odessa. From thence the proceeds are remitted to him by post either
+in gold or silver. The commission and brokerage on the negotiation of the
+bills, and the insurance and postage on the transmission of the money,
+amount to about 1 per cent. Most of the bills drawn at Taganrok are
+negotiated at St. Petersburg, because the exchange there is generally
+more favourable than at Odessa. It frequently occurs that a whole month
+elapses from the time the bill is advised until the money which it has
+realised is received. The heavy stamp-duties now charged on bills are
+a serious if not an insurmountable obstacle to any improvement in the
+transaction of money operations.
+
+Merchants now deal directly with the producers, through the agency of
+confidential clerks settled in various parts in the interior of the
+country. Pavlosk, on the Don, about 400 miles from Rostof, is the
+principal station for these agents. The great house of Ralli[282] has,
+besides their establishment at Pavlosk, a complete network of agencies
+over all the country situated to the east of Moscow, where such of the
+linseed and wheat as is shipped at St. Petersburg is chiefly produced.
+
+I have now given a list of the principal articles of export from the
+Sea of Azof, and endeavoured to explain the manner in which so large
+an amount of agricultural produce is raised in so poor a country. The
+imports, as I have said, are kept out not because the population are
+unwilling to receive them, but solely by the high duties of the Russian
+tariff. These were reduced in 1850, but not low enough to create any
+sensible benefit. M. Tegoborski, in his answer to M. Léon Faucher, at
+once admits this fact, and says that the finances of the state would
+undoubtedly profit by a different policy. The reason for not relaxing the
+tariff is probably political. The manufacturers, whose trade has been
+created by protection, would undoubtedly cry out at any change, but the
+more powerful body of the consumers would be favourable to it, so that
+the Government would have little to fear from the hostility of the public
+feeling. It would have, however, a decidedly liberal political tendency.
+It would be impossible to admit foreign goods in large quantities and at
+the same time prevent a greater intercourse with foreigners, who would
+be chiefly the inhabitants of Western Europe. These would bring with
+them their own ideas, the results of unfettered reason, for which the
+natives of Russia, of all people in the world the most unprejudiced, feel
+a natural yearning. The Russian Government is too wise not to see that
+it would be impossible for it to keep up its present system under such
+altered circumstances; and therefore, although it admits the beneficial
+effects of larger foreign importations so far as an increase of wealth
+is concerned, yet, considering as indispensable the maintenance of its
+present military system, it is obliged consistently to refuse free trade.
+
+The Don and the Volga are both frozen every year from about the beginning
+of December to the middle of March. When the navigation is no longer
+possible, very little produce arrives at Rostof, and the average quantity
+brought down by the sledges is insignificant, owing to the general
+unsteadiness of the weather. As the shallowness of the water makes the
+navigation of the Sea of Azof very difficult (by the Greeks and Romans it
+was called a marsh, and not a sea),[283] it has naturally been felt that
+the emporium of goods for exportation should be at some place to which
+large ships can have access, after the difficulties of its navigation
+in coming from the interior of Russia have been passed. This led to the
+establishment of the quarantine at Kertch, as has been explained in a
+former chapter. It was thought that goods would be brought at leisure
+down the Azof by lighters, and that stores would be erected there, as
+they have been at Odessa, for the raw staple articles of exportation. For
+reasons that have been detailed, this expectation was not realized; and
+while in the year 1852 no less than 1606[284] vessels with an average
+tonnage of about 250 tons passed the Straits of Kertch, and entered the
+Azof to take in their cargoes at some of its ports, a very small number
+stopped to be loaded at Kertch. As ships are obliged to stand out so
+far from the shore at the ports of the Azof, receiving their cargoes by
+degrees, and cannot be fully laden till they have passed the Straits
+of Kertch below Yenicáleh, there is a great employment of lighters in
+the Azof, which are manned chiefly by Cossacks of the Don and Little
+Russians. They are an inferior description of craft, and the rates they
+charge vary extremely according to the season.[285]
+
+In years when an unusually large amount of trade has been carried on,
+great inconvenience has been felt from the inadequate means of conveyance
+by water. The delays also in the arrival of the lighters, which sometimes
+take six weeks to come down the Azof, cause a great waste of time and
+capital. A plan has often been set on foot for having steam-tugs on the
+Azof, which would cause a great saving in time and expense, and might
+easily be effected, because the anthracite mines are very near Rostof.
+The failure of this and other beneficial projects must be attributed to
+the extreme scarcity of capital, and the languor attending all efforts
+at improvement under the restrictive regulations necessary in a despotic
+monarchy.
+
+Such are a few remarks on the passage of goods down the Sea of Azof
+from the great producing countries of the north. The way in which they
+reach Rostof from the interior is by the noble river of the Don, which
+rolls its full tide of waters through the governments of Toola, Tambof,
+Orel, Woroneje, and the vast and fertile territory of the Don Cossacks.
+Toola is only about 150 miles to the south of Moscow, and there is
+therefore water communication with all the seas of the world within a
+short distance of the capital of Great Russia.[286] But this is not the
+only river that feeds the commerce of Rostof. At about 125 miles from
+the mouth of the Don, by two happy bends in their course, the Volga and
+the Don approach within 45 miles of each other, and thus goods can be
+transported from the former to the latter river, and another vast circle
+of fertile regions can be drained of their produce for the southern
+market. As the Don runs through some of the most productive governments
+of Great Russia, so the Volga[287] sweeps in a larger circle to the
+north and east, and rising in the ancient government of Tver, becomes
+navigable at about an equal distance from Moscow as the Don, describes
+a quarter of a circle round the town, and then, bending northwards into
+the government of Jaroslav, passes through Kostroma and Nijni Novgorod.
+At this celebrated place of Oriental traffic it effects its junction with
+the Oka, another artery of Great Russia, and then rolling its increased
+volume directly eastward to Kazan, the Tatar capital, it there changes
+its course to the south till it nearly meets the Don. The two rivers run
+for a short distance parallel to one another, till, suddenly diverging
+at right angles, the one falls into the Azof and the other into the
+Caspian Sea. At the point where the rivers nearly meet, Dubofka on the
+Volga is about 45 miles from Katchálin on the Don, and vast quantities of
+merchandise are yearly carried across by bullock-carts from one river to
+the other. The importance of their junction of course fixed the attention
+of Peter the Great, and it was one of his projects which he did not live
+to execute. The canal he ordered has never been dug; and thus one link
+is wanting in this magnificent system of river communication. If it were
+made, a great saving to merchants in time and money would be effected,
+and commerce proportionately increased.[289]
+
+From this short review of the countries which naturally depend upon
+Rostof as their port, and from the great lines of water communications
+which meet under its walls, it would appear that its commerce, although
+it has greatly increased, is not a twentieth part of what it ought to
+be, and that it is capable of an indefinite extension. The 40,000,000 of
+Slavonians round Moscow, which form the real heart and strength of the
+Russian Empire, send through it now a continually increasing portion of
+the produce of their labour, and would, if they could, receive through
+it innumerable articles which can be more advantageously produced in
+more civilised countries than their own. If free trade were allowed,
+this natural interchange would go on rapidly increasing to the benefit
+of both parties. At present the exports are great, but the Russian does
+not get nearly his full share of profit, owing to the necessity he is
+under of receiving to a considerable extent money instead of goods in
+payment. With this hard cash which he receives, for which Europe would
+gladly substitute manufactured goods, he is obliged to buy these latter
+articles made by his own countrymen of bad quality and high price.
+Thus a considerable amount of Russian labour and capital, which are
+so scarce in proportion to the opportunities for employing them, are
+consumed less profitably than they might be, in manufacturing these
+commodities, instead of developing the dormant resources of a most
+fertile soil.[290] Still in the face of all these checks to a natural
+system of exchange, agricultural production has greatly increased of
+late years, and the beneficial effects of the change in our navigation
+laws, and the abolition of the duties on corn, have been very distinctly
+felt. English capital flows willingly to Russia, and, while there is the
+greatest difficulty in getting a few hundred thousand pounds for India,
+millions find their way to Russia, so that I was informed by the late
+General Duplat, who was for many years our Consul-General at Warsaw,
+that two years ago he had officially conveyed the offer of capitalists
+in London to the Russian Government to lay out 12,000,000_l._ for the
+construction of railways in Russia upon very moderate terms. The whole of
+the exports of Russia are raw produce, consisting of articles of first
+necessity in Europe, of which she can never send us too much. Her people
+are essentially agricultural and commercial, and not a martial race,
+as is generally supposed. It is a mistaken notion to suppose that the
+Russians are a military or warlike nation. To the eyes of Europe their
+military despotic government, with its grasping tendency to increase its
+territories by conquest, has given them a character which they do not
+deserve. The serfs and the lower classes are forced by the conscription
+into the ranks of the army, which experience has taught them to consider
+as the hardest fate they can meet with. Of the higher classes of society
+few devote themselves from taste to the military profession, but in order
+to maintain their station in the nobility, and to preserve its privileges
+to themselves and their heirs, they are obliged to serve the state for a
+certain number of years, until they obtain at least a subordinate rank,
+such as that of lieutenant. Thus among the officers possessed of landed
+property or independent fortunes, it is not surprising that there are
+many who view with disgust any event, such as war, which obliges them to
+remain in the army longer than they otherwise would have done. Kept in
+the ranks against their inclination, it is natural that on the field of
+battle when facing the enemy they are not moved by the same martial and
+stirring spirit which animates the officers of other armies.
+
+It is not intended by these remarks to impeach the bravery of the Russian
+officers and soldiers, which would be absurd in the face of their former
+conduct in the French wars, and recently of their gallant defence of
+Sevastopol, but to account for their want of success when made to face in
+the open field the soldiers of two free nations.
+
+The Russian merchant conducts his commercial operations with
+intelligence, and amongst them are some, who, without being able either
+to read or write, transact with singular ability and success an amount of
+business which, in more civilised countries, would require an experienced
+manager, assisted by a staff of experienced clerks.[291] There is,
+likewise, no lack of enterprise in him; but the restrictive laws of the
+country, the obstacles placed in the way of intercourse with foreign
+lands, and the prohibitory duties charged on imports, prevent this spirit
+of enterprise from developing itself to its full extent. In no country do
+I believe would the effects of free trade be so rapidly felt, and tend
+more to ameliorate the physical and moral condition of the people.
+
+All customs, all prohibitions, are drawbacks on the free or natural
+system of trade between nations; and it might even be contended that
+manufactures would be far more likely to spring up in Russia under such
+a system, than under the protective system now in force. If free trade
+were established, at first, undoubtedly, the Russians would buy foreign
+manufactures, but the price of all articles of consumption except the
+common necessaries of life would be immensely reduced, and an improved
+style of living would be possible among all classes. The agriculturists
+would get more for their produce, and be able to let us have it on
+cheaper terms; manufactures in our countries and agriculture in theirs
+would be much stimulated; roads would be made, the desert tracts
+cultivated; the population would be raised both morally and physically,
+and wealth gradually accumulated; until at first the coarser and then
+the finer manufactures were attempted in the natural progress of events,
+and with undoubted success. The Russian people, patient, laborious,
+admirable workmen, have nothing to fear from foreign competition. I have
+said elsewhere, that English masters find them inaccurate; but this I
+believe to proceed from no natural incapacity for accuracy, but from
+their not understanding the use of their work, from their want of general
+education, and the little inducement and encouragement that exist for
+improving their condition in their degraded social position.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It appears, then, from what I have said in this chapter, that the
+commerce of the Sea of Azof is rapidly increasing in importance; that the
+countries surrounding it are rich and, as yet, undeveloped; and that,
+from the fine system of river communication which reaches the sea at
+Rostof, it is constantly drawing towards it for shipment a larger portion
+of the productions of Great Russia. There cannot be a doubt that, when
+peace is restored, a great impetus will be given to its trade; that it
+will benefit by the increased movement that will probably take place
+on all the shores of the Black Sea; and, should the Russian Government
+wisely change its military policy, and allow its stout-hearted and
+enterprising subjects to pursue their natural industrious bent, capital
+and population will flock to the south, and Rostof and Kertch will rival
+the Tana and Panticapæum of ancient days. No restrictions will then be
+placed on those who wish to come and learn in Europe; no passports will
+be refused to enterprising young Russians who wish, in France or England,
+to gain that knowledge of the arts and sciences which is impossible in
+their own country; and no vulgar and ignorant censors will be placed at
+the gates of the empire to keep out books as the most dangerous enemies
+of the existing system, because the most valuable of them treat of truth
+and liberty. Russia will allow the fraternisation of her people with us,
+and admit the imports of more civilised countries as the surest way to
+increase her own commerce, and by these means she, as well as Turkey,
+will be really admitted into the European federation. Can it be said
+that she has been one of us as yet, when she has isolated her people,
+and kept gigantic armies hovering in what we may call with Ritter her
+territory of European Asia, to menace poor down-stricken, corrupted
+Germany on one, and the Asiatic nations on the other side? If she will
+really, once for all, fix the limits of her empire, and give up her
+menacing attitude and aggressive tendencies, she will not require a
+million of bayonets in time of peace; and we ought not to believe that
+she has changed her policy unless she consents to reduce her armies.
+This we know that on former occasions she has positively refused to
+do; let her be obliged to diminish them when peace shall be made, as
+the best guarantee for its future maintenance. If the peace party in
+England really wish for peace, they ought to urge this point, which will
+be far more useful than motions for the reduction of our own forces.
+For how can we safely reduce, with the enormous standing armies on the
+Continent, and how can the continental Powers reduce their forces, with
+a million of men always hovering over them, and ready to fall upon them
+without notice? Russia has said by her ambassadors that her position is
+exceptional, and for that reason she cannot reduce like other powers.
+Why is her position exceptional? This she has not condescended to tell
+us. Her people is the most peaceable in the world, and the troops cannot
+be wanted to coerce them. Indeed, it is notorious that there are hardly
+any troops in Great Russia, the most thickly peopled and important part
+of the empire. There is only one infantry corps stationed at Moscow out
+of ten corps which compose the whole army. Where are the rest of her
+forces stationed? There where she expects to make conquests. They are
+distributed fan-shape round the European edge of the Russian empire, from
+the Baltic to the Black Sea, that they may overawe Germany, and advance
+to support one another in any move upon Turkey; while 170,000 men are
+kept in the Caucasus to root out the principles of liberty and extend
+Asiatic conquests.[292] Can any man believe that 400,000 men are kept in
+Poland merely to coerce the shattered, prostrate form of that unfortunate
+kingdom? Is there not a sufficient guarantee for Russian possession of
+it in the share which Austria and Prussia accepted of the spoil? When
+Austria and Prussia offered to reduce their armies, and Russia refused to
+reduce hers, was it because she wanted so large a force for self-defence?
+This was evidently impossible; and the army in Poland was required, not
+to prevent a rising of the Poles, but to support a Russian influence in
+Germany which has been most detrimental to the best interests of that
+country. If we wish, then, for permanent peace, the Russian army ought
+surely to be reduced, and who would benefit more by this measure than the
+inhabitants of Russia themselves? See how they hate the army; look at the
+miseries which the conscription entails upon them; observe how large a
+portion of the resources of the empire is wasted to support it, and think
+if those millions of capital created yearly by human labour were laid out
+in permanent improvements instead of being unproductively consumed, how
+great would be the increase to Russia in wealth and intelligence! There
+is, I believe, no good result from war which may not better be brought
+about by peace; but, as we are engaged in this tremendous contest, let us
+hope, when peace shall at length be made, and perhaps the last great knot
+in human affairs resolved which prevents the even progress of the world
+to its destined termination, that as many nations will be freed as are
+able to enjoy a rational liberty, and that peace may be secured on such a
+basis, with such guarantees for its continuance, that future difficulties
+may be resolved by some form of national arbitration.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX.
+
+
+(A.)
+
+LIST OF THE RUSSIAN NAVAL FORCE IN THE BLACK SEA IN JANUARY, 1853.
+
+  -------------------+------+----------+----------+------------------------
+     Names of Ships. |No. of|When Laid |   When   |     Observations.
+                     |Guns. |  Down.   |Launched. |
+  -------------------+------+----------+----------+------------------------
+  [293]Silistria     |  84  |Dec.  1833|Nov.  1835|} Unmanned, not being
+  Sultan Mahmoud     |  84  |Feb.  1835|Oct.  1836|}   fit for service.
+  [293]Tri Svetiteli | 120  |Dec.  1835|Aug.  1838|{ Docked for repairs
+  Tri Hezarhef       |  84  |Nov.  1836| ”     ”  |{ in 1852.
+  Gabriel            |  84  |Aug.  1838|Nov.  1839|}
+  Selafael           |  84  | ”     ”  |July  1840|}
+  [293]Uriel         |  84  | ”     ”  |Oct.   ”  |}
+  Twelve Apostles    | 120  |Oct.   ”  |June  1841|}
+  Varna              |  84  | ”     ”  |July  1842|}
+  [293]Yagudil       |  84  |Sept. 1839|Sept. 1843|} All ships of the
+  [293]Rostislaf     |  84  |May   1843|Nov.   ”  |}  line are built
+  Sviatolaf          |  84  | ”     ”  | ”    1845|}  at Nicolaief.
+  Hvabri             |  84  |June  1841|July  1847|}
+  Tchesnie           |  84  |July  1842|Oct.  1849|}
+  Paris              | 120  | ”    1847| ”     ”  |}
+  Grand Duke         |      |          |          |}
+    Constantine      | 120  |May   1850|Sept. 1852|}
+  Empress Maria      |  84  |Oct.  1849|On the    |}
+                     |      |          |  stocks  |}
+  Bosphorus          | 120  |Sept. 1852|Ditto.    |{ Screw steamer; engines
+                     |      |          |          |{   ordered in England.
+        ——           | 120  |          |          |} To be laid down during
+        ——           | 120  |          |          |}   the year.
+
+FRIGATES.
+
+  Flora              |  44  |Nov.  1837|Sept. 1839| Built in Nicolaief.
+  Messembria         |  60  |Oct.  1838|Oct.  1840|     Ditto.
+                     |      |          |          |{ Built in Sevastopol;
+  [293]Sizopoli      |  54  | ”     ”  |March 1841|{  docked in 1852 for
+                     |      |          |          |{  thorough repair.
+  Medea              |  60  |July  1840|Sept. 1843| Built in Nicolaief.
+  Kagul              |  44  |Oct.   ”  | ”     ”  |     Ditto.
+  Kovarna            |  52  |March 1841| ”    1845| Built in Sevastopol.
+  [293]Kulefehi      |  60  | ”    1844| ”    1847| Built in Nicolaief.
+
+CORVETTES.
+
+  Raylades           |  20  |Oct   1838|June  1840| Built in Nicolaief.
+  Andromache         |  18  |June  1840|July  1841|     Ditto.
+  Calypso            |  18  | ”    1841|Sept. 1845|     Ditto.
+  Orestes            |  18  |Dec.  1845|Oct.  1846|     Ditto.
+  Ariadne            |  20  |Jan.  1847|Aug.  1853| Sevastopol.
+
+BRIGS.
+
+  Mercury            |  18  |Jan.  1819|May   1820|
+  Argonaut           |  12  |Feb.  1837|Sept. 1837| Sevastopol.
+  Temistocles        |  16  |Oct.  1838|Nov.  1839| Nicolaief.
+  Perseus            |  18  |June  1839|June  1840|     Ditto.
+  Endymion           |  12  |Sept. 1839|Nov.   ”  |     Ditto.
+  Nearchus           |  12  | ”     ”  | ”     ”  |     Ditto.
+  Euroas             |  16  |June  1840|July  1842|     Ditto.
+  Ptolemy            |  18  |July  1842|Sept. 1845|     Ditto.
+  Theseus            |  18  | ”     ”  | ”     ”  |     Ditto.
+  Achilles           |  16  |From the Baltic.     |
+  Orpheus            |  16  |Dec.  1842|Sept. 1845| Sevastopol.
+  Jason              |  12  |Jan.  1847|Oct.  1850|     Ditto.
+
+SCHOONERS.
+
+  Gonetz             |  16  |Sept. 1834|March 1835| In Nicolaief.
+  Latoshka           |  16  |Feb.  1837|June  1838|     Ditto.
+  Smelaya            |  16  |Oct.  1838|May   1839| Sevastopol.
+  Drotig             |  16  |Nov.  1837|June  1839| Nicolaief.
+  Zabiaka            |  16  |Oct.  1838|Aug.   ”  |     Ditto.
+  Urcilaya           |   8  |March 1844|Sept. 1845|     Ditto.
+  Skulchwaya         |   8  | ”     ”  | ”     ”  |} Built in Nicolaief.
+  Opil               |  16  |Oct.  1849| ”    1852|}
+  Soudjuk Kalé       |  10  |Formerly Vixen, taken in 1837.
+
+CUTTERS.
+
+  Struya             |  12  |Sept. 1834|July  1835| Built in Nicolaief.
+  Lutch              |  12  | ”     ”  | ”     ”  |     Ditto.
+  Legki              |  12  | ”     ”  |Sept.  ”  |     Ditto.
+  Nerok              |  10  |Oct.  1838|July  1839| Sevastopol.
+  Skori              |  12  |March 1844|Sept. 1845| Nicolaief.
+  Pospeshnoy         |  10  | ”     ”  | ”     ”  |     Ditto.
+  Provornoy          |  10  | ”     ”  | ”     ”  |     Ditto.
+
+YACHTS.
+
+  Strela             |  10  |Sept. 1834|April 1835| Built in Nicolaief.
+  Oriánda            |  10  |July  1836|May   1837|     Ditto.
+
+BOMBARD.
+
+  Peroun             |  —  |June  1839|July  1842| Built in Nicolaief.
+
+STEAMERS.
+
+  ----------------+------+-------------------------------------------------
+  Names of        |Horse |                Observations.
+  Steamers.       |Power.|
+  ----------------+------+-------------------------------------------------
+  Wladimir        | 400  |                        From England in 1848.
+                  |      |
+  Bessarabia      | 260  |                      }
+  Gromonosetz     | 260  |                      }
+  Crimea          | 260  |} Line steamers       } From England in 1843.
+  Odessa          | 260  |}  between Odessa and }
+  Chersonesus     | 260  |}  Constantinople.    }
+                  |      |
+  Elbrus          | 250  |{ Line steamers       { From England in 1848.
+  Yenikale        | 180  |{  between Odessa,    {
+  Taman           | 180  |{  Crimea, and        { Ditto in 1849.
+                  |      |{  Soukhoum Kalé.     {
+                  |      |
+  Bayetz          | 136  |} Employed on         }
+  Mogutchi        | 136  |}  the coast of       } From England in 1839.
+  Molodela        | 136  |}  Circassia and      }
+  Cholchis        | 120  |}  for the forts      } Ditto in 1837.
+                  |      |}  on the coast.
+                  |      |
+  Grozni          | 120  |                        Built in Nicolaief, 1842.
+  Sevenain Zvezon | 120  |                         Ditto, in 1834.
+                  |      |
+  Peter the Great | 100  |                        From England in 1834.
+                  |      |
+  Andi            | 100  |                      } From England in 1845.
+  Dargo           | 100  |                      } Packet boats.
+                  |      |
+  Danube          | 100  |                      } From England in 1851.
+  Pruth           | 100  |                      } River boats.
+                  |      |
+  Berdeansk       |  90  |                      } From England in 1845.
+  Taganrog        |  90  |                      } Packet boats.
+                  |      |
+  Inkerman        |  90  |                         From England in 1838.
+                  |      |
+  Molni           |  80  |                      } Built in    { 1840.
+  Meteor          |  60  |                      }  Nicolaief. { 1838.
+  Ordinaretr      |  60  |                      }  Tug boats. { 1847.
+  Skromni         |  40  |                      }             { 1842.
+                  |      |
+  Argonaut        |  40  |                         From England in 1851.
+                  |      |
+  Vogin (Warrior) | 250  |                      } Now building in the
+  Vitiaz (Hero)   | 250  |                      }   Thames; screw steamers.
+  ----------------+------+-------------------------------------------------
+
+GUN-BOATS.
+
+  Twenty-eight gun-boats built between 1841 and 1852 for service in the
+  Danube.
+
+TRANSPORTS.
+
+  Thirty vessels, measuring 10,627 tons, built from 1837 to 1852.
+
+The Empress Maria, 84 guns, was launched on the 21st of May, but will not
+be rigged for some months.
+
+The Bosphorus, 120 guns, has not been advanced since the day her keel was
+laid down, nor are the slips made for the two other three-deckers that
+are to be commenced this year.
+
+There is no timber grown near Nicolaief; it comes down the Dniepr, and is
+employed in its green state.
+
+
+(B.)
+
+FIELD MARSHAL COUNT ALEXANDER VASSILIAVITCH SUVÓROF’S DISCOURSE UNDER THE
+TRIGGER.[294]
+
+BEING
+
+A SERIES OF INSTRUCTIONS DRAWN BY HIMSELF, FOR THE USE OF THE ARMY UNDER
+HIS COMMAND, AFTER THE TURKISH WAR; AND SINCE TRANSMITTED BY ORDER OF
+THE RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT TO EVERY REGIMENT IN THE SERVICE. IT IS COMMONLY
+CALLED SUVÓROF’S CATECHISM.
+
+(_The General is supposed to be inspecting the Line and addressing the
+Troops._)
+
+Heels close! Knees straight! A soldier must stand like a dart! I see the
+fourth—the fifth I don’t see. A soldier’s step is an archine[295]—in
+wheeling, an archine and a half. Keep your distance well!
+
+Soldiers, join elbows in front! First rank three steps from the second—in
+marching, two!
+
+Give the drum room!
+
+Keep your ball three days: it may happen for a whole campaign when
+lead[296] cannot be had!
+
+Fire seldom—but fire sure!
+
+Push hard with the bayonet! The ball will lose its way—the bayonet never!
+The ball is a fool—the bayonet a hero! Stab once: and off with the Turk
+from the bayonet! Even when he’s dead you may get a scratch from his
+sabre.
+
+If the sabre is near your neck, dodge back one step, and push on again.
+Stab the second! Stab the third! A hero will stab half-a-dozen.
+
+Be sure your ball’s in your gun! If three attack you, stab the first,
+fire on the second, and bayonet the third! This seldom happens.
+
+In the attack there is no time to load again. When you fire, take
+aim at their guts; and fire about twenty balls. Buy lead from your
+economy[297]—it costs little! We fire sure—we lose not one ball in
+thirty; in the light artillery and heavy artillery not one in ten.
+
+If you see the match upon a gun, run up to it instantly—the ball will fly
+over your head—the guns are yours—the people are yours! Down with ’em
+upon the spot! pursue ’em, stab ’em! To the remainder give quarter—it’s a
+sin to kill without reason; they are men like you. Die for the honour of
+the Virgin Mary—for your mother[298]—for all the royal family! The Church
+prays for those that die; and those who survive have honour and reward.
+Offend not the peaceable inhabitant! he gives us meat and drink—the
+soldier is not a robber. Booty is a holy thing! If you take a camp, it is
+all yours! If you take a fortress, it is all yours! At Ismael, besides
+other things, the soldiers shared gold and silver by handsful, and so in
+other places; but, without order, never go to booty!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A battle on the field has three modes of attack.
+
+1st. _On the Wing_
+
+Which is weakest. If a wing is covered by wood, it is nothing; a soldier
+will get through. Through a morass, it is more difficult. Through a river
+you cannot run. All kind of intrenchment you may jump over.
+
+2nd. _The Attack in the Centre_
+
+Is not profitable—except for cavalry, to cut them in pieces—or else
+they’ll crush you.
+
+3rd. _The Attack behind_
+
+Is very good, only for a small corps to get round. Heavy battle in the
+field, against regular troops. In squares, against Turks, and not in
+columns. It may happen against Turks, that a square of 500 men will be
+compelled to force its way through a troop of 6000 or 7000, with the
+help of small squares on the flank. In such a case, it will extend in a
+column. But till now we had no need of it. There are the God-forgetting,
+windy, light-headed Frenchmen—if it should ever happen to us to march
+against them, we must beat them in columns.
+
+_The Battle, upon Intrenchments in the Field._
+
+The ditch is not deep—the rampart is not high—Down in the ditch! Jump
+over the wall! Work with your bayonet! Stab! Drive! Take them prisoners!
+Be sure to cut off the cavalry, if any are at hand! At Prague the
+infantry cut off the cavalry; and there were three-fold, and more,
+intrenchments, and a whole fortress; therefore, we attacked in columns.
+
+_The Storm._[299]
+
+Break down the fence! Throw wattles over the holes! Run as fast as you
+can! Jump over the palisades! Cast your faggots (into the ditch)! Leap
+into the ditch! Lay on your ladders! Scour the columns! Fire at their
+heads! Fly over the walls! Stab them on the ramparts! Draw out your
+line! Put a guard on the powder-cellars! Open one of the gates! The
+cavalry will enter on the enemy! Turn his guns against him! Fire down
+the streets! Fire briskly! There’s no time to run after them! When the
+order is given, enter the town! Kill every enemy in the streets! Let the
+cavalry hack them! Enter no houses! Storm them in the open places where
+they are gathering! Take possession of the open places! Put a capital
+guard! Instantly put picquets to the gates, to the powder-cellars, and to
+the magazines! When the enemy has surrendered, give him quarter! When the
+inner wall is occupied, go to plunder!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+There are three military talents.
+
+1st. _The Coup d’Œil._
+
+How to place a camp. How to march. Where to attack, to chase, and to beat
+the enemy.
+
+2nd. _Swiftness._
+
+The field-artillery must march half or a whole verst in front, on the
+rising ground, that it may not impede the march of the columns. When the
+column arrives, it will find its place again. Down hill, and on even
+ground, let it go in a trot. Soldiers march in files, or four abreast,
+on account of narrow roads, streets, narrow bridges, and narrow passes,
+through marshy and swampy places; and only when ready for attack draw up
+in platoons, to shorten the rear. When you march four abreast, leave a
+space between the companies. Never slacken your pace! Walk on! Play! Sing
+your songs! Beat the drum! When you have broken off ten versts[300] the
+first company cast off their load, and lie down. After them the second
+company; and so forth, one after the other. But the first never wait for
+the rest! A line in columns will, on the march, always draw out. At four
+abreast, it will draw out one and a half more than its length. At two
+abreast, it will draw out double. A line one verst in length will draw
+out two. Two versts will draw out four; so the first companies would
+have to wait for the others half-an-hour, to no purpose. After the first
+ten versts, an hour’s rest. The first division that arrived (upon the
+coming of the second) takes up its baggage, and moves forward ten or
+fifteen paces; and if it passes through defiles on the march, fifteen
+or twenty paces. And in this manner division after division, that the
+hindmost may get rest. The second ten versts, another hour’s rest, or
+more. If the third distance is less than ten versts, halve it, and rest
+three-quarters, half, or a quarter of an hour, that the children[301] may
+soon get to their kettles. So much for infantry.
+
+The cavalry marches before. They alight from their horses and rest a
+short time, and march more than ten versts in one stage, that the horses
+may rest in the camp. The kettle-waggons and the tent-waggons go on
+before. When the brothers[301] arrive the kettle is ready. The master of
+the mess instantly serves out the kettle. For breakfast four hours’ rest,
+and six or eight hours at night, according as the road proves. When you
+draw near the enemy, the kettle-waggons remain with the tent-waggons, and
+wood must be prepared beforehand.
+
+By this manner of marching soldiers suffer no fatigue. The enemy does not
+expect us; he reckons us at least a hundred versts distance, and when we
+come from far, two hundred, or three hundred, or more. We fall all at
+once upon him, like snow on the head. His head turns. Attack instantly
+with whatever arrives,[302]—with what God sends. The cavalry instantly
+fall to work, hack and slash! Stab and drive! Cut them off! Don’t give
+them a moment’s rest!
+
+3rd. _Energy._
+
+One leg strengthens the other! One hand fortifies the other! By firing
+many men are killed! The enemy has also hands, but he knows not the
+Russian bayonet (alluding to the Turks)! Draw out the line immediately;
+and instantly attack with cold arms (the bayonet). If there is not time
+to draw out in line, attack, from the defile, the infantry with the
+bayonet; and the cavalry will be at hand. If there be a defile for a
+verst, and cartridges over your head, the guns will be yours! Commonly
+the cavalry makes the first attack, and the infantry follows. In general,
+cavalry must attack like infantry, except in swampy ground; and there
+they must lead their horses by the bridle. Cossacks will go through
+anything. When the battle is gained, the cavalry pursue and hack the
+enemy, and the infantry are not to remain behind. In two files there is
+strength: in three files, strength and a half.[303] The first tears, the
+second throws down, and the third perfects the work.
+
+_Rules for Diet._
+
+Have a dread of the hospital! German physic stinks from afar, is good
+for nothing, and rather hurtful. A Russian soldier is not used to it.
+Messmates know where to find roots, herbs, and pismires. A soldier
+is inestimable. Take care of your health! Scour the stomach when it
+is foul! Hunger is the best medicine! He who neglects his men—if an
+officer, arrest; if a sub-officer, lashes;[304] and to the private,
+lashes, if he neglects himself. If loose bowels want food, at sunset a
+little gruel and bread. For costive bowels, some purging plant in warm
+water, or the liquorice-root. Remember, gentlemen, the field physic of
+Doctor Bellypotski.[305] In hot fevers eat nothing, even for twelve
+days,[306] and drink your soldier’s quas[307]—that’s a soldier’s physic.
+In intermitting fevers neither eat nor drink. It’s only a punishment for
+neglect if death ensues. In hospitals, the first day the bed seems soft;
+the second comes French soup; and the third the brother is laid in his
+coffin, and they draw him away! One dies, and ten companions around
+him inhale his expiring breath. In camp, the sick and feeble are kept
+in huts, and not in villages: there the air is purer. Even without an
+hospital you must not stint your money for medicine, if it can be bought;
+nor even for other necessaries. But all this is frivolous: we know how
+to preserve ourselves. Where one dies in a hundred with others, we lose
+not one in five hundred in the course of a month. For the healthy,
+drink, air, and food; for the sick, air, drink, and food. Brothers, the
+enemy trembles for you! But there is another enemy, greater than the
+hospital,—the damned “_I don’t know_.”[308] _From the half-confessing,
+the guessing, lying, deceitful, the palavering, equivocation,
+squeamishness, and nonsense of_ “_Don’t know_,” many disasters originate.
+Stammering, hackering,[309] and so forth; it’s shameful to relate! A
+soldier should be sound, brave, firm, decisive, true, honourable! Pray
+to God! from Him come victory and miracles! God conducts us! God is our
+general! For the “_I don’t know_” an officer is put in the guard; a
+staff-officer is served with an arrest at home. Instruction is _light_!
+Not instruction is _darkness_! The work fears its master.[310] If a
+peasant knows not how to plough, the corn will not grow! One wise man is
+worth three fools! and even three are little, give six! and even six are
+little, give ten![311] One clever fellow will beat them all, overthrow
+them, and take them prisoners!
+
+In the last campaign the enemy lost 75,000 well counted men—perhaps not
+much less than 100,000. He fought desperately and artfully, and we lost
+not a full thousand.[312] There, brethren, you behold the effect of
+military instruction.
+
+Gentlemen, officers, what a triumph!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+N.B. This translation has been rendered perfectly literal, so that effect
+is often sacrificed to a strict attention to the real signification of
+the words, instead of introducing parallel phrases.
+
+
+(C.)
+
+ON THE TIMBER TRADE OF NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN RUSSIA.[313]
+
+Most people will acknowledge it to be a matter of some difficulty to
+turn the habitual course of trade into any new channel. For a century
+the forests of Lithuania exported by the Duna from Riga timber, and more
+especially masts; supplying thereby all the dockyards of Europe. The
+value of this branch of commerce amounted to about 2,000,000 roubles per
+annum. Each piece of timber passed through the hands of two sorters, who
+are an incorporated body, and are responsible, by their oath, for the
+quality of the article. These qualities varying in different countries,
+the merchants are in the habit of sending their orders to the principal
+sorters, naming the quantity and the quality which they require. These
+men then despatch a cutter to the spot, to select and appropriate the
+timber according to the orders which they receive; and the timber so
+selected is inspected afresh at Riga previous to shipment. This sorting
+or surveying is a joint-stock affair, the profits upon which go to a
+general fund, and are divided at the end of the year. There are two
+modes of bargaining with the wood-growers: either by purchasing of them
+a certain number of trees, chosen by a competent judge, or by taking an
+entire wood on lease, with the right of felling such trees as may from
+time to time suit the lessee; in which latter case the price is regulated
+according to the quantity of timber removed, charging so much for masts
+and so much for planks. The time for felling the trees is in the months
+of October and November; and although it would be better to postpone it
+until the sap shall have left the trees, yet, at a further period of
+the season, the snow would render the woods almost inaccessible: and it
+is necessary to avail one’s self of the drawing or sledging, just in
+time to bring away the timber already cut. Nevertheless, the felling
+sometimes continues until the month of January, or even February. Despite
+the care of the surveyor, 10 per cent. may reasonably be deducted from
+the original cost of timber on account of the occasional felling
+of trees that are objectionable; which are left on the land. It is
+commonly understood that masts of this description shall be left to the
+land-owner, and that no more shall be paid for than are taken away. The
+timber intended for Riga is all lopped and trimmed on the spot; and upon
+the breaking up of the ice in the Dniepr or in the Beresina (near to
+which rivers the greater part of the woods are situated) the timber is
+launched, in order afterwards that it may be sent down the Duna to Riga.
+It is only from the nearest forests that timber can be delivered at Riga
+in the same year in which it is felled; for with reference to the more
+distant, a second land-carriage betwixt the Dniepr and the Duna becomes
+indispensable. It often happens that, the time to complete the squaring
+of the timber during the first winter being insufficient, advantage is
+taken of the delay caused by the frost, in the breaking up of the ice of
+the Duna, to complete it. By this means the timber arrives at Riga in the
+fine season, and is fit for immediate shipment.
+
+The thinning of the forests of Lithuania has compelled the fellers to
+move gradually farther and farther southward. Even now but few maiden
+forests are to be found near the river in the government of Minsk; and
+the supplies of timber are now chiefly furnished by the government of
+Tchérnigof and of Kief. The timber trade must, therefore, necessarily be
+driven into the hands of the Southern Russians. In lieu of transporting
+the timber, as before, against the current of the Dniepr, and of a long
+journey over land, it is now abandoned to the stream, and thus floats
+rapidly down to Kherson, where it arrives between May 15 and July 1.
+
+The masts and bulks are commonly fastened together in rafts of 100
+pieces each, and are managed by four or five men. Planks and staves are
+conveyed by means of large barks, manned with fifteen or sixteen men. The
+expense of water-carriage is about 25 roubles each for large masts. The
+vessels that are without decks cost as much as 1200 roubles; those that
+are decked are worth double this sum; but owing to their inability to
+reascend the river, are usually sold at Kherson for a few hundred roubles
+each. The merchants of Odessa have not as yet directed much of their
+attention to the timber trade; either because grain chiefly occupies
+their attention, or because of the want of proper experience on the part
+of the speculators; the first purchases of masts at Kherson, for the
+arsenals at Toulon and at Carthagena, proved disastrous in their results.
+Nevertheless, as Odessa possesses some very rich houses, with whom it is
+become almost a point of duty to open fresh outlets to the commerce of
+the country, and since bad harvests have obliged other houses to direct
+their capital to articles till then almost unknown, the timber trade at
+Kherson has progressed very rapidly. In 1833 the value of the timber and
+wood exported from that place amounted to 1,000,000 roubles, or nearly
+180,000_l._ In 1834 many ships loaded with masts and staves for France
+and Spain. The great saving effected in the charges of transportation to
+ports of shipment, as well as on freights, will render it impossible for
+the trade of Riga, henceforward, to compete with that of the Black Sea,
+in supplying the south of Europe, where the consumption (of staves more
+particularly) is very great. _Kherson is able to obtain timber from the
+very same forests which supply Riga, at from 20 to 30 per cent. cheaper_,
+owing to the loss of interest on the capital employed, six months being
+the intermediate time of its arrival at Kherson, whilst the passage to
+Riga occupies at least twenty months. Besides, on landing the timber
+from the Dniepr, it remains a long time exposed to the air before being
+again launched in the Duna, which cannot fail to injure it. A sorter, or
+surveyor, from Riga, is already established at Kherson, for the purpose
+of placing the timber trade on the same footing as in the former city.
+He is accompanied by twelve Lithuanian labourers, practised in the
+trimming of masts, which are prepared on the spot where they are felled.
+A skilful workman will not be able to trim a large mast in less than a
+week. Excepting pine planks, which are sawn in the town, all other sorts
+of timber are sent to Kherson ready trimmed. The largest masts shipped
+hence are not more than about 20 palms in diameter, and about 85 feet in
+length. Those of larger dimensions, being purchased chiefly for Holland,
+are sent of course to Riga, but there is no doubt of the possibility of
+conveying them to Kherson with as much facility as to the former place.
+Even the smaller masts, which are all very cheap, are very superior in
+quality to, and much more durable than, those of Moldavia, Tuscany,
+and the Adriatic. The Oak, on the contrary, like that of Moldavia, is
+too soft for ship-building; nevertheless for staves it is certainly
+superior to that of the Romagna. These staves are cut from six to eight
+feet in length, and six inches broad, by two and a half to three inches
+thick. They are sold in lots of sixty, called shocks, the cost of one of
+which shocks, at Kherson, of six feet, was, in 1834, about 37 roubles.
+They can, however, be had of all dimensions, by apprising the seller
+beforehand in the months of August and September.
+
+In addition to the timber destined for ship-building, wood of almost
+every shape is brought from the greatest part of Southern Russia
+for building, and for other purposes. This trade is in the hands of
+speculators from Kherson, and is carried on at places where the timber
+is felled; it is only the timber intended for foreign shipment, and
+certain sorts, that would find but a very limited sale at home, that
+are ordered beforehand. Igren and Kakhóvka, the one above, the other
+below, the cataracts of the Dniepr, are important places for the trade
+in wood. At these places, the carmen of the environs, who fetch fish
+and salt from the ports of the Sea of Azof, load the wood that has
+come down the Dniepr; in this manner it comes to the same price as
+that which is brought down the Volga and the Don in small quantities.
+But it is probable that, in time, the oak of Kasan, which now supplies
+the shipyards of the North, will be obtainable by this last-mentioned
+route. The forests, with which the mountains of the Crimea are covered,
+furnish to the shipyard of Sevastopol excellent building timber and
+much firewood; Odessa, in particular, which procures it from the north
+of Bessarabia, likewise consumes a great deal of it; still, as a great
+part of this latter province is entirely stripped of wood, it is under
+the necessity of supplying itself from Moldavia, especially from the
+district of Kiatra, which is very woody, and which exports wood also
+to Constantinople. Bessarabia derives from thence only firewood; but
+building-timber, masts, planks, and staves, are sent down the Seret
+(a river which separates Moldavia from Wallachia), and find a vent at
+Galatz, whence they are sent off in great rafts to Constantinople;
+and, before the Sultan prohibited it, these articles were sent from
+thence into Egypt. In 1832 the value of these exports amounted to more
+than 500,000 francs. The masts of Moldavia are of a very inferior
+quality compared with those of Russia; but many vessels buy them at
+Constantinople, because they are so very cheap. Neither is the oak for
+ship-building so hard as that of Bulgaria, which, on this account, is
+generally preferred. In general, a great quantity of timber is imported
+from Bulgaria into Ismail and into Reni, as, for the last five years,
+that article has not been burthened with any duty, and it forms one of
+the most important branches of commerce at both places. Roumelia likewise
+exports a considerable quantity of timber, especially staves, from the
+port of Bourgas.
+
+
+(D.)
+
+COMMERCE OF PORTS OF CRIMEA, 1852.[314]
+
+
+I. PORT OF EUPATORIA.
+
+There was imported into this port in 1852—
+
+  Goods              132,902 S. R.
+  Coin                 2,240 S. R.
+                     -------
+      Total          135,142 S. R.
+
+Exports—
+
+  Russian produce    266,719 S. R.,
+
+and no coin.
+
+31 foreign vessels entered the port of Eupatoria.
+
+The coasting trade presented the following numbers:—Arrivals, 189—of
+which, 1 from Petersburg. Departures, 188—of which, 5 for Petersburg.
+
+
+II. AKMÉSHED.—III. SEVASTOPOL.—IV. BALACLAVA.—V. YALTA.
+
+These four ports have only a coasting trade.
+
+  -----------+-------------------------
+             |  Number of Coasters.
+             +-----------+-------------
+             | Arrivals. | Departures.
+             +-----------+-------------
+  Akméshed   |      5    |     5
+  Sevastopol |    452    |   466
+  Balaclava  |      7    |    10
+  Yalta      |     66    |    62
+  -----------+-----------+-------------
+
+Besides, steamers anchored 49 times in the port of Yalta.
+
+The coasters brought and discharged in these four ports, besides
+provisions for the state, goods of the following value:—
+
+  -----------+-----------+-----------
+             |  Brought. | Took away.
+             +-----------+-----------
+             |    S. R.  |    S. R.
+  Akméshed   |           |    3,883
+  Sevastopol | 1,051,451 |  107,793
+  Balaclava  |           |      749
+  Yalta      |   137,408 |  130,315
+  -----------+-----------+-----------
+
+
+VI. THEODOSIA.
+
+The imports into the port of Theodosia in 1852 were—
+
+  Goods      137,822 S. R.
+  Coin        10,841 S. R.
+             -------------
+    Total    144,663 S. R.
+
+Exports—
+
+  Goods       57,237 S. R.
+
+  +----------------+-----------+-------------+
+  |                | Arrivals. | Departures. |
+  |                +-----------+-------------+
+  |Foreign vessels |     97    |      14     |
+  |Coasters        |    144    |     229     |
+  +----------------+-----------+-------------+
+
+The coasters brought goods, 150,823 S. R.; and loaded to a value of
+96,862 S. R.
+
+
+VII. KERTCH.
+
+  1852: Foreign Imports    Goods    40,395 S. R.
+                           Coin      2,900 S. R.
+                                    ------
+                   Total            43,275 S. R.
+                 Exports            41,386 S. R.
+
+and no coin.
+
+113 foreign vessels arrived, and 73 left: of these 113 arrivals, 52,
+after passing quarantine at Kertch, entered the Sea of Azof. The coasting
+trade had 1111 arrivals, and 1094 departures.
+
+The coasters brought, in 1852—goods, 834,671 S. R., besides stores to the
+account of the state. They loaded goods 359,418 S. R.; of salt from the
+Lakes of Kertch, 1,464,140 poods were sent from the Lakes of Kertch to
+the ports of the Sea of Azof; 91,435 poods to the Black Sea; and 74,775
+poods to Petersburg:—total, 1,630,360 poods; which makes 911,445 poods
+more than in 1851, and 576,020 poods more than in 1850. This is the
+largest exportation of salt that has ever been made; for even in 1837 the
+exports only reached 1,431,975 poods.
+
+The reduction of the excise, and the permission to pay for it in the
+ports of the Sea of Azof, are the causes of this increase in the export
+of salt to the interior of the empire.
+
+
+_Résumé._
+
+It results, from the accounts given above, that the commerce of the
+Crimea was more important in 1852 than in 1851. The reason was the good
+harvest of 1852. The export of its production was on a larger scale, and
+consequently the import was larger; more cottons and mixed Turkish silks
+were imported into Theodosia; more fruits and tobacco to Eupatoria; more
+coal to Kertch. The export of wheat and other grains was also larger;
+also of walnut-wood from Theodosia, and more linseed and wool, and tallow
+and butter, from Eupatoria. The increase in commercial affairs, of
+course, occasioned activity in the shipping.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The coasting trade, always more important in the Crimean ports than
+foreign commerce, has continued slowly to improve, as may be seen from
+the following tables for 1851 and 1852.
+
+
+I. FOREIGN COMMERCE.
+
+  +------------+---------------------------------------+
+  |            |            Value of Goods.            |
+  |            +-------------------+-------------------+
+  |            |   Importations.   |   Exportations.   |
+  |            +---------+---------+---------+---------+
+  |            |  1851.  |  1852.  |  1851.  |  1852.  |
+  |            +---------+---------+---------+---------+
+  |Eupatoria   | 119,289 | 132,902 | 126,070 | 266,719 |
+  |Balaclava   |     648 |         |         |         |
+  |Theodosia   |  94,832 | 133,822 |  44,933 |  57,237 |
+  |Kertch      |  35,353 |  40,395 |  21,677 |  41,386 |
+  |            +---------+---------+---------+---------+
+  |  Total     | 250,122 | 307,119 | 192,689 | 365,342 |
+  +------------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
+
+Less coin was imported in 1852 than in 1851; it was 15,981 S. R. More was
+exported.
+
+  +------------+---------------------------------------+
+  |            |              Navigation.              |
+  |            +-------------------+-------------------+
+  |            |     Arrivals.     |    Departures.    |
+  |            +---------+---------+---------+---------+
+  |            |  1851.  |  1852.  |  1851.  |  1852.  |
+  |            +---------+---------+---------+---------+
+  |Eupatoria   |    22   |    30   |    14   |    31   |
+  |Balaclava   |     3   |         |         |         |
+  |Theodosia   |    56   |    97   |    10   |    14   |
+  |Kertch      |   108   |   113   |    64   |    73   |
+  |            +---------+---------+---------+---------+
+  |  Total     |   189   |   240   |    88   |   108   |
+  +------------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
+
+
+II. COASTING TRADE.
+
+  +------------+-----------------------------------------------+
+  |            |             Value of Merchandise.             |
+  |            +-----------------------+-----------------------+
+  |            |     Importations.     |     Exportations.     |
+  |            +-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
+  |            |   1851.   |   1852.   |   1851.   |   1852.   |
+  |            +-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
+  |Akméshed    |           |           |     380   |     3,883 |
+  |Eupatoria   |   243,097 |   116,878 |   199,799 |   262,410 |
+  |Sevastopol  |   757,920 | 1,051,451 |   143,522 |   107,793 |
+  |Balaclava   |     4,162 |           |     2,190 |       749 |
+  |Yalta       |   177,290 |   137,408 |    85,153 |   130,315 |
+  |Theodosia   |    94,832 |   150,823 |    44,933 |    96,862 |
+  |Kertch      |   877,285 |   834,671 |   266,378 |   359,419 |
+  |            +-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
+  |  Total     | 2,154,586 | 2,291,231 |   742,355 |   961,431 |
+  +------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
+
+  +------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+
+  |            |      Departures.      |       Arrivals.       |
+  |            +-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
+  |            |   1851.   |   1852.   |   1851.   |   1852.   |
+  |            +-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
+  |Akméshed    |       2   |       5   |       1   |       5   |
+  |Eupatoria   |     195   |     188   |     187   |     189   |
+  |Sevastopol  |     463   |     466   |     483   |     452   |
+  |Balaclava   |      15   |      10   |      12   |       7   |
+  |Yalta       |      84   |      62   |      96   |      66   |
+  |Theodosia   |     247   |     229   |     201   |     144   |
+  |Kertch      |   1,038   |   1,094   |   1,053   |   1,111   |
+  |            +-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
+  |  Total     |   2,044   |   2,054   |   2,033   |   1,974   |
+  +------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
+
+
+(E.)
+
+ADVANTAGES LIKELY TO ACCRUE TO THE TRADE OF THE DANUBE FROM THE
+ESTABLISHMENT OF A FREE PORT AT THE ST. GEORGE’S MOUTH OF THE RIVER.
+
+The subject of the opening of the Danube is so intimately connected
+with the countries about which I have written, that I think it will be
+interesting to the public to read the following memorandum which has just
+been sent home by Mr. Cunningham, the English Consul at Galatz, and a
+merchant at that port.
+
+
+MEMORANDUM.
+
+As the navigation of the Danube forms one of the Four Points to be
+settled between the Allies and Russia, there can be little doubt that
+the present war will not terminate without the navigation of that river
+being placed on a clear, secure, and lasting footing, and such as to
+encourage the investment of capital in mercantile enterprises in the
+vicinity of this river. Further, that those nations interested in the
+trade and navigation of the river will adopt proper means not only to
+remove all material impediments to the navigation in the first instance,
+but also that they will provide a permanent fund, by a tax on vessels
+frequenting the river or otherwise, to keep the channels in the best
+state for the security and despatch of shipping; and will further make
+such arrangements as shall appear most conducive to the extension of the
+trade of the countries situate along its banks.
+
+No one measure would conduce more to the facility of the trade and
+navigation of the river, to the prosperity of the countries on the Lower
+Danube, and to the extension of their agriculture, than the formation of
+a free port at the mouth of the river Danube.
+
+In order to understand the advantages which a free port at the mouth of
+the Danube would confer on the trade of the river, it is necessary to
+state how it is carried on at present, and the difficulties it has to
+contend with, particularly in the export trade in grain.
+
+All the grain of Wallachia is exported from Ibraila.
+
+All the grain of Moldavia is exported from Galatz.
+
+All the grain of Bulgaria which goes out by the Danube is exported from
+Matchin.
+
+    NOTE.—In spring, when the water in the Danube is high, some
+    small sea-going vessels go up to Silistria to load Bulgarian
+    wheat, and to Giurgevo to load Wallachian wheat.
+
+All the grain of Bessarabia which goes out by the Danube is shipped from
+Reni and Ismail.
+
+The grain, the produce of one of these provinces, cannot be brought to
+any other province, not even for shipment, but the vessel must go to the
+port where the grain is in order to receive it.
+
+This state of things causes much trouble, inconvenience, and expense to
+the merchant, as the merchant residing in one of the towns mentioned
+(generally in Galatz) may be shipping grain from all these ports at one
+time, without being able to ascertain the quality or condition of the
+grain he is shipping at any port excepting at the place where he resides.
+It is also inconvenient and expensive to shipmasters, who must first call
+at Galatz for orders, and may afterwards be sent to any of the ports
+mentioned.
+
+Galatz and Ibraila are called free ports by their respective governments,
+but most improperly so: first, grain and tallow cannot be brought from
+Wallachia into Galatz, nor from Moldavia into Ibraila; the importation of
+these two articles into Moldavia or Wallachia from any quarter whatever,
+even for exportation, is prohibited. It follows therefore that the grain
+of Turkey cannot be warehoused in Galatz or Ibraila for exportation. As
+grain forms nine-tenths of the export trade of the Danube, it follows
+that the name of Free Port is altogether illusory.
+
+Excepting the above two articles, and salt, all other articles may be
+brought into Galatz and Ibraila, and exported without payment of duty,
+provided the following forms be observed. On introducing the article it
+must be declared for exportation, and it must not be sold. If sold, the
+buyer must pay duty on exporting the article. But it must be observed
+that all articles the production of Moldavia and Wallachia are brought
+into Galatz and Ibraila respectively by land without payment of duty, and
+the duty is only paid on being exported by water from the so-called free
+port.
+
+It is scarcely necessary to add that as in Turkey and Russia there is no
+pretension to a free port, the duty on all articles sent into either of
+these countries would have to be paid on entering, and again on being
+exported. The introduction of grain into Russia is prohibited.
+
+It must be evident that it would be very advantageous to the export trade
+of the Danube, which is at present almost entirely confined to grain,
+to have some one point where the grain from all the different shipping
+ports could be brought forward in river craft, and there loaded on
+board of sea-going vessels. This can only be effected by having a free
+port established. But this free port would be equally advantageous for
+imports, which, being brought to one place, could be more conveniently
+sent forward to their various ports of destination along the Danube.
+
+As steam power for river navigation has such an evident advantage over
+sailing vessels, it is quite behind the age to take sailing vessels
+100 miles up a river for cargo, when the cargo can be brought down
+more easily and economically to the mouth of the river by steam; it is
+therefore apparent that, in seeking to establish _a free port on the
+Danube for the first time_, it ought to be placed as near as possible to
+the sea. For this reason the free port should be placed either at the
+Sulina mouth or at the St. George’s mouth. As, however, Sulina consists
+only of a narrow strip of land between the river and a marsh, and as that
+strip is subject to be overflowed, Sulina is not suited for the site of
+a town. At the St. George’s mouth, on the right bank of the river, the
+land is high and well suited for the erection of a town, therefore the
+free port should in preference be placed there. It is probable that, on
+application being made, the Turkish Government would grant the rights
+of a free port to the whole of the island Ruselm formed by the Danube,
+the branch called Donnawitza, the lake Ramsim, and the sea. Even on the
+left bank, on the island of St. George, the ground is much higher than
+at Sulina. At the outset the St. George’s mouth presents a difficulty
+in comparison to that of Sulina, namely, whereas the Sulina mouth has
+only a single bar of about 150 yards broad, the St. George’s mouth has
+banks extending out fully a mile; _but, as the entrance into the St.
+George’s has never been carefully surveyed_, it is not known whether a
+channel may not extend all the way out, which only requires to be marked
+out by buoys; but in every case there can be no doubt that a channel
+could be opened up and kept open, at an expense which would fall very
+light on the number of vessels likely to enter it, in comparison to the
+heavy lighterage which they have hitherto had to pay at Sulina. The St.
+George’s branch is much finer than the Sulina; it discharges at least
+ten times more water than the Sulina does, and this should render it
+easy to make a deeper channel than at Sulina; it is much broader, and
+therefore would afford more accommodation for shipping. It may be asked
+why, when the St. George presents so many advantages over the Sulina, no
+attempt has been made to render these advantages available? but when it
+is considered that Russia only held the left bank of this branch, while
+Turkey held the right bank, whereas Russia held both sides of the Sulina
+branch, it is evident that it was for the advantage of Russia to keep the
+St. George closed, and thus have the whole trade of the Danube under her
+control.
+
+To show precisely the disadvantage of having to ascend the river with
+sailing vessels to receive cargo, it may be stated that sailing vessels
+seldom arrive from Sulina at Galatz in less than fourteen days, and not
+unfrequently they take a month to come up. Again, in going down, what
+between putting part of their cargo into lighters in order to go over
+the shoals in the river, and what by grounding and getting the vessel
+off again, three weeks or a month are frequently consumed between Galatz
+and Sulina. But the best proof is in the rates of freight, as a vessel,
+obtaining 12_s._ per quarter from Galatz to England, would take cargo
+from the mouth of the Danube to England for 8_s._ per quarter.
+
+No doubt a vessel might save much time by being towed up the river by a
+steamer; but there would always be danger of the vessel grounding, and
+part of the cargo would always have to be put into lighters. The steamer
+could bring down four times more grain in proper barges than the vessel
+could carry, and in less time.
+
+The uncertain political position of the Danube, and the difficulties and
+delays caused by quarantines, have hitherto prevented steam navigation
+from taking any considerable extension in that river; in fact, there have
+not yet been any steamers exclusively for the trade of the Principalities
+and Bulgaria. The steam navigation on the Lower Danube at the
+commencement of the present war with Russia was as follows:—The Imperial
+Royal Danube Steam Navigation Company of Vienna despatch a steamer weekly
+from Vienna to Galatz, and _vice versâ_. A steamer went weekly both up
+and down between Galatz and Turno Severin, on the Wallachian side of
+the river; and a steamer weekly between Galatz and Skella Cladova, on
+the Turkish side of the river. Besides these steamers, this Company had
+occasionally tugsteamers between this place and Calafat; and within the
+last four years it has had a number of iron barges, called _shlepfs_,
+on the Lower Danube, to be towed by steamers, for the conveyance of
+grain and other merchandise. The Austrian Lloyd’s Steam Company of
+Trieste had steamers performing six voyages monthly between Galatz and
+Constantinople: this Company also kept a steamer plying between Galatz
+and Ibraila. The Russians had a steamer performing two voyages monthly
+between Galatz and Odessa.
+
+When, however, the trade and navigation of the Danube shall have been
+placed on a satisfactory and permanent footing, there can be little doubt
+that the companies having steamers on the Danube will increase their
+number, so as to meet the requirements of trade; or, should such not be
+the case, other companies will be established, as capital cannot be long
+wanting for an investment which offers at once security and good returns.
+
+Until the war between Russia and Turkey in 1828, grain and tallow
+from the Principalities could only be sent to Constantinople. Certain
+Turkish commissioners came yearly to the provinces and purchased grain,
+fixing their own price for it, and that price was so low as not to be
+remunerative to the cultivator. Consequently, very little grain was then
+grown in the Principalities, and it was harvested and brought to market
+in a most careless manner, having a great deal of earth and dirt mixed
+with it, and the quality was very bad.
+
+By the Treaty of Adrianople, the Russians gave free trade to the
+Principalities and the cultivation of grain was extended. So soon as the
+exportation of grain from the Principalities began to take a certain
+extension, the Russian Government perceived the double error it had
+committed, and endeavoured to correct it: this double error was, first,
+the trade of the Principalities was increased, and the attention of
+Europe was thereby called to them; secondly, the grain exported from
+the Principalities came into competition and lowered the price of the
+grain of the Russian ports on the Black Sea. For this end the Russians
+prevented the establishment of a general entrepôt on the Danube; they
+imposed vexatious quarantine regulations on shipping and merchandise; and
+they prevented the removing of banks and shoals and other impediments to
+the navigation of the river.
+
+Notwithstanding all these discouragements and impediments, the
+exportation of Moldavia and Wallachia by Galatz and Ibraila down the
+Danube in the year 1852 had reached the following quantities:—
+
+  +------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
+  |            |  Galatz.  |  Ibraila. |   Total.  |
+  |            +-----------+-----------+-----------+
+  |            | Quarters. | Quarters. | Quarters. |
+  |Wheat       |   187,555 |   343,584 |   531,139 |
+  |Indian Corn |   329,279 |   725,259 | 1,054,538 |
+  |Rye         |    96,900 |     1,296 |    98,196 |
+  |Barley      |       468 |    80,278 |    80,746 |
+  |Millet      |       —   |     5,180 |     5,180 |
+  |            +-----------+-----------+-----------+
+  |    Total   |   614,202 | 1,155,597 | 1,769,799 |
+  +------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
+
+The exportation of grain from Turkey, and consequently from Bulgaria,
+was prohibited until the year 1839, when the exportation was allowed by
+the treaty of commerce made between Turkey and England in that year. The
+exportation of grain from Bulgaria by the Danube has made very little
+progress hitherto, and not more than 200,000 quarters of grain of all
+sorts have been exported by the Danube in any one year.
+
+There are many reasons no doubt for this want of progress; among which
+are, the improper interference of the Turkish Government, which has
+already forbidden the exportation of grain four different times, under
+pretext that there was a scarcity of grain in Turkey; the interference
+of pashas and other Turks in authority, who are always endeavouring
+to have a monopoly of the grain trade of their districts; also the
+insufficient protection of the cultivators. But another reason, and which
+had great influence, was the want of a proper place for shipping on board
+of sea-going vessels, as there is no place on the Turkish side of the
+Danube with suitable warehouses, and Turkish grain was not allowed to be
+warehoused in Wallachia or Moldavia.
+
+Little doubt can be entertained, that inquiry will be made into the
+causes which prevent the extension of agriculture in Turkey for the
+purpose of removing them, and that, in consequence, the exportation of
+grain from Bulgaria will increase rapidly.
+
+Grain of Bessarabia is exported from Reni and Ismail on the Danube,
+but by far the larger portion of the produce of that province goes to
+Odessa for shipment, being attracted to that place by the lower rate of
+freights which prevails there than on the Danube. Were the freights from
+the Danube reduced to the same rates as those from Odessa, there can be
+little doubt that nearly the whole of the grain produced in Bessarabia
+would be brought to the Danube for shipment. The quantity of grain
+exported from Ismail is larger than what is exported from Reni; in the
+year 1852 the quantity exported from these two ports may have amounted,
+to 400,000 quarters. It is proper to observe, that although Ismail is
+situate on the Kilia branch of the Danube, yet the vessels at present
+frequenting that port enter and go out by the Sulina branch, and would
+consequently go by the St. George’s were it rendered more commodious.
+
+From what has been stated it results that the quantity of grain exported
+from the Danube in 1852 was:—
+
+                     Imperial Quarters.
+  From Galatz             614,202
+    ”  Ibraila          1,155,597
+    ”  Bulgaria (about)   200,000
+    ”  Bessarabia         400,000
+                        ---------
+                        2,369,799
+                        =========
+
+But the production of Moldavia and Wallachia goes on increasing at
+the rate of about five per cent. yearly, and should this free port be
+obtained, a further impetus will be given to the exportation by the
+reduction of freights. For the same reason it may be expected that the
+exportation of Bessarabia by the Danube will be greatly increased, as
+produce, in place of being carried to Odessa, will be brought to the
+Danube for shipment. Then as regards Bulgaria, taking into account
+internal impediments to cultivation, which may be expected to be removed,
+and facilities to exportation and lower freights, it cannot be doubted
+that the production and exportation of grain from Bulgaria will increase
+very rapidly. For these reasons it may safely be reckoned, that ten years
+after the establishment of peace, and a convenient free port near the
+mouth of the Danube, the following quantities of grain will be exported
+from the Danube:—
+
+                    Imperial Quarters.
+  From Wallachia        2,000,000
+    ”  Moldavia         1,000,000
+    ”  Bulgaria         1,500,000
+    ”  Bessarabia       1,000,000
+                        ---------
+                        5,500,000
+                        =========
+
+Regarding the present manner of bringing forward grain for shipment on
+board of sea-going vessels, it is to be observed that all the grain
+shipped from Galatz comes forward to that place by land. Of that
+shipped from Ibraila, not over one-fifth comes forward by land; the
+rest is brought down the Danube by river craft, called _kerlatze_, from
+Calafat, Islas, Giurgevo, Calarrach, &c. Latterly, the Vienna Danube
+Steam Navigation Company has occasionally brought down grain from Upper
+Wallachia in shlepfs or iron barges. Of the grain shipped from Bulgaria,
+a portion is shipped from Silistria by small vessels, which go up to that
+place in spring when the water is high; the remainder is brought down, by
+kerlatze, from Widdin, Sistove, Rustchuk, &c., to Matchin, for shipment.
+At Matchin some warehouses have lately been built. The grain shipped from
+Bessarabia is all brought forward to Reni and Ismail by land.
+
+The rate of freight, by kerlatze, from Calafat to Ibraila, in the course
+of the last four years, has ranged from P. 60-P. 120 of the G. S. per
+1000 okes, equal per quarter to 2_s._ 2_d._ to 4_s._ 3_d._; but P. 80 per
+1000 okes may be taken as the usual freight, or per quarter 2_s._ 10_d._,
+for conveyance the distance of 300 miles English. The freight charged by
+the Austrian Danube Steam Company for conveying grain in iron barges,
+towed by steamers from Calafat to Ibraila, varies according to the season
+and demand, but may be taken on an average at 30 kreutzers per 100 funti,
+4_s._ per imperial quarter. The kerlatze, or river craft, perform a
+voyage from Ibraila up to Calafat, empty and back with a cargo of grain,
+in about two months. A steamer towing shlepfs can perform the same voyage
+in ten days.
+
+The freight from Galatz to England may be taken as 50 per cent. higher
+than the freight from Odessa to England; thus, when freight from Odessa
+is 7_s._ per quarter, the freight from Galatz is 10_s._ 6_d._: these
+are low freights. But were there a port at the St. George’s mouth, the
+freight from thence to England could never be more than from Odessa,
+but would probably be 10 per cent. less. Thus allowing 1_s._ or 1_s._
+6_d._ per quarter for freight from Galatz to St. George, there would be
+a saving, when freights were low, of at least 2_s._, and when freights
+were high 5_s._ to 6_s._ per quarter, in favour of bringing grain to the
+ships, in place of sending the ships to the grain.
+
+There would also be a great saving on the Insurance, and in the time of
+sending the merchandise to market.
+
+                                                       CHARLES CUNNINGHAM.
+
+_Galatz, April 4, 1855._
+
+       LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET,
+                            AND CHARING CROSS.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: THE CRIMEA, WITH THE NORTHERN SHORES OF THE BLACK SEA AND
+SEA OF AZOV.
+
+_Published by John Murray Albemarle Sᵗ. February 1855._
+
+_Ford & West. Lithʳˢ._]
+
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES
+
+
+[1] Voyage autour du Caucase, par Frédéric Dubois de Montpereux. 6 vols.
+with an Atlas. Paris, 1839.
+
+[2] Études sur les Forces Productives de Russie, par M. L. de Tegoborski,
+Conseiller Privé et Membre du Conseil de l’Empire de Russie. 3 vols.
+Paris, 1852-54.
+
+[3] Les Steppes de la Mer Caspienne, le Caucase, la Crimée, et la Russie
+Méridionale. 3 vols., with an Atlas. Paris, 1845.
+
+[4] This was the strength of the army in 1846, when I left it.
+
+[5] I do not reckon as a war the short period of misunderstanding with
+them in the reign of the Emperor Paul.
+
+[6] He was a Mussulman, but all the rest of his family are Christians.
+
+[7] As this is a point of some importance, I think it right to state that
+my authority for this statement is Mr. Carruthers, late Consul, and Mr.
+Lander, late a merchant, at Taganrok.
+
+[8] This name appears for the first time in Theophanes, page 316. He
+says, “Justinian remembering the plot against him of the Chersonites,
+the Bosphorians, and the inhabitants of the other Klimata.” Some authors
+supposed it to refer to the southern coast, but Dubois applies it to the
+northern slopes of the Tauric chain (the same country which was called
+Doru by the earlier writers), principally from the following passage in
+Constantine Porphyrogenitus:—“One part of the nation of the Patzinakes
+is found next to the Chersonites, of whom they are the carriers. They
+always treat them well, as it would be easy for them to ravage and
+destroy Cherson and the Klimata.” He adds, “From Cherson to the Bosphorus
+are the castles of the Klimata.” Dubois, Voyage autour du Caucase, chez
+les Tcherkess Abkhazes, en Calchide, en Georgie, en Arménie, en Crimée:
+ouvrage qui a remporté le prix de la Société de Géographie de Paris,
+1838: vol. v. p. 5.
+
+[9] That is, passing through Bereslaf; for, by going straight from
+Perecop to Kherson by Adeski, it is only 332 miles, but this road is not
+always practicable, on account of the difficulty of crossing the Dniepr.
+
+[10] Its old Russian name was Belaio Veja, and it was called Kiz Kerman,
+or the Girl’s Castle, by the Tatars (Vsevolovski, Dict. Hist. Géog. de la
+Russie).
+
+[11] The following is the account Herodotus gives of this river:—“The
+fourth is the river Borysthenes, which is the largest of these after the
+Ister, and, in my opinion, the most productive, not only of the Scythian
+rivers, but of all others, except the Egyptian Nile; for to this it is
+impossible to compare any other river, but of the rest the Borysthenes is
+the most productive. It affords the most excellent and valuable pasture
+for cattle, and fish of the highest excellence and in great quantities;
+it is most sweet to drink; it flows pure in the midst of turbid rivers;
+the sown land near it is of the best quality; and the herbage, where
+the land is not sown, is very tall; at its mouth abundance of salt is
+crystallized spontaneously; and it produces large whales, without any
+spiral bones, which they call Antacæi, fit for salting, and many other
+things that deserve admiration. The Borysthenes continues flowing near
+the sea, and the Hypanis mingles with it, discharging itself into the
+same morass.” Lib. 4.
+
+[12] About 1801 the English, French, Dutch, and Prussians obtained
+permission for their mercantile navy to pass the Bosphorus.
+
+[13] 1791.
+
+[14] 877 miles from Moscow, and 1362 miles from St. Petersburg.—Lyell.
+
+[15] Castelnau.
+
+[16] Strange to say, stores are always scanty here, perhaps because many
+kinds deteriorate by keeping. Even timber is wanting for ship-building,
+and is used green, and never seasoned. A part of the ‘Twelve Apostles’
+was rotten when she was launched.
+
+[17] This fact is noticed by Herodotus.
+
+[18] Lyell’s Travels.
+
+[19] There used to be many governor-generals in Russia, and there is
+still one for the Ukraine, which comprehends the governments of Kharkow,
+Tchérnigof, and Pultava.
+
+[20] See Hist. of the Precopian Tatars, London, 1693; also Peyssonel,
+Commerce de la Mer Noire, in which there is a Dissertation on the Tatars,
+from information gained among them by the author, who was French consul
+at Baktchéserai, the capital of the khan in 1773. The Tatars first
+appeared in Crimea in 1226.
+
+[21] Fletcher’s Hist. of Poland, p. 69 and 70.
+
+[22] Tanquam nidulo aliquo affixi.
+
+[23] See Fletcher’s History of Poland, p. 68, from which this account is
+taken. The original authorities are Chevalier’s work on the Cossack war,
+published 1663, and the Relazione di Polonia in the Harleian Collection.
+
+[24] From “Tchorny,” black, and “Moré,” the sea, in Russian.
+
+[25] From about A.D. 1560-1783.
+
+[26] The country between the Dniestr and the Pruth, called Bessarabia,
+used to be an integral portion of Moldavia, and is still inhabited by
+Moldavians. It was torn from Turkey and given up to Russia in 1812, by
+the treaty of Bucharest, which was concluded by Sir Stratford Canning,
+then a very young man, who rose into notice from his services on this
+occasion.
+
+[27] See ‘Études sur les Forces productives de la Russie,’ par M. de
+Tegoborski, Membre du Conseil de l’Empire de Russie. Paris, 1852. Vol. i.
+p. 33.
+
+[28] “Step” is a Russian word. The following is the account of the
+Steppes taken from Von Hammer’s History of the Ottoman Empire:—“These
+Steppes are called by Oriental geographers ‘the fields of Hëihat:’ they
+extend from east to west from the banks of the Aksou (river Bug) and the
+Ouron (river Dniepr) to those of the Ten (river Don) and the Tel (river
+Wolga); northward as far as Astrakhan, and southward as far as the banks
+of the Kuban (river Hypanis): situated between the Caspian and Black
+Seas, they cover a superficies of 1000 parasangs (one parasang is about
+four miles). These immense Steppes, which Timour, in marching against
+Tóktamish, traversed in 180 days, are covered in winter with snow as high
+as the grass in summer, and are inhabited by the Nogais and Kalmouks.”
+Vol. ii. p. 109.
+
+[29] Hylè means “wood” in Greek.
+
+[30] Tegoborski, vol. i. pp. 34-36.
+
+[31] Geology of Russia in Europe, by Sir Roderick Murchison, vol. i. p.
+559.
+
+[32] Well known in the English markets under the name of “the country of
+the Line.” The production has much decreased of late years, owing to so
+many of the Cossacks being employed for warlike purposes.
+
+[33] This account is taken from a paper by M. Teetzmann, steward of the
+estates of the Duke of Anhalt-Köthen, near Bereslaf. See Tegoborski, vol.
+i. p. 38.
+
+M. Teetzmann says, that on his domain, in the 10 years from 1832 to 1841,
+rye and wheat produced on the average 6 times, barley 7 times, and millet
+23 times the amount sown. In this time there were some years when the rye
+gave 16 times, wheat and barley 15 times, and millet 64 times the amount
+sown; but there was also one year when the crops entirely failed, and
+others when they did not give more than the amount sown. This was in a
+country which M. T. ranks among the “Eternal Steppes.”
+
+[34] The post-carts are found at every post station throughout European
+Russia, from Archangel to the banks of Erasas, on the borders of Persia,
+and are called “pavosk,” or “telega,” or “pereclodnoi;” they are very
+low, have a seat for the driver in front, and will, with difficulty,
+hold two persons inside: they have no springs and no seat, and the
+traveller sits on his luggage. In this way, couriers and officers perform
+journeys of 1000 and 2000 miles without stopping, except to change at
+each station. I have myself performed a journey of 1200 miles from Tiflis
+to Odessa in this manner, and have frequently known Russians to have
+travelled 12,000 to 13,000 miles within the year.
+
+[35] “It would be tedious to notice on every occasion the extraordinary
+number of tumuli which appear during the whole route (_i. e._ from
+Kasankaia to Tcherkask): I wish the reader only to keep in mind the
+curious fact of their being everywhere in view.”—Clarke’s Travels, part
+i. p. 254.
+
+[36] Mus citillus of Buffon.
+
+[37] See Clarke’s Travels, part i. ch. 12. Recently rewards have been
+offered for the destruction of the suslics on account of the great injury
+they do to the crops and fields. They make the steppe very dangerous for
+riding.
+
+[38] Nat. Hist., cap. 26.
+
+[39] This name is said to be derived either from Horus and Kapou (and it
+would then mean the gate of Horus or the frontier), or from the Tatar
+word “Or,” or “Ore,” meaning fire. Von Hammer.
+
+[40] In the name of Beresin is preserved the ancient name of the isle
+Boristhenis, which, like the island of Leuké, at the mouth of the
+Ister, was devoted to the races in honour of Achilles; and the “Kil” in
+Kilboroún probably comes from Achilles, the sovereign of Pontus, although
+the Tatars explain the word as meaning a promontory as fine as a “hair,”
+since “Kil” means hair in their language.—Page 362.
+
+[41] Von Hammer, Hist. de l’Empire Ottomane, vol. xiv. p. 360-364.
+
+[42] The whole account of the coasts and soundings is taken from the
+‘Pilot of the Black Sea and the Azof,’ by M. Taitbout de Marigny.
+Constantinople, 1850.
+
+[43] P. 60.
+
+[44] P. 51.
+
+[45] P. 53, 54.
+
+[46] Gloubok means “deep” in Russian.
+
+[47] For a further account, see Chap. VI.
+
+[48] This was in about the year 1838. See H. de Hell.
+
+[49] Crimea was divided into 48 kadilics.
+
+[50] Peyssonel, de la Commerce de la Mer Noire, vol. i. p. 252.
+
+[51] Dubois, vol. v. p. 390.
+
+[52] One verst, equal to about three-quarters of an English mile; 108
+Russian versts = 1 degree; 69 English miles = 1 degree.
+
+[53] De la Motraye, 3 vols. fol. illustrated by Hogarth: vol. ii. p. 42.
+The temperature of the water is 10° Réaumur, 54° Fahrenheit. See R. P.
+Koeppen, uber 130, Tauriens Quellen, p. 13. See Dubois, vol. vi. p. 325.
+
+[54] The following is the translation of the Tatar inscription on this
+fountain:—“Glory to God most High! the face of Baktchéserai is made glad
+by the beneficent care of glorious Prince Geray Khan. With a prodigal
+hand he has satisfied the thirst of his country, and he will spread other
+blessings if God lends him his assistance.
+
+“By care and trouble he has opened this excellent spring of water. If
+there exist such another fountain, let it come! We have seen the towns of
+Cham (Damascus) and Bagdad, but nowhere have we seen such a fountain. The
+author of this inscription is called Cheiki. If any man, fainting from
+thirst, reads these words across the water which escapes trickling from
+the slender pipe, what do they tell him? Come: drink this limpid water
+that flows from the purest of springs; it gives health!”
+
+The last three words, when reduced into figures, give the date 1176 (A.D.
+1762).—Dubois, vol. vi. p. 328.
+
+[55] See Dubois, vol. vi. p. 331.
+
+[56] He was poisoned in A.D. 1769.
+
+[57] Hommaire de Hell, Travels in the Steppes of the Caspian, p. 360,
+English edition.
+
+[58] Dubois (Voyage du), vol. vi. p. 337.
+
+[59] The population of Tchoufout Kaleh in 1830 was composed of 492
+men and 617 women, altogether 1109 Jewish inhabitants. P. de Koeffen,
+Baktchéserai zur Zeit der Cholera, 1830.—See Dubois, vol. vi. p. 340.
+Hommaire de Hell says, in 1842, they were gradually leaving, to settle in
+Baktchéserai: p. 364.
+
+[60] Henderson, p. 314.
+
+[61] Also Hothinger, Albringrus, Triglandius, and others. See Henderson.
+
+[62] The name Karaim comes from the Hebrew word “Kara,” Scripture. They
+are also frequently called “Bene Mukra,” sons of the text, and “Baala
+Mikra,” masters or possessors of the text. Henderson’s ‘Biblical Res. in
+Russia,’ p. 316.
+
+[63] She died A.D. 1437-38—year of the Hedgra, 841.
+
+[64] The name “Tchoufout” applied to the Jews, is said by Pallas to be
+derived from “Cifutti,” which was a term of reproach applied to them at
+Genoa. There are many Genoese words in the Tatar language.
+
+[65] Kirkor is first mentioned by Abulfeda (1341), under the name of
+Kerkri, and he says it was then inhabited by the As. Kerkor was probably
+the capital of the Khans of Crimea from about 1400 to 1480 A.D.—Dubois’
+Voyage, &c., vol. vi. p. 343.
+
+In 1396 “the Khan of Kirkel” is found fighting on the banks of the Don,
+against Vitort, Grand Duke of Lithuania. Pallas and Clarke think the
+Genoese possessed this place, as well as Mangoup and Eski Crim, but
+Dubois doubts this fact.
+
+[66] The question as to who built the crypts is fully discussed in
+Dubois, vol. vi.
+
+[67] Dubois, vol. vi. p. 347.
+
+[68] Whenever the Russians say Tatars and Kalmucks, the ethnologists I
+have chiefly followed say Turks and Mongols.
+
+“Ethnologically viewed, the ‘Tatars’ or ‘Tartars’ were a tribe nearly
+allied to the Mongols in race, who dwelt near the lake Bougir, to the
+eastward of Mongoliei. They were among the first of the Mongol conquests,
+and they took afterwards so conspicuous a place in the army of Zingis
+Khan that their name became synonymous with that of the Mongols. Their
+proper name was Tatars. It was said to have been changed into Tartars in
+consequence of an expression of St. Louis, who, when the devastations of
+Zingis Khan were heard of with horror in Western Europe, is reported to
+have exclaimed, ‘Let this heavenly consolation, O Virgin Mother, sustain
+us if they come, that either we will drive the Tartars, as we call them,
+back to their Tartarean (infernal) seats, whence they have sprung, or
+they shall raise us all to heaven.’”—_Dr. Smith’s Note, Gibbon_, vol.
+iii., p. 294.
+
+[69] Or the Great Khan.
+
+[70] Karamsin, vol. v. p. 83.
+
+[71] Tóktamish was descended from Touschi, son of Zingis Khan, the Mongol
+hero. Tamerlane was a Turk, but claimed to be descended by the females
+from Zingis Khan. He was born 1335; d. 1405.
+
+[72] After being four times khan, he died in 1704.—_Von Hammer’s
+Genealogical Tables._
+
+[73] Discourse on the Precopian Tatars. London, 1693, _passim_.
+
+[74] Travels in the Steppes of the Caspian: see p. 369, English edition.
+
+[75] Douvankoi means the Valley of Prayer (see ‘Pallas’s Travels’).
+
+[76] This is the name of the fort and suburb on the north side of the bay
+of Sevastopol. “Sievarna” means northern in Russian.
+
+[77] ‘Pallas’s Voyage,’ ii. 46, in Dubois.
+
+[78] ‘Pallas’s Voyage:’ see Dubois, vol. vi. p. 26.
+
+[79] Sevastopol, or Sebastopolis, is composed of two Greek words,
+“Sebastos” meaning Augustus, and “polis” a city; and it was the name of a
+Greek city of the Lower Empire on the eastern coast of the Black Sea in
+Abkhazia.
+
+[80] The ancient Greek city of Kherson was close to Sevastopol, but in
+the time of the Empress Catherine it was supposed to have stood near the
+mouth of the Dniepr, and the new city she founded there was therefore
+called by that name.
+
+[81] Clarke, in 1800, ii., page 98; Reuilly in 1803; Castelnau in 1817;
+Montandon in 1833.
+
+[82] The wooden telegraph thus carries messages from Sevastopol to
+Odessa, whence there is the electric telegraph to Petersburg.
+
+[83] In 1834 there were 1500 working with the chain, without counting the
+other prisoners.
+
+[84] “Black rivulet” in English. Large reservoirs were formed at a
+distance in the mountains to supply the canal, but they gave way. The
+river was insufficient, and a steam engine was lately erected to pump sea
+water into the docks.
+
+[85] This is taking the paper rouble at the same value as the franc, but
+it is really rather more.
+
+[86] It is but justice to Col. Upton, who is now no more, to observe,
+notwithstanding the reports lately circulated about certain faults in the
+early part of his life, that he enjoyed a good reputation among his own
+countrymen in Russia, and was considered a honest and faithful servant of
+his employer, while he has left monuments of his talents of which we may
+be proud.
+
+[87] Naval Gunnery, 4th ed., p. 619.
+
+[88] Toola, besides the Government, has many private establishments, and
+is considered as the Birmingham of Russia.
+
+[89] For all these details see Tanski, Tableau du Système Militaire de la
+Russie. Paris, 1833, p. 295-7.
+
+[90] For many years all the harbours of the Crimea were shut to commerce
+on the plea of there being no quarantines.
+
+[91] He writes in 1852.
+
+[92] Haxthausen, Études sur la Russie, vol. iii. p. 477-479.
+
+[93] ‘Histoire de la Russie,’ tom. ii. p. 624, par Mons. Chopin, Paris,
+1838. This gentleman was for many years an employé in Russia.
+
+[94] The first part of this chapter is based upon Haxthausen, vol. iii.
+
+[95] Will of Peter the Great, transmitted by the Chevalier d’Eon, French
+Ambassador at Petersburg, to his court in 1757, and soon after made
+public. See ‘Geschichte Peters des Grossen,’ by Peters, published at
+Leipsic.
+
+[96] _Equipage_ is the French for “crew.”
+
+[97] See Appendix C., on the Timber Trade.
+
+[98] Hommaire de Hell, vol. ii. p. 383, French edition.
+
+[99] See App. (A).
+
+[100] See Sir H. Douglas’s ‘Naval Gunnery,’ from which I have borrowed
+all this account of the Paixhans system, p. 289-291.
+
+[101] This chapter is based upon the account of the Russian army by M.
+Haxthausen, and a great portion of it is borrowed from him. He had access
+to Russian official records.
+
+[102] M. Tegoborski, the mouthpiece of the Government of St. Petersburg,
+states that the estimate of the regular army alone in 1854 was from
+800,000 to 900,000 men, and that it may be raised to 1,250,000 men in
+1855. ‘Revue des Deux Mondes,’ Nov. 15, 1854, p. 802.
+
+[103] Haxthausen, vol. iii. p. 335.
+
+[104] See his will, which has been often published.
+
+[105] Haxthausen, vol. iii. p. 331.
+
+[106] Nestor was a monk of Kieff, and ceased to write about A.D. 1016.
+
+[107] Chroniques de Nestor, French translation, c. 3, p. 54.
+
+[108] Haxthausen, vol. iii. p. 348.
+
+[109] Haxthausen, vol. iii. p. 340.
+
+[110] “The bankers of Berlin in 1853 refused the 5 per cent. Russian loan
+at 83, with a bonus of 17 per 100 on the nominal capital. For the last
+twenty years Russia has been borrowing, to cover the deficit left in her
+budget by her enormous military preparations.”—Léon Faucher, ‘Revue des
+Deux Mondes,’ Nov. 15, 1854, p. 809.
+
+The position of Russia is well described by M. Léon Faucher:—“How can
+the riches of a country be spoken of, which is still on so many sides
+a desert to clear and people? There are scarcely 11 inhabitants to the
+square kilomètre (⅔rds of a mile). The average of life is only 20 years
+(less than half that of the inhabitants of London, which is 43), and
+this presents very precarious resources for recruiting immense armies.
+The middle classes in Russia are scarcely born; the nobles are in debt;
+the peasants are reduced to a state of serfdom, or live in a kind of
+communism which is the actual practice of the most immoral and barbarous
+theories; manufacturing industry is an artificial creation by high
+protective tariffs; agriculture, with the exception of the kingdom of
+Poland, is in a rude and patriarchal state. The forests, the steppes, and
+the marshes occupy ⅚ths of the empire; and can it be supposed that a soil
+thus badly prepared can furnish the means of successfully resisting the
+powers of the West, who have in abundance what Russia has a dearth of, or
+will soon have a dearth of, namely, men and money.”—Id. p. 318. These are
+home truths, and we have only to thank our late rulers that Russia is not
+already so far reduced as to be obliged to accept any terms that we chose
+to impose upon her.
+
+[111] I believe Count Radetski has also received this decoration since
+his Italian campaigns.
+
+[112] Perhaps the light division of cavalry of reserve and its light
+artillery (24 light pieces) should be considered quite independent of
+this second corps.—Haxthausen, vol. iii. p. 287.
+
+[113] I have already mentioned the diminution in the quantity of linseed
+and wheat brought into the English market from “the Line country,” in
+consequence of the demands upon the Cossacks for men.
+
+[114] “Sotni” comes from the Russian word sto—a hundred; “sot nic” means
+a captain.
+
+[115] If M. Haxthausen estimates so highly these Caucasian auxiliaries,
+if they could be brought to aid the Russians, why have we not long ago
+arrayed them against their natural enemies?
+
+[116] See Haxthausen, vol. iii. p. 458.
+
+[117] Haxth. vol. iii. p. 460.
+
+[118] Napoleon’s opinion of the Cossacks was not high. In the celebrated
+29th bulletin of the Grand Army, he says of these gentry, “Even the
+Cossacks became formidable—that contemptible cavalry that, under ordinary
+circumstances, could not have penetrated a company of Voltigeurs.” I
+quote from memory.
+
+[119] Haxth. vol. iii. p. 301.
+
+[120] _First Levy._—9 battalions of grenadiers, 3 battalions of
+carbineers, 86 battalions of infantry of the line, 36 battalions of
+chasseurs of the line, and 134 battalions of infantry; 52 squadrons, and
+24 batteries of infantry; representing a total of 98,000 men, and 192
+cannons.
+
+_Second Levy._—12 battalions of the guard, 12 battalions of the
+grenadiers and the carbineers; 72 battalions of infantry of the line,
+and the chasseurs; _in toto_, 96 battalions of infantry, 62 squadrons,
+24 batteries of infantry, 11 batteries of cavalry, and 2½ battalions of
+sappers: presenting in round numbers 115,000 men and 280 cannons.—See
+Haxthausen, vol. iii. ch. on the Russian army.
+
+[121] See ‘Kreutz Zeitung,’ Feb. 1, 1855, a Prussian newspaper, generally
+considered to have good information on Russian subjects. This paper also
+states, that, exclusive of the corps of the Caucasus and two divisions of
+the fifth and sixth corps detached in Asia, the Russian active forces now
+amount to 607 battalions, 562 squadrons, and 1712 field-pieces, which on
+paper represents 637,000 infantry, 95,000 cavalry, and 42,000 artillery;
+and that no more than 10 per cent. is to be deducted for non-effectives.
+This would give a total of nearly 700,000 men.
+
+[122] For this Chapter see Dubois, vol. vi.
+
+[123] This name is derived from _In_ and _kerman_, a castle.
+
+[124] Dubois, vol. vi. p. 264.
+
+[125] Dubois, vol. vi. p. 266. Some say Keffe Kil means “froth earth.”
+Clarke says that it is from this earth that the famous meerschaum (froth
+of the sea) pipes are made.
+
+[126] The date of the earliest tomb of the Karaim Jews at Mangoup is the
+year of the world 5034 (A.D. 1274). P. de Koeppen Sbornik, p. 29.
+
+[127] Dubois, vol. v. p. 19.
+
+[128] Hommaire de Hell.
+
+[129] As measured by Clarke. See Travels.
+
+[130] A French guard is now placed to protect it.
+
+[131] After A.D. 30.
+
+[132] Sauromates V., A.D. 282.
+
+[133] Rurik is a common name of Scandinavian heroes.
+
+[134] The title of Tzar, says Karamsin, was used in Russia as early as
+the reign of Ysiaslaf II. and Dmétri Donskoi (1363-1389). This word is
+not an abridgment of the Latin Cæsar, as some learned men have supposed.
+It is an ancient Eastern name, which became known to the Russians
+through the Slavonic translation of the Bible, and was given by them
+first to the Emperor of the East and then to the khans of the Tatars. It
+signifies in Persian “a throne,” “the supreme authority,” and is observed
+in the names of the kings of Assyria and Babylonia, as in Phala_ssar_,
+Nabona_ssar_. John III. (1462-1472), was the first grand prince who
+took the title of Tzar in writing to foreign powers, and in his public
+acts he gave to his empire the name of “White Russia,” that is to say,
+great or ancient, according to the acceptation of this word in Oriental
+languages.—_Karamsin_, vi. 438.
+
+In one of the chronicles of Novgorod it is said that Vladimir assumed
+the title of Tzar, 978. “Sic unus (Vladimir) serum Russiæ politus, auxit
+se titulo Tzaris et magni ducis atque autocratoris Russorum, sedemque
+ducatus Novogordiensis Kioviam transtulit.”—M.S. quoted in the notes to
+French translation of Nestor.
+
+[135] Nestor.
+
+[136] Clarke says that he obtained some copper coins of Vladimir in the
+Chersonese with a V upon them, probably marking the era of his baptism.
+
+[137] Nestor, French translation, viii. 133.
+
+[138] Dubois, vol. vi. p. 147. M. F. Adelung, die Korsüncher Thüren in
+der Cathedral Kirche zur heilg. Sophia in Novgorod. Berlin, 1823.
+
+[139] Karamsin, Histoire de Russie, vol. v. p. 16.
+
+[140] Bronovius, Desc. Tartariæ, pp. 258-261.
+
+[141] A plan of these is given by Clarke in a vignette.
+
+[142] B. iv.
+
+[143] St. George is the principal patron saint of Russia, and the ancient
+arms of Moskow, when it was an independent principality, were this saint
+mounted on a white horse on a red field. When Moscow became the capital
+of the Grand Princes of Russia they adopted these arms. The vanquished
+dragon was added in 1380, after the victory of Koulikof, gained by Dmétri
+Donskoi over the Tatars. Ivan IV. in adopting in 1580 the double-headed
+eagle of the Greeks did not on that account renounce the horseman and the
+dragon, and the Russian eagle is charged in the heart with the scutcheon
+of Koulikof.
+
+The ancient sovereigns of Russia, after embracing Christianity, took
+for their arms three circles in a triangle. In one of the circles was
+an inscription about the Trinity, in another the name of the prince to
+whom the letter was addressed, and in the third the titles of the Grand
+Prince.—Notes to French translation of Nestor, p. 71; Strahlemberg,
+Description de l’Empire Russe, vol. i. p. 240. Amst. 1757.
+
+[144] Dubois, vol. vi. p. 194.
+
+[145] Dubois, vol. vi. p. 201.
+
+[146] See St. Simon, Mémoires de l’Arménie.
+
+[147] For all this account of the crypts see Dubois, vol. vi. p. 314-319.
+
+[148] Toira in Assyrian means a mountain, a chain of mountains; _Tyrou_
+in Chaldean; _Tourou_ in Syrian. With the Turk races _Tau_ means a
+mountain, a round or high building, a rampart; and _or_ a façade. In
+Greek _oros_ means a mountain. See Dubois, vol. vi. p. 12.
+
+[149] The remainder of this chapter is abstracted from Hommaire de Hell,
+vol. ii. ch. 19.
+
+[150] See Dubois, vol. vi. p. 222.
+
+[151] The history of the Goths in the Crimea, an obscure but interesting
+subject, has been investigated in a recent German work, which I have not
+seen.
+
+[152] Clarke’s Travels, vol. i. App. 3.
+
+[153] Dubois, vol. vi. p. 110. A great part of the following account of
+Balaclava is translated from this author.
+
+[154] K. Ritter, die Vorhalle Europäischer Völkergeschichten vor
+Herodotus, um den Kaucasus und an den Gestaden des Pontus. Berlin, 1820,
+p. 8. A very curious and interesting work, although considered too
+speculative by some scholars.
+
+[155] Pallas, vol. ii. p. 131.
+
+[156] Ibid., vol. ii. p. 130; see also Strabo.
+
+[157] MS. Travels of Nicholas Barti, of Lucca, into Tatary, Circassia,
+and Mingrelia, from 1632-1639.
+
+[158] Clarke’s Travels, vol. i. p. 507.
+
+[159] Pallas, vol. ii. p. 132-3.
+
+[160] Pallas, vol. ii. p. 89-99.
+
+[161] This account of the valley of Baidar and the Tatars and their
+dwellings is borrowed from Clarke, vol. ii. p. 514-520. The manners of
+the Tatars are the same as those of other nations of Western Asia; and
+this account has been inserted, because, although written a long time
+ago, it is still believed to give a faithful picture of them.
+
+[162] Dubois, vol. vi. p. 92.
+
+[163] Dubois, vol. vi. p. 93.
+
+[164] P. de Koeppen, Krimskii Sbornik, p. 23, quoted in Dubois.
+
+[165] As, for instance, Mangoup, Biassala, Katchikalene, Mangouche, and
+Lec.
+
+[166] Cape Saritch is the name of the sailors for Mount Aia.
+
+[167] General Potier was one of, I think, eight engineer officers lent by
+Napoleon after the peace of Tilsit, to form the Russian engineers on the
+French model, and to establish an École Polytechnique.
+
+[168] Dubois, vol. vi. p. 97.
+
+[169] The village of Kutchuk Koi, four versts from Kíkineis, was buried
+in February, 1786. The following is the account of this catastrophe
+from Professor Pallas’s work, written shortly after the event:—“On the
+10th of February, 1786, the surface of the earth about the deep glens
+before mentioned, and in another still further to the eastward, began
+to burst, and to exhibit rocks or clefts; so that, on the same day,
+the brook which had hitherto turned two small mills, constructed by
+the native Tatars, entirely disappeared. Two days afterwards, the soil
+having become entirely disengaged, and the frightened inhabitants of the
+adjacent village having removed their cattle, carried off their effects,
+and abandoned their habitations, the whole tract between the hollows
+above described, from the lofty bank of rocks by the sea-shore, fell in
+about midnight with a dreadful noise; and this sinking continued till
+the 28th of February, so as to occasion a terrific abyss from ten to
+twenty fathoms deep, in which only a large parallel ridge of hard rock
+and two smaller crests remained projecting at the bottom. The ground
+thus fallen extends about a mile and a half in length, and six hundred
+yards in breadth. In proportion as one part of the steep declivity was
+detached from the rock, the whole mass pressed downwards, and the strand
+was removed further into the sea to a distance of from one hundred to two
+hundred yards.”—Pallas’s Travels, vol. ii. p. 142.
+
+[170] Pallas’s Travels, vol. ii. p. 150. It is a pity Professor Pallas
+has given no specimen of the language of these people. By the original
+inhabitants of the Crimea, I suppose he means the Tatar population, who
+arrived in the Crimea with Batou Khan.
+
+[171] Dubois, vol. vi. p. 85.
+
+[172] Dubois, vol. vi. p. 82.
+
+[173] It was measured trigonometrically by Mr. Chatillon, and found to be
+3798 pieds de roi.—Dubois, vol. vi. p. 77.
+
+[174] Castelnau, Hist. de la Nouvelle Russie, quoted by Dubois, vol. vi.
+p. 81.
+
+[175] The Russian loss at Borodino in killed and wounded was—generals,
+30; officers, 1,600; men, 42,000.—_MS. Memoir._
+
+The French loss was—generals, 40; officers, 1,800; men, 52,000, as shown
+by the papers of Marshal Berthier, subsequently taken at Wilna.
+
+[176] “Namesnik” in Russian—a very high office, seldom conferred. The
+holder of it corresponds directly with the Emperor, and not through the
+Ministry.
+
+[177] The army of the Caucasus in 1847 was about 170,000 men.
+
+[178] The history of these three ladies is admirably told by the graceful
+and vigorous pen of Madame de Hell, in the chapter entitled ‘Trois femmes
+célèbres.’ It is worth reading in the original French, as all the charm
+of the writing is lost in the published English translation.
+
+[179] Dubois, vol. vi. p. 73.
+
+[180] Dubois, vol. vi. p. 59.
+
+[181] The E. India Company have a similar establishment on the Neilgherry
+Mountains in the South of India.
+
+[182] Dubois, vol. vi. p. 55.
+
+[183] Dubois, vol. vi. p. 24.
+
+[184] Dubois, vol. vi. p. 26.
+
+[185] The early writers on the coast of the Crimea are Herodotus,
+B.C. 469; Scymnus of Chio, B.C. 100; Strabo, A.D. 29; Arrian, A.D.
+110; Ptolemy, _A.D._ 211; Procopius, A.D. 550. The anonymous Periplus
+translates into prose the verses of Scymnus.
+
+[186] Dubois, vol. vi. p. 9.
+
+[187] Scymnus of Chio, B.C. 100. See Hudson, Geo. Min.
+
+[188] Dubois, vol. vi. p. 7.
+
+[189] Dubois, vol. v. p. 450.
+
+[190] Dubois, vol. v. p. 451.
+
+[191] Ai for “agio,” holy, in Greek; and “thodor,” corruption of
+“Theodoro.” Thus, “Ai Petri” for St. Peter.
+
+[192] Dubois, vol. v. p. 455.
+
+[193] Dubois, vol. v. p. 446.
+
+[194] Dubois, vol. v. p. 429.
+
+[195] See H. de Hell, vol. ii. p. 484.
+
+[196] Dubois, vol. v. p. 350-360.
+
+[197] Maharab is a kind of pulpit, generally in stone-work, on which the
+“imam” or “mollah” stands in every mosque, and it is always turned in the
+direction of Mecca: thus in Africa it would look towards the east, in
+India towards the west, and in the Crimea nearly due south.
+
+[198] See Dubois, vol. v. p. 355-358.
+
+[199] The following account of the vines of the Crimea and the prices of
+land is translated from Dubois, vol. v. p. 330-350.
+
+[200] Bronovius, Desc. Tartariæ.
+
+[201] ‘Recueil de quelques antiquités trouvées sur les bords de la Mer
+Noire, par L. D. Waxel,’ No. 4, Clarke, Voyage, p. 117. It is now in the
+Museum of Nikolaief.
+
+[202] Mount Simeonkaia and Mount Kisilkaia.
+
+[203] Dubois, vol. v. p. 413.
+
+[204] Aian is a contraction for Agio Joannes, or St. John. Dubois, vol.
+v. p. 417.
+
+[205] Dubois, vol. v. p. 418.
+
+[206] Dubois, vol. v. p. 407.
+
+[207] Dubois, vol. v. p. 411.
+
+[208] Ibid., vol. v. p. 412.
+
+[209] Dubois, vol. v. p. 412.
+
+[210] Id. p. 375.
+
+[211] Pallas, vol. ii. p. 271, 387; Peyssonel, Commerce de la Mer Noire,
+vol. ii. p. 269; Dubois, vol. i. p. 271.
+
+[212] Dubois, vol. v. p. 280.
+
+[213] From this point the greater part of the rest of this chapter is
+translated from H. de Hell’s work. Vol. ii. ch. 18.
+
+[214] Dubois, vol. v. p. 284.
+
+[215] See Dubois, vol. v. p. 293.
+
+[216] Dubois, vol. v. p. 287.
+
+[217] A celebrated Armenian city in the Pashalic of Kars.
+
+[218] Dubois, vol. v. p. 296.
+
+[219] One ancient Armenian church exists at Zvainiets, near the Dneistr,
+in Podolia; the interior walls are hewn stone, covered with carving of
+very fine execution. This little church dates from the end of the 15th
+century. At Jaslovitz in Gallicia, the seat of the famous Polish family
+of Konietzpolski, is the residence of the Armenian bishop of that place.
+The indignities heaped upon them afterwards obliged the Armenians to
+quit that town, and they retired to Leopol or Lemberg, whose riches and
+importance date from that time. Dubois, vol. v. p. 297, note.
+
+[220] He gives a picture of it in his work.
+
+[221] Clarke’s Travels, vol. i. p. 446.
+
+[222] The Russians took this town in 1771, and restored it at the peace
+of Kainardji, in 1774. Chahin Geray, the reigning Khan, then transferred
+here the seat of government, till he was forced to yield up his country
+to Catherine in 1784; he then passed into Russia, and at last was
+strangled at Rhodes in 1787. He lived like an European, had a European
+cook, ate all kinds of meat, and his servants wore a livery. He drove
+in his carriage instead of riding, and hid his beard under a black silk
+cravat—a daring thing for a Mussulman at that epoch. He had a corps of
+200 Cossacks, dressed in a red and black uniform, under the command
+of an English officer.—See ‘Essai Hist. sur la Mer Noire,’ by a very
+intelligent French merchant of Kherson. Paris, 1805.
+
+[223] See Clarke, vol. i. p. 451, note, for authorities in support of
+this opinion.
+
+[224] Dubois, vol. v. p. 218.
+
+[225] Dubois, vol. v. p. 242.
+
+[226] Hommaire de Hell, Vol. ii. p. 505.
+
+[227] Dubois, vol. v. p. 104.
+
+[228] Id. p. 108.
+
+[229] Pallas. Voyages dans les Gouvernements Méridionaux, vol. ii. p. 298.
+
+[230] The quarantine here is probably only a political measure to keep
+away foreigners.
+
+[231] The last “t” is pronounced like a “tz,” and the word as if written
+“Constitutzia.”
+
+[232] Dubois, Voyage, vol. v. p. 113-117.
+
+[233] The remainder of this chapter is abstracted from Dubois’ detailed
+account, vol. v. p. 113-239.
+
+[234] Smith’s Geog. Dict., Art. ‘Bosphorus.’
+
+[235] Reskóuporis I., Mithridates III. and his wife Ghepaipyris, and T.
+J. Reskóuporis.
+
+[236] Dubois, vol. v. p. 137.
+
+[237] Dubois, vol. v. p. 151-184.
+
+[238] See Genesis, chap. 24.
+
+[239] See Sir W. Hamilton’s collection of Etruscan Vases, Naples, about
+1766.
+
+[240] A roof in which the stores go on projecting in layers till they
+nearly meet at the top.
+
+[241] The peacock is supposed to have been brought from India by the
+companions of Alexander the Great, and in the wild state is not known
+west of India.
+
+[242] I found, curious to say, a somewhat similar tradition prevailing
+near Chingleput, in Southern India. There the entrance was said to be
+guarded by two gigantic wasps.
+
+[243] Dubois, vol. v. p. 89.
+
+[244] Dubois, vol. v. p. 194-288.
+
+[245] Electrum is a mixture of gold and silver.
+
+[246] For bows and arrows together, called oistiodoche.
+
+[247] Boiled mutton is a common dish in Persia. An immense cauldron of it
+is made about midday in the villages in some parts of Persia, and persons
+sending may buy a portion. I have sometimes bought some in travelling,
+but found it indigestible on account of the fat sheep’s tails boiled up
+with it.
+
+[248] The _toura_ is an animal in the Caucasus like a wild bull, with
+enormous horns, and a very thick skull, as it throws itself down
+precipices on its head. It is the favourite game of the Mingrelian and
+Ossete princes.
+
+[249] Strabo, lib. xi. p. 486.
+
+[250] Dubois, vol. v. p. 223.
+
+[251] This medal is among those published by Sestini.—Musée Chaudoir,
+tab. i., figs. 5 and 6. Consult Dubois, vol. v. p. 225.
+
+[252] Hagemeister, Com., see p. 147.
+
+[253] See Scymnus of Chio, B.C. 100.
+
+[254] Meleti and Sanson, geographers of the 17th century, say that Caffa
+was built of material from Tousla, which is now the name of a village
+near Opouk, and, according to Chardin, means salt-works. Krimskii
+Sbornik, p. 106; Carte du Voyage de Chardin, en 1672; Dubois, vol. v. p.
+263.
+
+[255] Nearly the whole of this chapter is taken from the Pilot of the
+Black Sea and the Sea of Azof, by the late M. Taitbout de Marigny, who
+for many years employed his time in exploring these seas in his yacht.
+A 3rd edition of his little work was printed in English with Maps, at
+Constantinople, 1850.
+
+[256] Tonka means “narrow.”
+
+[257] _Kamish_ means “a reed” in Russian.
+
+[258] _Bielo_ means “white” in Russian, and _serái_ “a palace” in Tatar.
+
+[259] _Obriv_ means “a cliff” in Russian.
+
+[260] _Dolgoi_ means “long” in Russian.
+
+[261] _Staroi_ means old in Russia.
+
+[262] It is sometimes called “Mertvoi Donetse.” Mertvoi means “dead” in
+Russian.
+
+[263] All the coals used are Russian coals, which come down the river.
+
+[264] No masts are, however, shipped from Taganrok.
+
+[265] Dictionnaire Géograph. Historique de l’Empire Russe. 1823. Art.
+Taganrok.
+
+[266] Cape Bielo-Serái is called Cape Bilestav by the Greeks and Italians.
+
+[267] See Blue Book, p. 73. The exact numbers are, 1853, Imports, S. R.
+48,110; Exports, S. R. 6,243,774.
+
+[268] See Appendix, on the country between Yénitchi and Perecop.
+
+[269] Rostof is not mentioned as one of the principal towns of Russia
+in the Russian Government Tables of Population, &c., translated and
+published this year by the Board of Trade (Statistical Tables relating to
+Foreign Countries, Part I., 1855); I believe, however, that I am correct
+in the importance which I attribute to it.
+
+[270] See Blue Book, Stat. Tables of Foreign Countries, 1855, Part I., p.
+70-72.
+
+[271] Blue Book, p. 29.
+
+[272] Id. id.
+
+[273]
+
+    _Wheat._—Quarters 72 = Tchetwerts 100 of ten poods weight each.
+  _Linseed._—Quarters 83 = Tchetwerts 100             ditto
+              1 pood     = 40 lbs. Russian = 36 lbs. English.
+
+[274] There is a small portion grown in the Danubian Principalities and
+in Italy, but of an inferior quality.
+
+[275] This is also the case with Indian linseed.
+
+[276] That is when manufactured, but not when it is sold to the public,
+after having passed through the excise. The excise is farmed in Russia
+according to governments, and is let by auction for short terms of years.
+Mr. Tegoborski states, that last autumn (1854) the farms were relet, and
+that there was no diminution in the biddings, on account of the war. It
+has been for some time in contemplation to do away with the farming of
+the excise, and to introduce a system somewhat similar to our own.
+
+[277] This word has the same meaning in Russian, as “quarter” in English,
+_Tchetwert_ being derived from _Tchetíri_, four.
+
+[278] Dr. Clarke makes also the following observations on the name
+of this river, which, being of considerable size, runs through the
+Government of Kharkof, and meets the Don at some distance above
+Tcherkask, and from which the Greeks, he thinks, took the name of Tanais,
+which they applied to the Don. He says, “I must request the reader to
+suppose himself entering the mouth of the Don, and proceeding up the
+river to the distance of about 99 miles, above its embouchures, and
+rather more than 46 above the town of Tcherkask. He would here find the
+Danaetz falling into the Don, by two mouths, separated from each other
+by a distance of 10 or 12 miles. But the people here have, from time
+immemorial, entertained a notion that it leaves the Don again before it
+reaches the sea, and, taking a north-westerly direction, falls into the
+Palus Mæotis, to the north of all the other mouths of the Don, of which
+it is, in fact, one. This northernmost mouth of the Don, on account of
+the river whose waters its channel is supposed peculiarly to contain,
+is called Danaetz, and to express either its sluggish current, or its
+exit into the sea, _Dead Danaetz_. The Greeks, steering from the Crimea
+towards the mouth of the Don, and, as their custom was, keeping close to
+the shore, entered first this northernmost mouth of the river. It bore
+then, as it does now, the name of _Danaetz_, _Idanaetz_, or _Tanaetz_,
+whence the word _Tanais_ would be easily derived.”—Clarke, i. 257. It
+must be remarked, however, that a gentleman from Taganrok informs me that
+the word is distinctly pronounced _Donetz_, as the Germans write it.
+
+[279] The importation of Russian woollens into China must be very large
+to supply the extensive demand which exists for them in the north and
+centre of China. The thick heavy kinds, which the Chinese call “hala,”
+after the Russian name for wrappers or outside coverings, which are often
+made from cloths of this description, are chiefly in request, and are
+much used for cloaks and travelling dresses: those of red and green hues
+are much esteemed, on account of the superior depth and brightness of the
+Russian colours. These cloths are from 20 to 30 yards long, and from 62
+to 64 inches broad. Belgian and Saxon cloths are also received through
+Russia. Small parcels of Russian woollens are brought to Canton, where
+they enter into competition with English goods, to the disadvantage of
+the latter. Russian blue cloth may be bought at 2½ dollars per yard, and
+in the interior it is a dollar cheaper: other kinds, except scarlet, are
+cheaper. The Chinese could not sell at these prices, unless they obtained
+them at rates even lower than the cost of production; and there is little
+doubt that the Russians part with them at a loss, but are eventually
+remunerated by the high profits they are able to realise on teas.
+Kiachta and Mae-mae-Chin are the well known towns on the Russian and
+Chinese borders respectively, where the trade between the two countries
+is carried on. It is purely a barter trade; no money is allowed by the
+Chinese to pass. The measure of value is bricks of tea, averaging about
+3 lbs. in weight; and the chief staple of exchange on the side of the
+Russians is cloth. Tea is the principal article given by the Chinese, of
+which it is calculated that 18,000,000 lbs., of the value of 5,300,000
+dollars, are taken by the Russians. The Russians have of late begun to
+ship teas from the eastern part of China, and taking in the tea sent
+through Europe, they receive about 2,000,000 lbs. by water; so that their
+total consumption may be put at about 20 millions of lbs., and is rapidly
+increasing. It is a disputed point whether the Russian caravan tea is the
+same kind as that we drink, or whether its undoubtedly superior quality
+arises from the land journey. Mr. Parkes thinks that the tea is the same,
+but Mr. Hill was told at Kiachta that it came from different provinces.
+(Hill’s ‘Siberia,’ vol. i. 1854.) Kiachta is 4000 miles from Moscow, and
+1000 from Pekin. The cost of transport of tea from Kiachta to Moscow is
+computed at 40_l._ a ton, or 4¼_d._ per lb.; Chinese transport is 3¼_d._
+per lb.; total cost of transport per lb., 7½_d._; cost of water transport
+from China to Russia, 2½_d._ Price of best tea in Russia, 2_l._ 2_s._ per
+lb., which appears enormous to us in England.—(See Parkes’ Rep., Journal
+of R. Geog. Soc., vol. xxiv. p. 306.) The Russian estimate of the value
+of the cloth exported to China is about 400,000_l._, and total exports to
+China, 850,177_l._—See Blue Book, p. 57.
+
+[280] The time of year for advancing the money varies considerably,
+according to the nature of the goods, the place of production, and the
+class of people from whom they are bought. For the goods, consisting
+principally of linseed and wheat, purchased on the Volga, the Don, and
+its tributaries, most of the money is advanced as early as September on
+produce to arrive the next year in June. On tallow to be delivered in
+April the advances are generally made in the winter, and on that to be
+delivered in October the advances are made in April and May. For such
+of the fine wools as are purchased on the estates of the producers, the
+advances are made about January or February, and sometimes the greatest
+portion of them is purchased for ready money at the fairs.
+
+[281] The rate of interest in South Russia varies from 8 to 14 per cent.
+At Galatz and Ibrail money may be safely laid out at from 15 to 18 per
+cent.
+
+[282] The Greek consul-general in London, M. Ralli, is the head and
+founder of this house of Ralli Brothers, who have branch establishments
+in all the great towns in Europe and Asia as far as the eastern limits of
+the Persian empire. They have recently opened a branch house in Calcutta,
+where other Greeks have now established themselves.
+
+[283] “Limné Mœoticé” in Greek, “Palus Mæotis” in Latin.
+
+[284] The total tonnage was 393,096 tons.—Blue Book, p. 27.
+
+[285]
+
+                              Assign.  Robles.
+  Per Tchetwert, for wheat  1  0c. to 1 50c., or 10_d._ to 15_d._
+  Rostof to Taganrok        0 50c. to 1 50c., or  5_d._ to 15_d._
+  Taganrok to Kertch        1  0c. to 5  0c., or 10_d._ to  4_s._ 2_d._
+  From Katchálin to Rostof  1, or 10_d._
+
+[286] I am not certain of the exact place at which the Don becomes
+navigable.
+
+[287] The Volga was called Rhao by the ancients; the Tatars called it
+_Idél_, _Adel_, or _Edel_, which signified _abundance_, _generosity_,
+_riches_. The name of Volga, or Wolga, has the same origin as Boulgar
+or Bulgarian, and this name was given to the river because the early
+seats of the Bulgarians were situated on its banks before they moved to
+their present country on the south bank of the Danube. It rises in the
+district of Ostachof, in the government of Tver. Its course to the mouth
+of the Kama is from west to east, and thence it runs to the south into
+the Caspian Sea. It passes through the governments of Tver, Jaroslav,
+Kostroma, Nijni Novgorod, Kazan, Simbirsk, Saratof, and Astrakhan, and
+throws itself into the sea by 70 mouths, forming a multitude of islands.
+Its course is about 2500 miles (4000 versts) long. It passes several
+important towns, such as Tver, Ouglitch, Romanof, Jaroslav, Kostroma,
+Balakhna, Nijni Novgorod, Kousmodemiansk, Tcheboksar, Kazan, Simbirsk,
+Syzran, Saratof, Tsaritzine, and Astrakhan. It waters fertile regions,
+and is ornamented on its lower course with fine forests. Its principal
+navigation begins at Tver. The Volga has the advantage of having no
+cataracts, or any dangerous passage; but its depth gradually diminishes
+from time to time, so as to give reason to fear that it may become
+unnavigable even for vessels of a moderate size. At the beginning of the
+eighteenth century the salt vessels of Siberia could carry from 130,000
+to 150,000 poods[288] of salt; now they cannot carry more than 90,000
+poods. Fish is most abundant in it; the principal kinds are the beluga,
+sturgeon, biella ryba, sterlet, &c.—Vsevolovski, _Dict. Géog. Hist. de
+l’Empire Russe_, art. ‘Volga.’
+
+[288] One pood = about 40 lbs. English.
+
+[289] The project of uniting the Volga and the Don, so as to complete
+the communication between the Baltic, Black, and Caspian Seas, is
+very ancient. Seleucus Nicanor, then Selim II., and afterwards Peter
+the Great, undertook the execution of it, and, if it has not yet been
+effected, the delay must be attributed to other circumstances than to the
+difficulty of the enterprise. If the Tlavlia, which falls into the Don,
+and the Kamitchiaka, which falls into the Volga, were rendered navigable,
+the distance necessary to unite these two mighty streams would only be
+3 miles. The difficulty which Peter the Great encountered was, that the
+level of the Don was higher than that of the Volga by a distance which
+the academician Lovitz found to be 300 feet. The celebrated Pallas then
+suggested a junction below the Tlavlia, where the Don, making an angle,
+approaches the Volga within 50 versts (about 35 miles), and the ground
+is a bed of sandstone easy to work. They might also be joined by a
+canal from the Karpovka, on the left bank of the Don, and the Sarpa, a
+tributary of the Volga; and this would be easy, because of deep ravines
+and valleys near a convenient point of junction.
+
+Peter the Great, however, united the Voroneje, which falls into the Don,
+with the Niaza, by a canal; and as the last river flows into the Racovna,
+the Racovna into the Oka, and the Oka into the Volga, it is possible to
+navigate from Moscow into the Oka, and thence into the Don.—Vsevolovski,
+_Dict. Hist. de l’Empire Russe_, art. ‘Don.’
+
+[290] In spite of the protection afforded by all but prohibitory duties,
+and the great expense incurred by the nation to support a fictitious
+system, the manufacturers of Russia are always in a depressed state, and
+do not gain by this state of things, although their countrymen lose.
+
+[291] This is confirmed by Tegoborski. “The thing,” he says, “which
+struck me the most during my short stay at Nijni Novgorod in 1852 was
+the simplicity, and I might almost say the apparent carelessness, with
+which commercial affairs were ordinarily carried on without the agency
+of brokers (courtiers). Considering that there were sales to the amount
+of 10,000,000_l._ in the short space of three or four weeks, I was
+surprised to see the Exchange almost always deserted. Many important
+affairs were concluded without any formality, on the simple word of
+the parties, in the cafés and restaurants. This method of conducting
+business is generally in use in Russia, and constitutes a characteristic
+trait of our commerce. Few persons are aware that at Moscow there is
+much more business done at the restaurant of the Troitsk (troitski
+troetir) than at the Exchange. Sometimes, no doubt, a merchant becomes
+embarrassed and unable to fulfil his engagements, but it is rare that
+any man of tolerable credit frees himself in regular bad faith from a
+bargain concluded without the formalities which would render it legally
+binding.”—_Études_, vol. iii., p. 287.
+
+[292] This was the number of the corps of the Caucasus when I left the
+country in 1846, and it was afterwards, I believe, increased.
+
+[293] Sunk on the 24th of September, 1854, at the entrance of the port of
+Sevastopol.
+
+[294] Published in the Appendices to Dr. Clarke’s Travels.—A discourse
+under the trigger is the harangue made by a general to his troops when
+the line is drawn out and the soldiers rest their pieces.
+
+[295] The Russian archine is 28 inches.
+
+[296] The Russian soldiers buy their own lead.
+
+[297] The treasury of the mess.
+
+[298] The name given by the Russians to the empress.
+
+[299] It is impossible in this translation, consistently with fidelity,
+to preserve the brevity and energy of the original Russian.
+
+[300] This is a Russian mode of expression. To proceed ten versts, they
+say, To break off ten.
+
+[301] Children and brothers: appellations given by Suvórof to his troops.
+
+[302] Whatever arrives. Suvórof began the attack as soon as the colours
+arrived, even if he had but half a regiment advanced.
+
+[303] Strength and a half. A common mode of expression in Russia. Suvórof
+aimed at the style and language of the common soldiers, which rendered
+his composition often obscure.
+
+[304] Lashes: the literal translation is sticks.
+
+[305] Professor Pallas supposed this to have been a manual of medicine,
+published for the use of the army.
+
+[306] Here he endeavours to counteract a Russian prejudice, that is
+favourable to immoderate eating during fevers.
+
+[307] A sour beverage, made of fermented flour and water.
+
+[308] Suvórof had so great an aversion to any person saying “I
+don’t know,” in answer to his questions, that he became almost mad
+with passion. His officers and soldiers were so well aware of this
+singularity, that they would hazard any answer instantly, accurate or
+not, rather than venture to incur his displeasure by professing ignorance.
+
+[309] The words here are some of them not to be translated, and seem to
+be the coinage of his own fancy. The Russians themselves cannot affix an
+explication to them.
+
+[310] A Russian proverb.
+
+[311] Here Suvórof is a little in his favourite character of the buffoon.
+He generally closed his harangues by endeavouring to excite laughter
+among his troops; and this mode of forming a climax is a peculiar
+characteristic of the conversation of the Russian boors. In this
+manner:—“And not only of the boors, but of the gentry; and not only of
+the gentry, but the nobles; and not only of the nobles, but the emperors.”
+
+[312] A slight exaggeration of Suvórof’s.
+
+[313] From Hagemeister’s Report on the Commerce of New Russia. London,
+1836, p. 120.
+
+[314] Trade and Navigation of the Crimea for 1852, from the ‘Journal de
+St. Pétersbourg.’
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77506 ***
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+<body>
+<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77506 ***</div>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="illus1" style="max-width: 43.75em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/illus1.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      <p class="caption-r"><i>Frontispiece.</i></p>
+      <p>STEPPES OF THE CASPIAN.</p>
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_i">[i]</span></p>
+
+<p class="titlepage larger">RUSSIA<br>
+<span class="smaller">ON</span><br>
+<span class="larger">THE BLACK SEA</span><br>
+<span class="smaller">AND</span><br>
+SEA OF AZOF:</p>
+
+<p class="titlepage"><span class="smaller">BEING</span><br>
+A NARRATIVE OF TRAVELS IN THE CRIMEA<br>
+AND BORDERING PROVINCES;</p>
+
+<p class="titlepage"><span class="smaller">WITH</span><br>
+NOTICES OF THE NAVAL, MILITARY, AND COMMERCIAL<br>
+RESOURCES OF THOSE COUNTRIES.</p>
+
+<p class="titlepage"><span class="smcap">By H. D. SEYMOUR, M.P.</span></p>
+
+<p class="titlepage">WITH MAP, &amp;c.</p>
+
+<p class="titlepage">LONDON:<br>
+JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.<br>
+1855.</p>
+
+<p class="titlepage smaller"><i>The right of Translation is reserved.</i></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_ii">[ii]</span></p>
+
+<p class="titlepage smaller">LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET,<br>
+AND CHARING CROSS.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_iii">[iii]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="PREFACE">PREFACE.</h2>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp100" style="max-width: 17.1875em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/line1.jpg" alt="">
+</figure>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>The following work is partly the result of my own
+personal observation, and partly a compilation from
+some of the most approved authors who have written
+on the Crimea and the resources of Russia. It was
+prepared for the press during last winter, and the publication
+of it has been retarded by the attention which,
+for the last few months, I have been obliged to bestow
+on other matters. As the Crimea is still an object of
+deep interest, and as I am not aware that the notices
+I have collected have yet been presented to the public in
+a succinct form, I hope by the following pages that I
+may help to satisfy public curiosity and add something
+to the stock of information which we possess respecting
+the Southern parts of European Russia.</p>
+
+<p>Having paid one visit to the Crimea in the year 1844,
+and two visits to Southern Russia in 1844 and 1846, I
+have been able to correct and verify the descriptive parts
+of the book by my own experience. The careful work
+of M. Dubois de Montpereux&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> has been my principal
+guide on geology, archæology, and ancient history, and
+from his magnificent atlas I have borrowed a few illustrations.
+I have abstracted from the ‘Études sur la
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_iv">[iv]</span>Russie’ of M. Haxthausen an account of the Russian
+navy and army, adding matter acquired from other
+trustworthy sources. To the above-named book and
+that by M. Tegoborski,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_2" href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> both standard works on the
+internal economy of the Russian empire, I am much
+indebted; and although I think their accomplished
+authors write under a strong bias, yet their works are
+indispensable to those foreigners who wish to study the
+resources and organization of the Russian empire.
+M. Tegoborski has not been allowed to state his whole
+opinions upon some subjects, and the Censor has obliged
+him to make material alterations, particularly where he
+speaks of the condition of the peasantry. I have likewise
+alluded to a discussion which took place last year in the
+‘Revue des Deux Mondes,’ in which this gentleman
+took a part. In the course of last summer a very able
+article appeared in the French ‘Moniteur,’ on the
+subject of Russian Finance, in which it was attempted
+to be proved that Russia was very weak on this point,
+and could not hold out for any lengthened period against
+the Western Powers. The subject was followed up by
+M. Léon Faucher in the ‘Revue des Deux Mondes,’ in
+a damaging article on Russian resources and finance.
+Soon afterwards an answer to this was sent from Petersburg,
+written by M. Tegoborski, who is an employé in
+the Bureau des Finances, and it appeared in the November
+number of the Revue, with a rejoinder by M. Léon Faucher,
+written just before his lamented decease. Notwithstanding
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_v">[v]</span>the truth of M. Tegoborski’s observation, that
+Russia cannot be judged by the same rules as other
+European nations in matters of finance, owing to her
+totally different state of civilization, I think he fails to
+prove the main object of his article, that Russia can stand
+many more such campaigns as that of 1854. Russia
+must have little hope of persuading us of her power by
+other means, when she is obliged to have recourse to an
+article in a foreign periodical in the midst of a deadly
+struggle.</p>
+
+<p>I have borrowed much from the work of M. and
+Madame Hommaire de Hell,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_3" href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> and would refer any reader
+who wishes for vivid descriptions of Southern Russia, full
+historical information, and accurate scientific knowledge,
+to the original French work of this distinguished engineer
+and his accomplished wife. M. H. de Hell spent five
+years in the country to ascertain the difference of the
+levels between the Black Sea and the Caspian, and his
+work is accompanied by an atlas of rare merit.</p>
+
+<p>I am indebted to many friends, and, among others, to
+Mr. Yeames, late Consul-General at Odessa, Mr. Crawfurd,
+and Mr. Blackmore, late chaplain at Cronstadt, for
+many valuable suggestions and corrections; and Mr.
+Lander has been good enough to revise the chapters
+on the shores of the Sea of Azof, with which no man
+is better acquainted. This accomplished gentleman was
+born in New Russia, and for many years has conducted
+the house of Yeames and Co. at Taganrok; and I may
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_vi">[vi]</span>say with truth, that the eighteenth chapter is rather his
+than mine.</p>
+
+<p>In Chapter V. I have especially to acknowledge several
+pages of valuable matter relating to the Asiatic races of
+mankind, for which I am indebted to a note by Dr. William
+Smith, inserted in his recent admirable edition of the
+great work of Gibbon. My little book pretends to be
+scarcely more than a compilation, and if I have anywhere
+else omitted to acknowledge assistance, it has not been
+from the wish unfairly to appropriate the labours of others.</p>
+
+<p>I have also to thank the Rev. Walter Sneyd for the
+sight of a translation of a curious Italian MS. in his
+possession, describing the travels in the Crimea of one
+Nicholo Barti of Lucca in the seventeenth century.</p>
+
+<p>My notice on the Russian Budget in Chapter VIII. is
+not so full as I could wish it to have been, and perhaps
+I may have made too high an estimate of the military
+expenditure. The other facts relating to it are taken
+principally from M. Tegoborski’s writings.</p>
+
+<p>I have endeavoured, in the following pages, to be as
+accurate as possible, but more leisure than I have enjoyed
+would have enabled me to go over the ground still more
+carefully than I have done, and verify my statements
+upon various subjects by information gathered from other
+scattered sources.</p>
+
+<p>I am fully alive to the defects and incomplete character
+of the sketches which I now venture to present to the
+public; and I ask, therefore, for indulgence if I have not
+contributed as much as I might have done to the instruction
+or amusement of my readers.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_vii">[vii]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="INTRODUCTION">INTRODUCTION.</h2>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp100" style="max-width: 17.1875em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/line1.jpg" alt="">
+</figure>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>My original intention was to have compiled a summary
+of the history of the Caucasus, where I spent nearly
+three years, and to which a short account of the
+Crimea would only have served as an introduction. The
+increasing interest attaching to the latter subject, however,
+made me pay more attention to it; so that I now
+offer to the public some notices on that country and the
+shores of the Sea of Azof, without being able to add
+anything upon what I hoped to make the main subject
+of my inquiry. Some chapters upon the Caucasus are
+already partly written, but I have not had sufficient time
+to prepare them for insertion in the present volume,
+although intimately connected with it. They relate to
+a country replete with the deepest interest, and I hope
+that, ere long, some more competent hand than mine
+may vindicate the character of those heroic mountaineers,
+whom many are accustomed unjustly to stigmatize as
+barbarians. Though unlettered, they possess equal claims
+to our admiration with our own Saxon and Norman ancestors,
+or with the Swiss in the days of Tell, for they
+possess that stubborn love of independence and that
+“spirit of divinest liberty,” which is the root of all good.</p>
+
+<p>When peace shall be made, it will be most fortunate
+should we be able to secure the freedom of the Eastern
+coast of the Black Sea by treaty, for the independence
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_viii">[viii]</span>of that country would form one of the best securities
+against Russian aggression. At the Caucasus Russia may
+be said to end, and a new class of nationalities to begin,
+and she can only desire to possess that mountain range
+with the intention of extending her conquests beyond it.</p>
+
+<p>The Caucasus, that is, the mountain range itself, and
+the countries that lie at the foot of them, to the north
+and south, are the most convenient entrance to the heart
+of the great table-land of Asia, which, when once
+thoroughly subdued, might constitute an impregnable
+citadel whence Russia would be enabled to extend her
+influence and dominion in every direction. The Caucasus
+is the real citadel of Russian power in the South and East,
+although as yet beleaguered by the nations from which it
+has been partially wrested. Russia has surrounded it by
+an army of 170,000&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_4" href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> men, and carefully keeps its inhabitants
+from communication with civilized Europe. We
+have never acknowledged the sovereignty of the Russians
+over this territory, nor over the Christian provinces to
+the south of the Caucasus. If her blockade were permanently
+removed from the eastern coast of the Black Sea,
+and the brave inhabitants of the mountains allowed to
+carry on a liberal commerce with Europe, their energies
+would be quickly turned from war to peaceful arts.</p>
+
+<p>Those who designate the Circassians as mere warlike
+barbarians should remember that we ourselves were but
+warlike semi-barbarians in the early ages of our history,
+and that the manly character which made us so formidable
+in the days of the Plantagenets enabled us ultimately,
+with better directed energies, to raise our great
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_ix">[ix]</span>commercial empire in the eighteenth century. The
+Circassians and the other mountain tribes resemble us
+in many particulars: they debate every great affair in a
+national council; they venerate the ancient usages and
+ordinances which form their constitution; and they have
+the same gradation of ranks and aristocratic feelings which
+distinguish ourselves.</p>
+
+<p>Above all points of resemblance to us, they have clung
+to their independence with Anglo-Saxon tenacity; and
+shall we, when peace shall be made, allow their rude and
+gigantic enemy again to surround them with her liberated
+forces, till she exterminate them by brute power, and no
+memorial be left of unsuccessful virtue save that which
+history will assuredly record in their favour?</p>
+
+<p>We acknowledged the independence of the Colonies
+of Spanish America while they were still struggling
+with the mother country; we went still further with
+Greece, for we gave them active assistance, having not
+only the French, but the very Russians themselves
+for our allies. Surely, then, there exist far more
+cogent reasons for assisting the Circassians, who have
+never been conquered by the Russians. Up to the
+breaking out of the present war the Russians had only
+an ever-disputed possession of the actual ground occupied
+by their fortifications and protected by their cannon,
+and they have been constantly resisted by the mountaineers,
+who have ever refused to acknowledge the
+sovereignty of the Emperor.</p>
+
+<p>The coast of Circassia is now free, and all that is
+required is that it should be kept so, without being
+again subjected to a barbarous blockade. If a consul
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_x">[x]</span>were placed there, and merchants encouraged to frequent
+it, its gallant inhabitants would soon yield to the civilizing
+influences of Europe, and engage themselves in
+developing its boundless resources.</p>
+
+<p>We may rest satisfied that the freedom of the Caucasus
+will form an important element towards the
+diminution of Russian influence in the East.</p>
+
+<p>I agree with Mr. Gladstone in thinking we must
+look for future security not only by reducing the power
+of Russia, but by raising that of Turkey and the other
+independent peoples bordering on the Black Sea. Free
+communication and free trade once firmly established
+there, the question might be considered as in a great
+measure settled. It is true that you cannot impose free
+trade upon Russia, who occupies half the coasts of the Black
+Sea; but you may claim your right to traffic with the
+Circassians on the east coast of that sea, and protect your
+commerce there by an authorized agent. So great are
+the advantages of unrestricted trade—so much does commerce
+strengthen and civilize, that the liberal tariff of
+Turkey, and the opening of the Principalities (as stated in
+App. E), have been, in an indirect manner, the cause of
+the present war; for, with freedom of trade, the Christian
+subjects of the Porte, for some years before the commencement
+of hostilities, had so much increased in importance
+and wealth, that they excited the jealousy of
+Russia, and she feared that if she did not claim in time
+a closer protectorate over them, they might escape her
+altogether. I say this, assuming it to have always been
+a cardinal point in the politics of Russia, in due time,
+to advance her empire to Constantinople and Athens.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xi">[xi]</span></p>
+
+<p>Although I believe the whole Russian nation to be
+bent upon certain measures of territorial aggrandizement,
+I have not failed to acknowledge in my notices the
+general pacific character of the people. They are not a
+martial nation; that is, they are not a nation which
+takes delight in war for the sake of braving its dangers
+and revelling in its excitement; but theirs is the patient,
+enduring, indomitable courage which will face
+any dangers to compass certain ends. The Russian
+nation has been misdirected by its rulers as to the true
+objects of national glory, and by an exorbitant tariff and
+other measures has been kept from mixing with other
+European nations, lest it should learn juster ideas of the
+points in which true glory and prosperity consist, and
+become impatient of a military organization, the object
+of which is to carry out indefinite schemes of conquest.</p>
+
+<p>I have lived among the Russians, and I have learnt to
+respect them as a strong, earnest, unprejudiced people,
+with a great principle of growth in them, and who will
+work out the defects of their character, and become some
+day an honour to civilization. They were the only
+nation in the world, I believe, with whom we had never
+been at war.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_5" href="#Footnote_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> None can more deeply regret than I do
+that we have been obliged now to try their mettle.</p>
+
+<p>We must remember that we have a Court to deal with
+which combines the deep calculation of Europe with the
+wiles of Asiatic intrigue, and that we shall assuredly be
+over-reached, if we do not insist upon sufficient guarantees.
+We must also remember that the conquest of
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xii">[xii]</span>Constantinople is the settled determination of Russia,
+and has been the prime object of ambition to that country
+ever since the ninth century, when the Russian fleets
+first appeared before its walls; and that, if we are determined
+(as I hope is the case) that they shall never
+possess it, we must take care, whenever peace shall be
+made, that it be rendered perfectly secure, and the
+approaches to it guarded with the greatest possible
+care.</p>
+
+<p>If we yield, as Mr. Gladstone and his friends wish us
+to do, to the first offers of Russia, we shall fail in our
+paramount object, and become the laughing-stock of the
+world. The lives of the brave will have been wasted,
+and the successes we have gained will be of no avail;
+Russia, at the first favourable opportunity, will renew
+the struggle, with the advantages of railroads and all
+modern inventions. In dealing with so subtle an enemy
+it will be wise not to hesitate, but push on, and, treating
+Russia as she wished to treat Turkey, require from her
+effectual guarantees that she will not again disturb by
+her ambition the peace of Europe.</p>
+
+<p>The supineness and indecision of the European
+Powers for the last thirty years have enabled Russia
+to take up an insolent position towards Europe; and
+the fears of our own imaginations have contributed to
+swell the prestige of the Colossus of the North, and to
+render his intrigues successful. Our statesmen are now
+fully convinced of the gravity of our position, and the
+extent of Russian intrigue both in Asia and in Germany.
+I had myself personal experience of it last year in the latter
+country. In returning from India in March, 1854, I
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xiii">[xiii]</span>spent a day at the little German state of ———— ——
+——, to visit a German friend well versed in the secret
+politics of his country. He told me how ashamed he
+was of his countrymen, who were false to their true
+interests, and cowered beneath the power of Russia.
+In the morning, when he came to breakfast with me
+in my hotel, an officer took him aside to speak to
+him. When my friend returned to me, he said, “You
+would not believe yesterday the degree of influence
+which Russia exercises in Germany; you have here a
+proof of it. That officer who took me aside commands
+the —— troops, and he called me aside to show me a
+diamond ring and an autograph letter from the Emperor
+of Russia, flattering him, and conferring upon
+him an order. That man is henceforward the devoted
+servant of Russia.” My friend, who is himself a
+distinguished littérateur, assured me that there were
+nearly two thousand literary persons in Germany who
+openly received their quarterly pensions at the Russian
+embassies to uphold Russian interests. He even authorized
+me to authenticate these statements by the use
+of his name, which nevertheless I refrain from doing.</p>
+
+<p>As so much is now said by some parties respecting
+the supposed fairness and moderation of Russia, I will
+relate two anecdotes of what happened under my own
+cognizance in the East. When the Russians seized,
+about the year 1840, the island of Ashtoráda, near
+Asterabad, at the south-east corner of the Caspian Sea,
+which they have since fortified and garrisoned, and when
+they explored with steamers the Gourgan and Atrak,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xiv">[xiv]</span>rivers flowing exclusively through the Persian territory,
+but leading in the direction of the best road to India,
+there was one Turcoman Chief resolutely hostile to them,
+whom they could neither frighten nor seduce. One
+night, therefore, troops were disembarked, his house was
+surrounded, and he and all his sons were carried off and
+conveyed into the interior of Russia, whence, at the prayer
+of a very influential personage, his place of exile was
+changed to Tiflis, where I knew him.</p>
+
+<p>The second is a more daring violation of the territory
+of the same power, with whom, be it remembered, we
+have a treaty of alliance, and at the court of which
+we have long had a minister constantly residing. A
+certain member of the Georgian royal family, Suleiman
+Khan,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_6" href="#Footnote_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> lived in the Persian provinces ceded to Russia
+in 1828, and having an inveterate enmity to that power,
+he refused to remain there when they became Russian,
+and fled into a remote part of Persia. After many years
+he thought he might venture to come and live at Tabreez,
+the capital of Azerbiján, and near his own country. He
+had sounded the Russian consulate, and found them
+apparently favourable, and when he arrived he was invited
+to dinner by the Russian Consul-General. Everything
+passed off very agreeably until after dinner, when, as he was
+sitting on a sofa with the Consul, drinking his coffee, the
+latter begged to be excused for an instant, and left the
+room. Immediately upon his quitting, a file of Russians
+appeared at the door, with their pieces levelled at the
+Khan, and the Consul, from behind them, told him he
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xv">[xv]</span>was extremely sorry that he was obliged to treat a guest
+in so uncourteous a manner, but that he must execute
+his orders, that Suleiman Khan must consider himself
+a prisoner, and prepare instantly to be conveyed into
+the interior of Russia.</p>
+
+<p>This fact was told me by the English Consul at Tabreez,
+when I arrived at that city some short time after this
+event had occurred, and I dined with the Russian Consul
+in question, now holding a high post in Russian diplomacy,
+in the very room where it happened. Of course,
+when proceedings of this sort were overlooked by
+our Government, there is no wonder that Russia grew
+emboldened, and believed that no European power dared
+to interfere with her.</p>
+
+<p>We have begun at last, after thousands of lives and
+millions of treasure have been expended in attacking the
+only strong position of Russia in the Black Sea, to
+attack some of the long line of vulnerable points which
+she presents. Our successes at Kertch, Berdiansk, Mariopol,
+Taganrok, and Soujuk Caleh have been as easy as
+they have been important, and we have now only to
+continue the same course of action.</p>
+
+<p>I can state, on the authority of persons intimately
+acquainted with those countries, in answer to what Mr.
+Cobden said in the House of Commons, that the blow
+we struck in the Sea of Azof has been the severest which
+we have dealt to Russian power—that all the stores we
+destroyed at Kertch belonged to the Government, and
+not to private individuals, and that the same was the
+case with every bag of flour and oats destroyed at Berdiansk,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xvi">[xvi]</span>Mariopol, and Taganrok. The Russian Government,
+as is well known, has always supplied Sevastopol
+and their other fortresses on the coast of the Black Sea
+with stores and ammunition from the interior of the
+country by means of the Sea of Azof, as is explained in
+my work. It is known that they had just completed large
+purchases of stores for Sevastopol which we intercepted in
+our late expedition, so that the merchants had received
+their money, and the loss wholly fell on the Government.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_7" href="#Footnote_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a>
+If our fleet had penetrated to Rostof, we should probably
+have destroyed a still larger amount of stores, and at the
+latter place the shot and shells which are brought down
+there from the foundry at Lugan, and from Siberia, for
+transmission to the Russian fortresses in the Black Sea.
+Perhaps this may be reserved for another expedition;
+for close to Rostof are Novo Tcherkask, the capital
+of the Don Cossacks, and Naketchiván, an Armenian
+town, and the head-quarters of many Armenian houses
+deeply engaged in supplying the commissariat of the
+Russian army. From the eastern coast of the Sea of
+Azof may also be obtained large herds of fine horses for
+our cavalry, and fat beasts for the subsistence of our
+army.</p>
+
+<p>The taking of Anapa will allow the Circassians to
+overspread the country as far as the Bosphorus, and even
+to cross it and assist us in the Crimea, a part of which
+they formerly occupied, and from which some of their
+noblest families make it their boast to have come.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xvii">[xvii]</span></p>
+
+<p>From Soujuk Caleb it is now friendly country to
+Ekaterinodár on the Kuban, the capital of the Black Sea
+Cossacks; and if judicious persons be sent to treat with
+the Circassians, a long line of easy and important victories
+will be opened to us. But in the East, still more than
+in the West, everything depends upon a judicious selection
+of agents; and it is especially necessary, among
+free mountaineers, to gain their confidence by kind,
+considerate conduct, and to persuade them that you
+have no projects for your own aggrandizement, but wish,
+by confirming their independence and adding to their
+strength, to render them a strong bulwark against
+Russian aggression.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xviii">[xviii]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.</h2>
+
+</div>
+
+<table class="contents">
+  <tr>
+    <td><span class="smcap">View of Steppes</span></td>
+    <td class="tdpg" colspan="2"><a href="#illus1"><i>Frontispiece.</i></a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td><span class="smcap">Plan of Sevastopol</span></td>
+    <td class="nw"><i>To face p.</i></td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus2">62</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td><span class="smcap">Plan of the Heracleotic Chersonese</span></td>
+    <td><span class="ditto">”</span></td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus3">148</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td><span class="smcap">Plan of Kertch</span> (<span class="smcap">Panticapæum</span>)</td>
+    <td><span class="ditto">”</span></td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus4">256</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td><span class="smcap">Greek Antiquities in Gold and Electrum found at Kertch</span></td>
+    <td><span class="ditto">”</span></td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus5">282</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td><span class="smcap">Map of the Crimea and Sea of Azof</span></td>
+    <td class="tdpg" colspan="2"><a href="#illus6"><i>At the end.</i></a></td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Note.</span>—In the Map, Cape Kazantip is represented as fortified by the
+Russians. This is an error; the fortifications were meant to have been
+marked near Arabat.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xix">[xix]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CONTENTS">CONTENTS.</h2>
+
+</div>
+
+<table class="contents">
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="tdc">CHAPTER I.<br>THE CRIMEA.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>General description of the Crimea—Mountains—Rivers—Ancient name—Boundaries—The
+    Steppes to the north connected with it—The roads—Bereslaf—Kherson;
+    its foundation and importance—Gloubóky—Perversion
+    of names by the Russians—Nicolaief, head-quarters of Black Sea
+    fleet, described—Odessa—Definition of New Russia—Limits of ancient
+    Scythia—The dominions of the Khans of the Crimea—The Zaporogue
+    Cossacks</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">Page 1</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="tdc">CHAPTER II.<br>THE STEPPES OF RUSSIA.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Extent and boundaries of the Steppes—The Tchorno-ziemé—Soil and
+    aspect—Their productions—Appearance of the Steppes in spring, summer,
+    and winter—Snow-storms, called “Metel” and “Boura”—“Balkas,”
+    or ravines—Roads, their state in spring—Tumuli or “Kourgans”—False
+    tumuli—The mirage—Tchernomore Steppes—From Don to Moloshna—Moloshna
+    to Dniepr—German colonies—Inhabitants of Steppes—Game—Soroke
+    or Marmot—Biroke—Suslic—The Steppes occupy
+    two-thirds of the Crimea</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">13</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="tdc">CHAPTER III.<br>FROM PERECOP TO SYMPHERÓPOL.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>The isthmus of Perecop—Its defences—History—Its capture by Marshal
+    Munich in 1736—The Crimea and Kilboroún conquered by him—His
+    cruelty and atrocities—The Armenian Bazar—The salt lakes—General
+    view of the sea-coast on each side of the isthmus—The Black Sea and Gulf
+    of Karkiníte—Anchorage of Akméshed—Cape Karamroún—The Lagoon
+    of the Dniepr and Boug defended by Kilboroún and Otchákow—The
+    river Boug—Gloubóky—Kherson—The Shiváshe, or Putrid Sea—The
+    Tonka, or Strelka, or Arabate—The road from Perecop to Sympherópol—Sympherópol</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">26</a><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xx">[xx]</span></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="tdc">CHAPTER IV.<br>BAKTCHÉSERAI AND TCHOUFOUT KALEH.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Description of Baktchéserai—The palace of the Khans—Pouschkin’s fountain—The
+    great council-room—The hareem—The cemetery—The
+    tomb of Dilara Bikéh—The gorge of Tchoufout Kaleh—Acheláma—Tchoufout
+    Kaleh—The Karaim Jews, or those who reject the Talmud—Their
+    very ancient origin—Probable descendants of Sadducees—Their
+    high character—Tomb of the beautiful Nenekedjàn—The crypt town of
+    Kirkor</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">37</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="tdc">CHAPTER V.<br>WHO ARE THE TATARS?</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Origin of the Tatars—Original common stock of the Mongol, Toungous,
+    Turk, and Ugrian groups of nations—Short account of each of these—The
+    Tatars belong to the Turk race—Their royal race, the Gerays, descendants
+    of Zingis Khan, through Tóktamish—Discord in the kingdom
+    of Kiptchak for one hundred years—Kingdom of Crimea founded by
+    Mahomet II.—Held tributary to Constantinople till conquest by the
+    Russians—The conditions—Popular notion that the Gerays are next
+    heirs to the throne of Constantinople—Selim Geray—Constitution of
+    Crimea—Power of the Khans with the Grand Sultan—The Sultans, or
+    royal family, of the Gerays—The wives of the Khans—Character of the
+    Tatars—Their manner of living—Their fidelity</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">48</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="tdc">CHAPTER VI.<br>SEVASTOPOL.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Road to Sevastopol from Baktchéserai—Conquest and foundation of Sevastopol
+    in 1783-84—Description of town and fortress—“The Dvoretz”—Engineer
+    buildings—Fort Alexander and Fort Constantine—South Bay—The
+    Hulks—Bay of Vessels, now the Docks—Description of the barracks—Hospitals,
+    Slobodes—Colonel Upton and anecdotes of Russian
+    workmen—Sevastopol in 1834—Reservoir of Sevastopol—Sievarna
+    fort—The citadel—Observations of Sir Howard Douglas on the siege—Military
+    stores—Arsenals of Russia—Manufactories of fire-arms—Cannon
+    foundries—Stores come to Sevastopol by the Don and the Azof—The
+    road by the Arabate and Perecop—Fortifying of Cape Kazantip—Undefended
+    state of Kertch up to May last—Public gardens—Haxthausen
+    on the object of Sevastopol and the Black Sea Fleet—Chopin on
+    the Anglo-French alliance—Conclusion</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">61</a><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxi">[xxi]</span></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="tdc">CHAPTER VII.<br>THE RUSSIAN NAVY.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Its origin under Peter the Great—Early victories of the Varangians, or
+    Normans, and Cossacks—Row-boats more useful in the Baltic than large
+    vessels—The navy under Catherine II.—English instructors—Difficulty
+    in manning the fleet—No mercantile navy—Organization of the
+    Russian fleet—No marines—Oak for navy—Food of sailors—Russian
+    vessels on foreign stations—Only one Russian foreign merchant—Greek
+    influence diminished in 1844—“The Twelve Apostles”—“The Teredo
+    Navalis”—The Affair of Sinope—The Paixhans shell system—General
+    observations</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">83</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="tdc">CHAPTER VIII.<br>ON THE RUSSIAN ARMY.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Large proportion of Russian population in the army—Military organization—Peaceable
+    natural disposition of Russian people—Strong feelings when
+    roused—Obedience to orders—Anecdotes—Commercial disposition of
+    the Russian people—Their wish to mix with European nations—Education
+    checked by the Government—Military system of Peter the Great—His
+    great objects—Faults of our Government with respect to Russian
+    policy—The army, whence recruited—Great Russians—Poles—Little
+    Russians—Finns, Jews, &amp;c.—Name “Ruski” or Russian—Its origin—The
+    conscription—Soldiers’ marriages—The Cantonists—Emperor’s
+    efforts to improve condition of common soldier generally unsuccessful—Corporal
+    punishment—Labour—“Indefinite leave”—Division of
+    empire for conscription—Amount of population per cent. taken from
+    1840-1855—Expense of the Russian soldier—Democratic system of
+    army—The cross of St. George—Classification of Russian army—Into
+    1st, Corps d’Armée, or complete armies—2nd, Local Regular Troops—3rd,
+    Irregulars—Don, Black Sea, and Ural Cossacks—Value and number
+    of Cossack troops—Various Asiatic irregulars—General observations</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">96</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="tdc">CHAPTER IX.<br>INKERMAN, MANGOUP, AND THE HILLY COUNTRY OF THE CRIMEA.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>The Bay of Sevastopol to Inkerman—Aktiar—Inkerman Castle—Its
+    history—Crypts—Fuller’s earth, or natural soap—Tchorgouna—Tchouli,
+    residence of Pallas—Crypts at Karakoba—Mount Aithodor—Mangoup—Description
+    and history—Gothic architecture—Position of
+    Mangoup—Interesting character of surrounding country—The Tchatyr-Dagh
+    and the Yailas</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">137</a><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxii">[xxii]</span></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="tdc">CHAPTER X.<br>THE HERACLEOTIC CHERSONESE.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>The Heracleotic Chersonese—Origin of name—Defended by a wall—Kherson—Its
+    history and remains—House of Lamachus—The predecessors of
+    Vladimir and their relations with Constantinople—Account of the siege by
+    Vladimir, taken out of Nestor—Vladimir’s Baptism—Springs of water—Kherson
+    destroyed by Lithuanians—The bays between Sevastopol and
+    Cape Chersonese—Cape Partheniké—The Tauric Diana—The monastery
+    of St. George—Bustards on the Chersonese</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">148</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="tdc">CHAPTER XI.<br>ON THE ANCIENT INHABITANTS OF THE CRIMEA.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>The Cimmerii—The Tauri—Connexion of Greece with the Black Sea—Digression
+    on the Crypts of the Crimea—<span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span> 600: the Scythians—The
+    Greek colonies, <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span> 650—Milesian emigration—Dorian emigration—Trade
+    of these early times—Mithridates, reigned <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span> 120-63—<span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> 62:
+    The Alans—<span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> 100-200: The Goths—<span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> 376: The Huns—Second
+    attack of the Huns—Justinian reigned, <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> 527-565—<span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> 679: The
+    Khazars—<span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> 900-1000: The Petchenegues—About 1204: The Comans—1226:
+    The Tatars—The Genoese—1473: Kaffa taken by the Turks—The
+    Black Sea then shut up to European nations—Mixture of races in
+    present inhabitants of Crimea</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">166</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="tdc">CHAPTER XII.<br>BALACLAVA AND VALLEY OF BAIDAR.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Balaclava—Karl Ritter’s views of the importance of the Black Sea in very
+    early times—Homer’s account of Balaclava—The Cembalo of the Genoese—Tatar
+    occupation of it—Arnaouts—Tchorgouna—Mackenzie’s Farm—Valley
+    of Baidar—Manners of the Tatars—Woronzof road</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">182</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="tdc">CHAPTER XIII.<br>THE SOUTHERN COAST, AS FAR AS ALOUCHTA.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Pass of Phoros—First view of the Southern Coast—The climate—Valley
+    of Laspi—Mount Aia, or Cape Saritch—Modern Laspi—Phoros to
+    Kíkineis—Land slips—Liméne—Singular appearance of Tatars—Aloupka—Prince
+    Woronzof’s palace—Gardens—Luxuriant vegetation—Craters—Account
+    of Prince Woronzof—Miskhor—Koureis, seat of
+    Princess Galitzin—Madame de Krudener and Comtesse Lamothe—Gaspra—Mount
+    A’ithodor—Imperial Oriánda—Ouchansóu—Yalta—The
+    mountain pass to Baktchéserai—Marsánda—Cyclopean remains—Magaratch—Nikita—Botanical
+    gardens—St. Daniel—Oursouf—Ancient
+    castle of Justinian—Cyclopean remains—Mount Aioudágh, the ancient
+    Kriumetôpon Prom—Village of Partheníte—Great and Little Lambat—The
+    Chaos—Numberless ancient remains—The pass of Mount Castéle—The
+    descent to Alouchta</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">197</a><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxiii">[xxiii]</span></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="tdc">CHAPTER XIV.<br>THE EASTERN COAST AND SOUDAK.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Alouchta—The Eastern and Western Coasts—Oulou Ouzéne, the property of
+    Mrs. Lang—Mdlle. Jacquemart—The Bay of Soudak—Ruins of the triple
+    fortress—The Kiz Koullé, or Girl’s Tower—Ancient Soldaya—Its history—Remains—Vandalism
+    of the Russians—Ruined barracks—The Crimean
+    Wine Company—The wines of the Crimea—Prices of land in the Crimea—Road
+    to Theodosia—Tatar hospitality—Koktebel</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">220</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="tdc">CHAPTER XV.<br>FROM ALOUCHTA TO SIMPHERÓPOL, KARASOUBAZAR, ESKI KRIM, AND THEODOSIA.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Valley of Alouchta—Obelisk—Valley of the Angar—Tavshan Bazar—Fortified
+    Gorge—Yenisála, a Greek Colony—Aian and the source of the
+    Salghír—Ascent of the Tchatyr-Dagh—Yaila—Snow reservoirs—From
+    Tchafki to Simpherópol—Excursion up valley of Little Salghír to caves of
+    Kisilkoba—Caverns—Simpherópol to Karasóubazar—The Shireen family—Eski
+    Krim—Theodosia, or Kaffa—<span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span> 700, Theodosia founded by Milesians—<span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span>
+    250, totally destroyed by the Huns—Desert for 1000 years—<span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span>
+    1280, Kaffa founded by Genoese on site of Theodosia—Short history
+    of it—<span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> 1475, taken by Turks—Its decline—Revival in seventeenth
+    century—1781, taken by Russians—Description of ruins—Their destruction
+    by the Russians—Position of Kaffa in commercial point of view—Arabat—The
+    wall of Asander—The approach to Kertch</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">236</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="tdc">CHAPTER XVI.<br>KERTCH.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Approach to Kertch—The Cimmerian Bosphorus—Russian conquest of
+    Kertch in 1771—Its rise since 1833—Its chance of becoming the emporium
+    of trade for the Sea of Azof—Russian authorities—Ancient church—Kertch,
+    the ancient Panticapæum—Acropolis—Arm-chair of Mithridates—Allée
+    of Tumuli on Theodosian road—The Tumulus a sign of Milesian
+    occupation—Contents of Tumuli on Theodosian road—Etruscan vases at
+    Kertch—Burial-places of the poor—Tomb of the Pigmies—The Catacombs—The
+    Tombs of the Kings—The Golden Mountain—The rich
+    discoveries at Kouloba—Description of the contents of the Tomb—Pillaged
+    by the people—Probably that of Leucon I., or Paerisádes I.—The
+    Museum—Myrmékium—Mud volcanoes—Naphtha springs—Cape Akboroun—Nymphæum—Herring
+    fishery—Opouk, the ancient Kimmericum</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">255</a><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxiv">[xxiv]</span></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="tdc">CHAPTER XVII.<br>THE SEA OF AZOF.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>The Sea of Azof—Its extent and boundaries—Its depth continually
+    diminishes—Its sweet water—Its rivers—Currents—The Straits of
+    Kertch—The Russian defences of it—The eastern shores—Temróuk—Okhtor—Cape
+    Obriv—The fishing-huts—Bay and new town of Yeisk—Cape
+    Tchimborsk—Mouths of Don—Bars of the Don—Old town
+    of Azof—Rostof—Its commercial importance—Shallowness of water in
+    Gulf of the Don—The Azof frozen in winter—Ruins of ancient Tana—Taganrok
+    founded by Peter the Great—Its history—Its importance—Mariopol—Cape
+    Bielo-Serái—Berdiansk—Its foundation—Port is
+    filling up—Lake Moloshenska—Peninsula of Berútchi—Straits of
+    Yénitchi</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">299</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="tdc">CHAPTER XVIII.<br>ON THE COMMERCE OF THE SEA OF AZOF.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Rostof, key to commercial system—A district of the Government of Ekaterinoslaf—Its
+    gradual rise since 1835—Articles of export—Wheat—Linseed—Rye—Military
+    stores sent by the Azof to Sevastopol, &amp;c.—Iron
+    foundries of Lugan—Tallow—Breeds of cattle—System of advances—Agencies
+    of foreign merchants, chiefly at Pavlosk—Advantages of
+    Free Trade—Passage of goods by the Don and the Volga—Dubofka and
+    Katchálin—Hardships of the military system—Intelligence of Russian
+    merchants—True policy of Russia</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">312</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="tdc">APPENDIX.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>(A.) List of the Russian Naval Force in the Black Sea, Jan. 1853</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#APPENDIX_A">337</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>(B.) Suvórof’s Discourse under the Trigger</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#APPENDIX_B">340</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>(C.) The Timber Trade of Northern and Southern Russia</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#APPENDIX_C">346</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>(D.) Commerce of Ports of Crimea</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#APPENDIX_D">350</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>(E.) On the advantage of establishing a Free Port on the Danube
+    at the St. George’s Mouth of the river</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#APPENDIX_E">354</a></td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_1">[1]</span></p>
+
+<h1><span class="smaller">SOME ACCOUNT<br>
+<span class="smaller">OF</span></span><br>
+THE CRIMEA, AND THE SHORES OF<br>
+THE SEA OF AZOF.</h1>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp100" style="max-width: 17.1875em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/line1.jpg" alt="">
+</figure>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.<br>
+<span class="smaller">THE CRIMEA.</span></h2>
+
+<p>General description of the Crimea—Mountains—Rivers—Ancient name—Boundaries—The
+Steppes to the north connected with it—The roads—Bereslaf—Kherson;
+its foundation and importance—Gloubóky—Perversion
+of names by the Russians—Nicolaief, head-quarters of Black Sea
+fleet, described—Odessa—Definition of New Russia—Limits of ancient
+Scythia—The dominions of the Khans of the Crimea—The Zaporogue
+Cossacks.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>The peninsula of the Crimea is a southern portion of the
+Steppes of Russia, raised by volcanic action out of nearly
+the centre of the Black Sea. It is about 200 miles across
+in a direct line from Cape Karamroún on the western side
+above Eupatoria to Cape Fanar, the furthest point eastward
+on the Straits of Kertch, and 125 miles from Perecop
+to Cape Kíkineis on the southern coast. It contains
+a population of about 200,000 inhabitants, and covers an
+area of 10,050 English square miles.</p>
+
+<p>The Tauric range of mountains runs east and west along
+the southern coast from Balaclava to Theodosia, and generally
+within a few hundred yards of the shore, which, being
+protected by them from the northern winds, enjoys a delicious
+climate, like that of southern Italy. But this mild
+temperature is confined to the narrow strip of land along
+the coast which is shut in by the mountains, and to the
+north of them the weather shows severe alternations of
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_2">[2]</span>heat and cold, and the snow in some seasons covers the
+ground for a considerable time in winter. The mountains
+themselves occupy a large space, and rise to a height
+of from 1000 to 5000 feet. They are generally flat-topped
+or dome-shaped, and hold within their range high
+elevated plains called Yailas. Their summits reveal
+granite and other primitive rocks, and on their northern
+sides lie, like a mantle, the Steppes, which constitute all
+the northern portion, and nearly two-thirds of the area,
+of the whole peninsula.</p>
+
+<p>These steppes gradually incline downwards towards
+the north, and hence received from the later Greeks the
+name of “ta climata,” or the inclines.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_8" href="#Footnote_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> The following are
+the principal rivers:—Eastward, the Salghír, the Bulganak,
+the three Andols, the Tchoroksou, the Soubashi, and
+the Karagos, which flow into the Shiváshe or great lagoon
+on the east, improperly called the Putrid Sea; and on the
+westward, the western Bulganak, the Alma, the Katcha,
+and the Belbek, which discharge their waters into the long
+open bay at the head of which stands Eupatoria.</p>
+
+<p>The peninsula of the Crimea was known to the Greeks
+under the name of the Taurica Chersonesus, and in the
+middle ages was called Gothia. It is now called either
+the Tauride (a version of its first appellation), or more
+commonly Crimea, from the famous city of Eski Krim,
+near Theodosia, which was built by the Tatars in the
+thirteenth century, and is now a ruin.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">[3]</span></p>
+
+<p>The Crimea is joined to the main land by the narrow
+isthmus of Perecop, on each side of which there is a very
+shallow sea. To the north of it the dreary plains of
+Russia extend interminably, on the west to Bessarabia
+and the Ukraine, and on the east to Tatary and Siberia.
+There has in all times been a connexion between the
+Steppes to the north of Perecop and the peninsula of the
+Crimea itself, and they have both generally been in the
+possession of the same people. A portion of the Steppes,
+bounded by Bereslaf, Alexandropol, and Mariopol, are
+now included in the Russian government of the Tauride.
+As the character of the Steppes is very peculiar, and they
+form, as I have said, about two-thirds even of the whole
+peninsula of the Crimea, I have thrown together in the
+next chapter some general observations upon them.</p>
+
+<p>I will now say a few words about the road between
+Perecop and Odessa, and the principal towns through
+which it passes. The whole distance is 352 miles,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_9" href="#Footnote_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> and
+there are post-horses along the road, which runs entirely
+through the Steppes. Road, however, properly speaking,
+there is none; for even outside the gates of Odessa the
+traveller follows the track of those that have preceded
+him, and in dry weather bowls rapidly along, but is
+arrested by the slightest fall of rain. I left Odessa, in
+the year 1843, in the commencement of August, in a
+light britska drawn by three horses, and in consequence
+of a slight shower of rain in the morning I was stopped
+half-way in the rich loam of the Steppes, and was obliged
+to pass the night there, and send on to the next station
+for three fresh horses to pull my carriage through the
+heavy ground.</p>
+
+<p>The road from Perecop to Bereslaf, on the banks of
+the Dniepr, runs 52½ miles across a perfectly flat country,
+where the soil is not fertile. The latter town is situated
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">[4]</span>on the right bank of the Dniepr, which is precipitous and
+very much higher than the left bank, which is shelving,
+and this peculiarity is found in all the rivers of the south
+of Russia.</p>
+
+<p>Bereslaf owes its importance to its situation at a point
+where the Dniepr is crossed by a wooden bridge. In
+the Greek period it was called Miletopol, and in later
+times it belonged to the Zaporogue Cossacks till their
+conquest by the Russians.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_10" href="#Footnote_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p>
+
+<p>From Bereslaf to Kherson is 47 miles, and the road
+runs along the bank of the Dniepr. The town of Kherson
+is the capital of the government of the same name,
+which is bounded by the governments of the Tauride,
+Ekaterinoslaf, Kief, and Podolia, touching also at some
+points on Moldavia, Bessarabia, and the Black Sea. The
+north and north-west parts of the government of Kherson
+are very fertile, and produce great quantities of wheat;
+although the soil becomes dry and sandy on approaching
+the Black Sea. Before its conquest by the Russians
+this was the country of the Nogai Tatars, who were
+also called Precopian Tatars, but none of their tribes
+now remain to the westward of the Dniepr. The
+population of the government of Kherson now amounts
+to between 300,000 and 400,000, and is composed of
+Russians, Armenians, Jews, Germans, and Bulgarians.
+The town of Kherson is situated on the north bank of
+the Dniepr,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_11" href="#Footnote_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> which here spreads out into a wide kind of
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">[5]</span>lagoon, 11 miles in breadth. This is filled with low
+islands, which are often covered with water, and render
+the passage difficult and dangerous. The town was
+founded in the desert in 1778, by Catherine II., and was
+the first commercial port which the Russians established
+on the Black Sea. This was four years after the Treaty
+of Kainardji, by which the Black Sea was opened for the
+first time to any European nation, after having been shut
+up for 300 years, since the conquest of Constantinople.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_12" href="#Footnote_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p>
+
+<p>Kherson is situated at about 50 miles from the sea,
+and the water is too shallow to allow large vessels to
+approach it. These load and discharge their cargoes at
+Gloubóky, which is many miles below Kherson and the
+mouths of the Dniepr. Kherson continued to increase
+till the foundation of Odessa, eighteen years afterwards,
+in 1796. It was both the commercial and naval centre of
+the Russians when they first reached the Black Sea in their
+conquests; but, as the commercial affairs were transplanted
+to Odessa, so their naval arsenal, with the admiralty and
+the dockyards, were removed to Nicolaief a few years
+earlier.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_13" href="#Footnote_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> The name of Kherson was given to the new town
+because it was erroneously supposed to stand on the site
+of the ancient Greek colony of that name, the ruins of
+which are to be seen close to Sevastopol, and similar
+mistakes are common in the case of many other Russian
+towns founded about the same time. Thus
+Sevastopol itself bears the name of the old Greek city
+on the shores of Abkhazia; the ruins of the real Eupatoria
+are at a long distance from the place which now
+bears its name; and nothing but a Tatar village of the
+name of Hadjibey ever stood on those steppes where
+Odessa is supposed to renew the memory of the ancient
+Odessus.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">[6]</span></p>
+
+<p>Nicolaief is the only town of the slightest importance
+on the dreary road from Kherson to Odessa, and is 40
+miles from the former, and 77 miles from the latter
+place.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_14" href="#Footnote_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> It stands in the open Steppe, at the confluence
+of the Boug and the Ingoul, on the left bank of the
+former river, and 22 miles from its mouth. The Boug is
+here a noble stream, a mile and a half broad,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_15" href="#Footnote_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> and so deep
+that the largest men-of-war can ascend and descend after
+taking out their guns. Its right bank is deep and precipitous,
+and the left bank low and shelving, a peculiarity,
+as I have before remarked, of all the rivers of
+Southern Russia. This was likewise found to be the case
+at the Alma. This town was founded in 1791, and intended
+to replace Kherson as the head-quarters of the
+Russian fleet in the Black Sea. It is simply a naval
+arsenal, and contains a population of 10,000 or 12,000
+persons, entirely occupied in the government establishments.
+There are here immense storehouses and dockyards,
+in which all the Russian fleet in the Black Sea is
+built.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_16" href="#Footnote_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> The timber for ship-building comes chiefly down
+the Dniepr to Kherson, and from thence to Nicolaief.
+All the vessels constructed here are transported empty
+down the river to Gloubóky or Otchákow, and proceed from
+thence to the Black Sea on wooden frames called camels,
+because of a sandbank near Kilboroún, and they take
+in their cannon and tackle at Sevastopol. The town
+is quite undefended except by a wall, which has been
+built not for military but police purposes, to prevent
+peculation and smuggling, by allowing no ingress or
+egress without permission. There is no good water&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_17" href="#Footnote_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> at
+Nicolaief, as that of the rivers is often brackish, as is
+also that which is obtained from wells, but an excellent
+spring has been found at some distance from
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[7]</span>the town, the water of which has now been introduced
+and fills a large reservoir, which holds a sufficient quantity
+for a much larger population than now inhabits
+Nicolaief.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_18" href="#Footnote_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a></p>
+
+<p>From Nicolaief to Odessa the country is very desert
+and uncultivated; for the old Tatar population has disappeared,
+and new settlers have not arrived in sufficient
+numbers to occupy their place. It is only at the last
+stage from Odessa that the country bears at all the aspect
+of civilization.</p>
+
+<p>Odessa, situated on a barren Steppe, is the second commercial
+port in the Russian empire. It was the last town
+founded by the Empress Catherine II. in 1796, a few
+months before her death; and although its situation
+is not the best that could have been chosen, still its
+position as a débouché for the Polish provinces, and
+its privileges as a free port, have made it rapidly increase
+up to the present time. Odessa is the residence
+of the Governor-General of New Russia, and the real
+capital of all Southern Russia—that is to say, the
+largest money centre, and the town to which all look
+up as the richest and most refined in the empire after
+Petersburg and Moscow. New Russia comprehends
+the governments of Kherson, Ekaterinoslaf, and the
+Tauride, or the vast territory which has been conquered
+from nomade nations within the last century,
+and is as yet thinly peopled with fixed inhabitants.
+All these countries have the same interests,
+and require special attention, and for these reasons the
+governors of them do not correspond with the ministers
+at Petersburg, as is the case with the other governments
+of the Russian empire, but are referred to the Governor-General
+of New Russia,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_19" href="#Footnote_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> who resides among them at
+Odessa, and can naturally pay a more immediate attention
+to their wants than distant ministers.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[8]</span></p>
+
+<p>New Russia, as the name denotes, has been recently
+acquired. This country, with Bessarabia, nearly agrees
+with the limits of ancient Scythia in the time of Herodotus,
+who describes it as extending from the Ister
+(Danube) to the Tanais (Don), and as being watered
+by eight rivers, of which the Tanais was the last.
+Scythia, then, appears to have been bounded by the
+Danube on the south-west. To the north the whole
+of the Boug ran through Scythia; and beyond the Don,
+to the east, the Scythian population ended, and the
+Sauromatæ occupied the Steppes between the Caspian
+and Black Sea. The latter people are supposed by
+some to be the same as the Sarmatæ, or Sarmatians,
+the ancestors of the Poles. The southern part of Scythia,
+between Kherson and Perecop, was inhabited by a fixed
+population, called the Agricultural Scythians; and the
+Royal Scythians were to the east, near the Don; and the
+Nomade Scythians along the whole country to the north.
+From the third to the sixth century, when the barbarians
+pressed forwards to occupy the defenceless provinces of
+the Roman empire, these plains were the high road of
+nations, and were occupied by a succession of nomade
+peoples during the whole period of the Byzantine empire,
+until they fell into the hands of the Tatars and
+the Ukraine Cossacks, called Zaporogues, from whom
+the Russians conquered them in the latter half of the
+last century. Several Nogai Tatar tribes regularly
+divided the whole of the southern portion of it, from
+the Dniestr to the Don, and all were under the dominion
+of the Khan of the Crimea, and constituted the largest
+portion of his territory. At the end of the seventeenth
+century these Tatars were known in Europe by the name
+of the Precopian Tatars, or the Tatars of Perecop.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_20" href="#Footnote_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[9]</span></p>
+
+<p>The nearest regular nations to these on the north were
+the Poles and the Russians, of which the Poles were three
+centuries ago the more important and powerful people; but
+both were then much smaller nations and occupied far
+less territory than they now do. Between them and the
+Tatars there was an immense tract of waste land called
+the Ukraine, which in Russian means the march, or
+border land. Upon this a fugitive population of all sorts
+settled themselves, and took as their head-quarters the
+rapids of the Dniepr, where that river for about 70 miles
+falls over a succession of vast granite blocks, which impede
+the navigation of the river, and have caused the
+formation of numerous islands, difficult of access. From
+this cause the mixed population who took refuge there
+were called Zaporogues, or the people who lived at the
+falls, from two Russian words, “za,” at, “porohi,” the
+falls; and they were also called Cossacks, or Kazaks, as
+the word is pronounced in Russian and Tatar. This
+is an appellation of uncertain origin, and known over a
+vast extent of country on the confines of Europe and
+Asia. The Zaporogues were called Kazak, and so were
+the people who lived on the Don, and these two communities
+were of decided Russian origin. This name was
+also well known among Asiatic nations, for the Tcherkess
+in early times were called Kazaks, and Wood found it
+in use as far as the banks of the Oxus. It is not considered
+as a complimentary term, and the Cossacks of the
+Don call themselves the Donskoi, or the people of the
+Don, and consider the other as a reproach.</p>
+
+<p>The Zaporogue Cossacks then inhabited the march
+between the Tatars and the Poles and Russians, and thus
+resembled the border people of England and Scotland.
+In the reign of Sigismund I., King of Poland, the last
+of the race of Jagellon, who died in 1572, the Cossacks
+were first taken into pay and armed against the Tatars,
+and a Polish officer was appointed their governor; and
+in the reign of Stephen Batory, which began three years
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[10]</span>after the death of Sigismund, they were regularly
+brought under military discipline. Much that is fabulous
+has been related of this people, and they have
+been described as a nation who admitted no women
+to live among them, as the Amazons near the Sea of
+Azof banished all men; and imagination had embellished
+their history as early as the seventeenth century.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_21" href="#Footnote_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a>
+“They were, however,” says Chevalier, who wrote a
+history of the Cossack war, which was published at Paris
+in 1663, “only a military body, and not a nation,
+as some have imagined. We cannot compare them
+better than to the Franc archers established in France
+by Charles VII. They made periodical naval expeditions
+against the Turks, and have even advanced within
+two leagues of Constantinople. Their rendezvous was
+the islands of the Dniepr, and when winter approached
+they returned to their homes. They generally mustered
+5000 or 6000 men: their boats were sixty feet long,
+with ten or twelve oars on each side, but this must be
+understood only of their war-boats.”</p>
+
+<p>In short, they were pirates after the manner of our
+forefathers, the Jutes, Angles, Saxons, and Danes.</p>
+
+<p>The father of John Sobieski commanded the Cossacks,
+and gives the following account of them:—</p>
+
+<p>“They are chiefly of Russian origin, though many
+criminal refugees from Poland, Germany, and other
+countries are to be found among them. They profess
+the religion of the Greek Church; and have their fixed
+residence in their naturally fortified places, watered by
+the Dniepr. Their business is war, and when they are
+shut up, as it were, in their nest,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_22" href="#Footnote_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> they consider it illegal
+to neglect athletic sports for any other pursuits. They
+live sparingly by hunting and fishing, and they support
+their wives and families by plunder. They are governed
+by a prefect, whose sceptre is a reed, and who is chosen
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[11]</span>in a tumultuous manner. He has absolute power of life
+and death, and has four counsellors to assist him. The
+Poles have given them the town of Trychtymirow in
+Kiovia. Long habit has fitted them for maritime warfare.
+They use boats, in the side of which they can
+occasionally fasten flat bundles of reeds to buoy them
+up and resist the violence of the waves and winds. With
+these boats they sail with great rapidity, and very often
+take the laden Turkish vessels. Not many of them use
+lances (framlis), but they are all furnished with arquebuses
+(sclopetis); and in this kind of warfare the kings
+of Poland can match the infantry of all the monarchs of
+the world. They fortify their camp with waggons
+ranged in several rows; this they call ‘tabor,’ and make
+them their last refuge from an overbearing enemy. The
+Poles were obliged to furnish them with arms, provisions,
+and forage for their horses.”</p>
+
+<p>Such were the men whom Batory enlisted in the Polish
+service. In the year 1556 he divided them into six
+regiments, and appointed superior and subordinate officers
+over them. They were then only infantry, says Chevalier,
+but Batory joined to them 2000 horse, and in a
+short time they consisted chiefly of cavalry. Their chief
+was called the hetman, or ataman; and the king presented
+him with a flag, a horse-tail, a staff, and a mirror,
+as ensigns of authority.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_23" href="#Footnote_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> The Cossacks played an important
+part in all the wars that desolated these countries till
+they were subdued, in the last century, by Catherine II.,
+and transplanted to the banks of the Kuban to keep
+in check the Circassians. They then lost the name of
+Zaporogues, and took that of Tchernomorski&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_24" href="#Footnote_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> Cossacks,
+or Cossacks of the Black Sea, under which they are now
+fighting in the Russian armies before Sevastopol.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[12]</span></p>
+
+<p>The authority of the khans of Crimea&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_25" href="#Footnote_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> extended beyond
+Odessa to the Dniestr,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_26" href="#Footnote_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> which was in former times
+the limits of Moldavia, whose prince paid them tribute.
+To the north the Tatars were separated from the kingdom
+of Poland by the country of the Ukraine; and
+the Zaporogue Cossacks were organized by the Polish
+monarchs as a kind of military colonists to check their
+depredations. The Tatar sway was also extended along
+all the Steppes as far as the Don Cossacks, and then
+again beyond them to Circassia, and the power of the
+khans of Crimea long survived that of their brethren in
+Great Tatary. But when once the Russian people
+had begun to shake off their shameful servitude to the
+Tatars, which it is doubtful whether any other European
+nation placed in their position could have avoided, each
+generation saw them increase in power, till they had
+conquered Zaporogues, Poles, Don Cossacks, and Tatars,
+and turned these nations into obedient subjects and instruments
+for the further extension of their enormous
+empire.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[13]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.<br>
+<span class="smaller">THE STEPPES OF RUSSIA.</span></h2>
+
+<p>Extent and boundaries of the Steppes—The Tchorno-ziemé—Soil and
+aspect—Their productions—Appearance of the Steppes in spring, summer,
+and winter—Snow-storms, called “Metel” and “Boura”—“Balkas,”
+or ravines—Roads, their state in spring—Tumuli or “Kourgans”—False
+tumuli—The mirage—Tchernomore Steppes—From Don to Moloshna—Moloshna
+to Dniepr—German colonies—Inhabitants of Steppes—Game—Soroke
+or Marmot—Biroke—Suslic—The Steppes occupy
+two-thirds of Crimea.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>The vast plains which extend over one-fifth of the whole
+Russian empire in Europe,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_27" href="#Footnote_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> or more than twice the size
+of France, are known both to natives and foreigners by
+the name of the “Steppes,” and present a monotonous
+level from the confines of Moldavia to the high plateau
+of Central Asia.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_28" href="#Footnote_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a> An imaginary line drawn through
+Krementchouk and the northern part of Tambof forms
+their limit to the north, and to the south they are
+bounded by the Black Sea and the Azof; they also extend
+over all the northern parts of the Crimean peninsula.
+After passing the Sea of Azof they expand to the south
+and occupy the space between the Azof and Caspian as
+far south as the Terek and the Kuban, which are the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[14]</span>boundaries of Circassia, and very distinctly mark their
+limits in that direction. On the north they reach the
+Oural Mountains, and then crossing the river of that
+name they join the deserts of Tatary, and increase in
+breadth to the north and south as they approach the
+great Asiatic table-land. They are totally devoid of trees
+or shrubs, have a soil of varying fertility, and a very
+scanty population.</p>
+
+<p>In the north of Russia the ground is naturally covered
+with trees and shrubs, and produces immense forests, but
+where the Steppes begin, the forests end. Much has
+been written on the causes of the treeless aspect of the
+Steppes, and on the possibility of covering them with
+forests by planting. Some consider that they were in
+ancient times covered with wood, which has been destroyed
+by the nomade peoples who in all ages have
+inhabited them. The authority of Strabo is used, who
+mentions the country between Perecop and the Dniepr
+under the name of Hylæa,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_29" href="#Footnote_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a> because of its dense forests,
+although there is not now a shrub to be seen there; and
+Haxthausen says he observed in the government of
+Saratof, which belongs to the region of the Steppes,
+that the rivers Irguiss, Jároslaw, and Aktóuba were still
+bordered by splendid forests of oaks, beech, poplars, and
+willows, although pines were never to be met with.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_30" href="#Footnote_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a>
+Murchison, however, with reason I venture to think,
+utterly disbelieves in the former existence of forests that
+have been destroyed, and thinks that the total absence
+of trees in Southern Russia results from general conditions
+of climate, and from the want of dew, which is
+the cause commonly assigned for it by the inhabitants
+of the country itself.</p>
+
+<p>But if there be no trees or shrubs, the southern provinces
+of Russia enjoy a herbaceous vegetation of extreme
+richness, which occupies the soil with a vigour of
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[15]</span>growth which is rarely met with in Europe, and grasses,
+which in other places scarcely attain the height of a foot,
+are met with in the Steppes reaching upwards of six
+feet. The reason of this prolific vegetation is that the
+Steppes are mostly within the region of the celebrated
+tchorno-ziemé, or black earth, which is a deposit of
+amazing fertility, peculiar to the southern part of
+Russia. “The tchorno-zèm,” says Murchison,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_31" href="#Footnote_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> “has
+its northernmost limit defined by a waving line, which
+passing from near Kief and Tchérnigof, a little to the
+south of Líchvia, appears in 54° of north latitude in that
+tract, then advances in its course eastward to 57°, and
+occupies the left bank of the Volga west of Tcheboksar,
+between Nijny Novgorod and Kazan. In approaching
+the Ural chain we saw no black earth to the north of
+Kazan, but it was plentiful on the Kama and around
+Ufa. Again, on the Asiatic or Siberian side of the Ural
+Mountains, we travelled through one large mass of it
+near Kamensk, south of the Issetz river, in latitude
+56° north, and through another between Miask and
+Troitsk. In the great Siberian plains we heard that it
+spreads over considerable spaces in the eastern, central,
+and southern parts of that region. Although we met
+with it occasionally in the low gorges of the Ural
+chain, and in the Bashkír country on both flanks of the
+southern Ural (in plateaux more than 1000 feet above
+the level of the sea), and also in the Steppes of the
+Kirguiss; we did not see it in the plains near Orenburg,
+nor to the south of that city. There is none to the
+south of Tzáritzin on the Volga, in the Steppes of the
+Kalmucks between that place and the mouth of the Don;
+and it is only in very limited patches along the Sea of
+Azof, or, in other words, on the southern face of that
+elevation between the Dniepr and the Don which constitutes
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[16]</span>what is commonly called the granitic Steppe. It
+occurs, however, in great thickness on the plateaux on
+the northern side of that axis, where it surmounts the
+carboniferous limestone with many seams of coal, so that
+it might at first sight be supposed to be produced by the
+decomposition of the subjacent carbonaceous strata. It
+lies, however, upon rocks of all ages, and occupies the
+centre of a trough, large as an European empire, having
+the detritus of the crystalline and older rocks for its
+northern, and the low granite Steppes and Caspian
+deposits for its southern limits.” It occupies an area
+of about 180 millions of acres in European Russia,
+and varies from a few feet to fifteen and twenty feet
+in thickness. “In travelling over these black tracts in
+a dry summer we were often,” says Murchison, “during
+a whole day, more or less surrounded by a cloud of black
+dust, arising from the dried up tchorno-zèm, which is of
+so subtile a nature as to rise up through the sod in rich
+grass countries under the stamp of the horses’ feet, and
+forms so dense a cloud that the traveller is often begrimed
+like a working collier.”</p>
+
+<p>It is not the humus arising from decayed forests or
+vegetables during the present period of the world’s
+history, as no trace of trees, roots, or vegetable fibre is
+found in it in any part of the empire. In the northern
+parts of Russia, where the forests have been lately
+cleared, no vestige of it exists, while it abounds south of
+a certain line, or exactly in those extensive and steppe-like
+undulations which have been devoid of trees
+throughout all known time. Its extreme fertility is
+attributed to the unusually large quantity of nitrogen
+which it contains; and its origin is referred to the period
+when the Russian continent was still submerged, and
+the tchorno-ziemé (which Russian economists justly consider
+as one of the most precious treasures of the empire)
+was the mud at the bottom of a great internal sea.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[17]</span>This union of the black earth with a temperate climate
+in the Steppes between the Dniestr and the Don already
+enables the inhabitants of those countries to send, as
+from Mariopol, the finest wheat to the European markets,
+and justifies economists in looking forward to this region
+as one destined to a brilliant future. On the shores of
+the Black Sea and the Sea of Azof and eastward of the
+Don the Steppes become less fertile, until, wearing a more
+and more barren aspect, they gradually get blended with
+the sandy deserts of Tatary. On the eastern shore of the
+Sea of Azof, in the countries of the Don and Tchernomorsky
+Cossacks,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_32" href="#Footnote_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> there is, however, some splendid land,
+and large quantities of corn and linseed are sent thence,
+northwards to Taganrok for exportation, and southwards
+to supply the army of the Caucasus. The Steppes
+are in parts covered with a rich herbage, on which
+feed large herds of horses, cattle, sheep, and camels.
+The upper layer of the soil of the Steppes presents a
+great variety in its composition, from lands impregnated
+with saline substances, and moving sands, to the mixtures
+most favourable to vegetation. As this upper layer
+rests upon a subsoil which does not easily permit infiltration,
+it is upon its thickness that depends its fertility;
+for, where it is not deep enough to retain humidity, the
+land becomes easily saturated by rain, and dried by evaporation.
+This circumstance is a great check to cultivation,
+because long droughts are common in these countries.
+All the Steppes are not in this disadvantageous
+position, although such is their predominant character
+in several governments to the south and east of the
+empire. This want of rain, and absence of natural means
+for retaining moisture, such as hills or trees, is one of
+the greatest calamities of the country; but the vegetation
+of that part of the Steppes which is only used for
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[18]</span>pasturage has a particular character which modifies the
+influence of the droughts. Nature here shows a wonderful
+variety of resources.</p>
+
+<p>The vegetation of the spring lasts about three months,
+and if this period passes without abundant rains, the grass
+does not reach its natural height. It dries in a moment,
+when the stalk has all its richness, and thus forming a
+natural kind of hay, it offers to the cattle during nine
+months a very substantial food, and these pastures are
+in consequence particularly favourable to sheep. When,
+on the contrary, the rains of spring are very abundant, the
+vegetation becomes rank, and the grass sometimes reaches
+four times its natural height. In such seasons the “stipa
+capillata” springs up, the prickly fruit of which proves
+injurious to sheep by penetrating their flesh, and often
+causing their death. The pasture at the same time is
+less wholesome and nourishing: in short, by a singular
+contrast in this country, which is generally condemned
+for its droughts, the proprietors of the Steppes often
+prefer a dry season to one too rainy. The vegetation
+of the pasturing Steppes also presents another peculiarity,
+that the grass is not spread in an even manner
+over it, but in isolated spots, which form a kind of oases.
+The even turf is only found in very low valleys.</p>
+
+<p>The Steppes are divided by one writer into “eternal
+Steppes” and “accidental Steppes:” the first are those
+where the layer of soil is so thin that they never can be
+cultivated, and trees will never be able to grow; while
+the others are highly favourable to agriculture, and some
+remains of ancient forests are found in the low valleys.
+In the Steppes near Taganrok, as long as they are uncultivated,
+there is a kind of natural rotation of crops.
+To the herbage, which sometimes is as high as a
+man’s waist, succeeds the next year a coarse weed called
+“bourian,” which rises to the height of three or four
+feet, and is cut to use as fuel. Though it burns very
+quickly, it serves for Russian stoves, which, heated for a
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[19]</span>quarter of an hour, will keep an apartment warm during
+the whole day. To the bourian succeeds a thin kind
+of grass, and then about the third year the pasture is
+again excellent. A considerable portion of the Steppes
+is cultivated, and, without any artificial means, produces
+some of the finest wheat known. A rest of one or
+two years suffices to restore to the ground its original
+fertility, and the enormous tracts of uncultivated land
+make it never necessary to overtax its powers. In other
+parts the cultivation of the Steppes differs from that of
+all other countries. Certain kinds of grain are sown for
+several years in succession, and then the ground is left
+fallow, and becomes covered with grass. The first year
+weeds spring up in abundance, and then in the second
+and third years the pasturage becomes excellent. When
+the soil seems sufficiently recovered, it is again ploughed.
+This agricultural cycle occupies from ten to fifteen years,
+according to the fertility of the soil.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_33" href="#Footnote_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a></p>
+
+<p>M. Haxthausen divides the Steppes into five classes:</p>
+
+<p>1. The tertiary calcareous formation predominates in
+Bessarabia, Kaddia, and a small part of the government
+of Kherson.</p>
+
+<p>2. The chalk forms the base of the soil in the
+north, and embraces the Steppes of the governments of
+Kharkof, Woroneje, Tambof, a part of the country
+of the Cossacks of the Don, and the government of
+Saratof.</p>
+
+<p>3. The granitic base, which is a spur from the Carpathians,
+extends along the Black Sea and the Sea of Azof
+to the Caucasus.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[20]</span></p>
+
+<p>4. The Steppes of alluvial deposit extend to the south-east
+along the Kuban and Terek, which run east and
+west at the foot of the northern slopes of the Caucasus.</p>
+
+<p>5. The Steppes of saline base extend to the east as far
+as the river Jaik, which runs into the Caspian Sea on the
+north, and on which is situated Orenbourg.</p>
+
+<p>The Steppes of the three first formations have a situation
+much higher above the level of the sea than the
+alluvial and saline steppes, which Pallas thinks evidently
+formed the bottom of the waters when the Caspian was
+united to the Black Sea. They are everywhere covered
+by a rich layer of humus, more or less thick. The
+alluvial Steppes are of extraordinary fertility wherever
+the soil is not covered with marshes.</p>
+
+<p>The granitic Steppes are mostly covered with a thick
+short grass, while the chalky and calcareous Steppes produce
+herbage which reaches six or seven feet in height,
+and a profusion of beautiful varieties of wild flowers.
+The banks of the rivers are covered with reeds, which
+reach in the alluvial Steppes an enormous height. The
+cynarocephalus, a kind of reed, in German “kletten,”
+which is used as fuel, is found from thirty to forty feet
+in height. That portion of the country of the Steppes
+which is likely to be of great future importance is the
+one situated above the Black Sea and the Sea of Azof,
+between the Carpathian Mountains and the Don.</p>
+
+<p>For a short period, in April and May, the Steppes
+present a beautiful appearance. The brilliant green of
+the rising crops of corn, and the fresh grass, intermingled
+with flowers of the most lively colours, are
+pleasing to the eye, and give a charm to the monotony
+of the scenery. A hot scorching sun, however, soon
+withers the grass, which assumes a brownish hue, and
+clouds of dust increase the dreariness and parched appearance
+of the Steppes. During the winter the ground
+is covered with snow, which at times lies several feet
+deep. Unimpeded by mountains, forests, or rising
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[21]</span>ground, the winds from the north-east, passing over
+many hundred miles of frozen ground, blow with resistless
+violence, and often uninterruptedly for several weeks.
+When the frost is severe, and the snow in a dry powdery
+state, the wind drifts it about and obscures the air.
+These snow-storms are called by the inhabitants “metel”
+or “boura,” and have often proved fatal to the half-frozen,
+blinded, and bewildered traveller, who, having
+lost his way, is wandering over the dreary icy Steppes
+in search of a place of refuge. Detached houses and
+whole villages are sometimes buried by the drifting
+snow, through which the inmates are obliged to cut
+their way. At times the traveller looks in vain for the
+solitary post-house at which he is always anxious to
+arrive, and learns only that he has reached his temporary
+resting-place by a slight rise in the snow, and by his
+sledge being overturned into a hole, through which he
+creeps down into the snug cottage, which is sometimes
+thus buried for several weeks. When the wind blows
+with violence, and the snow is drifted about in eddies,
+the storm has a singularly bewildering and stunning
+effect. The inhabitants themselves lose their way, and
+the herds of horses, cattle, and sheep, that happen to be
+surprised by it, become seized with a panic, and, rushing
+headlong before the gale, defy every obstacle that presents
+itself to their wild career. They are then inevitably
+lost, and, overcome by fatigue, they either perish in the
+snow, or meet their death by falling down the precipitous
+sides of some ravine. These ravines are called “Balkas,”
+and occur frequently in the Steppes that lie between the
+Dniestr and the Don. To the north of the Crimea
+they are most frequent, and in some parts follow each
+other in quick succession, and always in the direction
+from north to south.</p>
+
+<p>The roads in Southern Russia are mere tracks, and those
+on which post communications are established have earth
+thrown up at their sides, and at intervals conical mounds
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[22]</span>of earth or stone to indicate the way. The bridges
+across the ravines are generally in such a dilapidated
+condition, that but few of them can be trusted.</p>
+
+<p>The melting of the snow in the months of March and
+April changes the ravines into torrents, the waters of
+which, rushing with incredible violence, form an insurmountable
+obstacle to travellers. The ground, saturated
+with the melted snow, becomes so soft that light-laden
+waggons sink in it to the axletrees, and during this
+season it is not uncommon to meet the wrecks of many
+of them that could not be dragged through the mud,
+and have been abandoned. Post-carts,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_34" href="#Footnote_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a> that convey but
+one or two persons besides the driver, of the lightest
+and smallest description, dragged by five horses, proceed
+only at a foot’s pace.</p>
+
+<p>One of the few characteristic features of the Steppes is
+the number of tumuli or artificial mounds that are
+scattered over their surface, and in some localities,
+especially towards the Azof, they are found lying together
+in great numbers.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_35" href="#Footnote_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> These tumuli, or “kourgans”
+as they are called by the natives, are often found to
+contain valuable relics of early ages. There are other
+artificial mounds, similar to tumuli, in certain directions,
+at intervals of from one to three versts, extending
+over long lines of country, which are supposed
+to have served as watch-posts and beacons to the roving
+hordes who used to inhabit these plains. On each
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[23]</span>mound a watch-tower was probably erected, and a
+beacon prepared, which, when lighted at proper seasons,
+would serve either to guide them home from a predatory
+excursion, or give them timely notice of the approach of
+an enemy. During the summer months the well-known
+phenomenon called the “mirage” is often seen, and its
+effects are as beautiful and deceitful as those described
+in Africa. That part of the Steppes, called the Tchernomore,
+between the Kuban and the Don, with the
+exception of the districts in the immediate vicinity of
+the sea, is almost exclusively devoted to the rearing of
+horses, horned cattle, and sheep. From the Don westwards
+to the river Moloshna, the land is mostly used
+for tillage. From the Moloshna, again westwards to
+the Dniepr, the Steppes, principally inhabited by the
+Tatar Nogai tribes, are but little cultivated, and might
+afford pasturage to a far larger quantity of cattle and
+horses than now graze upon them.</p>
+
+<p>The German colonies of the Moloshna, and others
+of less importance in the vicinity of Mariopol, may
+be well compared to oases in the desert. Their neat
+cottages, with well-built barns and out-houses, surrounded
+by trees and gardens, and by highly cultivated
+fields, bear the signs of wealth and comfort, and
+of the care bestowed upon them by an industrious and
+intelligent population. The German colonies form a
+striking contrast to the dreary country in which they
+are situated, and to the miserable Russian villages, and
+the still more wretched Tatar aouls, around them. Their
+situation is always well chosen on some sloping ground,
+on the border of one of the few rivulets that water the
+country. The population of the Steppes is of a mixed
+character, and is composed of Little Russians, Tatars,
+Greeks, Cossacks, German colonists, Kalmucks, and
+Armenians. Although living in the immediate vicinity
+of each other, they neither intermarry nor associate much
+with one another. They differ in religion and character
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[24]</span>and features and manners, and retain the distinctive
+stamp of their origin.</p>
+
+<p>Game abounds on the Steppes. The large and small
+bustard are seen in flocks in the districts to the north
+of Crimea. The “streppet,” of a larger size and lighter
+hue than the grouse, the only English bird to which it
+can be compared, partridges, quails, hares, snipe, and
+woodcocks, are to be met with in great numbers, and are
+remarkable for their fine flavour. Wolves are scarce,
+and are never seen in packs as in Central and Northern
+Russia.</p>
+
+<p>“Innumerable inhabitants of a smaller race people these
+immense plains. Among these is the suroke, or marmot
+of the Alps, which is seen in all parts of the Steppes,
+sitting erect near its burrow, and on the slightest alarm
+whistling very loud, and observing all around. It makes
+such extensive subterraneous chambers, that the ground
+is perforated in all directions, and the land destroyed,
+wherever the animal is found. The peasants universally
+give them the name of ‘Wastie.’</p>
+
+<p>“The biroke is a grey animal, something like a wolf,
+very ferocious, and daring enough to attack a man. The
+Cossack peasants, armed with their lances, sally forth and
+chase it over their plains.</p>
+
+<p>“The most numerous of all the animals of the Steppes
+are the suslics,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_36" href="#Footnote_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a> which absolutely swarm in all the
+Steppes. They make a whistling noise like the suroke,
+but are much smaller, not being larger than a small
+weasel. They construct their habitations under ground
+with incredible quickness, excavating first of all a small
+cylindrical hole or well perpendicularly to the depth
+of three feet; thence, like a correct miner, shooting out
+levels, although rather in an ascending direction, to prevent
+being incommoded by water. At the extremity of
+his little gallery the suslic forms a very spacious chamber,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[25]</span>to which, as to a granary, he brings every morning
+and evening all he can collect of favourite herbage, of
+corn, if it can be found, and roots, and other food. Nothing
+is more amusing than to observe the habits of this
+little animal. If any one approaches, it is seen sitting at
+the entrance of its little dwelling, erect upon its hind-feet,
+like the suroke, carefully watching all that is going
+on around it. Nothing annoys it so much as water; and
+if some be poured into its hole, it comes out and is easily
+caught.”&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_37" href="#Footnote_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a></p>
+
+<p>Such is a brief account of the Steppes which occupy a
+considerable portion of the Russian empire, and as they
+likewise form nearly two-thirds of the whole Crimea, and
+approach within a short distance of Sevastopol in the
+direction of Inkerman, this description in the main features
+will also apply to that peninsula.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[26]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.<br>
+<span class="smaller">FROM PERECOP TO SYMPHERÓPOL.</span></h2>
+
+<p>The isthmus of Perecop—Its defences—History—Its capture by Marshal
+Munich in 1736—The Crimea and Kilboroún conquered by him—His
+cruelty and atrocities—The Armenian Bazar—The salt lakes—General
+view of the sea-coast on each side of the isthmus—The Black Sea and Gulf
+of Karkiníte—Anchorage of Akméshed—Cape Karamroún—The Lagoon
+of the Dniepr and Boug defended by Kilboroún and Otchákow—The
+river Boug—Gloubóky—Kherson—The Shiváshe, or Putrid Sea—The
+Tonka, or Strelka, or Arabate—The road from Perecop to Sympherópol—Sympherópol.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>The isthmus of Perecop is about five miles broad, and
+stretches from the Bay of Karkiníte on the side of the
+Black Sea to the large lake called the Shiváshe, which is
+connected with the Sea of Azof by the strait of Yénitchi.</p>
+
+<p>The isthmus is defended by an irregular fortress erected
+on the south side of a deep ditch, and protected by a
+high wall built of freestone, stretching right across the
+isthmus, which rises slightly in the middle. The fosse
+and the wall are said to have been formed in ancient
+times by the inhabitants of the peninsula to defend themselves
+against the incursions of the nomades of the
+Steppes. The taphros or ditch of the more ancient geographers,
+and the “new wall” of Ptolemy, lie about a
+mile and a half south of Perecop. According to Pliny,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_38" href="#Footnote_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a>
+the Crimea was originally an island; and natural appearances
+which meet the eye seem to make this statement
+probable. It is related by one historian that in the tenth
+century the wall was razed to the ground, and a thick wood
+planted from sea to sea, through which ran two roads,
+one leading to the Cimmerian Bosphorus on the east, and
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[27]</span>the other to the ancient town of Kherson, near the south-west
+corner of the peninsula. The fosse was cleared out,
+and a stone wall, defended by towers, built by the Tatar
+khans of Crimea, about the end of the fifteenth century.
+The Russian name “Perecop” properly signifies a ditch or
+fosse cut across the road to prevent any further passage,
+and has been substituted for the Tatar name “Orkapou,”
+which denotes the gate of the isthmus.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_39" href="#Footnote_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a></p>
+
+<p>The fortress, together with the whole line of fortification,
+was first taken in 1736, when Marshal Munich
+appeared before the lines with 54,000 men and 8000
+waggons for munitions and baggage. The ditch was
+then 72 feet wide and 42 feet deep, and behind it rose a
+galionade 70 feet high. Six towers, built in stone, flanked
+the line, and served as bastions to the fortress of Orkapou,
+which rose behind them. A thousand Janissaries and
+100,000 Tatars here opposed an obstinate but vain
+resistance to Munich, who after two days took the
+lines by assault, and, forty-eight hours afterwards, the
+town of Orkapou. Immediately afterwards General
+Leontief was sent with 10,000 infantry and 300 Cossacks
+to take the fortress of Kilboroún (Kinborn),
+which, situated on the mainland, rises at the extremity
+of the promontory of the same name, and commands
+the entrance of the lagoon into which the Dniepr and
+the Boug discharge their waters.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_40" href="#Footnote_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a> Munich immediately
+pursued his march to Koslof (now Eupatoria), the
+second commercial town in Crimea, situated on the
+western coast of the peninsula, and, having taken it,
+its riches became a prey to the soldiers.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[28]</span></p>
+
+<p>Exactly one month after their arrival at Perecop the
+Russian army appeared before the gates of Baktchéserai,
+which they utterly destroyed. Two thousand
+houses and the vast palace of the khans were burnt,
+and the rich library which had been collected by Selim
+Geray Khan, and that of the Jesuits, were reduced to
+ashes. The same fate awaited Akméshed (Sympherópol),
+where the palaces of the Kalga Sultan, and of the principal
+Mirzas to the number of 1800, were mercilessly
+given to the flames. Munich had intended also to seize
+Kaffa (Theodosia), the most important fortress of Crimea,
+when an illness obliged him to return to Perecop, where
+he received the news of the taking of Kilboroún. The
+town of Azof had been taken a short time before. The
+march of Munich across the beautiful plains of Crimea
+was marked by the burning of towns and ravages of all
+sorts, and the cruelties of which he was guilty have
+placed his name beside those of Louvois and Catinat, the
+devastators of the Palatinate. Before he left Crimea he
+razed the lines of Perecop and blew up the fortifications
+of the town.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_41" href="#Footnote_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a></p>
+
+<p>At the present time there is a bridge across the fosse,
+and a stone gateway, which presents rather an interesting
+appearance as seen from the north. On either side
+are a few straggling houses, inhabited by Tatars, Jews,
+and Russians, most of whom derive their support from
+the salt-lakes in the vicinity. The principal part of the
+town is at a distance of about two miles further south,
+and goes by the name of the Armenian Bazar, from the
+country of its most numerous population. It contains a
+custom-house, and comptoirs for the brandy distilleries,
+and salt magazines, within it, a number of shops, and
+about 900 inhabitants. Here is a mosque with two
+minarets, and a Russian and an Armenian church. The
+quantity of salt exported by this route to Russia is immense.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[29]</span>According to Vsevolovski more than 20,000
+waggons are annually employed in the trade. They are
+drawn by oxen, and generally form large caravans, the
+sight of which affords an agreeable relief to the eye of
+the traveller when wearied by the continuous monotony
+of the Steppe. The salt is produced by evaporation on
+the surface of the lakes, some of which have a circumference
+of upwards of 20 versts, and are in general shallow,
+and have formerly had a communication with the sea.
+The soil is also strongly impregnated with saline properties,
+which it necessarily communicates to the vegetation;
+the Tatar cattle are, however, fond of it, and the
+sheep fatten equally with those fed on the produce of
+common earth.</p>
+
+<p>Now, standing on the isthmus of Perecop, let us look
+first to the right, and follow the indentures of the coasts
+and the channel of the shallow sea that leads to it from
+Odessa; and then turn to the left, where equally shallow
+lagoons are interposed between the isthmus and the little
+strait of Yénitchi. The want of water on each side of
+the isthmus forms its strength, as it makes it equally
+difficult of approach for a land or a naval force. On the
+left side no vessels can approach it within a long distance,
+but on the side of the Black Sea there is deep water and
+good anchoring ground at a distance of about 20 miles.
+The gulf which runs up from the Black Sea to Perecop
+is called the Gulf of Karkiníte. It separates Crimea from
+the mainland, is open to the west and south-west, and
+42 miles in width at its entrance. Its length, from Cape
+Karamroún, the most westerly point of Crimea, to the
+isthmus of Djaril Agátch, at the head of which there is
+30 feet of water, is 60 miles. Up to this point, which is
+two-thirds of its total length to Perecop, it is navigable,
+and beyond it and the opposite promontory of Saribouláte,
+40 miles from Cape Karamroún, vessels cannot
+pass. The depth round the promontory of Saribouláte
+is three fathoms, and beyond it only a few feet.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[30]</span>The south coast of the Gulf of Karkiníte is formed of
+elevated plains, which are distinguished at a great distance,
+and its shore is bold and steep. The port of
+Akméshed in this gulf, at 12 miles from Cape Karamroún,
+is a great resort for navigators who run between Odessa
+and the Crimea. This anchorage is distinguished by a
+white tower erected on a cape to starboard on entering,
+and again by several buildings situated in the interior of
+the port, which is three-quarters of a mile in length, and
+its entrance between the capes is two-thirds of a mile
+broad.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_42" href="#Footnote_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a> This anchorage offers four, three, and two
+fathoms, sandy bottom, and good holding-ground. A
+quarantine establishment is situated here; and to the
+east of this anchorage, along the beach which lines
+the south of the port, there is a picturesque village.
+On entering the port you can at once make the village,
+and the anchorage is at an equal distance from the two
+shores, at two and a half cables’ length from the beach,
+in five or six fathoms depth, and sandy bottom, exposed
+to the north and north-west. The creek described above
+is quite safe, and to the west of the village vessels are
+secure.</p>
+
+<p>Cape Karamroún, the westernmost point of the Crimea,
+lies 12 miles south-west of Akméshed, and all along this
+interval the coast is safe, bold, and bordered by steep white
+rocks. At 3½ miles before arriving at Cape Karamroún is
+Cape Eskíforos, and in the interval the fertile little valley
+of Karadja. It is remarkable on account of its beach, its
+trees, and a little village, immediately opposite to which
+there is an anchorage in five and a half fathoms, sandy
+and muddy bottom. Here there is a lighthouse, 117½
+feet above the level of the sea. The light is fixed, and
+can be seen at sea at a distance of 17 miles. A strong
+current runs here with the wind; and the sea at
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[31]</span>Eskíforos changes from a bright blue to a dirty and dark
+green colour, which increases in depth as Odessa is
+approached.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_43" href="#Footnote_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a></p>
+
+<p>A long low spit of land runs along the northern side
+of the Gulf of Karkiníte, and terminates in a point, on
+which is placed the fortress of Kilboroún at the entrance
+of another gulf running parallel with that of Karkiníte.
+The promontory on which the fortress is placed is very
+low, almost on a level with the sea, and subject to inundations.
+The fortress of Otchákow commands the entrance
+of the lagoon of the Dniepr on the opposite side, and the
+distance between it and Kilboroún is only about 2¼ miles.
+This passage is very important, as into this gulf flow the
+great rivers of the Boug and Dniepr, and on the latter
+is situated the important town of Kherson, and on the
+former the great naval arsenal of Nicolaief, and the
+safety of both depends upon the passage of Kilboroún.
+The country between the Gulf of the Dniepr and the
+Gulf of Karkiníte was called Hylæa by the ancients,
+because of the woods by which it was then covered;
+these have entirely disappeared, and the whole country
+is now a bare and almost uninhabited Steppe.</p>
+
+<p>The two great rivers of the Boug and the Dniepr,
+falling into the Gulf of the Dniepr, by their united
+currents flowing to the west, make a channel, the
+maximum depth of which is seventy-three feet.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_44" href="#Footnote_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a> At
+sixteen miles to the east of Otchákow, and nine miles
+north-west of Cape Stanislas, the Boug discharges its
+water into the lagoon, which it shares with the Dniepr.
+This river, as far as Nicolaief, is from twenty to sixty
+feet in depth, and its width varies from one to three
+miles. The city of Nicolaief, which is the Russian
+arsenal for the Black Sea, is twenty miles from the
+mouth of the Boug, and at the junction of that river
+with the Ingoul.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_45" href="#Footnote_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a> The delta of the Dniepr is composed
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[32]</span>of a number of small islands, covered with reeds and
+mostly uninhabited, and it runs into its lagoon by nine
+mouths, three of which are much more important than the
+others. The course now followed by coasters who wish to
+approach the mouths of the Dniepr is to keep close in
+to the shore, along the north side of the bay, passing
+the town of Gloubóky,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_46" href="#Footnote_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a> which may be called the port
+of Kherson. Gloubóky is four miles from the Kizim
+mouth of the Dniepr, which was not navigable thirty
+years ago, but is now the one which is principally used.
+It is at Gloubóky that vessels of a large draught of
+water load and discharge their cargoes, and there is here
+a depth of nineteen feet at a good cable’s length from the
+shore. This port has greatly increased of late years, and
+is now the place where most of the linseed grown in the
+countries watered by the Dniepr is shipped for exportation.
+The entrance to it is marked out by buoys, and
+in the channel there is from twenty-five to thirty-seven
+feet of water.</p>
+
+<p>The city of Kherson is situated on the right bank of
+the Dniepr, which is there half a mile broad and fifty
+feet deep. Looking westward from the promontory of
+Kilboroún, we find Odessa lying at a distance of thirty
+miles, and a channel for ships the whole way to it, of
+from twenty to sixty feet in depth. A long sandbank,
+called in the Russian maps the sandbank of Odessa,
+stretches out in the direction of that town from Kilboroún
+for twenty-four miles. Following the line of
+the shore of the mainland, we find Cape Berezane
+jutting out eight miles from Cape Otchákow, and between
+them is the island of Berezane, with steep bold
+reddish cliffs. At twenty-two miles further on is Cape
+Dembrowski, very near the town of Odessa, with some
+rocks near it, which render it unsafe. The greatest depth
+of the bay of Odessa is eight fathoms.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[33]</span></p>
+
+<p>Having thus traced the line of the coast to the west
+of Perecop, and shown what important places lie there,
+and how far it may be navigated by vessels of very
+considerable size, a point of great importance in the
+present state of the war, let us return to Perecop, and
+see whether it is equally approachable on the eastern
+side, on which it is bounded by the Shiváshe, or, as it is
+called, the Putrid Sea. This is simply a shallow fresh-water
+lake, into which are discharged the principal
+rivers of the eastern side of Crimea, the Salghír, the
+Karasou, the Bulganak, the two Yandols, and the
+Sóubachi. The Shiváshe discharges these accumulated
+waters, at its northern extremity, into the Sea of Azof,
+by the canal of Yénitchi. There seems no good reason
+for calling it the Putrid Sea, as there is neither an
+unpleasant smell issuing from it, nor are its banks unhealthy.
+The Shiváshe is separated from the Sea of Azof
+by a narrow tongue of land, fifty-two miles long and
+about half a mile wide, covered with reeds and coarse
+grass, on which a few flocks of sheep are seen to graze.
+There are three post stations upon it, and it is used
+as the high road for persons coming from the towns on
+the north shores of the Sea of Azof to Kertch and the
+eastern parts of the Crimea.</p>
+
+<p>This curious tongue of land is called by the Tatars
+the Arabate, and by the Russians Strelka (or Arrow), or
+the Tonka. Where the Strelka detaches itself from the
+mainland, in the direction of Kertch, are the remains of
+an old ruined fort of an octagon shape, and surrounded
+by a deep moat, which is called the fortress of Arabat.
+There is about twenty-four feet water near the shore of
+the Strelka, on the side of the Sea of Azof, and here its
+beach is high and precipitous, while it slopes off on the
+side of the Shiváshe.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_47" href="#Footnote_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a></p>
+
+<p>From Perecop the first stage is Terekli Tchousoun,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[34]</span>and near it a road strikes off to the right leading
+to Kozlof or Eupatoria, a place of considerable trade,
+and containing 5000 inhabitants, principally Tatars and
+Jews. The latter are of the sect of the Karaites, and
+number 700 souls. Many of them are rich, and carry
+on an extensive commerce with Odessa, Constantinople,
+and other parts of the Levant.</p>
+
+<p>The first view the traveller obtains of Crimea but
+ill accords with the ideas which are generally formed
+of its romantic beauty, the country being simply a
+Steppe, without either tree, streamlet, or hill to diversify
+the prospect. After passing the next stage, where there
+is a large well for watering the flocks of the Tatars, a
+gentle rise is perceptible in the surface of the ground,
+and the soil loses its saline and sandy character, and
+assumes the appearance of a fine mould, with here and
+there considerable quantities of marl. On reaching the
+summit of the elevation, which here stretches across
+the peninsula, there is a delightful view of the Tchatirdagh
+and the range of mountains on the southern coast.</p>
+
+<p>Hence there is a gradual descent over the undulating
+surface into the plains to the north of Sympherópol,
+and after passing through a beautiful Tatar village, with
+a mosque and minaret, situated on the left bank of the
+Salghír, and beautifully adorned with poplars and fruit-trees,
+the traveller arrives at the capital of the Crimea,
+since its occupation by the Russians.</p>
+
+<p>At Sympherópol the Steppes have disappeared, the
+climate is milder, and the scene changes. The mountains
+now are near, gardens appear on every side, and
+the slopes around are clothed with trees. Sympherópol
+has quite the aspect of a Russian town. The streets
+are enormously wide; the greater number of the houses
+are no better than white-washed cottages, and those of
+the rich part of the population are built in a bad kind
+of bastard Italian style.</p>
+
+<p>Here reside the principal Russian authorities of the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[35]</span>Crimea, and the town has a population of 8000 souls—5000
+Tatars, 1700 Russians, 900 gipsies, and 400
+strangers.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_48" href="#Footnote_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a> Before the time of the Russians, Sympherópol,
+under the name of Akméshed, which means, in
+Turkish, the White Mosque, was the residence of the
+Kalga Sultan, or Viceroy of the Khan of the Tatars,
+who himself resided at Baktchéserai. This personage
+filled the second place in the Khanate, and, when the
+Khan died, he held the reins of government until the
+arrival of the new Khan, who was named by the Sultan
+of Constantinople. He had a court like the Khan
+himself, and had his Vizir, his Defterdar, his Divan
+Effendi, and also the female dignitaries of Anabei and
+Ouloukháni, which were conferred on his nearest female
+relations, and to which were attached important privileges.
+The Kalga also held a court of justice, to which
+there was an appeal from all the courts of the Kadis, or
+judges, in Crimea;&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_49" href="#Footnote_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a> he was vested with all powers, except
+those of life and death, and from him there was no
+appeal except to the Great Divan of the Khan himself.
+His authority extended as far as the limits of the town
+of Kaffa, and, in the absence of the Khan, he led the
+armies of Little Tartary to battle.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_50" href="#Footnote_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a></p>
+
+<p>The most delightful sites in the environs of Sympherópol
+are the banks of the river Salghír, and here,
+opposite to the old Tartar capital, was the palace of
+the Kalga. The ruins show that it was a vast irregular
+mass of buildings, and we can judge of its
+style by the still existing palace at Baktchéserai. It
+had, doubtless, numberless halls and corridors, ornamented
+with rich woodwork, and fountains, and looking-glasses,
+and its gardens were celebrated for their beauty,
+and for the pieces of water within their precincts, on
+which were several boats for the amusement of the
+Kalga. No trace now remains of its former glories.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[36]</span>A brewery and a brandy manufactory now use the pure
+stream that once fed the fountains, and a public garden,
+for smoking and drinking, desecrates the spot which
+was once set apart for the use of the hareem.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_51" href="#Footnote_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a> There are
+no mosques of any beauty, but there is a large Greek
+church, built, in 1832, in the Grecian style of architecture,
+with a portico in front. There is also here a large
+market-place and an important market, which supplies
+the southern coast of Crimea, by way of Alouchta,
+and to this town there is an excellent road, leading
+through a pretty valley, with villa residences of Russian
+nobles by the side of it, some of which are situated in
+richly wooded parks, and form an agreeable contrast to
+the vast Steppes that lie on the north of Sympherópol.
+In the environs are to be seen the ruins of very
+ancient times, for Sympherópol was a capital before the
+time of the Tatars, and Kermentchíck is the name of
+the fortress cut in the rocks, which was the residence
+of Skilouros, the king of the Tauro-Scythians, and the
+enemy of the great Mithridates, when he reigned at
+Kertch.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[37]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.<br>
+<span class="smaller">BAKTCHÉSERAI AND TCHOUFOUT KALEH.</span></h2>
+
+<p>Description of Baktchéserai—The palace of the Khans—Pouschkin’s fountain—The
+great council-room—The hareem—The cemetery—The
+tomb of Dilara Bikéh—The gorge of Tchoufout Kaleh—Acheláma—Tchoufout
+Kaleh—The Karaim Jews, or those who reject the Talmud—Their
+very ancient origin—Probable descendants of Sadducees—Their
+high character—Tomb of the beautiful Nenekedjàn—The crypt town of
+Kirkor.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>A good road leads from Sympherópol to the town of
+Baktchéserai, which is half-way from the former place to
+Sevastopol. Baktchéserai was the capital of the Tatars
+during their occupation of Crimea, and like Karasóubazar
+retains much of its Eastern character, owing to the
+ukase of Catherine II., which is still in force, and by
+which the Tatars are allowed to retain exclusive possession
+of these two cities.</p>
+
+<p>The distance from Sympherópol to Baktchéserai is 30
+versts,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_52" href="#Footnote_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a> and the road runs along a waste Steppe, with
+the exception of a mile and a half of the distance, during
+which it passes through the pretty valley of the upper
+Alma. The town is situated in a deep gorge in the
+chalk formation, and the traveller does not see it till he
+has arrived at the end of his journey, and suddenly looks
+down upon it snugly ensconced at his feet between two
+walls of rock. There he sees the irregular Tatar habitations,
+interspersed with delicate minarets and tall poplar-trees
+stretching in two long lines on each side of the
+muddy stream of the Djourouk Sou. A steep road leads
+down to it, which passes the modest triumphal arch
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">[38]</span>erected in honour of the visit of the Empress Catherine
+II. to the capital of her new conquest in the last
+century, and which bears the simple inscription, “1787.”
+The town has completely retained its Oriental character,
+and in passing down the long street, nearly three-quarters
+of a mile in length, the little open shops of the tailors,
+the shoemakers, the bakers, the locksmiths, and the
+kalpac-makers, are seen, with their proprietors sitting
+cross-legged, in Eastern fashion, and working and selling
+at the same time.</p>
+
+<p>Baktchéserai is celebrated for the number of its fountains
+and the purity of its water, which one writer pretends
+is the lightest in all Tatary and Turkey.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_53" href="#Footnote_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a> There
+are no less than 119 fountains for a population of 9547
+inhabitants. At the end of the long street, just across
+the little river, is the great sight of Baktchéserai, the
+ancient palace of the khans, which all travellers stop
+to visit.</p>
+
+<p>Now that Turkey is becoming so much Europeanized,
+this palace, as a specimen of the old architecture of the
+Turk race, goes on increasing in interest. The great
+men at Constantinople are sacrificing the ancient peculiarities
+of their palaces to modern conveniences, but this
+venerable monument is kept up by the sovereigns of
+Russia precisely in its ancient condition. I was much
+struck with it when the brightly painted gateway first
+opened upon me. This divides in two a long line of
+buildings, of only one story in height, with all the windows
+filled up with carved woodwork, and ornamented
+with rude arabesques painted in bright colours.</p>
+
+<p>Right and left on entering are ranges of apartments,
+which all open on a long gallery, whence there is a good
+view of the interior court and the groups of fantastic
+buildings raised irregularly around it.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[39]</span></p>
+
+<p>At the entrance of the second court on the left is the
+gate called the Iron Gate, leading to the principal apartments,
+on which is an inscription declaring it to have
+been built by Mengli Geray Khan, who conquered the
+Crimea in 1480, and was acknowledged as its sovereign
+by the Turks.</p>
+
+<p>A staircase leads into the richly-ornamented hall, in
+which there are two fountains, one of which is called
+Selsibíl, or the fountain of Mary, on which the Russian
+poet Pouschkin has written some beautiful verses.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_54" href="#Footnote_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a></p>
+
+<p>Beyond this hall is that of the divan, the great council-room,
+placed in the midst of a terraced garden. This
+is one of those magic buildings in which the climate of
+the East can really be enjoyed. Its floor is of marble,
+and its fretted ceiling tastefully gilt, while the centre is
+occupied by a marble basin, into which the water is perpetually
+trickling from a fountain with fifteen jets. The
+only light that is admitted is toned down through painted
+glass, and the softest divans invite repose from the heats
+of summer. The terraces of the garden outside are
+planted with roses; and the clearest streams of water
+fall in small cascades from one marble basin to another.</p>
+
+<p>From the first hall is a doorway leading to the principal
+apartments of the khan himself, where is the hall
+of audience and a long suite of rooms leading down to the
+banks of the river, whence the great man, behind a lattice,
+could, unperceived, see what was passing in the town.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[40]</span>Behind the Pavilion of the Waters, carefully hidden by
+high trees, is a little secluded court, where the sacred
+precincts of the hareem terminated with a high tower or
+kiosk, whence the ladies used to witness the fêtes and
+martial games that were celebrated in the great court,
+and whence there is a most charming view of the town
+and all the surrounding country.</p>
+
+<p>While the right side of the palace was devoted to all
+that could contribute to the sensual enjoyment of life, on
+the left rose the mosque and the cemetery; the former
+built in a good style, and completed by two tall minarets
+of fine workmanship. The khan ascended to his tribune
+by a staircase shaded by a poplar-tree, and here strangers
+are taken to witness the Mussulman service and the
+dance of the dervishes. The cemetery adjoins it, in
+which two large domes contain the monuments of nearly
+all the khans since 1654.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_55" href="#Footnote_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a></p>
+
+<p>The gardens, and the reservoirs that feed the fountains
+of the palace, extend behind it, and above these, on one of
+the sides of the narrow valley, is seen a part of the town,
+and an immense cemetery, which is approached from the
+court of the palace by an allée of monuments. One
+graceful dome, placed just without the precincts of the
+palace-garden, immediately attracts attention. Below,
+an octagonal building, with interlacing arches and slender
+pilasters, supports it, and rich arabesques decorate every
+part, in the midst of which the cross is seen most conspicuous.
+This is the tomb of a beautiful Georgian,
+called Dilara Bikéh, who was the wife of Krim Geray,
+and greatly beloved by her husband, who was one of the
+best khans that ever governed Crimea.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_56" href="#Footnote_56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a></p>
+
+<p>The Georgians are all Christians of the Greek Church,
+and Dilara Bikéh steadily refused to change her religion,
+and reposes here on sufferance, at the edge of the Mussulman
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[41]</span>cemetery, as she was not admitted into the burial-ground
+of the house of Geray.</p>
+
+<p>Many a pilgrimage is made to this tomb, as to that of
+Marie Potocka, another beautiful Christian who gained
+the heart of a Mussulman prince. She was a Pole, of an
+illustrious family, and inspired one of the last khans of
+Crimea with so violent a passion, that he carried her off
+and married her. Neither the splendour of her position,
+nor the tenderness of her husband, could, however,
+reconcile her to being the wife of an infidel, and she died
+prematurely, worn out by remorse.</p>
+
+<p>The pleasure of a visit to Baktchéserai depends upon
+the frame of mind of the traveller. It is true there is
+something grotesque, irregular, and barbarous, about the
+whole: that the workmanship of the palace is rough, the
+joints ill fitted, and the colouring what some would call
+gaudy; but there is at the same time originality in the
+design, vivid fancy in the colouring, and a sense of the
+picturesque in the grouping together of the parts. As
+an accomplished French lady has remarked, in her interesting
+Travels in the Crimea, “It is no easy task to
+describe the charms of a mysterious and splendid abode,
+in which the voluptuous khans forgot all the cares of life;
+it is not to be done, as in the case of one of our palaces,
+by analysing the style, arrangement, and details of the
+rich architecture, and reading the artist’s thoughts in the
+regularity, grace, and noble simplicity of the edifice,—one
+must be something of a poet to appreciate a Turkish
+palace; its charms must be sought not in what one sees,
+but in what one feels. The positive cast of minds are
+disabled from seeing beauty in anything but rich materials,
+well-defined forms, and highly-finished workmanship,
+and Baktchéserai must be to them only a group of
+shabby houses, adorned with paltry ornaments, fit only
+for the habitations of miserable Tatars.”&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_57" href="#Footnote_57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[42]</span></p>
+
+<p>The entrance into the gorge of Baktchéserai from
+the side of the Tauric chain of mountains on the south
+is much grander than the approach from the steppe.
+The rocks open like an immense portal gate into the
+narrow valley, and on every side ruins are scattered, even
+to the summits of the mountains. This gorge, like the
+others in the neighbourhood, was originally closed by a
+wall, a fort, and a crypt town, which faced the interior of
+the mountains, and therefore evidently belonged to the
+inhabitants of the hills, who defended themselves against
+the nomades of the steppes.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_58" href="#Footnote_58" class="fnanchor">[58]</a></p>
+
+<p>These remains of the most ancient times of the Tauro-Scythians
+are mingled with ruins of recent date. The
+garden and palace of Acheláma, built by the Khan Krim
+Geray, occupied all the valley, and in the midst was a
+lake, where the ladies of the hareem used to bathe, and a
+kiosk, where the khan used to repose himself. The
+word “Acheláma” means “a graft” in Turkish, and the
+name was given because of the many kinds of fruit-trees
+which were grafted in these gardens, of which no vestige
+now remains.</p>
+
+<p>To the left of this ruined garden, perched on an isolated
+rock, with houses overlooking the precipice, is the
+little town of Tchoufout Kaleh, which has been inhabited
+for centuries by a colony of Jews. A road cut in the
+rock, and joining the one which leads to the southern
+coast, is the only communication to this singular little
+establishment, which is surrounded by a strong wall,
+entered by gates, which are carefully closed every
+evening.</p>
+
+<p>These Keraim Jews are all merchants, who have their
+shops in Baktchéserai, and bear the highest character for
+honesty. They reject the superstitious fables of the
+Talmud, and their separation from its followers dates,
+according to some learned men, several centuries before
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[43]</span>the birth of Christ, although the Rabbinists pretend that
+they did not form a separate sect until the eighth century.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_59" href="#Footnote_59" class="fnanchor">[59]</a>
+Peyssonel relates that they claim an origin from
+Bokhara, and says that they followed the Mongols and
+Tatars from Asia in the thirteenth century, and as
+these latter gradually left Tchoufout Kaleh for Baktchéserai,
+the Jews established themselves in their place.
+They always enjoyed special privileges, and were exempt
+from some contributions that were imposed on the Greeks
+and Armenians; as, for instance, the obligation to find a
+certain quantity of labour for fortifications, mosques, fountains,
+and other public buildings.</p>
+
+<p>The Jews pretend that their privileges were granted
+them for services rendered in ancient times to the Khans
+of the Tatars; but Peyssonel attributes the real origin
+of them to the services of a Jewish doctor, who,
+having been fortunate enough to cure an Ouloukháneh,
+or one of the great female dignitaries, as his reward
+obtained for his countrymen the exemptions noticed
+above. The capitation-tax of the Jews was henceforward
+attached to the dignity of Ouloukháneh, and the
+Jews, in gratitude, always supplied the palace of the
+Princess with wood, coal, coffee, and other necessaries.
+Their houses are very clean, and they dress like the
+Tatars, and use a dialect of the Tatar language, to
+which they give the name of Djagaltai.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_60" href="#Footnote_60" class="fnanchor">[60]</a></p>
+
+<p>Mr. Henderson, who visited them in company with
+Mr. Glen, the well-known Oriental scholar and missionary
+in Persia, questioned them closely as to the
+tradition of their Eastern origin, and even corresponded
+with them upon the subject, and from their accounts it
+appears that they have no written documents to prove
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">[44]</span>at what time they occupied this fort, or whence they
+came before arriving in the Crimea. They also stated
+that they had no tradition of any bond of union ever
+having existed between their ancestors and the Jews
+of Bokhara, in which country there are no Karaim.
+The only traditionary account current among them is
+that their ancestors came from Damascus and settled here
+about five hundred years ago, under the protection of
+the Khans of Crimea.</p>
+
+<p>Their language also, as exhibited in their ancient
+books, approximates more to the Osmanli than to the
+Oriental Turkish, and it appears from the Travels of
+Rabbi Petachia, that there were Karaites in the Crimea
+about the year 1180, which was considerably prior to the
+arrival of the Tatars.</p>
+
+<p>With respect to the sect in general, it claims a very
+high antiquity, and seems originally to have been the
+same with that of the Sadducees, one of the three principal
+sects which divided the Jewish nation about two
+hundred years before the birth of our Lord. One of the
+distinguishing tenets of the Sadducees was their strict
+adherence to the letter of the law, to the entire exclusion
+of traditional interpretation; and some authors of note
+have conjectured that the errors which that sect taught
+in the time of our Lord formed no part of their primitive
+creed, and that it was the adoption of them by Sadok
+which made the sect divide into Sadducees and those
+afterwards called Karaim, whom Prideaux&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_61" href="#Footnote_61" class="fnanchor">[61]</a> takes to be the
+Scribes so frequently mentioned in the New Testament.</p>
+
+<p>According to Mordecai, one of their own writers, they
+are sprung from Judah Ben Tabbai, and were originally
+denominated, after him, the Society of J. B. T., but
+afterwards changed their name to that of Karaim,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_62" href="#Footnote_62" class="fnanchor">[62]</a> or
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[45]</span>Karaites. If the accounts that obtain among themselves
+may be credited, the first place where a Karaim
+synagogue was established, after the destruction of Jerusalem,
+was Grand Cairo, in which city they have always
+kept up a separate community, and where, according to
+the most recent accounts, they still exist. They are
+also found in most of the countries between India and
+Poland.</p>
+
+<p>The principal point of difference between them and
+the Rabbinical or Pharisaical Jews consists in their
+rejection of the oral law, and their rigid appeal to the
+text of Scripture, as the exclusive and only infallible
+source and test of religious truth. They therefore
+glory in the name of Karaites, or Scripturists, although,
+as is the case with the epithets by which most sects
+and systems of opinion have been characterized, it was
+at first given them by their enemies. They, however,
+consult the Talmud and other Jewish writings, and the
+answer of the principal Rabbi in Tchoufout Kaleh to
+Mr. Henderson was singularly marked by good sense and
+moderation: “We do not admit,” said he, “that the
+Talmud has any binding authority over our consciences,
+and there are many things in it which we cannot approve,
+but shall we on this account reject what is good
+in it, and not avail ourselves of such statements as are
+consonant with the text of Scripture?”</p>
+
+<p>In the middle of the town, near the ancient gate, is a
+mausoleum, with an elegant portico, in which are said to
+repose the remains of Nenekedjàn Khánum, daughter of
+the famous Tóktamish Khan, the successor of Tamerlane.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_63" href="#Footnote_63" class="fnanchor">[63]</a>
+She fell in love with a handsome Genoese nobleman
+according to some, or a Tatar Mirza according to
+others. As her father would not consent to the marriage,
+she fled with her lover to the impregnable walls of
+Tchoufout Kaleh. He was treacherously inveigled out
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[46]</span>of his place of safety, and Nenekedjàn, knowing the
+fate that would await him, threw herself down the
+precipice. Her father, repentant when too late, built this
+beautiful tomb to her memory, which is covered with Arab
+inscriptions from the Koran.</p>
+
+<p>Tchoufout Kaleh&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_64" href="#Footnote_64" class="fnanchor">[64]</a> means, in Turkish, “the fortress
+of the Jews,” and this name is not found applied to it
+till two hundred years ago. The ancient name was
+Kirkor, which was the capital of the Khans, before they
+removed to Baktchéserai.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_65" href="#Footnote_65" class="fnanchor">[65]</a> From the earliest times this
+spot must have been a residence of men, for there is
+a crypt town built at the entrance of the gorge, in the
+strata of the chalk, with the isolated hill of Tchoufout
+Kaleh behind it, which served as a place of refuge,
+fortified by nature. All the other crypt towns in
+Crimea, as those at Inkerman, Mangoup, Katchikaléw,
+and Tepekerman, are built in similar localities, and date
+from the time of the Tauro-Scythians, many centuries
+before Christ.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_66" href="#Footnote_66" class="fnanchor">[66]</a></p>
+
+<p>This subterranean town is cut under the fortress, in
+the sides of the little valley. There are in one place alone
+as many as fifty of these grottoes, and a path with steps
+is cut in the rocks leading from them up to the fortress.
+On the opposite side one of them is converted into the
+Monastery of the Assumption, and inhabited by the
+monks, and a visit to it enables the traveller to judge
+how the old crypt towns looked before they were deserted.
+Many white crosses mark the tombs of rich
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[47]</span>Greeks, whose bodies have been brought from various
+parts, to be buried in this sacred ground.</p>
+
+<p>All the higher part of the valley, beyond a magnificent
+group of oaks, has been used for ages as a burying-ground
+by the Jews, and is called the Valley of Jehoshaphat.
+The tombs, great numbers of which are cut
+in the white chalk, are ranged under fine trees, and
+along the sides of the paths. The effect of it is very
+striking, as the extent is enormous, and the whole
+place is carefully kept up. Some of the monuments go
+as far back as the middle of the thirteenth century, and
+the most ancient are also the simplest, and resemble long
+stone coffins.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_67" href="#Footnote_67" class="fnanchor">[67]</a></p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[48]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V.<br>
+<span class="smaller">WHO ARE THE TATARS?</span></h2>
+
+<p>Origin of the Tatars—Original common stock of the Mongol, Toungous,
+Turk, and Ugrian groups of nations—Short account of each of these—The
+Tatars belong to the Turk race—Their royal race, the Gerays, descendants
+of Zingis Khan, through Tóktamish—Discord in the kingdom
+of Kiptchak for one hundred years—Kingdom of Crimea founded by
+Mahomet II.—Held tributary to Constantinople till conquest by the
+Russians—The conditions—Popular notion that the Gerays are next
+heirs to the throne of Constantinople—Selim Geray—Constitution of
+Crimea—Power of the Khans with the Grand Sultan—The Sultans, or
+royal family, of the Gerays—The wives of the Khans—Character of the
+Tatars—Their manner of living—Their fidelity.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>After the account given in the last chapter of the
+capital of the Tatars, it will be perhaps interesting to
+inquire a little into the history of this people, who
+have established themselves for so many hundred years
+in the Crimea, who still form the bulk of its population,
+and, although their former warlike spirit seems quite
+to have disappeared, are now rendering our army important
+assistance by bringing it provisions.</p>
+
+<p>To gain a clear idea of their antecedents, we must for
+a few moments travel back into very early times.</p>
+
+<p>There seems to have been in a prehistoric period of
+time some common stock from which four great groups
+of nations have descended, the Mongol, the Tungousian,
+the Turk, and the Ugrian, called also the Finn, or Tchud.
+The Mongols occupied a comparatively small territory
+till the time of their national hero Zingis Khan, when
+they first occur in history. Even in his armies and
+those of his successors, most of his soldiers were Turks,
+while the captains were Mongolians.</p>
+
+<p>They are now confined principally to the country
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[49]</span>northward of the Great Wall of China, and westward of
+the Mandshu country.</p>
+
+<p>The Tungusians extend on the east from the Yenisei
+to the Sea of Okhotsk, and on the north from the coast
+of the Icy Sea, between the Yenisei and the Lena, to
+the Yellow Sea on the south-east. Of this race, the
+only division which has exercised an influence on the
+history of the world is that of the Mandshus, the present
+rulers of China.</p>
+
+<p>The Turks, the most widely extended of the four
+races, and one of the most considerable of the families
+of the world, occupy as a continuous population the
+vast extent of country from the neighbourhood of Lake
+Baikal, in Siberia, near the northern frontier of China,
+to the eastern boundaries of the Greek and Slavonic
+countries in Europe, and along the northern coast of
+Africa to the vicinity of the Pillars of Hercules. One
+isolated tribe, that of the Yakuts, dwell in the remote
+east, upon the river Lena, and the coasts of the Icy
+Sea.</p>
+
+<p>The Ugrians left the great eastern plateau of Asia,
+and settled in the north-west of Asia and the north of
+Europe, at a period long antecedent to all historical
+documents. They extend as a continuous population
+from the Yenisei on the east to Norway on the west.
+The eastern branches of this race are the Voguls and the
+Ostiacks, between the Ural Mountains and the Yenisei,
+inhabiting the country formerly called Ugrien, Jugrien,
+or Jugoria, and the most important of the western
+portions of them are the Finns and the Lappes. The
+Magyars of Hungary are also members of the Ugrian
+race, and, in the ninth century of the Christian era, descended
+from the southern part of the Uralian Mountains,
+and settled on the plains of the Lower Danube. They
+called themselves Magyars, but the Russians gave them
+the name of Ugri, and this is the name which has been
+corrupted into Ungri and Hungary. The Magyars are
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">[50]</span>the only people of the Ugrian race who have exercised
+any influence upon the history of the world.</p>
+
+<p>From the third of these races (viz., the Turkish) are
+sprung the Tatars&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_68" href="#Footnote_68" class="fnanchor">[68]</a> of Crimea, who are a remnant of the
+great nation which overran a large part of Asia and
+Europe in the thirteenth century; and the princes of the
+House of Geray, who ruled the Crimea down to the time
+of the Russian conquest, and several branches of which
+still exist in Russia and Circassia, are the lineal descendants
+of the great conqueror, Zingis or Gengis
+Khan. This mighty potentate, who, at the age of
+thirteen, was left as the chief of a small tribe dependent
+on the kingdom of the Niu Tchè Tatars in the
+northern portion of China, and whose name was then
+Temouchin, commenced his career by defeating the
+rebellious nobles of his tribe, and boiling the principal
+malcontents in seventy cauldrons filled with hot water.
+By his large views, and his skilful use of the superstitious
+tendencies of his people, he induced the chiefs of
+the neighbouring tribes to obey him, and a holy hermit
+saluted him as the master of the world, by the name of
+Zingis Khan.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_69" href="#Footnote_69" class="fnanchor">[69]</a> He conquered China, upset the flourishing
+kingdom of the Seljuk Turks in Khaurism, and
+then his generals advanced by Derbend and the shores
+of the Caspian, and defeated the Russian princes at
+the battle of the Kalka, near Mariopol, on the Sea
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[51]</span>of Azof (1224). They pursued the flying Russians to
+the Dniepr, and then returned to Zingis Khan in Great
+Bukharía.</p>
+
+<p>Ten years after the death of Zingis Khan in 1227,
+Batou Khan, his nephew, conquered the whole of Russia
+(1237), and the country remained subject to the Tatars
+for about 150 years, till at the celebrated battle of
+Koulikof on the Don (1380) the Russians made the first
+step towards throwing off their subjection, and the black
+standard of Dmitri Donskoi waved over the slaughtered
+hosts of the Khan Mamai.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_70" href="#Footnote_70" class="fnanchor">[70]</a></p>
+
+<p>The empire of Zingis Khan had been divided at his
+death, and Tamerlane now ruled over the two Bukharías.
+Russia depended on the kingdom of Kiptchak, which,
+soon after the battle of Koulikof, fell to the lot of
+Tóktamish, a general of Tamerlane,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_71" href="#Footnote_71" class="fnanchor">[71]</a> who gained it by
+defeating Mamai, at another famous battle in the vicinity
+of Mariopol. The celebrated kingdom of Kiptchak comprehended
+the Steppes which extend between the Caspian
+and Black Seas, between the Caucasus and the Don in
+one part, and between the Volga and the Emba in
+another.</p>
+
+<p>Tóktamish was conquered afterwards by the Ouzbeg
+Idekou (1395), another general of the great Tamerlane,
+against whom the khan of Kiptchak had revolted, and
+from Tóktamish descend the Gerays of Crimea, and from
+Idekou the khans of the Nogai Tatars. Nearly a
+hundred years of civil war followed in Kiptchak after the
+victory of Idekou, and at the end of it we find Mengli
+Geray seated on the throne of Crimea (1478), which he
+consented to hold tributary to Mahomet II., the conqueror
+of Constantinople. The kingdom of Crimea was therefore
+the remnant of the kingdom of Kiptchak, as this latter
+was only a small portion of the vast empire of Zingis
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[52]</span>Khan. At the time of the interference of Mahomet II.
+there was terrible disorder in the affairs of Little Tatary,
+and the state was on the verge of ruin. Three khans
+reigned at once, and Mengli Geray, who had the best
+right to the throne, was dispossessed and obliged to
+retire to Mangoup, which at that time was in the
+possession of the Goths and the Genoese. Mahomet
+fearing lest the latter people, who were masters of the
+greater portion of the Crimea, and the Muscovites, who
+had already seized several provinces of the empire of
+Kiptchak, should unite to divide the rest of it, wished to
+assist the Tatar princes, and to put an end to the dissensions
+which must have brought about the total
+destruction of the monarchy. He, therefore, drove the
+Genoese from the Crimea, took from them the cities of
+Mangoup and Caffa, and brought prisoner to Constantinople
+the dethroned khan, Mengli Geray, whom he
+afterwards restored on the following conditions:</p>
+
+<p>1st. The khan swore for himself and his descendants
+submission and inviolable fidelity to the Porte; and he
+consented that the khans should be placed on the throne
+and removed by the Grand Sultan at his pleasure, and
+that they should make peace and war for the interests of
+the Ottoman empire.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, the Sultan conceded—1st. That
+only a prince of the race of Zingis Khan should be placed
+on the throne of Little Tatary.</p>
+
+<p>2nd. That he would never, under any circumstances,
+put to death any prince of the house of Geray.</p>
+
+<p>3rd. That the Gerays should never be obliged to deliver
+up refugees who took shelter in any of their dominions.</p>
+
+<p>4th. That the khutbah or prayer of the khan should
+be read in the mosques after that offered up for the Grand
+Sultan.</p>
+
+<p>5th. That, if the khan made a particular request to the
+Porte, it should not be refused.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">[53]</span></p>
+
+<p>6th. That the khan should carry five tails on his
+standard when he went to battle, which was one less
+than the Grand Sultan himself, and two more than the
+highest rank of pashas.</p>
+
+<p>Lastly. That in time of war the Porte should allow
+120 purses, or about 12,000<i>l.</i>, for each campaign, towards
+the expenses of the khan’s guard; and 80 purses, or
+nearly 10,000<i>l.</i>, for the Kapikouli Mirzas, or the immediate
+vassals of the khan, who were not of noble birth.</p>
+
+<p>There was a fixed opinion in Peyssonel’s time, and it
+exists down to the present hour, that the family of Geray
+are the next heirs to the throne of Constantinople, should
+the family of the Sultan become extinct; but Peyssonel
+questioned upon this point the khan himself, and his
+ministers, and the learned men, and they all agreed in
+saying that no such right existed, and that the opinion
+took its rise in a vulgar error.</p>
+
+<p>It is probable that it originated in the following manner:—Hadji
+Selim Geray Khan reigned at the end of the
+seventeenth century, and was a great prince—great as a
+king, a general, a soldier, and a man. This prince, having
+beaten in a single campaign the Germans, the Poles, and
+the Muscovites, saved the standard of the faith when it
+was on the point of being taken, and supported the falling
+fortunes of the Ottoman empire.</p>
+
+<p>Upon this the Janissaries wished to raise him to the
+throne, but he thanked them, and declared himself incapable
+of violating the engagements to the Porte, which
+his ancestors had contracted for him, and that he should
+consider himself unworthy of them if he mounted the
+throne of Turkey by treachery. Having appeased the
+seditious Janissaries, he asked but one favour, and
+that was to be allowed to visit Mecca. He was the first
+Tatar prince to whom this favour was accorded, for their
+birth was considered so illustrious, that the Sultans were
+afraid of their rousing the people of Arabia, and declaring
+themselves the successors of the Khalifs.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">[54]</span></p>
+
+<p>Selim Geray&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_72" href="#Footnote_72" class="fnanchor">[72]</a> was so much respected in Turkey, that
+the Sultan called him his father, and, in gratitude, declared
+that the throne of Tatary should be filled by
+princes of his branch of the Geray family alone. The
+khans of Crimea used to feel the irksomeness of their
+dependence on the Porte, which kept its ascendant by
+the favour of the nobles, who were very powerful in
+Crimea, and by the religious feeling of the people, who
+recognised the Grand Sultan as the successor of the
+Khalifs and the depositary of the keys of Mecca.</p>
+
+<p>The power of the khans of Crimea was by no means
+unlimited, and rather resembled a constitutional monarchy
+than a despotism. They drew no revenue from the land
+nor from their subjects, and could not alter the privileges
+of the nobles; and, by the fundamental constitution of
+the monarchy, no noble could be punished without the
+participation of the beys, or heads of the great houses assembled
+in council. Bengly Geray, after having punished
+the nobles who were concerned in the revolt of Shireen
+Bey, and contributed to the expulsion of Seadet Geray,
+wished to diminish the power of the nobles, and formed
+a plan for removing the Beys from their great hereditary
+offices, and making his vizir chief of all the nobility.
+The nobles of the Crimea and of the Nogais all opposed
+this proposition, and the khan seeing his danger, abandoned
+his intentions.</p>
+
+<p>The influence of the khan with the Porte was very
+great, particularly in time of war. When Devlet Geray
+was at Adrianople, and had taken leave of the Grand
+Sultan, and was preparing to mount his horse, he suddenly
+stopped, with one foot in the stirrup and the
+other on the stone that helped him to mount, and the
+Sultan in surprise asked him what delayed his departure.
+He received for answer, that the khan would not mount
+his horse till the head of Baltagi Mehemet Pasha, the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">[55]</span>grand vizir, with whom he was greatly displeased on
+account of the treaty he had made on the Pruth, was
+brought to him. The minister, as well as the reis effendi,
+were executed, and their heads sent to the khan.</p>
+
+<p>The khan was sometimes sent for to Constantinople to
+consult with on affairs of state, and he was then received
+like a king. The vizir and all the grandees went out to
+receive him, he sat down and took his coffee with the
+Sultan, and, like him, wore the aigrette, and received the
+homage of the Janissaries.</p>
+
+<p>His forces were very considerable, and he could easily
+raise an army of 200,000 men. This he could do,
+although his revenues were very small, and did not exceed
+160,000<i>l.</i> a year, because as the nobles marched with their
+vassals, and each soldier carried with him provisions for
+three months, the support of his army cost him very
+little.</p>
+
+<p>His style in writing to foreign powers, except the
+Sultan, was—Geray, by the grace of God, Emperor of
+the Tatars, the Circassians, and the Daghestan.</p>
+
+<p>All the princes of the reigning house had the title of
+Sultan, and were not shut up, but enjoyed complete
+liberty. Some held great charges in the kingdom, and
+others lived in Roumelia on lands granted to them by
+the Porte. There were generally some in Circassia,
+which was the country to which they often fled when
+they had any cause for discontent, and where, by raising
+the warlike population of the mountains, and marching
+against the khan, or making excursions on the Russian
+territory, they sometimes caused the khan much annoyance.
+They all received pensions from the Porte, and
+were greatly respected by the whole nation of the Tatars.</p>
+
+<p>The family was divided into two branches, of which
+the one are the descendants of the good prince Hadji
+Selim, and the other are a distant branch, called Tchoban
+Gerays, or the Shepherd Gerays. It used to be the
+custom of the khan, and of all the princes of the house
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[56]</span>of Tatary, always to choose as their wives Circassian
+slaves, and on this account the mothers of the khans
+were little respected, even by the prince himself, and
+after the death of their husbands they lived in the
+hareems of their sons, and were not admitted to their table,
+and even remained standing till they received permission
+to sit down.</p>
+
+<p>The Tatars in the days when they were a formidable
+people are described by a French officer who served in
+Poland against them, as of middle stature, strong, with
+thick limbs, short neck, broad face, their eyes small, but
+very black, and opening wide, their complexion tawny,
+hardened to all sort of labour and pains from their very
+infancy. They were dressed in sheepskins, and carried
+with them on their journey a steel to strike fire, and a
+mariner’s compass and a sun-dial to guide them through
+the desert plains where there is no beaten way or path.
+“They ride very short,” says the officer, “like all the
+Eastern nations, and their horses, which they call bac-mates,
+were long, lean, and ugly, with the hair of their
+neck thick, and great tails, which hang down to the
+ground; but they are swift and indefatigable in travelling,
+being able to carry their riders whole days’ journeys
+without drawing bit; and they will feed at all
+times, and when in winter the earth is covered with
+snow, which is the time when the Tatars make their
+incursions, they live either upon what is under the snow,
+or upon the branches or sprouts of trees, pine tops, straw,
+or anything they can find.”</p>
+
+<p>The Tatars hardly ever used bread, but made a pottage
+of millet, and ordinarily ate horse-flesh, boiled when they
+were at leisure, but just heated under their saddles and
+eaten raw when on a march, and the only sauce they had
+was the froth of the flesh from this primitive way of
+cooking it. They always had extra horses with them
+for food.</p>
+
+<p>They had the highest character for integrity, and very
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[57]</span>few nations were to be found less vicious. Besides their
+continence, they were extremely sincere and faithful, and
+had no thieves or false witnesses amongst them; they
+did little injustice or violence, and lived in union and
+great tranquillity. The marvellous fidelity of the captive
+Tatars in Poland was celebrated. They never failed to
+return when they were released on their parole, and the
+Polish gentlemen rather trusted the young Tatars in their
+service with the keys of their money and jewels than any
+others of their household.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_73" href="#Footnote_73" class="fnanchor">[73]</a></p>
+
+<p>The Tatars can hardly now be said to form a nation.
+After the conquest of Crimea by the Russians, all those
+who did not wish to stay under the Russian sceptre were
+allowed to emigrate, and many availed themselves of the
+permission and retired into Turkey, so that there are
+now scarcely any remaining in the country west of the
+Dniepr, and their number has much diminished in the
+Crimea.</p>
+
+<p>The influx of fashionable people to the southern coast
+of the Crimea, and the wealth they have brought there,
+has corrupted the lower orders of the Tatars, and made the
+nobles shrink in haughty seclusion to the mountains.
+There the poorer classes, unlike the Tatars of the southern
+coast and the plains, retain their rough and primitive
+independence, and the rich can peaceably pass their lives
+without being shocked by the sight of their masters.</p>
+
+<p>I will conclude this chapter by borrowing the account
+given by Madame Hommaire de Hell of her visit to the
+Princess Adel Bey, a celebrated Tatar beauty, who still
+lives near Baktchéserai. She rode for several hours from
+the latter place through a lovely country, intersected with
+streams, valleys, and numerous orchards, to Karolez,
+the village of the princess, lost in the mountains, in the
+valley of the same name. It is situated near Mangoup,
+whence there is a glorious view of the mountainous
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[58]</span>parts of the Crimea and Sevastopol, and Balaclava, and
+the sea shining beyond them; and the abundance of its
+waters, and the mountains that encompass the valley
+with a line of battlemented walls, make it a favourite
+spot with the lovers of natural beauty.</p>
+
+<p>Here Madame de Hell and her husband were received
+at the guest-house of the princess by a double line of
+richly-dressed servants, drawn up in the vestibule to
+receive them, and they were conducted into a saloon
+arranged in the fashion of the East, with gaily painted
+walls and red silk divans.</p>
+
+<p>Thus far an ungrudging hospitality received every distinguished
+guest alike, but Madame de Hell was allowed
+an interview with the princess in her own apartments,
+a favour which has been permitted to very few ladies.</p>
+
+<p>From her account it appears that Eastern beauty still
+deserves its reputation, and that the ancient manners and
+dress are still to be found unaltered in the mountains of
+the Crimea. Admitted into a fairy apartment looking out
+on a terraced garden, “a curtain was suddenly raised at
+the end of the room, and a woman of striking beauty
+entered,” says Madame de Hell, “dressed in a rich costume.
+She advanced to me with an air of remarkable
+dignity, took both my hands, kissed me on the two
+cheeks, and sat down beside me, making many demonstrations
+of friendship. She wore a great deal of
+rouge; her eyelids were painted black, and met over the
+nose, giving her countenance a certain sternness, which
+nevertheless did not destroy its pleasing effect. A furred
+velvet vest fitted tight to her still elegant figure, and
+altogether her appearance surpassed what I had conceived
+of her beauty. After some time, when I offered to go,
+she checked me with a very graceful gesture, and said
+eagerly, ‘Pastoi, pastoi,’ which is Russian for ‘Stay, stay,’
+and clapped her hands several times. A young girl
+entered at the signal, and by her mistress’s order threw
+open a folding-door, and immediately I was struck dumb
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">[59]</span>with surprise and admiration by a most brilliant apparition.
+Imagine, reader, the most exquisite sultanas of
+whom poetry and painting have ever tried to convey an
+idea, and still your conception will fall far short of the
+enchanting models I had then before me. There were
+three of them, all equally beautiful and graceful. Two
+were clad in tunics of crimson brocade, adorned in front
+with broad gold lace; the tunics were open, and disclosed
+beneath them cashmere robes, with very tight sleeves
+terminating in gold fringes. The youngest wore a tunic
+of azure blue brocade, with silver ornaments: this was
+the only difference between her dress and that of her
+sisters. All three had magnificent black hair escaping
+in countless tresses from a fez of silver filagree, set like a
+diadem over their ivory foreheads; they wore gold embroidered
+slippers, and wide trousers drawn close at the
+ancle. I had never beheld skins so dazzlingly fair, eyelashes
+so long, or so delicate a bloom of youth. The
+calm repose that sat on the countenances of these lovely
+creatures had never been disturbed by any profane glance.
+No look but their mother’s had ever told them they were
+beautiful; and this thought gave them an inexpressible
+charm in my eyes. It is not in our Europe where women,
+exposed to the gaze of crowds, so soon addict themselves
+to coquetry, that the imagination could conceive such a
+type of beauty. The features of our young girls are too
+soon altered by the vivacity of their impressions to allow
+the eye of the artist to discover in them that divine charm
+of purity and ignorance with which I was so struck in
+beholding my Tatar princesses. After embracing me
+they retired to the end of the room, where they remained
+standing in those graceful Oriental attitudes which no
+woman in Europe could imitate. A dozen attendants,
+muffled in white muslin, were gathered round the door,
+gazing with respectful curiosity. Their profiles, shown
+in relief on a dark ground, added to the picturesque character
+of the scene. This delightful vision lasted an
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">[60]</span>hour. When the princess saw that I was decided on
+going away, she signified to me by signs that I should
+go and see the garden; but though grateful to her for
+this further mark of attention, I preferred immediately
+rejoining my husband, being impatient to relate to him
+all the details of this interview, with which I was completely
+dazzled.”&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_74" href="#Footnote_74" class="fnanchor">[74]</a></p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">[61]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI.<br>
+<span class="smaller">SEVASTOPOL.</span></h2>
+
+<p>Road to Sevastopol from Baktchéserai—Conquest and foundation of Sevastopol
+in 1783-84—Description of town and fortress—“The Dvoretz”—Engineer
+buildings—Fort Alexander and Fort Constantine—South Bay—The
+Hulks—Bay of Vessels, now the Docks—Description of the barracks—Hospitals,
+Slobodes—Colonel Upton and anecdotes of Russian
+workmen—Sevastopol in 1834—Reservoir of Sevastopol—Sievarna
+fort—The citadel—Observations of Sir Howard Douglas on the siege—Military
+stores—Arsenals of Russia—Manufactories of fire-arms—Cannon
+foundries—Stores come to Sevastopol by the Don and the Azof—The
+road by the Arabate and Perecop—Fortifying of Cape Kazantip—Undefended
+state of Kertch up to May last—Public gardens—Haxthausen
+on the object of Sevastopol and the Black Sea Fleet—Chopin on
+the Anglo-French alliance—Conclusion.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>The high road from Baktchéserai to Sevastopol is carried
+entirely along the terrace which separates the chalk from
+the tertiary ridges of the Steppe. It passes along its
+whole length over a white clay soil, and in summer is
+very dry and dusty, except in the valleys of the Katcha
+and the Belbek. Here the eye is refreshed by the verdure
+of vineyards and orchards, especially on the banks of the
+Belbek, where there are several country houses belonging
+to the superior officers in Sevastopol, and the little Tatar
+village of Douvankoi offers some charming points of
+view. From Douvankoi&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_75" href="#Footnote_75" class="fnanchor">[75]</a> the road follows the valley of
+the Belbek till it crosses the stream near the village of
+the same name, and then, after skirting for a moment
+the sea, it turns again inland, and passing close to Fort
+Constantine, arrives at Sievarna,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_76" href="#Footnote_76" class="fnanchor">[76]</a> the citadel of Sevastopol,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">[62]</span>on the north of the Great Bay, which must be
+crossed to enter the town.</p>
+
+<p>From so important a place as Sevastopol it is a great
+inconvenience to be obliged to cross the water to reach
+the high road leading to the interior of the Crimea and
+Petersburg, but the country is so extremely cut up with
+ravines to the east of the town, towards Inkerman, that
+no direct communication by this the shortest route has
+yet been attempted.</p>
+
+<p>Sevastopol has succeeded the ancient Greek colony of
+Kherson, with this difference, that as the latter was a
+great commercial mart, so the former is entirely devoted
+to warlike purposes, and no considerations of a commercial
+or manufacturing nature ever entered into the
+mind of those who founded it. It is in consequence
+entirely military, and contains nothing but men-of-war,
+arsenals, barracks, and batteries.</p>
+
+<p>When the conquest of the Crimea had been assured to
+Russia by the treaty of Constantinople, of the 10th of
+June, 1783, the Russians found nothing around the magnificent
+bay of Sevastopol except the little village of
+Aktiar, placed at the extremity of the bay near Inkerman,
+under the cliffs of white clay that border its steep
+shores. During all the time of the Tatar possession of
+Crimea, this basin, which might have been made an incomparable
+port, had been neglected. The Tatars called
+the Great Bay Kadi Liman, and the more inland portion
+of it, including the careening bay, Avlita.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_77" href="#Footnote_77" class="fnanchor">[77]</a></p>
+
+<div class="transnote" id="illus2">
+Transcriber’s Note: The image is clickable for a larger version.
+</div>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp100" style="max-width: 25.0em;">
+  <a href="images/illus2-full.jpg"><img class="w100" src="images/illus2.jpg" alt=""></a>
+  <figcaption>
+      <p>POSITIONS OF THE ALLIED ARMIES BEFORE SEVASTOPOL.</p>
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>No sooner were the Russians in possession of it, than
+within a year they had made preparations for turning to
+account its natural advantages. Already in the spring
+of 1784 they began to build houses for the invalids of
+the fleet, placed near a beautiful spring of water at the
+extremity of the Bay of Artillery. The fleet at that
+time consisted of fourteen ships of war in the port, one
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">[63]</span>of which had just brought a cargo of colonists.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_78" href="#Footnote_78" class="fnanchor">[78]</a> They
+were still uncertain where they should place the town,
+but even then were inclined to its present position, and
+the fanciful name of Sevastopol&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_79" href="#Footnote_79" class="fnanchor">[79]</a> was fixed upon, as they
+could not give it that of Kherson,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_80" href="#Footnote_80" class="fnanchor">[80]</a> which had already
+been misapplied. The old name of Aktiar had a long
+struggle with the new name in public use, and I find that
+in the Russian post map, of so late a date as 1825, Aktiar
+is engraved and Sevastopol wholly omitted. Ten years
+later, in 1794, when Pallas again visited this place, a
+great plan had been laid down, which has been followed
+out in all its important details down to the present day.
+Five batteries, those of Alexander and Constantine, which
+commanded the entrance to the Great Bay, a third on
+the northern coast, and two others opposite, on the point
+between South Bay and Artillery Bay, had been built.
+The admiralty and its church, the arsenal, the Greek
+church on the hill, the ports, and the quarantine already
+existed.</p>
+
+<p>Since that time it has made gigantic progress, as may
+be seen by the descriptions of the various travellers mentioned
+in the notes.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_81" href="#Footnote_81" class="fnanchor">[81]</a> The town is built in the shape of
+an amphitheatre, on the rise of a large hill, flattened on
+its summit, between the Artillery Bay, which is the merchant
+port, on the right of the town to a person looking
+at it from the sea, and the South Bay, which is the port
+of war on the left.</p>
+
+<p>Several wide unpaved streets, bordered by good houses,
+ascend the hill from the water, up a steep incline. They
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">[64]</span>open on a large empty square, separating them from
+the fortifications, which consist of several batteries placed
+on the point of the promontory. Here is hoisted the
+flag of the admiralty, which is the residence of the commandant
+of Sevastopol.</p>
+
+<p>The quay is a fine construction, paved with stone, and
+ornamented with pillars of granite, which have been
+brought there down the Dniepr from the interior of
+Russia.</p>
+
+<p>The street which runs the nearest to the South Bay is
+the principal one of the town, and between it and the
+bay are the Russian church and the admiralty, with its
+tower for a gateway, and the arsenal. A prolongation
+of the principal street between the batteries and the
+Admiralty leads to the great Stairs which serve as the
+landing-place to cross the bay, and here is passed on
+one side a house which has now a mean appearance in
+Sevastopol, but which is still honoured with the name
+of Dvoretz, or the Palace, because in 1787 it was the
+residence prepared for the reception of Catherine II.,
+who lodged here during her stay in the town, which she
+had just founded. In the highest part of the town, the
+Greek church is seen in a commanding position, in the
+wall of which is an old Greek bas-relief, of no great value,
+according to Dubois, although much praised by Clarke.</p>
+
+<p>Farther on, at the height of 240 feet above the level
+of the sea, is the telegraph, which naturally commands
+the whole town, and fourteen stations establish a communication
+in two hours with Nicolaief, the head-quarters
+of the fleet of the Black Sea.</p>
+
+<p>Since the siege of the town commenced we have destroyed
+some of these stations, and the telegraph is now
+carried by a different route through the country in the
+possession of the Russians to Perecop.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_82" href="#Footnote_82" class="fnanchor">[82]</a> A courier with
+despatches would not take much more than a week to
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">[65]</span>reach Petersburg from Sevastopol in fine weather, as I
+remember that one arrived at Prince Woronzof’s palace
+of Aloupka, on the southern coast of Crimea, by post, in
+eight days from Petersburg, and I think the distance
+from Petersburg to Tiflis has also been accomplished in
+the same time.</p>
+
+<p>The merchant vessels which come to take in stores at
+Sevastopol all enter Artillery Bay, along the furthest
+part of which are ranged the principal shops of the
+town.</p>
+
+<p>The rocks which border the western side of this bay
+were blown up and allowed to fall into the sea in 1834,
+in order to form a platform large enough to receive
+some important buildings required for the engineers.</p>
+
+<p>On the flanks of the same rock, but looking to the
+entrance of the Great Bay and the Quarantine Bay, are
+ranged, one above the other, the formidable bastions of
+Fort Alexander, intended to cross their fire with those
+of Fort Constantine opposite, in order to destroy any
+vessels which should attempt to enter the bay. These
+two forts are armed with 320 cannon. The passage or
+entrance of the bay, narrowed by two reefs, is shown at
+night by two lighthouses near Inkerman, at the end of
+the Great Bay; and for ships to enter safely, these lights
+must be kept exactly on the same line, one above the
+other. Behind Fort Alexander, on the top of the hill
+to the right on entering, are the barracks of the land-forces;
+and this is one of the points in which Sevastopol
+does not shine. They are passed in going to the quarantine,
+which is at the extremity of the bay of the
+same name, and are placed on the spot on which stood
+the principal part of the ancient city of Kherson, to
+which the Tatars still give the name of Tchortchoun.</p>
+
+<p>The library and reading-rooms for the officers of the
+navy, which I visited with one of the Messrs. Upton,
+who I think had been the architect of them, were well
+furnished with valuable works and scientific instruments.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">[66]</span>These stand, or stood, near the church, in the highest
+part of the town, and command, from their fine spacious
+apartments, a splendid view of the grand harbour and
+the open sea.</p>
+
+<p>While the fleet is armed, it remains in the Great Bay,
+and when it is laid up it is placed in the South Bay,
+which is a branch of the Great Bay, about a mile and
+three quarters long, and 400 yards wide. The Tatars
+call the South Bay Kartaly Kotche, or the Bay of the
+Vulture, and its direction is from north to south. This
+interior port is so well defended by the steep hills which
+close it in, that the water is never more disturbed than
+in a pond, and it is so deep that the largest vessels
+can almost lie close to its western shore.</p>
+
+<p>There, in the furthest part of the bay, used to lie the
+old men-of-war, used as hulks, in which the greater
+number of the convicts, who worked by thousands in the
+dockyards, were shut up at night.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_83" href="#Footnote_83" class="fnanchor">[83]</a> The continual
+passage of these bands of bad characters through the
+town used to be the great annoyance of the inhabitants
+of Sevastopol, who, like our own colonists, could not see
+without dread this great accumulation of criminals among
+them. Some, of course, occasionally escaped, and immediately
+recommenced their lawless practices in all parts
+of the Crimea.</p>
+
+<p>As a ramification of the South Bay, at its entrance
+there opens to the south-east a little basin, which is a
+kind of inner port, the total length of which is about half
+a mile. It is called the Bay of Vessels, because a part of
+the laid-up vessels used to be placed here, and remained
+in perfect security in all weathers. When the question
+was raised about building the docks, no better position
+could be found than the extremity of this little bay, in
+which a basin has been formed 400 feet broad, 300 feet
+long, and 24 feet deep, to receive the vessels which
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">[67]</span>require to be repaired. For this purpose five docks or
+reservoirs, made independent one of the other by locks,
+have been made. The one at the furthest extremity is
+destined for first rates; the two reservoirs which flank
+it on the right and left are for second rates; and the
+two last at the entrance of the basin are for frigates:
+the three principal locks are 58 feet wide. To feed these
+basins, they have fetched the water of the Tchornaia
+Retchka&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_84" href="#Footnote_84" class="fnanchor">[84]</a> (Bouiouk Ouzéne) from Tchorgouna to the
+locks, and have conducted it by a canal, overcoming difficulties
+which would have seemed insurmountable to
+many governments. Although the Tchorgouna, in a
+direct line, is only eight miles distant from the entrance
+of the docks, it has been necessary, in order to avoid
+obstacles, to make a détour, which has lengthened the
+canal by four miles, and it is therefore about twelve miles
+long.</p>
+
+<p>It passes Inkerman, and thence is carried along the
+Great Bay. The deep ravines and the Careening Bay
+have here rendered necessary very important works, including
+two tunnels, one of 800 feet in length, and
+three aqueducts, embracing between them thirty-eight
+arches, 1000 feet in length.</p>
+
+<p>The point where the stream has been diverted is
+62 feet above the level of the Great Bay. The level of
+the docks is 30 feet above the bay; and the fall of the
+canal in the twelve miles is 32 feet, or about one in 2000.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. John Upton, the English engineer, who was employed
+in the construction of the works, estimated the
+expenses at about two millions and a half of roubles
+assignat (100,000<i>l.</i>&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_85" href="#Footnote_85" class="fnanchor">[85]</a>); and calculated that the work
+would be completed in five years if 1000 workmen were
+constantly employed. But as is always the case, the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">[68]</span>estimates of the time and expense were much too low,
+and the works, begun on the 17th June, 1832, are not
+finished now, and the first ship was admitted into them
+in 1853.</p>
+
+<p>Those who have visited these works will not be astonished
+at this delay in completing them. Basins of a
+great size cut in the living rock, and cased with English
+cement, with gigantic locks, and such a length of aqueducts,
+tunnels, and other labours, both principal and accessory,
+are a justification of the engineer, who received the
+full approbation of the Emperor. The docks had only
+been completed a short time before the present war began.</p>
+
+<p>To protect the port and basins, there has been erected
+at Cape Paul (Pavleski Missok), which commands the
+eastern entrance, a work called Fort Nicholas, which has
+three ranges of bastions, one above the other, and is
+mounted with 260 cannons, the fire of which crosses that
+of the batteries of the admiralty.</p>
+
+<p>This fort, which commands the entrance to the South
+Bay, had just been completed at the time of my visit.
+I walked through the casemates with Mr. Upton, the
+architect, who had witnessed their construction, and who
+told me that he thought the masonry had been executed
+in an unworkmanlike manner, and that he did not believe
+the fort would stand the shock of its own fire. Such is
+also the opinion of the French engineer, M. Hommaire
+de Hell, with regard to the casemated batteries at Sevastopol;
+he says that in the first trial of Fort Constantine
+the walls cracked. The latter, however, seems to have
+withstood the attack by our ships in December last very
+successfully.</p>
+
+<p>On the flanks of the hills which enclose the South Bay,
+on the eastern side, are the barracks of the sailors, the
+hospitals of the fleet, and the barracks of the artillery,
+and there extend also a part of the slobodes, or faubourgs,
+inhabited by the married sailors, which are composed of
+uniform lines of cottages built on a given plan.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">[69]</span></p>
+
+<p>I was shown over Sevastopol by Colonel Upton&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_86" href="#Footnote_86" class="fnanchor">[86]</a> and
+his sons, who received me very kindly, and showed me
+everything I wished to see. They had found things in
+a very barbarous state when they arrived—had had great
+difficulty to break in their Russian workmen to European
+habits of industry and carefulness, and they found that
+the Russian system, by which, like our own in India,
+so much writing is required, greatly impeded the prompt
+execution of work, and justified the observation of the
+French traveller Jacquemont about the latter country,
+that a government of stationery is in most things a
+stationary government.</p>
+
+<p>The absence of common mechanical contrivances was
+so great among the Russians, that almost up to the
+period of my visit wheelbarrows were unknown, and the
+troops and serfs employed in the great public works used
+to pick up the earth with their hands and carry it in
+bags upon their shoulders, so that, particularly in wet
+weather, vast numbers were always laid up in the hospital
+with sore backs, and the works progressed very slowly.</p>
+
+<p>The serfs were said to do so little work, that Colonel
+Upton, as well as all other Englishmen that I have known
+employed by the Russian Government, were of opinion
+that it would be far more economical to pay free labourers
+than to feed and keep the serfs for their gratuitous
+services. The Russian workmen quickly catch an imperfect
+way of doing what they are told, but like
+children, want constant watching, and never can be
+taught the value of accuracy. They execute their tasks
+because they are ordered to do so, and never reason on
+the object to which their work is to be applied.</p>
+
+<p>As an instance of this, Colonel Upton said, while he
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">[70]</span>was building the dock-gates at Sevastopol, when the
+stone-work was prepared for the wood, he found to his
+astonishment that the parts did not fit, although he was
+certain that his calculations were right, and the work
+apparently correctly executed. At length he thought of
+measuring his gauge, and then he found that his Russian
+workmen, having done their work wrong, cut his gauge
+to make it appear right, and never thought that there
+were other parts of the work which must fit in with
+theirs, and consequently make their error appear.</p>
+
+<p>Sevastopol has naturally a very fluctuating population,
+almost entirely composed of sailors, soldiers, employés,
+and convicts. It was estimated at 15,000 souls in 1834,
+although Mr. Tegoborski, writing in 1852, declines to
+make any estimate of it, from the want of any reliable
+data. The non-official inhabitants are composed of a
+mixture of Russian tradesmen, Polish Jews, who are
+barely tolerated by the police, and Germans of the colony
+of Kronenthal, who are established here as bakers,
+brewers, and artisans of different kinds.</p>
+
+<p>Sevastopol in 1834, although so strongly fortified on
+the side of the sea, had not the smallest defence on the
+land side against a coup-de-main. The town in all
+its circumference was completely open, and there was
+not even a gate or the smallest rampart. All the
+streets debouched on an immense open place in the
+upper part of the town, or rather one might say into
+the Steppe itself, whence roads and paths led in every
+direction to Balaclava, Tchorgouna, and the monastery of
+St. George. To one standing in the open place and
+looking down on the town, there is to the left the newly-established
+reservoir for the fountains of Sevastopol, from
+springs which have been already mentioned. This reservoir
+is placed against the wall of the public garden, called
+the Boulevart, which has been made on the heights which
+terminate the South Bay. The view from hence down
+upon the bay, filled with men-of-war, is very extraordinary,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">[71]</span>as the ships seem to have arrived there by enchantment,
+and nobody would conceive that this long
+lake could have any communication with the sea.
+Opposite the garden, a little to the right, is the vineyard
+of Bardac.</p>
+
+<p>At a later period, after the discussions occasioned by
+the capture of the Vixen in 1837, when war was supposed
+imminent between Russia and England, the Cabinet of
+St. Petersburg grew frightened at the possibility of
+the English in case of war making a descent upon
+some point of the Heracleotic Chersonese, and defences
+were then ordered to be constructed on the land side of
+Sevastopol.</p>
+
+<p>The ground on the north side of Sevastopol is much
+higher than on the south side, and consequently the
+citadel of the place, an octagonal fortress, called the
+Sievarna, or Northern, Fort, which is erected there, commands
+the whole town, bay, and docks. It has been
+greatly strengthened of late years, as the most important
+position for the defence or attack of the town. For itself
+it can only be attacked on the land side, as its height
+above the water would render ineffective the fire of ships,
+and its precipitous shores both on the side of the Great
+Bay and the sea would make a landing very difficult for
+troops. This is the fortress which Sir Howard Douglas
+calls “the key of Sevastopol,” until we secure which we
+can never hope to take the place. “But this taken,” says
+Sir Howard Douglas, “the Telegraph and Wasp batteries
+on the northern heights, Fort Constantine and the forts
+below, being commanded and attacked in reverse, must
+soon fall; while the town, docks, arsenal, and barracks
+on the south side of the harbour would be at the mercy
+of the allies, who, by the fire of their batteries, might
+entirely destroy them all. On the contrary, by attacking
+the place from the south, the enemy holding the northern
+heights, although the works on the crest of the southern
+heights should be breached and taken, the town, the body
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">[72]</span>of the place, with its docks and arsenals, will not be
+tenable by the besiegers till the great work on the northern
+side, and all its defensive dependencies, shall have
+been captured. These, no doubt, will have been greatly
+strengthened before the allies are in a condition to direct
+their attacks against them.”&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_87" href="#Footnote_87" class="fnanchor">[87]</a></p>
+
+<p>The fortifications then which render Sevastopol so very
+strong are the important works on the northern side, for
+there is no use in taking the town, even if it could be done,
+as the strongest part of the fortress would yet remain. At
+the same time, if an army were brought sufficiently large
+to invest it completely, the place must fall, because the
+supplies of food, ammunition, and especially of water,
+would quickly fail. In water the place is very deficient,
+as there are no springs in the town, and only two sources
+out of the town by which it is supplied. One of these is
+the river which supplies the docks, through the tunnel
+which has been described, as reaching from near Inkerman
+to the town. This tunnel was recently (January 26)
+stated to be now used, not only as a passage for the water,
+but as a safe road by which the Russians introduce supplies
+into the town, and this is highly probable, as there
+is a foot-path on each side of the conduit. The old
+town of Kherson, as will be stated afterwards, was taken
+by the Russians in the tenth century by cutting off the
+water-pipes which supplied the town, and perhaps this
+may be the way in which the modern representative of
+old Kherson will ultimately fall.</p>
+
+<p>We have found to our cost how inexhaustible are the
+stores of Sevastopol, and yet it is said that a still greater
+amount is laid up in the chain of fortresses that have
+been erected during the last twenty years on the German,
+and particularly on the Prussian, frontier.</p>
+
+<p>As the nations of Europe are fully occupied in their
+own affairs, and as Russia is peculiarly inaccessible by
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">[73]</span>nature, she never could fear an invasion, and her armaments
+must therefore be looked upon as threatening her
+neighbours. Besides, as will afterwards be seen, her
+army for the internal service of the country is totally
+distinct from the immense mass of men called the
+Grand Army, kept hovering for many years past on the
+frontiers of Germany, in a mobilized state, and ready
+to pour down its legions upon any point at a moment’s
+notice.</p>
+
+<p>Let us shortly inquire where these great military
+stores are laid up, and in what establishments they
+are prepared. Arsenals in Russia are divided into
+permanent and temporary: the first are at Petersburg,
+Bransk, Toola, and Kief; and the second at Petersburg,
+Tyraspol, and, since the Polish war, at Modlin.
+The arsenals of Petersburg, Toola, and Kief, are vast
+and elegant edifices, each of which can contain 100,000
+small arms, and where carriages and other material for
+the artillery are made. The others are only dépôts.
+Up to the commencement of the seventeenth century
+there were no manufactories of iron or foundries in
+Russia, and the Government was obliged to buy all
+arms abroad. A Dutchman, named Andrew Vinius,
+was the first to establish foundries, which were worked
+by water-power. The first establishment of this kind
+was founded in the year 1632, on the little river of
+Toulitza, at fifteen versts from Toola. Since that time
+several others have been formed in the governments of
+Toola, Kalouga, and Moscow.</p>
+
+<p>In 1764, a Hamburger raised the first manufactories
+of steel at Olonetz. The first hydraulic manufactory for
+muskets was built in 1648, at Moscow, on the Taouza;
+in 1653, another was established in the village of
+Tchentsof, on the Skniga; and in 1700, Nikita Demidoff
+Antonief carried the arts of founding and making fire-arms
+to the Neva in Siberia.</p>
+
+<p>The principal manufactories of fire-arms are now at
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">[74]</span>Toola, Votka, Sesterbeck, and Zlatoust. The manufactory
+of Toola,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_88" href="#Footnote_88" class="fnanchor">[88]</a> founded in 1712, by Peter the Great,
+has been much increased; and its flourishing period
+dates from 1817, when an Englishman, John Jones,
+undertook its management. Some years ago it furnished
+each year 50,000 muskets, and 25,000 sabres, besides
+carbines, pistols, bayonets, and pikes. Seven thousand
+men, and nearly 10,000 women, are employed in it;
+besides 3500 peasants, belonging to the establishment.
+It costs 124,000 roubles a year, or about 20,000<i>l.</i>;
+and it consumes yearly 70,000 pounds of Siberian iron,
+and 10,000 of steel. The manufactory of Votka is
+situated on the little river Isch, in the district of Sarapoul,
+in the government of Viatka; and some years ago
+it employed 3000 workmen, and produced annually
+about 14,000 muskets.</p>
+
+<p>The manufactory of Sesterbeck is near Petersburg,
+and is modelled on that of Toola. It produced some
+years ago yearly 12,000 muskets, and the same number
+of sabres. Zlatoust, in Siberia, furnishes most of the
+sabres for the cavalry and pioneers, to the annual number
+of about 50,000.</p>
+
+<p>There are five cannon foundries in Russia, at Petersburg,
+Moscow, Riga, Kief, and Kazan. A Scotchman,
+Gascoigne, sixty years ago introduced as much improvement
+in the founding of cannon as Jones in the manufacture
+of fire-arms. There are two powder manufactories,
+one at Ochta, near Petersburg, and the other at Tchotersk,
+near Gloukhow.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_89" href="#Footnote_89" class="fnanchor">[89]</a></p>
+
+<p>The military stores and provisions for Sevastopol
+come from the interior of Great Russia and Siberia,
+down the Volga and Don to Rostof, on the Sea of
+Azof, whence in peace they were shipped, and passed
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">[75]</span>through the straits of Kertch, the whole way by sea to
+Sevastopol and the other fortresses on the Black Sea.
+Since the war began, they have come, as usual, down
+the Don and across the Sea of Azof; but instead of
+passing through the straits of Kertch they have been
+landed near Cape Kazantip, on the coast of Crimea,
+within the Sea of Azof, and thence were carried across
+Crimea, about 100 miles to Sevastopol, during the whole
+time of the siege, till the Sea of Azof froze in November
+last. Cape Kazantip was fortified by the Russians last
+summer, and wharves erected near it for the landing of
+the goods, and a regular transport service arranged across
+the peninsula of Crimea.</p>
+
+<p>This is probably the new road to which allusion has
+been lately made in ‘The Times.’ The facts I have
+stated were communicated to me by Mr. Lander, an
+English merchant at Taganrok, and Mr. Carruthers, late
+Consul at that place. These gentlemen passed over the strip
+of land by the side of the Putrid Sea, called the Arabate,
+to Kertch, in May last, and saw the military stores at
+Rostof, and the wharves just erected on the Crimean
+coast, and the fortifications of Kazantip. The late
+English Consul at Kertch, Mr. Cattley, is now interpreter
+to Lord Raglan; and he also passed by this route
+last summer, and therefore neither Lord Raglan nor the
+Ministry ought to have been ignorant of these facts.</p>
+
+<p>Thus continual supplies were poured into Sevastopol
+up to last November, the period of the freezing of the
+Sea of Azof; and since that time the stores for Sevastopol
+have probably been carried across the ice to some
+point on the northern shore of the Azof, and thence by
+land over the Isthmus of Perecop. Had the latter place
+been occupied, it would have been easy to have taken
+possession of the Strait of Yénitchi, and to have commanded
+the tongue of Arabate. Indeed, as I have mentioned
+in another place, there is deep water (24 feet) along
+the Arabate, on the side of the Azof, and a few gun-boats
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">[76]</span>in the Sea of Azof would have rendered the Arabate
+impassable to the Russians. The straits of Kertch
+were undefended up to May last; and had possession of
+them been taken by our Government, and a very small
+force of gun-boats been placed in the Sea of Azof, the
+supplies might have been stopped, and the Russians in
+Sevastopol reduced by this measure alone to great
+difficulties.</p>
+
+<p>Not only the military stores but also the rye-flour,
+for the troops at Sevastopol, is furnished from Rostof.
+M. Hagemeister, in the Russian official report on the
+commerce of the Black Sea, says: “All the rye-flour
+which annually arrives at Rostof from Voronetz, by the
+Don, is purchased by the government for the use of the
+army and navy; and thus the navy at Sevastopol and
+Nicolaief draw considerable quantities of rye from New
+Russia.” These provisions were lying ready for shipment
+with the military stores at Rostof in last May, and
+yet we made not the slightest efforts to intercept these
+supplies, which have been regularly poured into Sevastopol
+since that time, and without which the siege could
+not have been carried on. Merchants in England have
+informed me that the very lead which has formed the bullets
+that have killed our brave soldiers has been imported
+into Russia since the beginning of the siege, in consequence
+of there being no blockade in the Black Sea
+and the Azof; and large reinforcements which have
+been sent from the Caucasus to Sevastopol would also
+have been cut off.</p>
+
+<p>Such is a short account of Sevastopol, which is alone
+remarkable for its admirable natural situation, and its
+immense fortifications towards the sea. Although so
+much labour has been expended upon it, the place is so
+vast that the works of man look pigmy. The impression
+on the beholder is, how much has nature done for
+this place, compared with which the efforts of man appear
+as mere specks.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">[77]</span></p>
+
+<p>The group of safe and commodious harbours which it
+presents, stretching out like the fingers of the human
+hand from the wrist, which may be supposed to represent
+the entrance to Sevastopol, between Forts Alexander
+and Constantine, contain so vast an area that all
+the navies of the world might ride securely in them.
+They are the only really good harbours in the Black
+Sea, with the exception of the adjoining ones between
+them and Balaclava, which, however, are greatly inferior
+both in size and security to those of Sevastopol.</p>
+
+<p>The latter, since the Russians have possessed them,
+have been closed against commercial vessels,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_90" href="#Footnote_90" class="fnanchor">[90]</a> and every
+effort has for many years been made to accumulate here
+a vast amount of warlike stores, and to keep up an enormous
+fleet, although Russia has no mercantile marine to
+protect, and, as the event has proved, dares not risk a
+battle with any of the great naval powers.</p>
+
+<p>The object, therefore, of the fleet, to carry an invading
+force to the shores of the Bosphorus, and, under the guise
+of religion, to carry out schemes of ambition, has always
+been obvious, and, indeed, not denied by the friends of
+Russia.</p>
+
+<p>M. Haxthausen, the able author of an admirable work
+on Russia, to complete which every facility was given
+him by the Russian Government, and who, having
+familiar access to the leading statesmen of Russia, probably
+echoes the opinions which he has constantly heard
+put forth at Petersburg, has the following remarkable
+passage upon the real objects of the fleet and arsenals of
+Sevastopol: “The object of the fleet,” he says, “is to
+secure the dominion of Russia in the Black Sea, and
+this is still further assured by the construction at Sevastopol—at
+the present moment&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_91" href="#Footnote_91" class="fnanchor">[91]</a>—of a fortified port of war,
+which, according to the accounts of competent persons,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">[78]</span>will not have its equal in the world. When Europe
+shall have a moment of feebleness—and we may fairly
+expect this to come to pass after what we have seen to
+happen in 1848, and when she shall think the time arrived
+for conquests—then the establishment of Sevastopol
+will allow this power to take the offensive against Constantinople
+with equal energy and safety, by making
+use of the fleet, either to disembark her troops behind
+the lines of mountains and rivers which perpendicularly
+on the western shore of the Black Sea cut at a right
+angle the line of approach on Constantinople, or to
+strengthen the base of operations of a grand army, by
+supporting it wherever there are ports along the Euxine.
+It is impossible that the Turkish fleet, either present or
+future, could stop this result, for whatever may be done
+to improve it, its best sailors are always Greeks. Up to
+the battle of Navarino the case was very different, for
+till that event some confidence might still be placed by
+the Porte in the Greek sailors.”</p>
+
+<p>Then M. Haxthausen, a Russian in feeling, though a
+German by birth, gets quite nettled at what he calls the
+low, feeble policy of England and France, in preventing
+the extension of Russia. He continues: “Let us remark
+now, the strange change which has taken place in
+the affairs of the East. Formerly Christian Europe exhausted
+herself in efforts to drive back the crescent to
+the deserts whence it came. The noblest blood of Christendom
+had been shed before the crescent was allowed to
+surmount the cross at Jerusalem. But now it is only
+the Christians who prevent the fall of the crescent, or at
+least the re-appearance of the cross on the domes of
+Constantinople. In the same manner as the <i>social
+licence</i> of Switzerland is sheltered, not behind impregnable
+mountain defiles, but simply behind the rivality of
+the great powers, so the anti-Christian empire established
+on the borders of the Sea of Marmora depends not on
+the force of the Mussulman, enervated by vices which
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">[79]</span>belong to the country—not on its number, which
+in Turkey in Europe has always been inferior to that
+of the Rayahs—not on the fortified rocks of the Hellespont,
+which the military science of the Christians
+would soon have overturned, but solely on the fact that
+the Christians of the West find it convenient to preserve
+Turkey as a barrier between themselves and the
+East.”</p>
+
+<p>“When, in the time of the Crusades, they were fighting
+for Jerusalem, the policy of the Byzantine empire led
+the Greeks to aid the Saracens against the Roman
+Catholic armies. This was a policy as <i>mesquine</i>, as
+feeble, as <i>tracassière</i> as that observed for the last eighty
+years with regard to the Turks by those Christian
+nations who are the inheritors of the Byzantine policy
+in the West, namely, the French and the English.
+This <i>mesquine</i> policy of to-day, are we to consider it
+as one of the quiverings which announce the imminent
+dissolution of the Romano-German states, as it formerly
+preceded that of the last Roman empire?”&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_92" href="#Footnote_92" class="fnanchor">[92]</a></p>
+
+<p>Thus this honest, patriotic German, who hates Switzerland,
+as is natural with an admirer of the Czar, is actually
+provoked with us for preventing Russian extension not
+only over Turkey, but over a part of his own country,
+namely, Austria, or the Romano-German states, as he
+calls that empire, whose fall he thinks imminent. A
+Frenchman, who knew Russia as well as M. Haxthausen,
+and whom a long residence in the country had not
+deprived either of his common sense or his patriotism,
+writing long before the present crisis, thus judiciously
+speaks of Russian aggression, and the true policy of the
+Western Powers:—</p>
+
+<p>“There are only two independent powers which draw
+other states into their sphere of action,” says M. Chopin,
+writing in 1838, “and those are Russia and England.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">[80]</span>It is plain that of these two rival forces the first has
+every chance in its favour: numerical preponderance,
+military organization, unity of will without any possible
+control in the execution, firm alliances; all these are
+on the side of the North. Russia finds in the simplicity
+of her government a great compensation for
+the vices of her interior administration; a profound
+secrecy covers her faults; she knows how to act at an
+opportune time, but she knows likewise how to wait.
+When Europe has leisure to occupy herself seriously
+with the present danger, Russia seems only to be pursuing
+plans of interior improvement, but this repose is
+but a preparation for other conquests, and thanks to the
+little agreement that generally reigns between rival
+Cabinets, some new question of difference continually
+arises in which the activity of a rival diplomacy is expended,
+and then Russia marches some steps in advance—but
+they are giant steps which crush empires, and the
+effect of which is like an actual seizure. Each of her
+successes adds to her resources in diminishing to an
+equal extent the resources of rival powers.</p>
+
+<p>“Nevertheless, despite this constant aggressive march,
+the position of Russia becomes more difficult than formerly,
+as the end and aim of all her efforts, the possession
+of the Dardanelles, becomes more clearly defined, and it
+is a spectacle full of political instruction to watch all the
+springs she puts in action to bring about the great <i>dénouement</i>.
+Sometimes she covers Turkey with her protection.
+According to her, it is France and England who
+meditate the ruin of the Ottoman empire, but thanks to
+the treaty of Unkiar Skelessi, Turkey, if she remains
+faithful to the stipulations which Muscovite forethought
+has imposed upon her, will have nothing to fear from
+foreign aggression. In the mean time Russia habituates
+the fatalism of the Turks to the sight of her flag and her
+uniforms, and the zeal of her alliance even goes so far,
+that she distributes her decorations among the Ottoman
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">[81]</span>soldiers. There is always the same system of dissolving
+corruption on one hand, and intimidation on
+the other.</p>
+
+<p>“It is always the history of Poland, of Georgia, of Finland,
+of the Baltic provinces, of the Crimea, of Moldavia,
+of Wallachia, of Greece, of Persia,—<i>and Russia, from the
+midst of all these conquered states, dismembered already,
+or on the eve of being so, Russia dares to declare to
+Europe that she has only views of order, and justice,
+and moderation</i>. Europe does not believe this, but is
+dependent, egoist, and divided; and she has repeated
+for years past, in the official discourses of princes, that
+the general peace is not threatened, while this precious
+peace is only the result of culpable connivance.</p>
+
+<p>“Russia turns to her profit all these elements of feebleness
+and division; she skilfully and resolutely pursues
+her work, and, organised for conquest, she will never stop
+until her principle of activity, which is the condition of
+her existence, shall, from want of other objects, re-act on
+herself,—that is, until Europe and Asia become really
+Russian (Russe de fait). Mons. de Talleyrand, who had
+deeply studied the resources and spirit of Russian policy
+in the great phases of the hostility and alliance of that
+state with Imperial France, reduced the problem of the
+struggle against Muscovite influence to its simplest expression,
+when he concluded the treaty of the quadruple
+alliance, the vital principle of which was the Anglo-French
+alliance. The peril was then great for Russia,
+and she hastened, at the first cry of alarm from her diplomatists,
+to rouse the national susceptibilities of each
+country, and even to range party against party in the
+bosom of the two rival states.</p>
+
+<p>“Dynastic interests, constitutional opposition, radical
+and legitimist principles,—she employed all these levers;
+she exhausted all these combinations of calculations and
+politics, to arrive at the result she proposed to herself,
+namely, the separation of France and England. She succeeded,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">[82]</span>and they avowed that they dared not interfere in
+European politics from fear of Russia. These two richest
+and most powerful kingdoms of the globe, whose united
+population amounts to sixty millions of souls, these two
+crowns, which can dispose, the one of the military forces
+which have conquered Europe, and the other of a navy
+without a rival in the world, accepted an affront, and the
+responsibility of showing a humility more dangerous
+than war itself.</p>
+
+<p>“In good sooth, can we attribute as a crime to Russia
+her skill in profiting by the chances offered her by the
+faults of rival cabinets? With her, is not ambition
+confounded with the supreme law of her own preservation?
+Without the empire of the Mediterranean, which
+renders her mistress of the treasures of Asia and the
+principal markets of Europe, she must renounce entertaining
+an army of 800,000 men, and once disarmed,
+once the prestige of her omnipotence destroyed, her
+forced alliances will escape her, and in a few years she
+will have retrograded two centuries. But if Russia obeys
+a necessity in accomplishing her aggressive march, do not
+England and France, who possess the means of curbing
+the Russian power, commit a more palpable crime in
+knowingly running onwards to their discredit, and ultimately
+to their ruin?”&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_93" href="#Footnote_93" class="fnanchor">[93]</a></p>
+
+<p>The spirit of the English people and the intelligence
+of the French Emperor have brought about that very
+alliance which the acute and far-seeing French writer
+wished without expecting, and which it is to be hoped
+will have the effect of putting a stop to Russian conquests,
+and rendering useless the enormous aggressive preparations
+which she has been making for the last twenty
+years at Sevastopol and other fortresses, in order to
+increase her own territory at the expense of that of her
+neighbours.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">[83]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII.<br>
+<span class="smaller">THE RUSSIAN NAVY.</span></h2>
+
+<p>Its origin under Peter the Great—Early victories of the Varangians, or
+Normans, and Cossacks—Row-boats more useful in the Baltic than large
+vessels—The navy under Catherine II.—English instructors—Difficulty
+in manning the fleet—No mercantile navy—Organization of the
+Russian fleet—No marines—Oak for navy—Food of sailors—Russian
+vessels on foreign stations—Only one Russian foreign merchant—Greek
+influence diminished in 1844—“The Twelve Apostles”—“The Teredo
+Navalis”—The affair of Sinope—The Paixhans shell system—General
+observations.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>The&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_94" href="#Footnote_94" class="fnanchor">[94]</a> Russian navy, like the army, was the creation of
+Peter the Great, who, when he came to the throne, found
+his empire without any port except Archangel, and when
+he died, after a reign of sixteen years, left a fleet of sixteen
+sail of the line in the Baltic, and his name feared
+as a naval hero on the Black Sea and the Caspian. In
+the ideas of that great man the army was intended to be
+merely supplementary to the navy, and Russia was to be
+a great commercial and maritime power instead of a military
+one. “It is thus,” he says in his will, “that Russia,
+which I found a brook and left a river, must, under my successors,
+grow to a mighty sea, destined to fertilize worn-out
+Europe, and advance its waves over all obstacles, if
+my successors are only capable of guiding the stream.”&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_95" href="#Footnote_95" class="fnanchor">[95]</a></p>
+
+<p>The origin of all the numerous naval armaments of
+Russia in the present day was the little boat built by
+Peter’s own hands, when he returned from his European
+travels.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">[84]</span></p>
+
+<p>In 1836, after a lapse of 113 years, the anniversary of
+the launching of the little boat, was for the first time
+celebrated with great pomp at Cronstadt. Twenty-six
+ships of the line, twenty-one frigates, ten brigs, and
+seven gun-boats, were anchored in the roads of Cronstadt,
+and saluted with 2000 cannon the tiny “grandpapa,”
+as the little boat was called, which, placed on a steamer,
+was carried through the lines. From the earliest times
+there has been a slight halo of maritime glory around the
+Russian name. The half fabulous Varangians, Northmen,
+or Normans, who conquered Russia as they did
+France and England, and from whom the Russian nobility
+still boast their descent, were victorious by sea as well as
+by land, and the glories of Ruric and Vladimir belong to
+the Russian nation as much as the victories of Alfred and
+the Plantagenets belong to us. The Varangians found
+out the road by water along the rivers of Russia from the
+Baltic to the Black Sea,—that very road which Peter the
+Great improved by employing his Swedish and Cossack
+prisoners to cut the canal of Ladoga.</p>
+
+<p>In 886 (shortly after the foundation of the German
+empire) the Varangians appeared on the Black Sea with
+200 boats, each containing from forty to sixty men, and
+advanced to the attack of Constantinople, which was only
+saved by a miracle. At the end of the sixteenth century
+the Russian fleets were still feared on the Baltic, and even
+under the empire of the Tatars, Novgorod had possessed
+a flourishing maritime commerce, although in a great
+measure it was conducted by strangers. But after the
+fall of Novgorod, when the Baltic provinces fell into the
+power of the Swedes, the Poles, and the Germans, the
+maritime importance of Russia began to decline. The
+single outlet that was left her, Archangel, was only
+frequented by foreign merchant vessels, chiefly Dutch.
+Then, the Russians of that time, like those of the present
+day, occupied themselves entirely with internal
+commerce, and the spirit of the Varangians disappeared,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">[85]</span>or only lingered among the Cossacks of the Dniepr and
+the Don.</p>
+
+<p>Peter the Great, in his maritime views, had for a paramount
+object the conquest of the débouchés in the south,
+leading to the Mediterranean and the southern oceans,
+which were then exclusively in the hands of the Turks
+and Tatars.</p>
+
+<p>His first dockyards for a fleet of war were placed near
+Woroneje, in the country of the Don, and then also for
+the first time the Russian flag was seen to triumph in the
+Black Sea over the Turks, their national enemies. At a
+later period, in the war which Peter the Great had to sustain
+against Sweden, he employed a fleet consisting chiefly
+of row-boats, which had been constructed on the lakes of
+the North, and he found this fleet far more advantageous
+in the Baltic than vessels of the line or frigates. Even
+up to the present time flotillas of row-boats have always
+rendered greater services than large vessels to Russia in
+the shallow waters of the Baltic. The first result of any
+importance was the victory which Peter gained in the
+middle of the Séches, or low reedy islands of the Baltic,
+over the Swedish Admiral Ehrenskiold, from whom he
+took a frigate and ten row-boats, but at that time his
+land army was nearly annihilated on the Pruth, and the
+conquest of Azof and the possession of the Black Sea was
+in consequence postponed till the end of the last century.
+“The condemnation of Admiral Cruys,” I here quote the
+words of Haxthausen, “under Peter the Great for having
+lost several vessels in an attack which he had risked too
+rashly against the enemy, was of bad augury for the
+Russian fleet, although he was afterwards pardoned and
+restored to all his dignities. In England, Byng was
+executed, because near Minorca he had avoided battle
+with the French fleet, which was superior to his own.
+It is a rule in England always to attack, if the English
+fleet equals that of the enemy, and this rule has undoubtedly
+been the base of the maritime power of that country.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">[86]</span>In 1743 the Russian Admiral Golovine excused himself
+to Lascy, who had given him the order to commence the
+attack, by saying that the maritime laws of Peter the
+Great forbid the Russian fleet ever to engage in battle
+with the enemy unless they had three Russian vessels to
+two Swedes.”</p>
+
+<p>The Russian fleet has always been rather for show
+than use, owing to the want of boldness which the
+Russians have in later times shown in maritime enterprises,
+although, under Catherine II., Greig, Elphinstone,
+and Spiridoff acquired some glory in the Mediterranean.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of the last century the Russian fleet consisted
+of sixteen ships of the line and twenty-three
+frigates, which was about its force under Peter the
+Great. During the war which, after the French Revolution,
+devastated Europe, the Russian fleet played only
+a secondary part.</p>
+
+<p>When Russia was allied with England, the navy of the
+latter power commanded the sea, while Russia was to
+employ her forces on the continent. When Russia was
+against England her vessels were little worth. The
+English, at a later period, undertook to keep the Russian
+fleet, and in this uneasy state of relations with
+England she lost the excellent instructors of her navy,
+which she had before employed in great numbers. The
+English officers on board her fleet refused to serve
+against their own country, and since that epoch they
+have been less favourably viewed in Russia.</p>
+
+<p>The great difficulty of the Russians is to man their
+fleet, because they have no mercantile navy, and
+scarcely any Great Russians live on the sea-coast.
+Archangel furnishes a very few men, and after them
+the best sailors are the Finns of the Baltic, the Cossacks,
+and the Greeks of the Black Sea. The crews of
+the fleet are much more numerous than the whole of
+the sailors in the mercantile marine, and for this reason
+they are obliged to recruit among landsmen, and to put
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">[87]</span>in practice the maxim of Peter the Great, that every man
+is fit for everything.</p>
+
+<p>A Russian is never allowed to say that he cannot do a
+thing, and whatever the order given him may be, he is expected
+to set about executing it as well as he can. The
+only answer permitted is “Schloushaiou,” “I hear, and will
+obey.” But although he attempts to do everything in a
+certain kind of way, his work is generally very imperfect,
+and the inaccuracy of Russian workmen is proverbial
+among the English superintendants employed in that
+country. They realise the English saying of “a Jack of
+all trades, and master of none;” or as Custine puts the
+point, “Le Russe n’est maître de rien, excepté l’art de
+feindre;” and this last is an observation which our
+Ministers would do well to reflect upon now that they are
+asked to open negociations.</p>
+
+<p>Some notion of the paucity of sailors in Russia may be
+formed from the fact that the law which obliges every
+captain of a merchantman to be of Russian origin is constantly
+eluded. The shipowners try to gain the advantages
+of sailing under the Russian flag, and at the same time
+to avoid the disadvantages of having a Russian captain,
+and therefore the individual who is put forward in port
+as the legal captain of the vessel, as soon as she puts out
+to sea descends to the humble office of the cook.</p>
+
+<p>The Russian fleet is manned from the common conscription
+with very little “ethnologic” distinction, excepting
+that in the North the Finns are preferred for
+that service, and in the South the Jew conscripts are
+generally sent to the navy, not on account of their aptitude
+for it, but because as soldiers they are considered
+worthless.</p>
+
+<p>The Imperial fleet consists of three divisions, two of
+which are in the North, and one in the Black Sea. It is
+manned by forty-five battalions, called “equipages:”&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_96" href="#Footnote_96" class="fnanchor">[96]</a> each
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">[88]</span>equipage is composed of eighty petty officers, twenty-five
+musicians, and 1000 seamen, and is officered by one
+commander, of the rank of a colonel, two superior officers,
+twelve lieutenants, and twelve midshipmen.</p>
+
+<p>An equipage will man one three-decker, and one or
+more small vessels, or a two-decker and a frigate, or two
+frigates and one or two brigs. A ship of 120 guns is
+manned by 812 seamen and 65 petty officers. A ship of
+84 guns is manned by 625 seamen and 50 petty officers.
+A frigate of 60 guns by 375 seamen, and 30 petty
+officers. A frigate of 44 guns by 320 seamen and 20
+petty officers. A corvette by 158 seamen and 12 petty
+officers. The forty-six equipages are disposed in the
+following manner:—From No. 1 to No. 27, inclusive, are
+in the Baltic. From No. 28 to 44, inclusive, are in the
+Black Sea. No. 45, in the Caspian. No. 46, at Kamstchatka.
+There are no marines in the Russian navy, and
+the seamen are disciplined like soldiers. The term of
+service in the navy is, I believe, similar to that in the army,
+namely, from ten to twenty-five years, according to the
+provinces of the empire from which the sailors are drawn.</p>
+
+<p>The oak of which the Black Sea fleet is built comes
+mostly from Minsk and the neighbouring governments,
+and is of quick growth, on low land, in a country which
+was an immense lake in ancient times.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_97" href="#Footnote_97" class="fnanchor">[97]</a> Herodotus says
+that both the Dniestr and the Boug took their origin in
+enormous lakes. The great portion of the timber of
+Kherson used to come down the river Pripet, which is the
+remains of an enormous marsh or lake, and is navigable
+for 350 miles to its junction with the Dniepr. The masts
+that come down the Dniepr are good, and drawn from
+the same forests that supply Riga, but the wood for ship-building
+is bad, and the Russian Government hopes to
+supply Nicolaief with the oak of Kazan, which is used in
+the dockyards of the Baltic, and which might be brought
+down to the south by the Volga and the Don to Rostof.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">[89]</span>Mr. Upton told me that a cannon-ball, which would
+lodge in one side of an English ship, would go right
+through both sides of a Russian one. For certain parts
+of all the ships they are obliged to import oak from
+England. The Crimean oak is very good, but not obtainable
+in large quantities. A frigate or two have been
+built of it, but none are now afloat. The only ship of
+the line built of it was the Raphael, which was taken by
+Captain Slade and the Turks in the war of 1828. The
+Bulgarian oak is also of a good quality. The timber at
+Nicolaief is used green, as soon as brought down the
+Dniepr, so that ships become quickly infected with dry-rot,
+are unsound in ten years, and quite unfit for service
+in fifteen.</p>
+
+<p>The sailors are fed upon rye or black bread, which
+they prefer to wheaten bread. They have meat twice
+a week, and drink “quass,” a fermented drink, made from
+the rye flour, and the Russian “vodka,” or brandy,
+which is likewise made from rye. The sailors are all
+disciplined and dressed as soldiers, wear helmets, and for
+their common dress the same long drab greatcoats as the
+army. They are, in fact, more properly sea-soldiers than
+sailors. When the Grand Duke Constantine inspected
+the Black Sea fleet, its Admiral was obliged to ask permission
+for the sailors to take off their proper uniform,
+as it was found impossible for them to mount the rigging
+in it.</p>
+
+<p>When a Russian vessel is on a foreign station, which
+has seldom been the case, except with small vessels having
+only picked crews, the dress is changed, both of
+officers and men, and they then, for the time, wear shirts
+and trousers, like the sailors of maritime nations; and
+they also then receive extra allowances, to enable them
+to live like the people of the country where they happen
+to be. The Russians have a great “amour-propre;”
+and I have often watched them on a foreign station,
+when they have been moored with French and English
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">[90]</span>vessels at Constantinople and Athens, constantly exercising
+their men, until at last they succeeded in managing
+their vessels with great quickness.</p>
+
+<p>The immense majority of their ships, however, are
+confined to the Baltic and Black Seas, in which they are
+obliged to lay up during more than half the year. The
+Black Sea fleet is seldom out for more than one month’s
+cruise in summer, and sometimes for even a shorter
+period. Besides the short time they are out, the cruizing
+in such limited areas with a large fleet of vessels
+must be a very uninteresting operation, and there is nothing
+in it to call out a spirit of enterprise or adventure.
+The sailors are nearly all landsmen, and such they always
+remain. There is no mercantile marine, notwithstanding
+the great inducements held out by the government; and
+although the commerce of Russia is considerable, there
+is not a single merchantman manned and sent out by
+Russians Proper, by which I mean the Slavonic population,
+which forms the real strength of the Russian nation.
+The Finns are enterprising shipowners, but they are a
+totally different race, and a conquered people. I believe
+I am correct in saying that there is only one real-born
+Russian merchant who has an establishment in a foreign
+country. This gentleman, of considerable wealth, set up
+a house at Liverpool a few years ago, more from patriotic
+motives than in the regular way of business, and received
+great encouragement from his government, who
+wished to induce others to follow his example, but without
+success. Under all these disadvantages, some of
+which are inseparable from the despotic nature of the
+government, for commerce like genius requires for its
+development complete liberty, it is impossible that the
+Russian fleets can ever become formidable by their quality,
+although the large number of their vessels may prove a
+source of disquietude to a second-rate power.</p>
+
+<p>In the beginning, the Russian navy was formed
+entirely by foreigners, and principally by Englishmen,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">[91]</span>while the sailors and officers in the Black Sea were generally
+Greeks. There were, in particular, five Englishmen,
+who had been originally brought up in the English
+navy, who rose to be admirals in the Russian service,
+and were of great use to their navy,—Admirals Crown,
+Hamilton, Elphinstone, Dugdale, and Greig. Admiral
+Lazaref, a Russian, who commanded when I visited
+Sevastopol, had been brought up in the English navy,
+and fought as a midshipman at Trafalgar.</p>
+
+<p>At the period of my visit, in 1844, a great change was
+taking place in the Russian navy, which had its origin in
+a more general cause. Just about that time there was a
+strong national movement throughout the Empire, which
+was encouraged by the Court. The nation had been under
+the tutelage of foreigners for a century and a half, and
+now showed a wish to act for itself. Russian replaced
+French as the fashionable language at court, and representations
+were constantly made to the Emperor to place
+Russians instead of foreigners in places which the latter
+had till then exclusively occupied. There was a strong
+feeling against the German officers in the army, and the
+laws were strictly enforced, forbidding foreigners to hold
+land or possess manufactories, unless they made themselves
+Russian subjects, a step they were very much
+pressed to take by officials as the best way of being
+favourably viewed by the Emperor.</p>
+
+<p>At Sevastopol there was an outcry against the English
+engineers of the steam-vessels, and the Emperor consented
+to appoint a Russian on trial, who took a steamer
+out to sea, and damaged her machinery so much after a
+few hours, that she was towed into port again by another
+steamer sent out to fetch her. The Emperor then said
+that he would continue to employ the English until his
+own people were really able to undertake their duties.</p>
+
+<p>The great change in Sevastopol about 1844 was the
+getting rid of the Greek influence, which had till then
+been paramount. Both men and officers were replaced,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">[92]</span>as far as possible, by Russians, and the same change
+was effected as regarded the civil departments of the
+naval administration.</p>
+
+<p>I visited several of the large line-of-battle ships in the
+harbour of Sevastopol, with one of the Uptons, and as they
+were all built by English shipwrights, to a non-nautical
+eye they looked very much like the men-of-war in our
+own country. I visited in particular the Twelve Apostles,
+the largest ship there, which I have lately heard to be
+now quite useless for warlike purposes. No Russian ship
+in the Black Sea lasts more than ten years, not only on
+account of the bad wood of which it is built, but also
+because of the worm (<i>teredo navalis</i>) which infests Sevastopol
+and the southern coast of the Crimea, and commits
+great ravages among the ships. The project of filling
+the new dock with fresh water, by introducing into it
+at great expense the Tchornaya Retchka from Inkerman,
+was adopted with the view of getting rid of this worm,
+but it was found when too late that it was in the very
+waters of the Tchornaya that the worm was generated.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_98" href="#Footnote_98" class="fnanchor">[98]</a></p>
+
+<p>The Vixen, the English vessel which we so timorously
+gave up in 1837, lay in the harbour at the period of my
+visit, and the Russians were very proud of having taken
+an English ship, while the English there told me they
+never could see her without a feeling of shame. She
+had served as a model to the Russians, and I saw several
+vessels that had been built after her.</p>
+
+<p>The whole fleet in Sevastopol consisted, in 1853, of
+18 first-rates, 7 frigates, 30 steamers, and 36 smaller
+vessels. There were besides 28 gun-boats, built for service
+in the Danube, and 30 transports measuring 10,000
+tons.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_99" href="#Footnote_99" class="fnanchor">[99]</a></p>
+
+<p>The only achievement of the Black Sea navy has
+been the destruction of the Turkish fleet in Sinope, which
+was characterised by their usual negligence on the part
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">[93]</span>of the Turks, and by that cruelty in war which has
+always stained the Russian name. The Turkish ships
+were armed with small ordnance, of which the largest
+scarcely reached the calibre of 24-pounders, and they
+placed themselves in the roadstead under the protection
+of land batteries, which were in a wretched state of defence,
+unprovided with guns that would throw shells,
+and armed only with cannon of very small calibre.</p>
+
+<p>The Russians, on the contrary, had availed themselves
+of the latest discoveries and improvements in naval
+gunnery. Many 68 and 42-pounder shot were picked
+up at Sinope, and they used with fearful effect the most
+terrible instruments of modern warfare, the Paixhans guns.</p>
+
+<p>This attack of the Russians at Sinope has been designated
+as iniquitous by both the French and English
+military authorities: in the first place, because the attack
+ought not to have been made under the political circumstances
+then existing, and next, because from their
+superiority in number and calibre of guns, instead of
+burning the Turkish vessels, and exterminating the crews,
+they might have taken the whole squadron prisoners,
+and brought away the surviving men as prisoners of war,
+while the ships would have served to increase their own
+effective force. They preferred, however, to use the new
+terrible incendiary shell, and to massacre without mercy
+the brave but negligent Turks.</p>
+
+<p>This affair forms an important epoch in the history
+of the new system of naval warfare, as that in which the
+Paixhans shell system was first used in war. These shells
+contain incendiary bodies, which, when ignited by the
+bursting of the shell, are scattered about in every direction,
+burn with far greater intensity than ‘la roche à feu,’
+develope more heat, and give out dense smoke during the
+combustion, which must interrupt for a considerable time
+the working of the guns. The chances of setting fire to
+an antagonist’s ship in action are prodigiously increased,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">[94]</span>and if one party uses these dreadful engines, the other
+must adopt the same means of warfare, by which one or
+both combatants will surely be burnt. “Both France and
+England,” says Sir Howard Douglas, “are provided with
+these appalling weapons of mutual destruction, and are
+prepared, if unhappily there be occasion, to use them <i>à
+l’outrance</i> against each other’s ships, in a barbarous and
+ignoble strife, in which it seems the only question is
+which shall be first burnt. What would Nelson have
+said to this incendiary warfare?”&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_100" href="#Footnote_100" class="fnanchor">[100]</a></p>
+
+<p>The Russians, with that energy and promptitude which
+has been the secret of all their successes, have availed
+themselves of every improvement in naval gunnery,
+although their fleet is with them a matter of only
+secondary importance. It is impossible to read the
+history of Russia and her opponents, that is to say her
+neighbours, for the last 150 years, since the peace of
+Carlowitz, without observing the quickness in seizing
+opportunities, the absence of prejudice, the anxious desire
+for improvement, and the alacrity in repairing errors
+when they have been committed, which are the true
+methods by which an individual or a nation can best
+attain the object of its desires, be they good or bad.</p>
+
+<p>However, notwithstanding the great care bestowed
+upon it, there is no doubt that the Russian fleet is
+extremely inefficient, and would be hardly a match for
+any of the second-rate powers of Europe. It was not
+to be expected that it should come out to fight the
+united navies of the two first maritime powers of the
+world, and there was little cause for the boast of the late
+Ministers, that we performed a great achievement in
+forcing it to act on the defensive. Still, on the other
+hand, there seems to be good sense in the remarks of
+Haxthausen, that the Russians have been too timorous on
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">[95]</span>the sea, and that the Russian navy will never equal the
+high character of their army until they have suffered
+defeats, and fought their way to confidence. The natural
+“pluck” of the people would probably in the end be as
+successful on the sea as on the land.</p>
+
+<p>The Romans hated the sea as much as the Russians,
+and in reading of Peter’s little boat, and the Vixen
+serving for a model, the mind naturally recurs to the
+Carthaginian galley stranded on the coast, which served
+as a model for the first Roman vessels, yet, after no very
+long period, the Carthaginian state, betrayed by lust of
+conquest, was broken up, and the Romans swept the
+seas.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">[96]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII.<br>
+<span class="smaller">ON THE RUSSIAN ARMY.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_101" href="#Footnote_101" class="fnanchor">[101]</a></span></h2>
+
+<p>Large proportion of Russian population in the army—Military organization—Peaceable
+natural disposition of Russian people—Strong feelings when
+roused—Obedience to orders—Anecdotes—Commercial disposition of
+the Russian people—Their wish to mix with European nations—Education
+checked by the government—Military system of Peter the Great—His
+great objects—Faults of our government with respect to Russian
+policy—The army, whence recruited—Great Russians—Poles—Little
+Russians—Finns, Jews, &amp;c.—Name “Ruski” or Russian—Its
+origin—The conscription—Soldiers’ marriages—The cantonists—Emperor’s
+efforts to improve condition of common soldier generally unsuccessful—Corporal
+punishment—Labour—“Indefinite leave”—Division
+of empire for conscription—Amount of population per cent. taken from
+1840-1855—Expense of the Russian soldier—Democratic system of
+army—The cross of St. George—Classification of Russian army—Into
+1st, Corps d’Armée, or complete armies—2nd, Local Regular Troops—3rd,
+Irregulars—Don, Black Sea, and Ural Cossacks—Value and number
+of Cossack troops—Various Asiatic irregulars—General observations.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>Having given a sketch of the Russian navy, perhaps
+another short digression may be permitted in order to give
+my readers a concise account of the organization and disposition
+of the army in Russia, which occupies so large
+a portion of the population, and consumes so much of
+the revenues of that country. Taking the army, with
+all the reserves, at a million,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_102" href="#Footnote_102" class="fnanchor">[102]</a> and the male population
+of Russia at thirty millions, and the able-bodied males
+at fifteen millions, it follows that every fifteenth man
+is a soldier, either in active service, or liable to be called
+out, which is certainly the case at the present moment.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">[97]</span></p>
+
+<p>In our own country about one man in fifty is a regular
+soldier, and in other European countries the proportion
+is greater, but nowhere so large as in Russia.</p>
+
+<p>We, in this industrious and commercial country, can
+hardly conceive what it is to have a military organization
+such as prevails in Russia, where nothing but
+a uniform is respected, and where the highest civil
+officers have military titles given them as the only
+means of indicating their rank. Indeed there are none
+but military titles in Russia with which to reward all
+kinds of merit. Professor Pallas relates that the Grand
+Mufti, or Chief Priest of the Tatars, was made a general
+after the conquest of the Crimea—the Professor himself
+was made a major-general; an old Armenian school-master
+I used to know at Tiflis, although a very unwarlike
+character, was a field officer; and all members of
+the civil service have military rank, and are called by
+the common people according to their military titles.</p>
+
+<p>The most singular thing is, that the people among
+whom this military organization of the whole nation
+prevails, is, without exception, the most pacific people
+on the face of the earth, and upon this point I believe
+no difference of opinion exists among all observers.
+Having lived for several years in a position which
+enabled me to mix much with the officers and men of
+the Russian army, such is my strong conviction of
+the Russian character. M. Haxthausen mentions, as a
+point admitting of no doubt, “the absence of all warlike
+tendency among the Russian people, and their excessive
+fear of the profession of a soldier.”&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_103" href="#Footnote_103" class="fnanchor">[103]</a> The Russian
+people have no pleasure in wearing arms, like the Turk
+or the Pole: even in their quarrels among themselves,
+which are rare, they hardly ever fight, and the duel,
+which now often takes place among Russian officers, is
+contrary to the national manners, and a custom imported
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">[98]</span>from the West. The people take no pleasure in the
+fighting of beasts or birds, as in bull-fights, or ram-fights,
+or cock-fights, which are common amusements
+among some Eastern as well as most European nations;
+and when the Russian is drunk, which often happens,
+he is never quarrelsome, but on the contrary caressing
+and given to tears. But, on being roused, he exhibits
+a degree of patient endurance which is astonishing, and
+a steady enthusiasm which shows great power of feeling,
+and which is very deeply seated in the national character.
+He meets death and the severest punishment without
+fear, and strange anecdotes are told of the impossibility,
+as it seems to him, of disobeying the letter of the orders
+he has received. I have lately read a story somewhere
+which well illustrates this trait of character:—</p>
+
+<p>A soldier on duty at the palace of the Emperor at
+Petersburg, which was burnt a few years ago, was
+stationed and had been forgotten in one suite of apartments
+that was in flames: a Greek priest was the last
+person to rush through the burning rooms, at the imminent
+risk of his life, to save a crucifix in a chapel, and
+returning he was hailed by the sentry, who must in a
+few instants more have been suffocated. “What do you
+want?” cried the priest, “save yourself or you will be
+lost.” “I can’t leave,” replied the sentry, “because
+I am unrelieved, but I called to you to give me your
+blessing before I die.” The priest blessed him, and
+the soldier died at his post.</p>
+
+<p>The late Emperor himself on one occasion attempted
+to pass a sentinel in one of the corridors of the palace
+at Petersburg, who had orders to let no person pass, but
+the man resisted him, and when the Emperor tried to
+disarm him, wrestled with him, and flung him back
+against the wall.</p>
+
+<p>The patience also of the Russian peasants is astonishing,
+in submitting without a murmur to the most cruel
+treatment when they happen to belong to a bad master,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">[99]</span>until at last they rise in a body, and, armed with their
+hatchets, massacre their oppressor. When such instances
+occur, the affair is quickly hushed up. The patient
+sufferings of the dissenters, of whom it is said that there
+are in Russia no less than two hundred sects, prove their
+deep feeling on religious matters. I have seen thousands
+marched, with their wives and children, from their native
+country, into the Caucasus, where they were colonized on
+bleak plains in the month of October, and the greater
+number perished of cold and starvation.</p>
+
+<p>If the military organization of Russia could be once
+broken up, the people would turn to their natural pursuits,
+which are decidedly commercial and agricultural.
+And again, if free trade were allowed in the empire, and
+the commercial spirit could satisfy its natural cravings,
+the increased riches, luxuries, and civilization of the
+country would show such obvious advantages, that the
+military system could not hold its ground. English merchants
+in Russia have assured me, that although there are
+now few Russian merchants engaged in foreign commerce,
+no people show such natural aptitude for commercial
+concerns. The high tariff which is in force, and the
+absolute prohibition there is against educating their
+children in Europe, as no young persons between the
+ages of twelve and twenty-five are allowed under any
+pretext to be absent from their country, alone repress
+for political purposes their natural tendencies.</p>
+
+<p>The Russian people wish for European civilization,
+and to mix with the other European nations, but they
+are not allowed to do so by their Government; and to
+check their desire for civilization and their liberal tendencies,
+I have been informed by a German professor, who
+had minutely studied their educational system, which is
+under the absolute control of the Government throughout
+the whole empire, that within the last fifteen years the
+course of study has been checked and thrown back in all
+the universities and schools of the empire. It is a well-known
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">[100]</span>fact to all who have lived in Russia, that the Government
+grew more and more jealous of education up to the
+breaking out of the present war. Foreign tutors and
+governesses, who are absolutely essential for all parents
+who wish to give their children a good education in
+Russia, were as far as possible prevented from entering
+the empire, and two years ago the Poles were prohibited
+from studying at the university of Odessa. It must
+be remembered that this town is the commercial
+débouché and the capital of all the southern provinces
+of Poland, the nobility of which generally go there to
+spend the fashionable season, and that it contains the only
+superior educational institutions within their reach.</p>
+
+<p>It is well known that the Russian army which had
+served in Europe during the wars of Napoleon, returned
+with very liberal tendencies, and preferred the manner
+of life of the nations they had left to their own. They
+were consequently divided, separated, sent into dangerous
+situations, and thus gradually disposed of.</p>
+
+<p>The military system which Peter the Great&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_104" href="#Footnote_104" class="fnanchor">[104]</a> so
+strongly recommended to his successors, was devised,
+and has been continued down to the present time, in
+order that a great framework of empire might be made,
+which should be filled up gradually by successive
+generations. He thought he could lay down a plan by
+which a stupendous sovereignty might be constructed,
+which should overshadow the whole earth.</p>
+
+<p>It is but fair to say, however, that the Tzar is, to a
+certain degree, the incarnation of the national will, and
+that the whole nation, from the highest to the lowest,
+have a vague, but deep-seated notion, that some future
+glories are in store for the Slavonic name, and they will
+always approve their Tzar, when they think that he is
+following out the destiny of the nation. That they do
+not grow wiser, however, but continue to attach too
+much importance to military glory, and the absorbing and
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">[101]</span>conquering of all surrounding nations, is the fault of the
+Government and not of the people. The Tzars have kept
+them back from mixing with civilized nations and from
+commercial pursuits, in order that they might not learn
+more just notions of the qualities in which consists the
+true glory of nations, and might remain a great encamped
+people, content with a military despotism, and
+ready to be the instruments of restless schemes of ambition.</p>
+
+<p>The possession of India, of the Mediterranean, and of
+the Sound, were three principal objects of Peter the Great’s
+ambition. The Sound has been prospectively guaranteed
+to Russia by the treaty which Lord Palmerston concluded
+three years ago, in which the reversion of the
+Danish throne is secured to the Czar. Our present
+expedition to Sevastopol is to prevent her first step in
+the Mediterranean by the possession of Constantinople
+and the Dardanelles. With respect to India, Russia has
+quietly worked her way as far as the Sea of Aral, by
+advancing villages of Cossacks and digging wells every
+ten miles. The English Government have for many
+years past been remiss in noticing these aggressive measures,
+and even now it is to be feared that our agents in
+Persia, whence we act upon Central Asia, are not men
+fitted to oppose the experienced and able agents of
+Russia, or to give us that reasonable probability of
+success in our Eastern campaign which proper measures
+might command.</p>
+
+<p>There was something vague about the schemes of Peter
+and Catherine in the last century; and their successors, if
+we had been firm during the last twenty years in resisting
+the first symptoms of encroachment, would have
+given up many projects as impracticable. In necessary
+firmness our Government has throughout been deficient,
+and the consequence is, that we are involved in the
+present war, and have a gloomy and uncertain future
+before us.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">[102]</span></p>
+
+<p>The army, the great instrument of Russian aggression,
+draws the main body of its recruits from the thirty-four
+millions of Great Russians who form a compact body
+round Moscow. This population is of pure Slave blood,
+and forms the heart and core of the Russian empire.
+They give the tone to all the other populations, are superior
+to them in energy and grandeur of character, as well
+as numbers, and stand with relation to Russia much as
+the inhabitants of Britain do to the other nations of the
+British empire.</p>
+
+<p>The Great Russians have a natural aptitude for the
+infantry, which is almost entirely composed of them, and
+they form also the bulk of the corps of officers and non-commissioned
+officers.</p>
+
+<p>The Poles are found in every part of the army, and
+particularly in the cavalry. They are born soldiers, and
+like no trade so well as war. After the Polish revolution,
+vast numbers of the Polish gentry were sent as common
+soldiers to the Caucasus; and at one fell swoop the whole
+University of Wilna, the capital of the Polish country of
+Lithuania, professors as well as students, were condemned
+to the same hard fate. It has often happened to me
+when I have been staying with officers in the Caucasus,
+to be called aside by the servant, who has whispered to
+me in French, “Sir, I am a Pole, an European, a gentleman
+born, but I was degraded and sent here for fighting
+for my country.” And the poor fellow was always very
+glad to have a little sly chat, and a talk on the forbidden
+subject of European politics. The Russian officers are
+very kind to these unfortunate men, for they are a
+thoroughly good-natured race, and are glad to get men
+of intelligence as servants, instead of common drunken
+boors.</p>
+
+<p>The Little Russians (Malo Ruski), as the inhabitants
+of the Ukraine are called, are reckoned peculiarly fit for
+the cavalry, which is not the case with the Slave race
+in general. The Great Russians never ride on horseback,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">[103]</span>but always travel very fast in carriages, of which they are
+remarkably skilful drivers. Even the Cossacks originally
+were not horsemen. The Little Russians are small,
+strong men, remarkably well conducted, but of very
+obstinate temper. The Great Russians are accustomed
+to be beaten, and indeed are so used to it at home, that
+it is difficult to keep them well behaved in the army
+without the free use of the stick. They bear no ill-will
+after castigation, and cheerfully amend their faults; but
+the Little Russian becomes dogged if corrected, resents his
+punishment, and is often totally ruined by its frequency.
+The reason for this is obviously that he enjoyed his
+freedom later than the others; and he still retains some
+sparks of independence, for serfdom was only introduced
+into the Ukraine by Paul at the close of the last century,
+while the serfs in Great Russia were “ascripti glebæ”
+by Boris Godounof about the year 1600. Little Russians
+may be known by their names, which generally
+end in “enko,” and one or two other well-known terminations.</p>
+
+<p>The Finlanders are on a totally different footing to the
+common Russian soldiers: they are enrolled in six battalions
+of riflemen, and are all volunteers, and receive
+high pay. They are much better educated than the
+Russians, and resemble in their ideas and habits the
+nations of Western Europe, to whom, in reality, they
+belong. The Jews have been subject to the conscription
+in Russia since 1827, and in Poland since the revolution
+in 1831. It is found almost impossible to make soldiers
+of them, and they generally find the means to escape.
+The story is told of the late Emperor, that on one
+occasion, when he was reviewing some troops, he found
+out all the Jews by snapping his fingers in each man’s
+face. If they stood immoveable they were Russians,
+and if they flinched they were invariably Jews. On
+the other hand, the Jews make capital military workmen,
+who in Russia are always attached to the fleet
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">[104]</span>and the army, and they also make very fair sailors, and
+are often employed as constables in towns, on the principle,
+as it is said, of setting a thief to catch a thief. There
+is a Georgian and a Circassian militia, but these are never
+removed from their own country, and I do not know, at
+the present moment, whether they continue to exist.</p>
+
+<p>The principal nations which compose the Russian army
+have been enumerated above, but there are besides various
+remnants of ancient nations, such as the Tatars, Mordvins,
+Tcheremisses, Tschouvashes, Lettes, and others,
+who all furnish a small number of men. There are
+indeed no less than eighty-five of these tribes or nations
+in the empire, of which forty furnish contingents to the
+regular troops.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_105" href="#Footnote_105" class="fnanchor">[105]</a></p>
+
+<p>The soldiers and officers are generally very religious,
+and a priest and a moveable tent for divine service always
+accompanies each battalion, and often each company, when
+on detached duty.</p>
+
+<p>The number of musicians in the army is great, and the
+soldiers all sing in parts, and have songs composed on
+every event which they think redounds to their honour.
+In one of their favourite songs the chorus is, “But the
+weapon of the Russian soldier is the bayonet;” and this
+notion is in accordance with the advice of Souvárof, a
+real genius, to the Russian soldier, given in his celebrated
+Catechism, which will be found in the Appendix—“The
+bayonet is a hero, the musket a fool: stab; toss the
+Turk off your bayonet, and stab again.”</p>
+
+<p>There is often a buffoon attached to each company,
+who amuses his comrades by his jests and antics,
+and is generally a great favourite. On one occasion in
+the Caucasus, when the troops were driven back by the
+Circassians, the buffoon was wounded and left behind.
+A favourite jest of his had been to crow like a cock, and
+as he lay on the ground he thought of the only way to
+save himself, and crowed. This had such an effect on
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">[105]</span>his comrades that they rallied, charged again, and saved
+him.</p>
+
+<p>The Russians are extremely proud of the name “Ruski,”
+or Russian, and feel the same patriotic pride in it as we
+do in the term “British.” Perhaps it may not be out of
+place here to give the origin of this name, out of the
+Chronicles of old Nestor,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_106" href="#Footnote_106" class="fnanchor">[106]</a> who wrote about 200 years
+after its first application. He says, “We know that the
+Russian language and the Slavonic language are the
+same, and this name of ‘Russian’ was given us by the
+Varangians (the Normans), and that before that time we
+were known under the name of Slaves, and the Polanians
+(Poles), who were also among the Slaves, had no other
+language. The name of Polanians was given them from
+the fields they cultivated, and because they inhabited the
+plain, but they were of Slave origin, and had no other
+language but the Slavon.”&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_107" href="#Footnote_107" class="fnanchor">[107]</a></p>
+
+<p>The greatest part of the army is raised in Russia by
+conscription, a system which was introduced among the
+other nations of the continent of Europe by the French
+at the time of the Revolution, but which has existed in
+Russia since the time of Peter the Great.</p>
+
+<p>The conscription is conducted in the following manner.
+A certain number per cent. of all persons who are
+not noble is demanded, and the number taken each second
+year, in time of peace, is generally about five in a
+thousand, or one-half per cent. Families which have
+only one male member, orphans, and fathers of a family
+of more than three children, are exempted, and the
+state leaves the choice of the conscripts to the lords,
+who generally take this opportunity of getting rid of
+troublesome characters. Formerly there were dreadful
+scenes when the conscripts were taken, and they frequently
+ran away, and were hunted through the woods
+like wild beasts; but of late years the condition of the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">[106]</span>soldier has been improved, and the dread of the service
+is not so great as in former times. The separation of
+the conscript from his family is still a heart-rending
+spectacle, for he may be marched to any part of the
+enormous empire, and his chance of seeing them again is
+but small.</p>
+
+<p>Formerly one-half of the recruits died from neglect
+within a short time of their joining, and, although ameliorations
+have been introduced, it is still asserted that
+one-third fall victims.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_108" href="#Footnote_108" class="fnanchor">[108]</a> How much the service is still
+disliked may be judged of by the fact that in so poor a
+country as Russia a substitute in time of peace cannot be
+obtained under 100<i>l.</i>,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_109" href="#Footnote_109" class="fnanchor">[109]</a> and he is never a Russian, but
+generally a Finn or a Pole.</p>
+
+<p>Formerly the conscripts were always chained like malefactors,
+and one-half of their heads was at once shaven,
+that they might be recognised. This is not now the
+case, but the beard, the great glory of the Russian peasant,
+is still shorn off.</p>
+
+<p>It must not be forgotten that the army in Russia
+answers the purpose of a penitentiary system, that all
+malefactors under the age of thirty are condemned to it
+as a regular sentence, and that it is viewed by the people
+very much as transportation is with us.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as the conscript joins the army his lord loses
+all power over him; all his children born after he
+enters the service belong to the state, and the males
+are trained in Government establishments, to become
+soldiers. If a wife does not follow her husband, and has
+no news of him for either three or five years, she may
+marry again.</p>
+
+<p>The state encourages marriage among the soldiers,
+because their children enable it to fill the ranks of the
+army, and the wives and children of the soldiers of
+Georgia, Siberia, and the military colonies, follow the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_107">[107]</span>troops, and receive certain allowances from the Government.
+In other corps the families are often left behind,
+but in every case the rule is rigidly adhered to,
+that the children of every soldier’s wife, no matter how
+long he has been absent, unless she has married again,
+are the property of the Emperor. There are no less than
+360,000 of these widows in the country. The children are
+brought up in special establishments, entirely at the expense
+of the Government.</p>
+
+<p>In 1842 there were 36,000 of them who were formed
+into a little army, divided into twenty-five battalions of
+infantry, twenty squadrons of cavalry, and five batteries
+with wooden cannon. When they grow up they fill the
+subordinate situations in the army, such as sergeants,
+musicians, assistant-surgeons, and a very useful body of
+men called the topographers. The separation from home,
+however, greatly injures their moral character, and the
+Cantonists, as they are called, very often turn out ill.</p>
+
+<p>The late Emperor made great efforts to improve the
+condition of the common soldier in Russia, although it
+is very doubtful whether he succeeded in doing so. One
+great boon, however, granted by him, which has really
+bettered the condition of the soldier, is the diminution
+of his time of active service, or the introduction of the
+system of “indefinite leave,” which will be presently
+explained.</p>
+
+<p>There are rules against the too frequent infliction of
+punishment, and the most stringent regulations to secure
+to the soldier his fair rations; but every officer still inflicts
+what punishment he pleases, and nothing is more
+common than for every officer and even every foreigner
+to send their servant with a little note to the police-master
+of the town, requesting him to administer so
+many lashes. The officers also, in drilling the men, frequently
+strike them in the face with their fist, and over
+the body with a stick. Women, also, are constantly
+whipped on their bare bodies at the police stations in
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_108">[108]</span>certain parts of the empire, and as custom is stronger
+than law, it has hitherto been found impossible to prevent
+these hateful abuses.</p>
+
+<p>The soldier lives well as long as he is in cantonments,
+which is the case with a large portion of the Russian
+army, for then he lives upon the peasants, and is a great
+charge upon them. He lives badly when he is in barracks,
+because he seldom gets the food to which he is
+entitled. He ought to have nearly as much food as the
+English soldier, according to M. Haxthausen, but I
+think there are few people who will say that in the great
+majority of instances he ever gets it. He lives in a kind
+of mess, and his rations are paid once or twice a month
+to those who manage the mess, which is called the
+“artel,” of which there is one or more to each company,
+and the managers are non-commissioned officers and
+privates, chosen among themselves. This artel is a fund
+to which all contribute something out of their savings,
+to improve their food; and when their time of service is
+over, they have a right to a certain portion of the balance
+which remains. A proportion of all they earn by
+their labour goes to the artel, and the Government recognises
+its existence, and by a recent law its funds are
+divided into two distinct parts,—one for the mess, and the
+other to pay back a certain sum to each man on his
+retiring from active service, so that it thus answers the
+purpose of a kind of savings-bank.</p>
+
+<p>In the Caucasus, Prince Woronzof very much improved
+the condition of the Russian soldier; and no less
+than twenty-four field officers were brought to courts-martial,
+principally about the soldier’s food, during his
+first year of office; but I fear that in the interior of
+Russia things remain in much the same state as formerly.</p>
+
+<p>The Russian soldier has been called by high Russian
+military authorities the most miserable being in existence;
+and certainly a decided difference is apparent between
+the sallow, dejected soldier, and the bluff, hearty, well-fed,
+off-hand Russian peasant.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">[109]</span></p>
+
+<p>Soldiers are always employed as labourers by independent
+persons, and soldiers’ labour is to be had in the
+market of all towns. The merchants at Odessa always
+pay soldiers, even as porters, about 25 per cent. below
+other labourers, because they are not so strong. In
+Odessa, the common pay of a labourer is forty copecks
+silver, or about eighteen pence a-day, and a soldier is
+highly paid at a shilling. In harvest-time a good labourer
+near Odessa gets as much as seven shillings a-day.</p>
+
+<p>The time of service is still twenty-two years for the
+Guards; twenty-five years for the other troops; and
+twenty years for conscripts of the military colonies.</p>
+
+<p>Between 1833 and 1840 was introduced the system
+mentioned before, by which every man has the right to
+what is called “indefinite leave,” after ten or fifteen years’
+service, according to the part of the empire from which he
+happens to come. During the rest of his time of service
+he is always liable to be called upon, in the case of war, to
+form part of one of the two armies of reserve, or to assist
+at some of the grand reviews that periodically take place.
+In the latter case a great injury is inflicted upon him;
+for he is sometimes marched two thousand miles for a
+mere parade, and of course, if he is a tradesman engaged
+in business, his interests suffer very severely.</p>
+
+<p>The system of indefinite leave is said to answer admirably.
+The poor soldiers may perhaps see their homes
+again after ten years, though they never could hope to
+survive twenty-five years’ service; and since this measure
+has been adopted, the health of the army, which is in
+this case equivalent to its happiness, has much improved.</p>
+
+<p>The empire is now divided into two parts, east and
+west, for purposes of the conscription, and regularly each
+division can only be called upon for recruits once in
+two years, although this rule, as all rules in Russia,
+has often been disregarded. The following is the amount
+per cent. which has been levied in ten years, from 1840
+to 1850:—</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_110">[110]</span></p>
+
+<table>
+  <tr>
+    <td><p class="hanging">1840. Both divisions</p></td>
+    <td class="tdr vb">5 per 1000</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td><p class="hanging">Then till 1848, eight years, the regular
+    quota of each division of 5 per 1000 every other year, or 2½ per
+    1000 per annum on both divisions</p></td>
+    <td class="tdr vb">20 per 1000</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td><p class="hanging">1849. On account of the movements of
+    troops in 1848-49, and the expeditions in Hungary, Wallachia,
+    and Transylvania</p></td>
+    <td class="tdr vb">12 per 1000<br><span class="nw">on both divisions</span>
+    was levied</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdr">Total</td>
+    <td class="tdr total vb">37 per 1000</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>Thus a total of 37 per 1000, or upwards of 3½ per cent.
+of the able-bodied male population, were taken for the
+military service in ten years. Taking the male population
+of Russia, subject to conscription, at twenty millions,
+this would make 700,000 able-bodied men who
+were drafted into the army in the ten years from 1840
+to 1850; but the army in 1840 already consisted of at
+least 700,000 men, which, added to the number of the
+recruits, would give 1,400,000 men devoted to the
+military service during that period, and, as the army
+in 1850 was certainly not above 800,000, there would
+remain 600,000 men to be accounted for.</p>
+
+<p>It is not too much to suppose that in 1850-51 and 52,
+the ordinary number of 2½ per 1000 (7½ per 1000 for
+the three years), was levied. In 1853, in the Turkish
+campaign, the losses were probably as great as in the
+Hungarian, and the army had to be augmented. In
+1854 we know that great efforts have been made,
+and therefore, in these two years, it is fair to suppose
+that 12 per 1000 were levied each year. This would
+make, in the five years since 1850, a levy of 31½ per 1000,
+or upwards of 3 per cent. on twenty millions, about
+700,000 men. But the levy in the last year (1854) has
+certainly been more than 12 per 1000, for, besides the
+regular recruits, waggons, with men to attend upon them,
+have been pressed, and the waggoners have been required
+by the Government to be of a certain standard and able-bodied,
+and when they are at a distance from home they
+have been obliged to serve as soldiers. Including these
+peasants, and supposing the conscription in 1854 to have
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">[111]</span>required a number above the 12 per 1000 which has
+been allowed for it, we may perhaps add another 200,000
+men as the result of the great efforts that have been
+made to get conscripts up to the 1st of January, 1855.</p>
+
+<p>Then in the last fifteen years there will be a total of—</p>
+
+<table>
+  <tr>
+    <th></th>
+    <th>Men.</th>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Regular army, 1840</td>
+    <td class="tdr">700,000</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Ten years conscripts, 1840-50</td>
+    <td class="tdr">700,000</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Five years conscripts, 1850-54</td>
+    <td class="tdr">600,000</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Additional for extra conscription in 1854</td>
+    <td class="tdr">200,000</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdr">A grand total of</td>
+    <td class="tdr total">2,200,000</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p class="noindent">—men who have passed through the Russian service since
+1840, and who are represented now, by the very highest
+calculation, that of M. Tegoborski, by from 800,000
+to 900,000 men, which he says was the number upon
+which the military budget was calculated in the year
+1854. Consequently 1,350,000 men have disappeared
+through the agency of the Russian army since 1840.</p>
+
+<p>This enormous sacrifice of men to the military system
+is very severely felt, and must have gone far to neutralize
+any increase of the population of late years. Haxthausen
+says, “These oukases for levying the conscriptions always
+spread mourning and consternation. The nobility suffers
+great losses. The Scheremeteff, the Demidoff, and the
+Orloffs, are often obliged to furnish several hundred
+recruits. Families lose their best workmen, and their
+fathers and their brothers; for the number of bad characters,
+who possess the physical qualities necessary to
+enter the service, is not enough to realize the number
+of troops demanded by the Emperor.”</p>
+
+<p>Now as to the expense of the Russian soldier to the
+state. It will be seen from the following passage that
+M. Tegoborski, the mouthpiece of the Russian Government
+on statistical subjects, estimates it at a very low
+figure. He says, “the military budget of Russia for
+1854, for an effective of from 800,000 to 900,000 men, was
+estimated at 84,200,000 silver roubles, and that of the
+navy at 14,400,000 silver roubles, or nearly 16,000,000<i>l.</i>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_112">[112]</span>altogether, which would give an average of 100 roubles
+or 16<i>l.</i> per head per annum, for the maintenance of the
+troops. Admitting that the effective of the army was
+carried to 1,250,000 men in the year 1855, which would
+suppose an augmentation of 450,000 men, or 50 per cent.,
+and adding to the military budget of 84,200,000 silver
+roubles, in a round sum 50,000,000 silver roubles, or
+8,000,000<i>l.</i>, the whole military budget of Russia for the
+year 1855 would then only amount to about 24,000,000<i>l.</i>”</p>
+
+<p>In calculating the means of Russia to pay this sum,
+we do not know the exact amount of the Russian revenue
+beyond the year 1853, when, according to M. Tegoborski,
+it amounted to 37,384,660<i>l.</i> But the Russian revenue
+in the year 1839, which is the only other year he gives,
+is stated to have been upwards of one-third less, so that
+in the last fifteen years there is stated to have been the
+enormous increase of 36 per cent. without the levying of
+any new taxes. As the accounts of the Russian revenue
+are not published, we cannot place implicit reliance on a
+mere statement of results by an interested party. But
+we all know that estimates are generally much below the
+real expense, and it is probable that the military budget,
+considering the enormous expenses of the transport of
+stores and materials, and the movement of troops, and
+the losses which have been sustained, must be nearly
+the double of M. Tegoborski’s calculation, or, let us say
+at least 40,000,000<i>l.</i> instead of 24,000,000<i>l.</i> On the
+other hand, considering the great injury to the peasants
+from the increased number of recruits and their own
+forced services for transport, and an acknowledged diminution
+of 20 per cent. in the exports and imports, which
+will be much greater next year if an efficient blockade be
+kept up, shall we be wrong in considering the Russian
+realized revenue of 1854 as very much below that of 1853?</p>
+
+<p>M. Tegoborski calculates the diminution of the revenue
+in 1854 at about 2,000,000<i>l.</i> from the falling off of the
+customs duties alone. It is probable, therefore, that the
+revenue of the country, during the past year, will not have
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_113">[113]</span>even sufficed by several millions to pay the expenses of the
+army and navy alone, while, besides these expenses, there
+is the interest of the debt and the expenditure of the
+civil government to be met, which is reckoned at
+about 8,000,000<i>l.</i> Thus it may be fairly supposed
+that Russia will want at least 48,000,000<i>l.</i> to cover the
+expenses of the year 1854, which is eleven millions more
+than the total amount of her revenue during the last
+year of peace, 1853. Her credit in Europe&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_110" href="#Footnote_110" class="fnanchor">[110]</a> is indeed
+pretty good, but it is notorious that she depends
+upon foreign capital for the cultivation of her soil. The
+precious metals have almost disappeared from the empire:
+paper alone is seen there; and if we press her hard
+during the next six months she must be reduced to very
+great straits.</p>
+
+<p>Although the Russian soldier has a hard life of it as a
+private, yet if he rises to be a non-commissioned officer,
+he then, after twelve years’ service, becomes ennobled, and
+receives his commission, or retires with a pension. Thus
+a considerable number of the officers of the Russian
+army have risen from the ranks, and all who obtain
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_114">[114]</span>commissions are obliged to serve as non-commissioned
+officers for a certain period. Formerly the length of time
+was six months, but it has lately been extended to
+two years, so that I suppose the system is found to
+answer.</p>
+
+<p>None are exempted from this condition except those
+who have gone through the military schools, in which
+they are allowed to pass their probation as non-commissioned
+officers, and then enter the army as officers.
+An officer in his probationary state is called a “younker,”
+and he wears the drab greatcoat, and regularly performs
+the duties of a sergeant. His only privilege is to have his
+dress of finer materials than that of the common men,—if
+he chooses to pay for it. Off duty he lives among his
+equals, and is often seen in his soldier’s coat at the table
+of generals. Thus the system of promotion in the army,
+and indeed the whole feelings of the Russian people, are
+far less aristocratic than among ourselves.</p>
+
+<p>The common soldiers in Russia are also frequently
+decorated with the medal which is by far the most prized,
+even by the highest ranks of officers, namely, the Soldier’s
+Cross of St. George. This is the one given only for
+distinguished bravery, and it is very much sought after.
+A certain number of these crosses are distributed after
+every remarkable achievement. It is given not only
+after great battles, but whenever any man has performed
+a signal act of valour.</p>
+
+<p>The cross is simply of lead, while other crosses are of
+more precious material, and it is alike for soldiers and
+officers. The Grand Cross of St. George is given for
+having taken the capital of an enemy, or having
+fought a battle which has decided the fate of an empire.
+The late Emperor himself wore only the Soldier’s Cross
+of St. George, which he gained under fire in the Turkish
+war. There were only two Grand Crosses in existence a
+few years ago, one of which was worn by our own Duke
+of Wellington, and the other by Marshal Paskiévitch,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_115">[115]</span>who received his for the taking of Arzeroom, which was
+considered as the capital of Armenia.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_111" href="#Footnote_111" class="fnanchor">[111]</a></p>
+
+<p>The order of St. George is universally regarded in
+Russia with the same pride and respect as the orders of
+“the Iron Cross,” that of “Maria Theresa,” and that
+“of Merit” are in other European countries.</p>
+
+<p>Since the last few years also there exists in Russia an
+imitation of the distinction accorded to Latour d’Auvergne,
+that of being “le premier grenadier de France.” Archippus
+Ossipof, in 1840, blew up the fort Michailof,
+and himself in it, to prevent its being taken by the Circassians;
+and his name is still kept on the lists as the
+first grenadier of the first company of the infantry regiment
+of Tenginsk. When his name is called, the second
+soldier always answers, “Dead for the honour of the
+Russian arms in the fort Michailof.”</p>
+
+<p>There also exist in Russia orders and medals of honour
+conferred upon regiments, which recall the epoch of their
+creation, the names of their founders, and their famous
+actions. These formerly existed in the French and all
+the German armies, but are now only found in the
+Austrian and English armies, and a few Prussian regiments.
+In Russia the regiments have continued to exist
+since Peter the Great, and keep up by outward signs the
+remembrance of their services. The Preobrajenski guards,
+the few companies which Peter undertook to drill ostensibly
+for his amusement, and which became the nucleus
+of the whole Russian army, still wear the original
+helmets of his time; and it is a glory among the men to
+have those that are the most pierced by bullets and
+battered by sabre-cuts.</p>
+
+<p>The regiment of Tchérnigof obtained the privilege of
+alone wearing red-stockings (probably gaiters to the knee,
+which were then worn all over Europe), because at the
+battle of Pultava they marched in blood up to their knees.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_116">[116]</span></p>
+
+<p>The regiment of Novogínsk is allowed to carry the
+standard of St. George since the battle of the Trebbia
+and the passage of the Alps under Suvórof, in 1799;
+and this regiment possesses silver trumpets, given to it in
+consequence of the passage of the Gulf of Bothnia upon
+the ice, under Bagration in 1807. The Russians have
+also copied the system of giving their generals titles
+commemorative of the victories they have gained in
+foreign countries. Thus in ancient Rome there was
+Scipio Africanus; in modern France there are a host of
+titles of the time of the Empire, of which Soult, Duke of
+Dalmatia, and Ney, Prince of the Moskowa, are examples;
+and in our own country, the title of Lord Mahon
+perpetuates the victories of Lord Peterborough, and the
+Duke of Wellington was made Marquis of Douro, and
+Lord Kean Baron of Ghuzni. The Russians keep more
+strictly to the Roman style in their titles of honour, and
+thus we find a Suvórof Italínski, a Diébitch Sabalkánski,
+and a Paskiévitch Erivánski.</p>
+
+<p>The dress of the Russian soldier consists of a dark-green
+coatee, which he very seldom wears, except on
+parade; a drab greatcoat, which is his constant dress;
+two pairs of trousers, one for summer and one for winter;
+a cravat; three shirts; three pairs of boots, and a cap.
+The whole of these articles cost the Government about
+2<i>l.</i>, with 1<i>l.</i> 3<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> each year for renewal, and they remain
+the property of the soldier.</p>
+
+<p>It will be observed that no stockings are mentioned,
+as no soldiers wear them; and many officers cannot
+afford such luxuries, and only wear bandages wrapped
+round the legs, something like the piferari in Italy.</p>
+
+<p>All articles of clothing are made up by workmen in
+each battalion, and these amount to fifty men, who are
+constantly employed, and consequently by this system
+the effective force of the army is considerably reduced.</p>
+
+<p>Many classifications may be made of the Russian
+army, as into,—1st, regular and irregular troops; 2nd,
+grand army, always ready for offensive operations, and
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_117">[117]</span>troops employed on local services; 3rd, the active army
+and the reserve, although all the reserves are on active
+service at the present moment; 4th, according to the
+system of numbering from each regiment upwards; or,
+5th, according to its division into—first, corps or regular
+armies, each composed of a certain proportion of infantry,
+cavalry, and artillery;—second, battalions not
+formed into regiments;—and, third, irregular cavalry
+and militia.</p>
+
+<p>This is the classification which I will now follow—1st,
+then, as to the regular corps, there is:—</p>
+
+<p>1. The corps of Guards, consisting of 38,000 infantry,
+with 60 squadrons of regular and 17½ of irregular cavalry,
+one division of mounted engineers, and 116 pieces of
+artillery. The station of this corps is at Petersburg in
+time of peace; but it has recently been moved into
+Poland.</p>
+
+<p>2. The corps of Grenadiers, likewise consisting of
+38,000 infantry, but only 32 squadrons of cavalry, and
+88 pieces of artillery. Their station is at Novgorod,
+ninety miles from Petersburg, where they still remain.</p>
+
+<p>3-8. Six corps of infantry, as they are called, although
+they are complete armies like the two that have been
+named. They form the bulk of the Russian army, and
+have each 50,000 infantry, 32 squadrons of cavalry, and
+112 pieces of artillery; making a total for the six corps
+of 300,000 infantry; 192 squadrons of lancers and huzzars,
+and 672 pieces of artillery.</p>
+
+<p>The following are the stations of these six corps, which
+are echelloned in a semicircle round the frontiers of the
+Russian Empire, beginning with the Baltic Provinces,
+then passing through Poland and Bessarabia, and along
+the shores of the Black Sea and the Azof, and upwards
+to Moscow, where the 6th corps is stationed.</p>
+
+<p>The first four corps form the Grand Army under
+Prince Paskiévitch, whose head-quarters are at Warsaw,
+and who is also Viceroy of Poland. The regular
+station of the first corps of infantry is in the Baltic Provinces,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_118">[118]</span>where it generally remains more stationary than
+the next three corps. It has now recently been moved
+to Grodno and Bialostok, in Lithuania, and has been ordered
+to advance into the kingdom of Poland. It is
+commanded by General Sievers, a German, of Livonia.</p>
+
+<p>The next three corps, the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, are regularly
+stationed in the kingdom of Poland, and revolve
+in a certain circle of cantonments, being never allowed,
+for obvious reasons, to remain more than three years in
+the same place.</p>
+
+<p>The 2nd corps has now been removed to replace
+the third corps on the Dniestr and the Pruth, and is
+commanded by General Paniútin, a Russian.</p>
+
+<p>The 3rd corps has its usual head-quarters at Kremenetz
+in Wolhynia, and has now been moved to the
+Crimea. The arrival of one of its divisions, the eighth
+in the general system of the army, at Baktchéserai, was
+announced in our papers about the 20th of January,
+when it was addressed by Prince Gortchakoff. This
+corps is commanded by General Riad, who has served in
+the Caucasus.</p>
+
+<p>The 4th corps has been moved to the Crimea, and was
+commanded by General Dannenberg, who was deprived
+of it in consequence of losing the battle of Inkerman,
+on November 5th, 1854, and he has been succeeded by
+General Osten Sacken, who before that time had all the
+recruiting of New Russia under his care. Both these
+generals are Germans.</p>
+
+<p>The regular station of the 5th corps is in New Russia,
+and its head-quarters are at Odessa. One division is
+usually kept in the Crimea, one on the Dniepr and Dniestr,
+and one in Bessarabia. Its cavalry station is on the Boug,
+at Nemírgorod and other places. Its artillery station is
+at Tyraspol on the Dniestr, which is one of the great
+arsenals of Russia. It was borrowed to reinforce the
+army of Caucasus in 1843, and returned in 1846. One
+division of it was again sent there in 1854, and it has
+been commanded since about 1840 by General Luders,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_119">[119]</span>a German. He replaced General Mouravióf, a man of
+considerable ability, who was then disgraced, but has
+been recently restored to favour, and is now governor-general
+of the Caucasus. Since this war began, many
+able men, obnoxious on account of their liberal opinions,
+or from other causes, have been restored to favour and
+employed, no doubt because there is felt in the present
+crisis a great scarcity of men fitted to fill high appointments.
+We, on the contrary, have an “<i>embarras de
+richesses</i>” of good men, but our government, unlike that
+of Russia, unfortunately appears to have allowed private
+considerations and official routine to stand too much in
+the way of their appointment. The whole of the 5th
+corps has now been moved into the Crimea.</p>
+
+<p>The 6th corps is regularly stationed at Moscow in
+time of peace, but it has now been moved to the south.
+Of its three divisions, Nos. 16 and 17 are in the Crimea,
+and No. 18 in the Caucasus. It is nominally commanded
+by Prince Gortchakoff the Third (tretiey), as he is called
+in Russia, but the real active commander is General
+Tchlodaieff, an officer of great ability. Such have been
+the locations and “dislocations” of the six corps of
+infantry.</p>
+
+<p>9thly and 10thly, in the general list of corps, come
+the two reserve corps of cavalry. The first of these
+consists of 80 squadrons and 48 pieces of artillery. Its
+regular station is at Nemírgorod, on the Boug, and
+it has been moved to the seat of war. The second
+corps of cavalry of reserve consists of 82 squadrons, and
+a division of light cavalry of reserve of 24 squadrons,
+or altogether, 108 squadrons, and 72 pieces of artillery.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_112" href="#Footnote_112" class="fnanchor">[112]</a>
+This is the corps of the dragoons, or soldiers intended to
+act either as infantry or cavalry, according to the ideas
+of those who first invented the Dragoon. This notion
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_120">[120]</span>of having the same soldier fit for both services was given
+up in Europe after the wars of Napoleon, but revived
+by the Emperor of Russia, with whom it is a favourite
+notion. It is, however, generally disapproved of by
+Russian officers, who do not consider that the men gain
+in efficiency by having to perform double duties. The
+station of the second cavalry reserve corps is at
+Kharkof.</p>
+
+<p>11thly, The corps of the Caucasus, which a few years
+ago consisted altogether of a very mixed army of 170,000
+men, so scattered over the country, that 20,000 men
+could with difficulty be got together.</p>
+
+<p>Besides these eleven regular corps, which are most of
+them complete armies, there are also in Russia a large
+body of regular infantry for the internal service of the
+country, which is supplied with the necessary complement
+of cavalry and artillery by the Cossacks. This
+force of infantry amounts altogether to 200,000 men,
+and is divided into separate battalions, called “battalions
+of the line,” and not into regiments.</p>
+
+<p>These troops are used as garrisons for fortresses and
+towns; they are placed in some turbulent countries on the
+frontiers of the empire, and are employed in various ways
+in the civil and military administration. Fifty of them
+are “the garrison battalions,” and together form what is
+called “the guard of the interior,” separated into ten
+districts, and the capital of each government in European
+Russia has generally one and sometimes two of these
+battalions. They count among their ranks many veterans,
+and are generally cantoned in open towns, as their
+health is then better and the expense of their maintenance
+less. In Siberia two battalions and a half form the
+interior guard of the country.</p>
+
+<p>Besides the garrison battalions there are 84 battalions
+of the line, disposed in various groups:—47 are placed
+in the Caucasus, and have already been counted; 12 are
+Finnish, and form the 22nd division of infantry, whose
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_121">[121]</span>station is in Finland; 10 belong to Orenbourg, and
+compose the 23rd division of infantry; 15 are Siberian
+battalions, who have also some artillery (12 pieces), and
+are stationed in Siberia.</p>
+
+<p>There are besides these the corps of veterans and
+invalids, and the corps of military workmen, as follows:—</p>
+
+<p>(1.) 552 companies of veterans of infantry, of about
+40 men each, who do duty in district towns, the imperial
+palaces, and other places, = 22,080 men.</p>
+
+<p>(2.) 138 companies of invalids, of about 100 men
+each, occupied with the same duties, = 13,800 men.</p>
+
+<p>(3.) 115 companies of veterans and artillery workmen,
+of 150 to 200 men each, for the service of the artillery of
+the fortresses, the workshops of the artillery, and the
+manufactories of guns, powder, &amp;c. = say 20,000 men.</p>
+
+<p>(4.) 105 companies of veterans, workmen, and soldiers
+belonging to the corps of engineers, likewise of 150 to
+200 men each, and = say 20,000 men.</p>
+
+<p>There is besides a corps of police, amounting to 3000
+men, scattered over all the towns of the empire. The
+Cossacks also partly perform the duties of the police
+in the towns, and in the country there is no police
+at all.</p>
+
+<p>Thus the corps of veterans and invalids equal altogether—</p>
+
+<table>
+  <tr>
+    <th></th>
+    <th>Men.</th>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Infantry veterans</td>
+    <td class="tdr">22,080</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Ditto</td>
+    <td class="tdr">13,800</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Veteran workmen of artillery, &amp;c.</td>
+    <td class="tdr">40,000</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdr">Total</td>
+    <td class="tdr total">75,880</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2"><p class="noindent">Add to these—</p></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Fifty-two battalions and a half of the interior guard</td>
+    <td class="tdr">52,500</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Eighty-four battalions of the line</td>
+    <td class="tdr">84,000</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdr">Total of local regular troops</td>
+    <td class="tdr total">212,380</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>Haxthausen, adding in the regular troops of the corps
+of the Caucasus, makes the local regular troops = 299,800
+men, and adding further the reserves of the battalions of
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_122">[122]</span>the line, upwards of 15,000 men, makes a grand total for
+the local regular troops of 315,000 men.</p>
+
+<p>The total of the “troupes mobiles,” or aggressive army,
+being 699,000 men, it follows that in the present military
+organization of Russia, in ordinary times of peace, she
+can furnish upwards of a million of regular troops.</p>
+
+<p>The irregular troops of the Russian army are also very
+numerous, and mostly consist of light cavalry. By far
+the most important of these are the Cossacks, who are
+mostly of Russian extraction.</p>
+
+<p>There are, however, besides the Cossacks, irregular
+troops taken from every tribe or nation which Russia has
+conquered, and this system is followed, not so much
+because of the value of their services, as to teach them to
+expend their military energies in her service, and by
+accustoming them to good pay and the luxuries of civilized
+life, to wean their affections from their own people.</p>
+
+<p>There is a regular line of Cossacks all the way from the
+banks of the Danube along the north of the Caspian, and
+all through Tatary and Mongolia, to the extreme verge
+of eastern Asia at Kamstchatka.</p>
+
+<p>Along a part of this line, from the Caspian to Kamstchatka,
+there is also a chain of tribes, the rightful possessors
+of the country, allied together, beginning with
+the Kirgúiz, and ending with the pacific population of
+Kamstchatka. The Cossacks prevent the Kirgúiz from
+levying a tribute on the Russian merchants and colonists,
+and force the Kamstchatkans to pay their tribute to the
+Russian government.</p>
+
+<p>The following is an enumeration from M. Haxthausen’s
+work of the force which the Cossacks, according to their
+constitution and ordinances, are bound to furnish, if a levy
+of the whole of them were made. In case of urgency,
+they would be able to bring into the field at least one-fourth
+more of practised warriors, especially if the State
+assisted them in their equipment.</p>
+
+<p>At the same time, it must not be forgotten that the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_123">[123]</span>Cossacks are occupied in the labours of agriculture, and
+the abstraction of so large a proportion of them as took
+place of late years in time of peace has been a material
+injury to their interests.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_113" href="#Footnote_113" class="fnanchor">[113]</a> If so large a number were
+taken as M. Haxthausen supposes, the tillage of the fields
+could hardly be effected.</p>
+
+<p>1. The Cossacks of the Don can put on foot 58 regiments
+of cavalry, of which two belong to the Guard, and
+14 batteries of horse artillery. Each regiment is composed
+of 6 sotni&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_114" href="#Footnote_114" class="fnanchor">[114]</a> or centuries; total = 348 sotni and
+112 guns.</p>
+
+<p>2. The Cossacks of the western side of the Sea of
+Azof. These are the best sailors of the south of Russia.
+They possess 30 gun-boats, and in time of peace are
+exclusively occupied in blockading the coasts of Circassia.
+They belong properly to the navy.</p>
+
+<p>3. The Cossacks of the Danube. They can put on
+foot 2 regiments of cavalry. Each regiment is composed
+of 6 sotni, and numbers 870 men.</p>
+
+<p>4. The Cossacks of the Black Sea, or the Tchernomorski
+Cossacks, who are the ancient Zaporogues of the
+Dniepr. These can furnish 12 regiments of cavalry,
+1 division (2 sotni) of Cossacks of the Guard, 9 battalions
+of riflemen, 3 batteries of horse artillery, and 1 of foot
+artillery.</p>
+
+<p>Each regiment has about 6 sotni, and therefore their
+total would be 9 battalions, 74 sotni of cavalry, and
+32 guns.</p>
+
+<p>5. The Cossacks of the Line, or of the Caucasus: 18
+regiments of cavalry, and 3 batteries of horse artillery.</p>
+
+<p>According to the ordinance of 1845, they were to be
+raised to 20 regiments of cavalry, and of 884 men each;
+and, in addition, they were to furnish an escort for the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_124">[124]</span>Emperor at Petersburg, and one division (I suppose 2
+sotni) for the active Polish army.</p>
+
+<p>Counting upon the old state of things before 1845, the
+total was 108 sotni and 24 guns.</p>
+
+<p>6. The Cossacks of the Ural Mountains: 12 regiments
+of cavalry, of 5 sotni each, making altogether 60 sotni.</p>
+
+<p>7. The Cossacks of Orenbourg: 10 regiments of cavalry,
+of 6 sotni each, and 3 batteries of horse artillery;
+total 60 sotni and 24 guns.</p>
+
+<p>8. The Cossacks of the Line of Siberia, who must not
+be confounded with the Cossacks of the towns in that
+country: 9 regiments of cavalry, and 3 batteries of horse
+artillery; total 54 (?) sotni and 24 guns.</p>
+
+<p>9. The Cossacks of the frontiers of China: 8 sotni.</p>
+
+<p>10. The Cossacks of Astrakhan: 3 regiments of cavalry,
+and 1 battery of horse artillery; 18 sotni and 8
+guns.</p>
+
+<p>11. The town Cossacks of Siberia: 8 regiments of
+infantry (? battalions).</p>
+
+<p>The number of the Cossack infantry is very uncertain,
+because the force of the Siberian battalions is unknown.</p>
+
+<p>The most important question for Europe to inquire is,
+as to how many of these Cossacks are available during
+a European war like the present? On this point the
+following calculation must of course be only approximative.</p>
+
+<p>1. If Russia continues the war of the Caucasus on its
+present footing.—In this case the Cossacks of the Don,
+9 or 10 regiments of which are ordinarily employed in
+the Caucasus, would only offer of—</p>
+
+<table>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Disposable troops</td>
+    <td class="tdr">38,000</td>
+    <td>cavalry</td>
+    <td class="tdr">100</td>
+    <td>pieces of artillery.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Cossacks of Danube</td>
+    <td class="tdr">1,700</td>
+    <td class="tdc">”</td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdc">”</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Cossacks of Ural</td>
+    <td class="tdr">5,000</td>
+    <td class="tdc">”</td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdc">”</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Cossacks of Orenbourg</td>
+    <td class="tdr">5,000</td>
+    <td class="tdc">”</td>
+    <td class="tdr">10</td>
+    <td class="tdc">”</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdr">Total</td>
+    <td class="tdr total">49,700</td>
+    <td class="tdc">”</td>
+    <td class="tdr total">110</td>
+    <td class="tdc">”</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>2. If Russia restricted herself to a purely defensive
+war in the Caucasus, and abandoned her more advanced
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_125">[125]</span>posts, without leaving her frontiers undefended, there
+might be added 2000 men of the Don, 2000 Tchernomorski
+or Black Sea Cossacks, 4000 Cossacks of the Line;
+altogether 10,000 additional men.</p>
+
+<p>The total force available would then be 60,000 cavalry
+and 110 guns. In each of these cases 20,000 to 30,000
+cavalry of the new formation might be drawn from Siberia,
+and directed successively to the theatre of war.</p>
+
+<p>There are, besides, a number of irregular troops not of
+Russian origin, but organized after the manner of the
+Cossacks; and although their military importance is not
+great, I will enumerate them.</p>
+
+<p>Many of the tribes that will be mentioned have long
+served under the Russian banner, as anciently the Gauls
+served in the armies of Cæsar. Their motive has been
+not attachment to the Russians, but fear of them. Long
+habit and traditions of submission have much modified
+their state of feeling, and has at last made these people
+pretty faithful servants of the Russian government; as,
+for example, the Bashkírs, who used formerly to have
+constant sanguinary collisions with the Cossacks of the
+Ural Mountains. <i>There are other tribes who now serve the
+Russians, because they are forced to do so, and who would
+willingly fight against them, if they had not a conviction of
+their own inferiority.</i></p>
+
+<p>Other tribes would suffer the supremacy of Russia
+pretty patiently, if that power was not so severe in making
+them respect the rights of property, and if she did not
+prevent their indulging their old habits of levying blackmail
+on their neighbours, and the merchants and travellers
+who pass through their territory.</p>
+
+<p>It is therefore evidently not from any great benefits to
+be derived from their military organization, but in order
+to watch them, that they are brought into close relations
+with the Cossack troops charged with the defence of the
+Russian authority in the countries inhabited by them.</p>
+
+<p>The following is a concise account of these nations:—</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_126">[126]</span></p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p>(A.) The Tatars of Crimea. These feeble remains of
+the ancient sovereigns of Southern Russia belong to that
+horde whose Khans had formerly more than once penetrated
+as far as the Oka, and never at the head of less
+than 150,000 cavalry. They now furnish to the Imperial
+Guard a squadron of fine irregular troops.</p>
+
+<p>(B.) The warlike tribes of the Caucasus and Trans-Caucasia.
+They furnish to the Russian government
+auxiliary troops for the wars in those countries. These
+troops are very useful, although dependence cannot be
+always placed on them; but for wars beyond their own
+country, any number might be obtained by voluntary
+enlistment. They furnish to the Russian army—</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p>1. A squadron of the guard forming the personal
+escort of the Emperor, and constituting, with a squadron
+of the Cossacks of the Line, “the Tcherkess Guards.”</p>
+
+<p>2. A regiment of 6 squadrons serving in the army
+of Poland.</p>
+
+<p>3. An infantry regiment of Georgian militia to reinforce
+the military cordon established against the Lesghins,
+beyond the Alezan, a river of Kakhetia, in
+Georgia. Total of these:—2 battalions and 7 squadrons.</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>(C.) The Bashkírs and Metschériacks. They inhabit
+in part as nomades Perm and Orenbourg, and belong to
+the army of the Cossacks of Orenbourg. In 1813 many
+of these served in Germany.</p>
+
+<p>(D.) The Buriates and the Toungouses:—5 regiments
+of cavalry.</p>
+
+<p>They form part of the Cossack force on the Chinese
+frontier.</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>Russia might march forward a large portion of these
+irregular troops, but they are yet so little civilized that
+the Russian government does not like to bring them to
+the West, because their want of discipline and obedience
+in fighting would make them rather an impediment than
+an advantage on the field of battle. They are, however,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_127">[127]</span>of some importance, as they might be used to replace the
+best corps of Cossacks in the East and in the Caucasus,
+while the latter were moved away to the West.</p>
+
+<p>The native cavalry of the Caucasus alone, on account
+of their great courage and address, would offer a precious
+auxiliary force to the Russian army in wars on her
+western frontier, if they could be brought to fight under
+her banner.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_115" href="#Footnote_115" class="fnanchor">[115]</a></p>
+
+<p>The regiments of irregular cavalry among the Russians
+are principally intended to serve for a war of skirmishers.
+Their chief business is to provide for the security of the
+Russian army, and its means of communication, by protecting
+the baggage and the convoys of prisoners. They
+are also very useful in carrying orders, and forming relays
+for correspondence; and, lastly, are of the greatest importance
+in annoying the enemy with constant skirmishes.</p>
+
+<p>They show great skill and a liking for these various
+duties, which are not only in perfect harmony with their
+military habits, but which give them frequent opportunities
+of plunder. It is said that during the years
+1812-1814 they established themselves, privately, a
+chain of Cossack posts, from the Seine to the Don, to
+pass along their booty; and without some such plan it
+is difficult to understand how during those campaigns
+they could have sent so many precious objects home from
+the West to offer to the image of “the Mother Mary,” or
+“the beautiful Minka,” of the Don, as they called their
+favourite image of the Virgin.</p>
+
+<p>In most armies the duties of providing for the safety
+of the army are regulated in a very precise order, with
+vigorous dispositions relative to the organization and
+employment of patrols, guards of the camp, and piquets.
+The Cossacks know none of these arrangements. They
+surround on all sides the corps of troops which they are
+told to protect, and by the delicacy of their senses, and
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_128">[128]</span>their instinctive quickness, it is possible for the Russian
+regular troops to give themselves up to a more complete
+security than any Western armies provided with the most
+intelligent officers and sergeants. Suvórof called the
+Cossacks “the eye of the army;” and he might have
+said that they were also its ears and its antennæ.</p>
+
+<p>The irregular troops are of the more utility in the
+Russian army, because the regular corps do not show
+much aptitude for the minor duties of the military service.
+There is therefore in the Russian army the most
+rigorous division of labour that was ever seen in any
+army; to the regular troops are allotted the labours
+of war, and to the irregular troops those of general surveillance.
+The Cossack has no equal for surprises and
+skirmishes. No cavalry in Europe could make such
+marches as they constantly perform, without ruining
+their horses. In Europe they often carried with them a
+pack-horse; but even without this they performed incredible
+feats, and fifty miles is with them an ordinary
+day’s journey. Of the 3500 men of regular troops who
+were sent on the expedition to Khiva in 1840, only 1000
+returned. Of 1200 Cossacks who made part of that same
+expedition only 60 perished; and of 2000 or 3000
+Kirgúiz who accompanied it the loss was still less. If
+on the one hand this was the result of their familiarity
+with the steppes and the climate of these countries, on
+the other hand it was partly owing to their fitness for
+making forced marches.</p>
+
+<p>The Cossack, who is generally a strong man, appears
+to be too heavy for his horse, but this is not really the
+case. The Cossack horse is a wonderful animal to endure
+fatigue. He has a good head, a ewe neck, a large arm,
+short legs, broad chest, and a sound hoof. His back often
+seems too long; but it is said&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_116" href="#Footnote_116" class="fnanchor">[116]</a> that he is often found
+with two ribs more than ordinary horses. In winter he
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_129">[129]</span>seeks his pasture in the snows of the steppes, and thus
+learns to be very hardy; and he can do an immense deal
+of work when he is fed on oaten bread or barley, wheat,
+straw, or good or bad hay, all of which he will eat. He
+is very active in climbing mountains, and swimming rivers.
+At Marshal Munich’s assault on the lines of Perecop the
+Cossacks arrived at the top of the rampart as soon as
+the first men of the infantry. The Cossack horse is accustomed
+to eat at all hours of the day; and his master continually
+feeds him whenever he has an opportunity. If he
+stops but for a moment, even under the fire of cannon in
+time of war, the Cossack always feeds his horse with something;
+and the horse never refuses any food, either on
+account of its bad quality or the time at which it is given.
+“He alone” (I use the words of Haxthausen) “who
+has had the pain to see his fine and faithful horse refuse
+his oats after the fatigue of a battle; he who has counted
+with anguish the minutes in time of war which have been
+allowed him to feed his horse, and which have passed without
+the horse being able to eat; he who has seen his beautiful
+steed, accustomed to delicate food, become day by day more
+thin and feeble from bad nourishment and forced marches,
+such a soldier can alone understand how precious in the Cossack
+horse are his strong stomach and power of endurance.”&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_117" href="#Footnote_117" class="fnanchor">[117]</a></p>
+
+<p>The Cossacks now have trumpets, and under the cover
+of cannon spread themselves out like a swarm, dashing
+upon the enemy when any one of their number, and not
+their officer only, sees a favourable opportunity and gives
+the signal. They dislike to face fire-arms, because, M.
+Haxthausen says, they only come out to fight for plunder,
+but sometimes they will do a daring exploit in hope of a
+cross, as they are very vain, and love decorations even
+more than the Russians. Their superstition is remarkable;
+they believe in all sorts of auguries; which, although
+also the case with the Russian soldier, in him is neutralized
+by military discipline. The Cossacks, fighting
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_130">[130]</span>singly, have no esprit-de-corps to counteract their natural
+feelings, and the crossing of a hare with them may
+lose an engagement. The meeting of a priest is also
+considered very unlucky.</p>
+
+<p>To sum up: it may be said that at present, with
+regard at least to the Cossacks of the Don, the horse is
+better than his master. They were of great use in the
+wars of Napoleon, when they were still a frontier people,
+continually exercised in war at home, and possessed of a
+democratic constitution, which allowed only merit to raise
+its head.</p>
+
+<p>Since that time the advance of the Russian frontiers to
+the South has given the Cossacks internal peace and
+security, and their old constitution has been either taken
+away or made a dead letter. Thus, with the loss of their
+liberty, they have become indifferent soldiers and idle
+agriculturists.</p>
+
+<p>Russian military men have not, I believe, a high opinion
+of the Don Cossacks, and although they still acknowledge
+their utility in guarding regular troops, and relieving them
+from many laborious duties, are well aware how much
+they have lost of their ancient martial spirit. I believe the
+opinion of our own military authorities is, that they are
+not very formidable in the field, and before Sevastopol
+have shown little inclination to run any great risks.</p>
+
+<p>Had they stood at all firmly at the affair of Balaclava,
+not a man of our unfortunate light cavalry could have
+been saved. When our men were returning from that
+fearful ride of death, they saw swarms of Cossacks, several
+thousand in number, descend from the hills to intercept
+their return. They thought all was over with them,
+as they quickened their pace to charge; but the Cossacks
+shrank from the encounter, opened to the right and left,
+and let them pass in safety.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_118" href="#Footnote_118" class="fnanchor">[118]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_131">[131]</span></p>
+
+<div style="overflow: scroll;">
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Recapitulation of Effective Cossacks.</span></h3>
+
+<table class="borders">
+  <tr>
+    <th rowspan="3">Names of the Cossack Corps.</th>
+    <th colspan="9">ENUMERATION OF THEIR FORCE.</th>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <th rowspan="2">Regiment of Cavalry.</th>
+    <th rowspan="2">Sotni Cavalry.</th>
+    <th rowspan="2">Battalions.</th>
+    <th rowspan="2">Batteries.</th>
+    <th colspan="3">Pieces.</th>
+    <th rowspan="2">Approximative Force, without Artillery.</th>
+    <th rowspan="2">OBSERVATIONS.</th>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <th>Cavalry.</th>
+    <th>Infantry.</th>
+    <th>Total.</th>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;&nbsp;1. Army of the Don</td>
+    <td class="tdr">58</td>
+    <td class="tdr">348</td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr">14</td>
+    <td class="tdr">112</td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr">112</td>
+    <td class="nw">&nbsp;42,000 cavalry</td>
+    <td></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;&nbsp;2. <span class="ditto">”</span> Azof</td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td></td>
+    <td>The Army of Azof is entirely employed to man the gun-boats
+    on the Sea of Azof.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;&nbsp;3. <span class="ditto">”</span> Danube</td>
+    <td class="tdr">2</td>
+    <td class="tdr">12</td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="nw">&nbsp;&nbsp;1,700 cavalry</td>
+    <td></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;&nbsp;4. <span class="ditto">”</span> Black Sea</td>
+    <td class="tdr">12</td>
+    <td class="tdr">74</td>
+    <td class="tdr">9</td>
+    <td class="tdr">4</td>
+    <td class="tdr">24</td>
+    <td class="tdr">8</td>
+    <td class="tdr">32</td>
+    <td><span class="nw">{ 9,000 infantry</span><br>{ 9,000 cavalry</td>
+    <td></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;&nbsp;5. <span class="ditto">”</span> Caucasus</td>
+    <td class="tdr">18</td>
+    <td class="tdr">108</td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr">3</td>
+    <td class="tdr">24</td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr">24</td>
+    <td class="nw">&nbsp;16,000 cavalry</td>
+    <td></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;&nbsp;6. <span class="ditto">”</span> Oural</td>
+    <td class="tdr">12</td>
+    <td class="tdr">60</td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="nw">&nbsp;&nbsp;7,500 cavalry</td>
+    <td></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;&nbsp;7. <span class="ditto">”</span> Orenburg</td>
+    <td class="tdr">10</td>
+    <td class="tdr">60</td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr">3</td>
+    <td class="tdr">24</td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr">24</td>
+    <td class="nw">&nbsp;&nbsp;7,500 cavalry</td>
+    <td></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&nbsp;&nbsp;8. <span class="ditto">”</span> Siberia</td>
+    <td class="tdr">9</td>
+    <td class="tdr">54</td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr">3</td>
+    <td class="tdr">24</td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr">24</td>
+    <td class="nw">&nbsp;&nbsp;6,500 cavalry</td>
+    <td></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="nw">&nbsp;&nbsp;9. <span class="ditto">”</span> frontiers of China</td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr">8</td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="nw">&nbsp;&nbsp;1,000 cavalry</td>
+    <td></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>10. <span class="ditto">”</span> Astrakhan</td>
+    <td class="tdr">3</td>
+    <td class="tdr">18</td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr">1</td>
+    <td class="tdr">8</td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr">8</td>
+    <td class="nw">&nbsp;&nbsp;2,000 cavalry</td>
+    <td></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>11. <span class="ditto">”</span> Siberia</td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr">24</td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="nw">&nbsp;24,000 infantry</td>
+    <td></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdr">Total</td>
+    <td class="tdr total">124</td>
+    <td class="tdr total">742</td>
+    <td class="tdr total">33</td>
+    <td class="tdr total">28</td>
+    <td class="tdr total">216</td>
+    <td class="tdr total">8</td>
+    <td class="tdr total">224</td>
+    <td class="total">126,200 men</td>
+    <td class="total">93,200 cavalry.<br><span class="nw">33,000 infantry.</span></td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p class="right smaller">Taken from M. Haxthausen, vol. iii.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_132">[132]</span></p>
+
+<p>I have now given a short account of the forces, regular
+and irregular, composing the whole Russian army,
+which is, perhaps, the most stupendous military engine
+which the world has ever yet seen.</p>
+
+<p>While the nations of Europe have been disarming,
+Russia has been augmenting her forces, and spending a
+very large proportion of her revenue in storing up
+weapons of destruction. Peaceful avocations have been
+discouraged by her, and men of peace looked upon with
+contempt. She knows no titles but military ones; and
+rewards no virtues except those calculated to support her
+despotism. She has resisted the natural influence of
+Europe upon her people, and kept them in poverty-stricken
+isolation; by her stupendous military force she
+prevents the further disarming of the nations of Europe.
+In proportion as they approach the Russian frontier, they
+are obliged to keep up larger armies, and waste more
+of their revenues on fortresses and military preparations.
+The threatening aspect of the Russian army towards
+its neighbours will be more distinctly seen if we look at
+it according to its division into the active, mobilized
+army, always assembled in Poland, with its reserves
+behind it to the eastward, and the local troops, which
+have been already mentioned.</p>
+
+<p>Every regiment is divided into a certain number of
+battalions for active service, ready immediately to enter
+the field, and others which form the reserve or dépôt,
+whose duty it is to instruct recruits, and, like the Prussian
+landwehr, to form skeleton battalions for veterans, and
+those absent on “indefinite leave.” The artillery is
+arranged in the same manner. The active troops, distributed
+in corps, are completely organized, with staff, engineers,
+train-equipage, and parks of artillery; and even all
+the necessary horses are kept ready, in time of peace,
+for entering instantly upon a campaign. To use the
+words of M. Haxthausen, writing before the present war,
+“there is no army in the world, with the exception of the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_133">[133]</span>Austrian army in Italy, that up to 1848 was always so
+completely ready for war as the great, active army of
+Russia in Poland.”</p>
+
+<p>The composition of this army is given in the following
+table, taken from M. Haxthausen, and its effective force is
+stated by him as follows (see <a href="#Page_134">p. 134</a>):—</p>
+
+<p>After a deduction of 50 soldiers for the train, the
+musicians, and the superior officers, every battalion of
+infantry counts about 1000 combatants, <i>i. e.</i>, soldiers and
+non-commissioned officers; and the battalions of riflemen,
+653 men.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_119" href="#Footnote_119" class="fnanchor">[119]</a></p>
+
+<p>The number of officers is 22 for each battalion; and
+the musicians, besides the band, which is very numerous
+in many regiments, are generally about 25. As there are
+8 battalions of riflemen, the Grand Army counts—</p>
+
+<table>
+  <tr>
+    <td>360 battalions of 1050 men each</td>
+    <td class="tdr">=</td>
+    <td class="tdr">378,000</td>
+    <td>men.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>8 battalions of 700 men each</td>
+    <td class="tdr">=</td>
+    <td class="tdr">5,600</td>
+    <td class="tdc">”</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Total of infantry combatants</td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr total">383,600</td>
+    <td>men.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Absent on “indefinite leave”</td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr">51,500</td>
+    <td class="tdc">”</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdr">Nominal total</td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr total">332,100</td>
+    <td>infantry.</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>A further deduction must be made for deaths, discharges,
+deserters, reducing the battalions to about 700
+men, which is believed to be their real numbers, from
+which no further deduction need be made. This will
+leave 260,000 infantry combatants really under arms.</p>
+
+<p>A squadron of cavalry contains, on an average, 190
+combatants in time of war, and therefore—</p>
+
+<table>
+  <tr>
+    <th></th>
+    <th></th>
+    <th>Men.</th>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>460 squadrons of regular cavalry, at 190 men each</td>
+    <td class="tdr">=</td>
+    <td class="tdr">87,400</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>10 per squadron on leave</td>
+    <td class="tdr">=</td>
+    <td class="tdr">4,600</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdr">Leaves</td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr total">82,800</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p class="noindent">of regular cavalry, always ready to march.</p>
+
+<p>The above deduction will be more than sufficient, if there
+be allowed a loss of 27 or 28 men in each squadron before
+it can arrive at the frontier. The lowest force, then, of
+regular cavalry immediately disposable for the army of
+operation is about 70,000 men. No deduction need be made
+from the artillery, which, on the contrary, must be increased
+by the artillery of the Cossacks. The reserves
+are divided into two levies, of which the details are given
+in the note.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_120" href="#Footnote_120" class="fnanchor">[120]</a> They amount—the first levy, to 98,000
+men and 192 guns; and the second levy to 115,000 men
+and 280 guns.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_134">[134]</span></p>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Recapitulation</span> of the
+<span class="smcap">Divisions</span> of <span class="smcap">Troops</span>
+composing the <span class="smcap">Grand Army</span>, according to data
+of the Year 1852.</h3>
+
+<div style="overflow: scroll;">
+
+<table class="borders">
+  <tr>
+    <th rowspan="3"></th>
+    <th colspan="4">Infantry.</th>
+    <th colspan="5">Cavalry.</th>
+    <th colspan="8">Artillery.</th>
+    <th colspan="2">Engineers.</th>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <th rowspan="2">Divisions.</th>
+    <th rowspan="2">Brigades.</th>
+    <th rowspan="2">Regiments.</th>
+    <th rowspan="2">Battalions.</th>
+    <th rowspan="2">Divisions.</th>
+    <th rowspan="2">Brigades.</th>
+    <th rowspan="2">Regiments.</th>
+    <th colspan="2">Squads.</th>
+    <th rowspan="2">Divisions.</th>
+    <th rowspan="2">Brigades.</th>
+    <th rowspan="2">Batteries.</th>
+    <th rowspan="2">Horse Artillery.</th>
+    <th rowspan="2">Foot Artillery.</th>
+    <th rowspan="2">Heavy Guns.</th>
+    <th rowspan="2">Light Guns.</th>
+    <th rowspan="2">Total.</th>
+    <th rowspan="2">Battalions of Sappers.</th>
+    <th rowspan="2">Mounted.</th>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <th>Regulars.</th>
+    <th>Irregulars.</th>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Corps of the Guard</td>
+    <td class="tdr">3</td>
+    <td class="tdr">6</td>
+    <td class="tdr">12</td>
+    <td class="tdr">37</td>
+    <td class="tdr">3</td>
+    <td class="tdr">6</td>
+    <td class="tdr">12</td>
+    <td class="tdr">60</td>
+    <td class="tdr">17½</td>
+    <td class="tdr">1</td>
+    <td class="tdr">5</td>
+    <td class="tdr">15½</td>
+    <td class="tdr">44</td>
+    <td class="tdr">72</td>
+    <td class="tdr">56</td>
+    <td class="tdr">60</td>
+    <td class="tdr">116</td>
+    <td class="tdr">1</td>
+    <td class="tdr">2</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Corps of Grenadiers</td>
+    <td class="tdr">3</td>
+    <td class="tdr">6</td>
+    <td class="tdr">12</td>
+    <td class="tdr">37</td>
+    <td class="tdr">1</td>
+    <td class="tdr">2</td>
+    <td class="tdr">4</td>
+    <td class="tdr">32</td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr">1</td>
+    <td class="tdr">4</td>
+    <td class="tdr">14&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+    <td class="tdr">16</td>
+    <td class="tdr">72</td>
+    <td class="tdr">48</td>
+    <td class="tdr">40</td>
+    <td class="tdr">88</td>
+    <td class="tdr">1</td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>6 Corps of Infantry</td>
+    <td class="tdr">18</td>
+    <td class="tdr">36</td>
+    <td class="tdr">72</td>
+    <td class="tdr">294</td>
+    <td class="tdr">6</td>
+    <td class="tdr">12</td>
+    <td class="tdr">24</td>
+    <td class="tdr">192</td>
+    <td class="tdr">?</td>
+    <td class="tdr">6</td>
+    <td class="tdr">24</td>
+    <td class="tdr">84&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+    <td class="tdr">96</td>
+    <td class="tdr">576</td>
+    <td class="tdr">192</td>
+    <td class="tdr">480</td>
+    <td class="tdr">672</td>
+    <td class="tdr">6</td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>1st Corps Cavalry in reserve</td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr">3</td>
+    <td class="tdr">6</td>
+    <td class="tdr">12</td>
+    <td class="tdr">80</td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr">1</td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr">6&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+    <td class="tdr">48</td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr">16</td>
+    <td class="tdr">32</td>
+    <td class="tdr">48</td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>2nd Corps Cavalry in reserve</td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr">2</td>
+    <td class="tdr">4</td>
+    <td class="tdr">8</td>
+    <td class="tdr">80</td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr">1</td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr">6&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+    <td class="tdr">48</td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr">16</td>
+    <td class="tdr">32</td>
+    <td class="tdr">48</td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr">2</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="nw">With a division of Light Cavalry of reserve</td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr">1</td>
+    <td class="tdr">2</td>
+    <td class="tdr">4</td>
+    <td class="tdr">24</td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr">1</td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr">3&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+    <td class="tdr">24</td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr">24</td>
+    <td class="tdr">24</td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdr"><span class="smcap">Total Ten Corps</span></td>
+    <td class="tdr total">24</td>
+    <td class="tdr total">48</td>
+    <td class="tdr total">96</td>
+    <td class="tdr total">368</td>
+    <td class="tdr total">16</td>
+    <td class="tdr total">32</td>
+    <td class="tdr total">64</td>
+    <td class="tdr total">468</td>
+    <td class="tdr total">17½</td>
+    <td class="tdr total">11</td>
+    <td class="tdr total">33</td>
+    <td class="tdr total">128½</td>
+    <td class="tdr total">276</td>
+    <td class="tdr total">720</td>
+    <td class="tdr total">328</td>
+    <td class="tdr total">668</td>
+    <td class="tdr total">996</td>
+    <td class="tdr total">8</td>
+    <td class="tdr total">4</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p class="right smaller">Taken from M. Haxthausen, vol. iii. p. 288.</p>
+
+<p class="smaller">There is attached to each corps a “brigade du train,” who are non-combatants. The Engineers attached have their proper place in the
+Brigades of Engineers.</p>
+
+<p class="smaller">The regiments of Cossacks and their batteries were even in time of peace incorporated in the Grand Army; but their number used to vary.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_135">[135]</span></p>
+
+<p>Such were the numbers of the Russian active army in
+Poland in 1848; and it was further increased in 1850.
+At that time (the end of 1850) the active army of operation,
+according to the official account, consisted as follows:—</p>
+
+<table>
+  <tr>
+    <th></th>
+    <th>Men.</th>
+    <th>Guns.</th>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Disposable army</td>
+    <td class="tdr">486,000</td>
+    <td class="tdr">996</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>First levy of reserve</td>
+    <td class="tdr">98,000</td>
+    <td class="tdr">192</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Second levy</td>
+    <td class="tdr">115,000</td>
+    <td class="tdr">280</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdr">Total</td>
+    <td class="tdr total">699,000</td>
+    <td class="tdr total">1468</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p class="noindent">To which must be added the engineers, the train, and
+the irregular corps.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, as has been observed, the whole disposition
+of the army has been altered since the present war began.
+The Moscow corps has been moved to the Caucasus; the
+Polish corps have been moved south, and the Grenadiers
+have taken their place; and the reserves have, I believe,
+been all called out, and probably consumed in replacing
+those who have fallen in the last two years.</p>
+
+<p>So that when we look at the Russian forces now assembled
+in the Caucasus, the Crimea, and the German and
+Baltic frontiers, we see the whole of the Russian army,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_136">[136]</span>including its reserves, which cannot be easily augmented.
+Each man that falls now becomes of great importance to
+the Emperor; for the conscription is becoming more and
+more difficult, and bearing with increased severity upon
+all the interests of the empire. The age at which conscripts
+are taken is now raised to thirty-seven;&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_121" href="#Footnote_121" class="fnanchor">[121]</a> and the
+sons of aged or widowed parents, who have hitherto been
+exempted, are to serve, and be formed into separate corps.
+I believe that in the manufacturing establishments in
+Russia as many as 25 per cent. of the workmen have
+lately been carried off for the conscription.</p>
+
+<p>The difficulties of Russia are increasing every day; and
+it is hardly possible for her to carry on the war for
+another six months, if with our change of Ministry we
+likewise have a change of system, and if at home and in
+the Crimea our superior officials, both military and civil,
+have anything like that intelligence, activity, intrepidity,
+and single-minded love of their country displayed by the
+common soldiers and regimental officers of our army,
+who have hitherto been the only bulwarks to save us
+from national disgrace.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_137">[137]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX.<br>
+<span class="smaller">INKERMAN, MANGOUP, AND THE HILLY COUNTRY OF THE CRIMEA.</span></h2>
+
+<p>The Bay of Sevastopol to Inkerman—Aktiar—Inkerman Castle—Its
+history—Crypts—Fuller’s earth, or natural soap—Tchorgouna—Tchouli,
+residence of Pallas—Crypts at Karakoba—Mount Aithodor—Mangoup—Description
+and history—Gothic architecture—Position of
+Mangoup—Interesting character of surrounding country—The Tchatyr
+Dagh and the Yailas.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>From Sevastopol to Inkerman the road by land is either
+very long or very fatiguing.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_122" href="#Footnote_122" class="fnanchor">[122]</a> In order to avoid the
+numberless ravines which cut up the Chersonese, a circuitous
+route must be taken, and it is hardly possible
+to attempt to cross in a straight line. Scarcely has the
+descent been made to the bottom of one ravine by a
+very steep declivity, than an equally precipitous ascent
+must be made at the other side; and neither the one nor
+the other of these routes has anything picturesque or
+interesting, except some poor ruins scattered here and
+there among the rocks. Nothing was desert here in
+the time of ancient Kherson. A laborious population,
+sacrificing pleasure in the noble object of possessing a little
+corner of ground, then occupied the sides of all the ravines,
+and living half in the grottoes, and half in miserable
+huts of stone and earth, devoted themselves to the
+cultivation of a precious and tolerably fertile soil, by
+raising terraces of earth, on which they planted vines
+and fruit-trees. Neither the north wind nor the piercing
+frost could penetrate these well-protected and sheltered
+spots; but during the heats of summer they must have
+been hardly supportable, unless some covered shelter was
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_138">[138]</span>made on one side or the other under the rock. Although
+the land journey from Sevastopol to Inkerman be so
+difficult in times of peace, nothing used to be more interesting
+than the sea voyage, which might be performed
+by hiring a little boat at Sevastopol, and leisurely sailing
+or rowing down the Great Bay. It is not that the
+country is very attractive in itself by shady groves and
+country houses: on the contrary, these are rare on the
+shores of this bay, which are rather severe in aspect, from
+the abrupt forms and nakedness of the rocks. It is the
+bay itself, piercing nearly five miles into the land, which
+invests the scene with all its magnificence.</p>
+
+<p>As to the geology of the coasts of the bay, beginning at
+the entrance from the sea, the low shores are formed by
+beds of the recent tertiary volcanic formation, very much
+thrown out of their place. These beds gradually rise
+higher up the sides as far as the Careening Bay, and
+there appear under them brilliant beds of white clay,
+with layers of small stones and cinders, and land and lake
+mollusques. This formation is of considerable extent, and
+presents high cliffs of so dazzling a white colour, that they
+have generally been taken for chalk.</p>
+
+<p>Under the clay, and near the extremity of the bay,
+appears in its turn, in thick even layers, the nummulite
+limestone, rich in fossils, raised on the back of a new
+formation, that of the chalk, which has a great development,
+and of which the high walls, principally composed
+of green sandstone or chlorited chalk, encase the bottom
+of the bay, opening a large entrance at its farthest extremity
+for the Bouiouk Oozoun river, or the Tchornaya
+Retchka of the Russians, which is lost in a marsh before
+it mixes with the salt waves of the bay. Close to the
+Careening Bay are the first crypts cut in the rocks, and
+the principal ones, the entrance to which is very little
+raised above the level of the bay, are large, of a regular
+square shape, and cut in the front of the rock. On the
+northern shore, opposite the crypts, in a little valley,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_139">[139]</span>are the ruins of the village of Aktiar, which replaced
+Kherson, giving its name to the bay. This served as
+the first establishment of the Russians after the conquest
+of the Crimea. Here is the summer habitation
+and the garden of the admiral-commandant of Sevastopol,
+and here are the storehouses and bakehouses of the fleet,
+a large hospital, now abandoned, and an ancient hermitage
+cut in the rock, painted with frescoes.</p>
+
+<p>The extremity of the bay in ancient times was richly
+cultivated, but the sea has now been driven back by the
+unwholesome marshes of the Tchornaya Retchka, and
+high reeds stop the course of all vessels by their inextricable
+labyrinths. With the exception of a powder-magazine
+and a few sheds, these ravines are naked and
+uninhabited, and the villages which crowned the summits
+of the cliffs and extended on the plateau of the
+northern part of the Chersonese, where the second division
+of the British army is now encamped and the
+famous two-gun battery was erected, have disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>The ruins of the villages cover a space of two miles,
+and end with the great rock in which is cut the first
+of the crypt churches of Inkerman. These were all
+defended by walls from the Steppe, one of which is still
+seen, four feet in thickness. The direct road from Kherson
+to Inkerman passed by these villages, and a very
+steep road led from the plateau to the bottom of the
+ravine, where there is the church. The greater part of
+these remains of antiquity have disappeared before the
+labours of the engineers, who have blown up the rocks
+with the crypts in them to obtain the soft but beautiful
+building-stone for the construction of the magnificent
+aqueduct which carries the water of the Tchornaya
+Retchka to the docks of Sevastopol.</p>
+
+<p>The aqueduct is carried on 10 arches, and measures
+200 feet in length; the piles on which it is built are 18
+feet deep, as this is the only depth at which a firm
+foundation could be found. After it leaves the aqueduct
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_140">[140]</span>the water is carried by a tunnel 800 feet in length.
+The canal is 4 feet deep and 9 feet broad, and the gallery
+through which it is carried is 6 feet high to the top of the
+vault, and 12 feet wide.</p>
+
+<p>From this place the road continues to Inkerman,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_123" href="#Footnote_123" class="fnanchor">[123]</a> which
+is the modern name of the promontory rising at the end
+of the Bay of Sevastopol on its northern shore, and
+looking down upon the marshes of the Tchornaya Retchka.
+The rock is pierced all over with the subterranean
+dwellings of the ancient Tauri, and on the top are the
+ruins of the castle built by Diophantes, the general of
+Mithridates, who was sent to help the Khersonians
+against the Tauro-Scythians, a little before the birth of
+Christ. This castle was called Eupatorion, a name
+which, like many others, has been misapplied by the
+Russians, and given to the town of Koslof.</p>
+
+<p>From the castle, Diophantes made a communication
+with the other side, by filling up the valley with earth,
+and leaving a passage for the river by a bridge with three
+arches, of which one remained in 1834, and the bank
+itself is perfectly preserved. This was the bridge that was
+broken down by Liprandi after the battle of Inkerman,
+when he retired to the northern side of the Tchornaya
+Retchka, and by this act acknowledged that he had been defeated.
+In the rocks near are seen the enormous quarries
+for the building-stone, which in all times has been celebrated.
+Near here, and cut in the solid rock of the promontory
+of Inkerman, is a regularly constructed Greek
+church, with all its parts complete, and on the top of
+the rock in which it is cut is the fortress of Diophantes,
+which in the middle ages was called Theodori,
+and was the residence of some Greek princes dependent
+on Constantinople. One of them, called Alexis, took
+Balaclava from the Genoese, and was again driven out of
+it in <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> 1434.</p>
+
+<p>In 1475 this little Greek principality suffered the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_141">[141]</span>same fate as the Gothic duchy of Mangoup; and the
+castle was taken by the Turks, who placed a garrison
+here, and allowed the fortress to go to ruin. In the time
+of Bronovius (<span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> 1578) Greek inscriptions and heraldic
+bearings were to be seen over the gates and public buildings,
+but they have now entirely disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>The crypts made by the ancient Tauri are on the south
+side of the rock, which was generally the situation they
+chose; and from the interior of the fortress there is a
+path leading down to numberless rows of them, in six or
+seven tiers, one above another. The simplest of these
+crypts have only one room, a part of which was raised
+one foot high, and two feet broad for a bed; and the holes
+may still be seen in front of the kind of niche in which
+it was placed, to which a curtain was probably attached.</p>
+
+<p>The more complicated crypts have many rooms, and all of
+these, except the principal chamber, have beds. The doors
+were of wood; the ceilings rise to a point; and in the
+centre of the floor there was a hole one foot and a half
+deep, and two feet across, which was the fireplace and
+the oven, such as is found in the crypts of Georgia, and
+is still used in that country to the present day.</p>
+
+<p>The crypts were innumerable, but are now rapidly
+diminishing. In some places, from natural causes, the
+rock has given way, and carried down whole stages of
+crypts, with the passages and staircases of communication
+between the various stories; and Lieutenant Kruse,
+who had a contract for stone for the public buildings of
+Sevastopol, blew up vast numbers.</p>
+
+<p>As the valley of Inkerman is now extremely unhealthy,
+it may be asked how it could ever have been so thickly
+populated as the remains would indicate; but its unhealthiness
+is caused by the stagnant marshes of the
+Tchornaya Retchka, which in ancient times were
+flourishing gardens, from which all superfluous water was
+drained off.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_124" href="#Footnote_124" class="fnanchor">[124]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_142">[142]</span></p>
+
+<p>The same layers of green sandstone, which form one of
+the sides of the gorge of Inkerman, then take a more
+eastern direction; and here, facing the south, the strata
+are so full of subterranean dwellings that they might
+almost be called beds of crypts.</p>
+
+<p>Immediately below the second group of crypts further
+on, in the direction of Tchorgouna and Mangoup, is a
+layer of fuller’s earth, two feet in thickness, and of a grey
+colour, accompanied below by talk. This is used as
+fossil soap, and is exported to Constantinople, where it
+is known in the baths under the name of Keffe Kil, or
+clay of Caffa.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_125" href="#Footnote_125" class="fnanchor">[125]</a> There is a similar deposit at Sabli,
+and on one of the banks of the Alma the greenish
+talkous fuller’s earth is mixed with silicious pebbles and
+broken ammonites, while on the other bank may be extracted
+from wells the best fuller’s earth in the Crimea.
+This same bed, again, appears at the foot of Mount
+Akhaia, near Karasóubazar, on the western side of the
+peninsula. Below these beds are totally different deposits.
+At Inkerman is a white or grey clay, more or
+less schistous, almost entirely without fossils, and
+several hundred feet thick. Its rounded forms start
+from the foot of the wall of green sandstone, cover a
+part of the valley of Balaclava, and advance as far as
+Tchorgouna. Tchorgouna lies in a gorge formed nearly
+of the same pudding-stones and marbles as those at
+Balaclava.</p>
+
+<p>The Tchornaya Retchka, coming from the valley of
+Baidar, here unites its two principal branches, which
+escape from wild chasms in the Jurassic rocks. Before
+forcing itself between the two last rocks of marble, which
+almost stop it, and just as it reaches the chalk valley of
+Balaclava, where it is diverted for the docks of Sevastopol,
+it receives the rivulet of Tchouli, which has
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_143">[143]</span>quite a different course, and which takes its name
+from the village of Tchouli, the residence of the famous
+traveller Pallas. This little river may be followed up in
+a north-eastward direction to Mangoup, and presents the
+curious phenomenon of running exactly between the
+Jurassic and cretaceous formations. The stream divides
+these two formations, the former of which gives its picturesque
+beauty to the southern coast of the Crimea, while
+the latter is synonymous with the dull level of the
+Steppe; so that on its right is seen the Jura, with its
+characteristic rounded calcareous domes, well wooded,
+and cut into valleys, and on the other side the chalk
+presents its high crests and jutting buttresses, covered
+with a meagre vegetation, and surmounted by an enormous
+naked wall of green sandstone, prolonged without
+interruption to Mount Aithodor, which only wants a
+sea below it to become the most picturesque of promontories.
+Here there is a group of crypts like those at
+Inkerman, called Karakoba (the Black Grotto), and the
+high promontory which rises above Aithodor is called Elli
+Boroun (the Cape of Tempests). This high advanced rock,
+crowned with a few marine or littoral pines, forms a side
+of one of the great chasms that have been opened in the
+chalk; and it can hardly have been by the agency of any
+river, as none of the larger streams of the Tauric chain
+have condescended to take advantage of its opening to
+pass through it, so that there is only a very small current
+of water which runs into the Belbek. In the midst of
+this chasm stands an immense rock, perpendicular on all
+sides, and rising like the isolated pier of some gigantic
+bridge, and this bears on its summit the celebrated
+fortress of Mangoup.</p>
+
+<p>No position in the Crimea could be stronger, and none
+has been more celebrated. Mangoup commanded one of
+the gates of the Steppe, and as a wall was built across the
+valley of Inkerman, so it seems that this entrance was
+also closed in by two walls, separated by an interval of
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_144">[144]</span>fifty feet, and of which there are well-preserved traces in
+the valley that leads from Koráles to Aithodor.</p>
+
+<p>The rock of Mangoup rises to upwards of a thousand
+feet, and every accessible place in its vicinity is fortified
+with walls and towers. One valley, called the Tabana
+Déréh (Tatar for the Valley of the Tannery), is fortified
+by a wall and four towers, and contains several stages of
+crypts and a fine spring of water. It was inhabited up
+to 1800 by some Karaim Jews, who were tanners, and
+when they quitted, no living being was left in the deserted
+town of Mangoup.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_126" href="#Footnote_126" class="fnanchor">[126]</a></p>
+
+<p>On mounting the plateau from the valley, there are
+the remains of a Byzantine Greek church, with frescoes,
+and surrounded by tombs like those at Laspi on
+the southern coast. To the left of the church is a
+mosque and a Turkish cemetery, and beyond it is another
+valley, closed like the other by a wall, with a door in the
+middle. The view from hence is magnificent, and extends
+over Sevastopol to the sea. In the acropolis of Mangoup
+there are the remains of a fine palace, of two stories high,
+resting on a terrace, with a handsome flight of steps. On
+the first floor of this palace there are placed, in symmetrical
+order, and richly decorated, four windows: three bead
+ornaments surrounded the two in the middle, which
+terminated in a flat arch: those at the end were richly
+charged with ornaments, and of larger dimensions. The
+workmanship of the arabesques, and of the roses, the
+fillets, and the wreaths, are in the Eastern style, very
+like that of Armenia. There is some resemblance to
+the style of Turkey, but, besides being less regular and
+symmetrical, it cannot be supposed that the Turkish
+conquerors, who took Mangoup in 1475, and then abandoned
+it to a few soldiers, would ever have erected
+such edifices. Bronovius proves the contrary; he says,
+“Eighteen years after it was taken by the Turks, as
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_145">[145]</span>the Christian Greeks relate, Mangoup was almost utterly
+destroyed by a horrible and sudden fire. Nothing of
+importance was saved except the Acropolis, in which
+there was a fine gateway, ornamented with marble, with
+Greek inscriptions, and a high palace in stone. It was
+in this house that the khans, in their barbarian fury,
+have several times shut up the Muscovite ambassadors,
+and made them suffer a severe captivity.” The door and
+the palace, which have been described, evidently date
+before the fire, and consequently before its capture by
+the Turks. It is a memento of the Gothic Dukes of
+Mangoup; and the Armenian style that predominates
+may be explained by the fact that, in the middle of the
+fourteenth century, a number of Armenians had quitted
+their country, in terror at the great earthquake of Anni,
+and had filled the Crimea with their colonies. As
+perhaps a solitary memorial of the architecture of the
+Goths in the Crimea, this palace possesses considerable
+interest.</p>
+
+<p>If the reader will now look at the map, he will see
+that at Mangoup we are about one-third of the distance
+from Sevastopol to Baktchéserai, and on the confines of
+the two formations that cause Steppes to the north and a
+romantic scenery to the south. A tributary of the Belbek
+leads down a wild valley from Mangoup to Koráles, which
+I have already noticed as the residence of the beautiful
+Tatar princess, Adel Bey; and a little to the west of Koráles
+is Tcherkess Kerman, or the fortress of the Tcherkess,
+and Tcherkess Tus, the plain of the Tcherkess, and the
+river Kabarda, which mark the spot where a colony
+of that noble and chivalrous people, whom we call the
+Circassians, dwelt for several centuries, and beyond this
+plain the high road is seen running to Sevastopol along
+the open Steppe. There is, therefore, little to interest
+the traveller to the north; but let him go east, south,
+and west of Mangoup, and he may make endless excursions
+in a most lovely country. He may wander up the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_146">[146]</span>valleys of the Belbek, the Katcha, and the Alma, and
+cross the mountainous country which divides their
+channels; and whether he be geologist, archæologist, or
+only an admirer of the beauties of nature, he will find
+his tastes amply gratified, and every simple want supplied
+among the primitive and hospitable Tatars.</p>
+
+<p>The geologist may admire and unravel the intricate
+system where endless strata have been forced up and
+bent, especially in the Heracleotic Chersonese, into the
+most fantastic forms, while jets of igneous rocks may be
+traced, giving the key to the wild confusion that reigns
+around.</p>
+
+<p>The archæologist will find in every hill top, and in
+every rock and valley, traces of the many nations that
+have inhabited the Crimea, from the rude crypts of the
+savage Tauri, to the graceful fragments of the Grecian
+column; and the traveller, who wanders simply to
+enjoy his physical existence, will ever find health and
+strength in a delicious climate, and the purest enjoyment
+of the senses in its exquisite rural beauty. Endless
+flocks and herds browze along the valleys, while near
+the fresh high plains, raised up in the bosom of the
+mountains by stupendous volcanic agency, Tatar villages
+are snugly situated in sheltered spots, surrounded by
+orchards, which supply even Petersburg with fruit, and
+where the vine has flourished from the earliest ages.
+Added to all these charms, the sea is always near, and
+its glorious expanse is seen from every mountain-top,
+and that coast can at all times be readily visited, which
+tempted the beauty-loving Greeks to found here some
+of their earliest and most flourishing colonies.</p>
+
+<p>The Ai Petri, Mount Babougan (4500 feet), and
+the Tchatyr Dagh (5125 feet), the highest mountains
+in the Crimea, are seen from all parts, and from the
+summit of the latter there is a very beautiful view. All
+around it, in the country within the influence of the
+Tauric chain of mountains, is a succession of verdant
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_147">[147]</span>hills and valleys, which seem, as Dubois says, to be a
+great island, surrounded by two oceans, that of the sea
+on the south, and of the Steppes on the north, so flat
+and uniform do the latter appear to be. Tchatyr Dagh
+means tent-mountain in Tatar, and this name has been
+given to it because of its form, the last 700 feet of which
+rise like a large oblong tent, which in ancient times procured
+it the name of Mount Trapezus. There are, all
+along the Tauric chain, elevated plains, called in Tatar,
+Yailas, such as are also found in the range of the Caucasus,
+covered in both countries with excellent herbage,
+on which, in summer, large flocks of sheep and goats are
+pastured.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_127" href="#Footnote_127" class="fnanchor">[127]</a></p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_148">[148]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X.<br>
+<span class="smaller">THE HERACLEOTIC CHERSONESE.</span></h2>
+
+<p>The Heracleotic Chersonese—Origin of name—Defended by a wall—Kherson—Its
+history and remains—House of Lamachus—The predecessors of
+Vladimir and their relations with Constantinople—Account of the siege
+by Vladimir, taken out of Nestor—Vladimir’s Baptism—Springs of water—Kherson
+destroyed by Lithuanians—The bays between Sevastopol and
+Cape Chersonese—Cape Partheniké—The Tauric Diana—The monastery
+of St. George—Bustards on the Chersonese.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>After taking a general view of the hill country of Crimea,
+there still remains one little corner in the south-west to
+be described, which will henceforth have a conspicuous
+place in the history of the world, and, as we hope under
+Providence, will be famous as the spot where Russian
+tyranny was checked, and France and England cemented a
+permanent alliance based upon a common civilization, and
+fraught with the blessings of freedom and peace to the
+whole world.</p>
+
+<p>The submarine volcanoes which raised up the whole
+Tauric chain of the southern coast of Crimea, here raged
+with the greatest fury, and have torn up the land into a
+succession of deep and sheltered bays from Balaclava to
+Sevastopol, which, fourteen&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_128" href="#Footnote_128" class="fnanchor">[128]</a> in number, offer convenient
+shelter either to commercial or warlike navies.</p>
+
+<p>The ancient name of the peninsula was the Heracleotic
+Chersonese, which is derived from two Greek words—Heracleotic,
+signifying of or belonging to the Heracleans,
+and Chersonese, a peninsula. It was called Heracleotic,
+because the famous city of Kherson, which was built
+here, was originally a colony from Heraclea, a town on
+the opposite coast of the Black Sea in Bithynia, where
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_149">[149]</span>the coal-mines have been lately opened to supply our
+fleets, and the city of Kherson, or Khersonesus as it was
+sometimes called, received that name because it was
+situated on a peninsula.</p>
+
+<div class="transnote" id="illus3">
+Transcriber’s Note: The image is clickable for a larger version.
+</div>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp93" style="max-width: 15.625em;">
+  <a href="images/illus3-full.jpg"><img class="w100" src="images/illus3.jpg" alt=""></a>
+  <figcaption>
+      <p>PLAN OF RUINS OCCUPYING THE SITE OF THE
+      CAMP OF THE ALLIES AT SEVASTOPOL. 1855.</p>
+      <p><i>Published by John Murray Albemarle Sᵗ. 1855.</i>
+      <i>Ford &amp; West. Lithʳˢ.</i></p>
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>This little peninsula, high and rocky, and on three
+sides surrounded by water, is cut off from the rest of the
+Crimea by a low valley, running between Inkerman and
+Balaclava, above which, upon a line of heights, is now
+placed the French and British camp. A wall, which
+divided it off from the rest of the Crimea, may
+still be traced running from the Tchornaya Retchka,
+a little above Inkerman, to Balaclava, for a distance of
+five miles,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_129" href="#Footnote_129" class="fnanchor">[129]</a> at the foot of the hills running parallel with
+the valley, on which the main part of our army, and,
+since the affair of Balaclava, a French division under
+General Bosquet, have been encamped. The whole of
+this enclosure was in ancient times occupied with the
+gardens and villas of the inhabitants of Kherson, and
+the space within the wall is covered with ruins, among
+which the boundary marks of the fields and gardens, and
+the plans of many houses, may still be distinctly traced.
+The colony of Kherson was founded in the seventh century
+before Christ, by the Heracleans and the Delians,
+and quickly attained great commercial importance.</p>
+
+<p>The Khersonians, who were Dorians, were great rivals
+of the Bosphorians at Panticápœa or Kertch, who were
+a colony of Miletus, and consequently Ionians, and the
+two cities were continually at war, until both were united
+under the sway of Mithridates the Great, king of Pontus,
+who, when driven out of his own kingdom by Pompey,
+succeeded in obtaining the kingdom of the Bosphorus
+in the last century before the Christian era.</p>
+
+<p>Kherson, like all the adjacent countries, afterwards
+fell under the sway of the Romans, and continued an
+important place during the greatness and decline of the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_150">[150]</span>empire, down to the epoch when the dispersed Slavonic
+tribes were united into one nation, called Russians, by
+Norman princes, in the ninth century. From that time
+Kherson, situated about half-way between Kief and Constantinople,
+was constantly a subject of dispute between
+the Russians and the Greeks.</p>
+
+<p>There are many remains of the ancient town, the site
+of which is on the promontory between the Quarantine
+and Streletska bays, where a French battery is now
+erected.</p>
+
+<p>The wall which defended it was on the land side, running
+at the head of Quarantine Bay, passing across
+the plateau of the isthmus, and then descending by
+zigzags to the Bay of Soses, now called Streletska Bay.
+The wall was nearly two miles in length, and built
+of limestone, five or six feet thick. There were three
+towers, of which the largest was placed on the top of
+the isthmus, and defended the principal gate, a massive
+edifice, vaulted, with a guard-house belonging to it. Part
+of this was still standing up to the time of the occupation
+of this site by the French. An inscription was found in
+the ruins, which declared the tower to have been restored
+about the year 491 <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> The traces of the ancient roads
+and gardens that covered the little territory of the colony,
+and the plan of the town, are distinctly traceable. The
+principal street through it was about twenty feet wide,
+and on the left in descending was the great market-place,
+which is easily recognised by the heaps of earth in the
+shape of a great tumulus, of which further mention will
+afterwards be made.</p>
+
+<p>The remains of a large palace stand on one side of the
+small street leading to the market-place, which is doubtless
+one of those which Nestor mentions as being near
+the Church of the Virgin.</p>
+
+<p>Lieutenant Kruse was commissioned by the Russian
+Government to excavate whatever seemed of interest in
+the ruins, and he began by the churches, three of which
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_151">[151]</span>he uncovered. One of these, the nearest to the market-place,
+is most probably the ancient cathedral of Kherson,
+built by the piety of Vladimir, in memory of his taking
+the city, and of his own conversion to Christianity; and
+this is probably the church which has unfortunately
+been injured&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_130" href="#Footnote_130" class="fnanchor">[130]</a> by the French, and of which such frequent
+mention has been made of late in the Russian proclamations.
+When it was discovered, the remains of a
+semicircular apse were visible; and columns of a fine
+white crystalline marble, striped with blue, showed in
+the nave of the edifice the position of the transepts and
+the dome. Great Byzantine crosses ornamented the
+capitals of the columns and many parts of the interior.
+The whole exterior wall remained to about the height of
+three or four feet, and within its precincts Lieutenant
+Kruse collected all the columns and other remains that
+were found, the greater part of which were drawn out of
+what he called “a great cistern” underneath the dome,
+which was probably an ancient crypt.</p>
+
+<p>The second church that was discovered was larger than
+the cathedral, built in the form of a Greek cross, and
+fifty-three feet each way. The semicircular seats for the
+clergy were found entire in the apse, and a coarse mosaic
+still existed as the pavement.</p>
+
+<p>This edifice was remarkable, because it was evidently
+a beautiful Greek temple metamorphosed into a Christian
+church, and bases and capitals of Ionic columns,
+and other parts of Greek architecture, were built into its
+walls. Perhaps this had been the Parthenon of Kherson,
+dedicated to the famous Virgin divinity of the ancient
+Tauri. Lieutenant Kruse excavated a third church, and
+then discontinued his labours. The positions of a mass
+of streets can be traced, tortuous and narrow, like those
+of Eastern towns to this day, and as the whole Chersonese
+was built over, we may suppose that there existed here
+5000 houses and 40,000 or 50,000 inhabitants.</p>
+
+<p>The high level plain was bordered with houses, from
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_152">[152]</span>which steps were cut in the rock down to the water’s
+edge, and half way between the two bays, where the
+rock naturally sloped down, was a landing-place and a
+market; and there remains a perfect well and the traces of
+an aqueduct. There were only two springs of water in
+the Chersonese, both near Balaclava. From one near
+Khouter Oukhákof the water was conveyed in pipes, some
+of which have been lately found, and it was this conduit
+which Vladimir cut when he took the town of Kherson.
+The water of the other spring has been carried to Sevastopol,
+which for a long time was only supplied by some
+wells and small sources of water at the extremity of the
+South bay. This principal spring, which used to be
+private property, was taken for public use by the Russian
+Government, and supplies only thirty-six pints a minute.
+Immense reservoirs were constructed in ancient times near
+the Quarantine Bay to catch rain-water, but they are now
+filled up, and three modern wells have been dug.</p>
+
+<p>The place of one single monument of the ancient
+Greek times is clearly marked among the remains of this
+ancient city, and that is the house of Lamachus.</p>
+
+<p>At all times I have said there was a great rivalry
+between the Bosphorians and the Khersonians, and the
+latter were probably, for the first time, subjected to the
+former during the reign of Praisades I. Kherson underwent
+a second time the same fate when hardly pressed
+by the Tauro-Scythians, under their king, Skilouros, and
+the city was then obliged to place itself under the protection
+of the great Mithridates, to whom and his
+successors, kings of Bosphorus, it remained subject, until
+it recovered its independence under the Romans.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_131" href="#Footnote_131" class="fnanchor">[131]</a> After
+this time there was again constant hostility and war between
+the two cities, and when one of the kings of the
+Bosphorus undertook an expedition into Asia Minor,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_132" href="#Footnote_132" class="fnanchor">[132]</a> the
+Khersonians took the opportunity of conquering his capital,
+Panticápœa (Kertch). Again, in the fourth century, the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_153">[153]</span>grandson of this king was defeated by the Khersonians
+at Kaffa, or Theodosia, which then became the boundary
+of the two States. In a second war soon afterwards,
+Pharnáces, the Stephanóphorus of Kherson, killed this
+king in single combat, and carried the boundaries of his
+city close to the walls of Panticápœa.</p>
+
+<p>Of course these victories of the Khersonians increased
+the hatred of the Bosphorians against them, and in the year
+334 or 336 <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span>, Assander, the last king of the Bosphorus,
+thought he had found an effectual way of meddling in
+their affairs. He asked in marriage for one of his sons
+the daughter of Lamachus, the Stephanóphorus, or chief
+magistrate of Kherson, the most powerful man in the
+town, famous for his riches in gold, silver, slaves,
+serving-women, horses, and lands. He also possessed a
+house with four courts, occupying all one quarter of the
+town, lying near the exterior port of the Bay of Soses
+(now Streletzka Bay), where he had a private door
+pierced in the walls of the town, which is the only one
+which now remains entire. Four magnificent gateways
+guarded the approaches to his house, and each herd of
+oxen and cows, horses and mares, sheep and asses, returning
+from pasture, had its own particular entrance and
+stables.</p>
+
+<p>The eldest of the sons of Assander married Glycia, the
+daughter of Lamachus, under the express condition that he
+should never return to Panticápœa, to visit his father, not
+even at the hour of his death. After two years Lamachus
+died, and Glycia the following year wished, according to the
+general custom, on the anniversary of her father’s death,
+to give a grand feast to all the people of Kherson, and
+her riches were sufficient to provide them all with wine,
+bread, oil, meat, poultry, and fish, and she promised to
+renew this festival each year. The son of Assander,
+deeply vexed at such prodigality, pretended to praise her
+filial affection, but secretly determined to revenge himself
+by seizing this occasion to hatch a plot against the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_154">[154]</span>town. He wrote to his father to send him from time
+to time a dozen young Bosphorians, strong and active,
+to be introduced into the town under pretext of a visit.
+Disembarking at the port of Symbols (Balaclava), where
+they left their vessel, they came on foot to Kherson,
+spent some days there, and then, pretending to return,
+passed out at the great gate in the evening, and crossed
+the Chersonese; but when night came on, they retraced
+their steps by circuitous paths, till they reached the
+Great Harbour (Sevastopol), where a boat was in readiness
+to bring them round to the foot of the Bay of Soses
+(Streletzka Bay) on the other side. Here a friend expected
+them, and opened for them the little door into
+the house of Lamachus. Concealed in the vast palace,
+they waited for the next anniversary, in order to seize
+the town and massacre the people, overcome by wine and
+good cheer.</p>
+
+<p>A lucky accident caused the treachery to be discovered.
+On the eve of the feast, one of the servants of Glycia
+having disobeyed her mistress, was shut up in a distant
+chamber, which happened to be just above that in
+which the Bosphorians were concealed. The loss of her
+spindle, which rolled into a hole near the wall, induced
+the girl to lift up a square of the floor in search of it.
+She then saw the Bosphorians assembled, and hastened
+to inform her mistress, who forgave her fault, and
+told her to keep the secret until she should be prepared
+to deal with the traitors. She then in strict confidence
+conferred with three delegates from the town,
+and having made them swear that in recompense for her
+patriotism, they would, contrary to established custom,
+bury her inside the town, she communicated to them the
+astounding news, and gave them directions how to act.
+She made them celebrate the festival gaily as if nothing
+was to happen, and only bid each man prepare some
+faggots and torches. Then, having drugged her husband’s
+wine and escaped from the house with her maids,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_155">[155]</span>carrying her trinkets and gold, she ordered the faggots
+to be piled round the house and fired, and thus made all
+the traitors perish in the flames.</p>
+
+<p>The citizens of Kherson wished to rebuild the house
+of Glycia at the public expense, but this she strongly
+opposed, and, on the contrary, caused them to heap up
+every kind of filth and refuse on the place stained by
+treachery, which was called ever afterwards “the Den of
+Lamachus.”</p>
+
+<p>This monument, more indestructible than brass or
+marble, is still there, and, without knowing the story of
+Glycia, the stranger is astonished to find the rubbish of
+all the town piled on the top of the plain, which borders
+Streletzka Bay, in one of the finest situations of Kherson.
+On passing through the little door which is near the
+landing-place outside the walls, the remains of a mole
+are still to be seen below the level of the water.</p>
+
+<p>The Khersonians raised two statues of brass on the
+public place in honour of Glycia, in one of which she
+was represented modestly and carefully attired, receiving
+the three deputies of the town, and in the other she was
+clothed in warrior garments, in the act of avenging the
+betrayed citizens. At the time when Constantine Porphyrogenitus
+wrote the account from which this has
+been extracted, every citizen considered it his duty to
+keep clean and bright the inscription which the gratitude
+of the city had caused to be engraven upon her
+monument.</p>
+
+<p>Kherson was little distinguished during the time of
+the Byzantine Empire, except as occasionally taking part
+in the frequent revolutions at Constantinople. As it
+stood near the route through the plains of Southern
+Russia by which the barbarians invaded the empire, it
+was exposed to constant wars, and kept up a close intimacy
+with the Greek emperors, who frequently sent it
+succours, and sometimes received from it valuable assistance.
+At length, in the tenth century, it underwent a
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_156">[156]</span>famous siege by Vladimir, Grand Duke of Russia, which,
+as it marks the important period of the conversion of the
+Russian nation to Christianity, I will shortly narrate
+out of the Russian Chronicles, premising a few words
+on the early Norman rulers of Russia, to explain the
+relations of that people with the Greeks at the period
+to which I allude.</p>
+
+<p>Rurik&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_133" href="#Footnote_133" class="fnanchor">[133]</a> the Norman was called over from Scandinavia
+by the Slave nations to govern them about the year
+862 <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span>, as at that time their chiefs were fighting
+among themselves, and the people said, in the words
+of the old Chronicler, “Let us seek a foreign prince
+who shall govern us, and speak justly to us.” An embassy,
+therefore, was sent to the Russ Varangians or
+Normans across the Baltic in Scandinavia, and in consequence
+Rurik arrived and reigned till 879 <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span></p>
+
+<p>Already during his reign some Normans had led a
+force down the Dniepr against Constantinople, which is
+always called in the early chronicles Tzaragrad, or the
+city of the Tzar,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_134" href="#Footnote_134" class="fnanchor">[134]</a> the title given to the Greek emperor.
+Oleg, the successor of Rurik, made another expedition
+against Constantinople in 907, which he successfully
+attacked according to Nestor by placing his vessels on
+wheels and sailing across the narrow strip of land that
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_157">[157]</span>intervenes between the upper part of the Golden Horn
+and the Black Sea. The city was ransomed, and the
+fleet returned with silken sails for the Russian and cotton
+ones for the Slaves, and in 912 a treaty was concluded
+“to fix the limits of Russia and Greece.”</p>
+
+<p>Under the next prince, Igor, the Russians made two
+more attacks against Constantinople, in the first of which
+they were defeated by the Greek fire. The second was
+successful, and gave rise to a treaty in which Kherson
+is mentioned in a way that shows that this city had
+always been allied with the Greek emperors, and continually
+harassed by the Russians. It is said, “as to
+the country of Kherson, the Russian princes are not in
+future to have any troops in it, or in any of the towns
+that are dependent on it, still less to make war with
+this country and to endeavour to conquer it. But if
+the Russian prince requires aid, we the Tzar (the Greek
+Emperor) promise to furnish it, to replace under his
+authority those of the surrounding countries which have
+thrown it off. And if the Russians meet at the mouth
+the Dniepr Khersonian fishermen, they shall not injure
+them, and they shall not have the right to winter at the
+mouth of the Dniepr, nor at Bielo Bejie (Berislaf), but
+at the approach of autumn they shall return into their
+own country, into Russia. If the Black Bulgarians
+attack the country of Kherson, we recommend the
+Russian prince to drive them back, and not to allow them
+to disturb the peace.”&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_135" href="#Footnote_135" class="fnanchor">[135]</a></p>
+
+<p>Olga, the widow of Igor, reigned after him till 955.
+She visited Constantinople as a guest, and became a
+Christian. Indeed many of the Russians were christened
+before this epoch, and the Bible had been translated into
+Slavonic nearly a hundred years before. The Emperor
+Constantine, or Romanus II., wished to marry Olga,
+then more than sixty years old, but she refused him.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_158">[158]</span></p>
+
+<p>Sviatoslaw her son (955-963) twice conquered Bulgaria,
+and advancing with a victorious army to the walls
+of Constantinople, was as usual bought off, and a new
+treaty was made, in which Kherson is again mentioned.</p>
+
+<p>Vladimir began to reign in 980, and though in the
+beginning a determined idolator, in later times he sent
+ambassadors to various countries to see which was the
+best religion. They visited the Mahometan Bulgarians,
+Roman Catholic Germans, the Jews and the Greeks, and
+struck with the splendour of their service, they reported
+in favour of the Greeks.</p>
+
+<p>Upon this nothing took place till, in the words of
+Nestor, “It happened that in the course of the next year
+(988 <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span>) Vladimir with his army invaded Kherson.
+The inhabitants shut themselves up in the walls of the
+town, and Vladimir established his camp on each side,
+near the harbour, just within shot of the said town.
+The besieged defended themselves valiantly, yet, as
+Vladimir always pressed on the siege, they began to lose
+courage, and he said to them, ‘If you do not surrender,
+I swear that I will remain here three years.’</p>
+
+<p>“To this threat the besieged paid no attention, and
+Vladimir made his soldiers take up their arms, and
+ordered the assault, but while they were engaged in it,
+the Khersonians, having made a way into the ditches,
+took out the earth which the besieged had thrown into
+them to fill them up, and brought it into the town, and
+the more the Russians threw into the ditches, the more
+the besieged took out of them. But while Vladimir was
+besieging Kherson, and constraining its inhabitants, a
+certain Athanasius shot into the enemy’s camp an arrow
+bearing this advice, ‘Thou canst stop or turn aside the
+source of the springs which are behind thee, towards the
+east: it is thence that the waters of the town are brought
+to us.’ At this news Vladimir lifted his eyes to heaven
+and cried out, ‘If this be true, I promise to receive
+baptism.’ And forthwith he gave the order to stop the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_159">[159]</span>pipes and turn off the water. Soon the besieged, worn
+out, and dying of thirst, surrendered, and Vladimir, with
+his people, made his entry into the town. Vladimir
+then asked the Emperors Basil and Constantine for their
+sister Anne in marriage, and she was granted him on
+condition of his baptism, and was received into the port
+by the Khersonians, who conducted her to the palace.</p>
+
+<p>“The baptism of Vladimir&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_136" href="#Footnote_136" class="fnanchor">[136]</a> took place in the church
+of the Holy Mother of God at Kherson, situated in
+the midst of the town on the market-place. It is
+here near the church, by the side of the altar, that
+is to be seen to this day the palace of Vladimir and
+that of the princess. Immediately after the baptism,
+the bishop conducted the princess for another ceremony,
+that of marriage. Vladimir ordered to be built a church
+in Kherson, on the hill made with the earth which the
+inhabitants had piled up in the centre of the town
+during the siege, which church may still be seen in our
+days.”&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_137" href="#Footnote_137" class="fnanchor">[137]</a></p>
+
+<p>Nothing can be more simple than this church, the
+remains of which have been uncovered by Lieutenant
+Kruse, and which is a model of the antique Byzantine
+style. Vladimir received from the Greeks, as the dowry
+of the princess, the city of Kherson.</p>
+
+<p>When he returned to Kief he determined, in true autocratic
+style, that all his people should follow his own
+example. So he cast the favourite idol Peroun, the God
+of Thunder, into the Dniepr, and then proclaimed that
+whoever did not appear on its banks should be treated as
+a rebel, and when all the people were assembled, men,
+women, and children were sent into the water to be
+baptized all together.</p>
+
+<p>There has been a question about two gates of Corinthian
+brass, which were said to have been carried from
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_160">[160]</span>Kherson to Kiew by Vladimir, and to have been removed
+thence by Boleslas II., king of Poland, who
+placed them at the entrance of the cathedral of Grodno,
+while other authors pretend that they now exist in
+the cathedral of St. Sophia at Great Novgorod.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_138" href="#Footnote_138" class="fnanchor">[138]</a>
+Nestor makes no mention of the doors, but only says
+that Vladimir brought back from Kherson the Tzarina
+Anastasia, the priests of Kherson, the relics of St. Clement,
+and his disciple Phira, and vases and instruments
+for burning incense, and that he did all this for the
+welfare of his soul. He also says that the prince carried
+away with him two images of brass, and four horses in
+metal, which in his time stood behind the church of the
+Holy Mother of God in Kiew, and were thought by the
+ignorant to be made of marble. It is possible that later
+writers may have confounded the “images” with the
+“gates of brass.”</p>
+
+<p>Kherson was finally destroyed, after 2000 years’
+existence, by Olgerd, the nephew of Gedimine the
+Lithuanian, the founder of Vilna, the ancestor of the
+Jagellons, and the conqueror of Kief and all Southern
+Russia.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_139" href="#Footnote_139" class="fnanchor">[139]</a></p>
+
+<p>After its pillage by the Lithuanians, Kherson was
+almost deserted, and when the Turks, in 1475, took possession
+of the Crimea, they only found in it empty houses
+and deserted churches, from which they removed the
+finest marbles for their buildings at Constantinople.
+Bronovius visited the city at the end of the sixteenth
+century, and says that the Turks called it Sari Kerman,
+or the Yellow Castle, on account of the yellow colour of
+the ground, and it had then been uninhabited for many
+centuries. The ruins, however, of what he calls this
+“proud, delicate, and illustrious city,” were then wonderful.
+The wall and its towers, built of enormous
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_161">[161]</span>blocks of hewn stone, were perfect, and a beautiful
+aqueduct still brought the purest water. The palace of
+the kings, itself as large as a city, with magnificent
+entrance gates, continued to exist. The churches were despoiled,
+because of their valuable marbles, and the largest
+Greek monastery alone remained entire.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_140" href="#Footnote_140" class="fnanchor">[140]</a> After three
+more centuries, what the Turks and the Tatars had spared
+was taken by the Russians, when they built Sevastopol.
+Sailors were sent to collect materials, and no ancient
+remains respected. The walls and fine gateways which
+still existed were pulled down to build the Quarantine,
+and when the Emperor Alexander issued orders to stop
+this Vandalism, the ruin of every thing precious had
+been already consummated. The last remains of works
+of art, which Lieutenant Kruse had collected with persevering
+industry, disappeared after a detachment of
+soldiers had been lodged in the ruins for a few years
+at the time of the plague.</p>
+
+<p>Between Sevastopol and Cape Chersonese, at the extremity
+of the peninsula, there are no less than six large
+bays, which succeed each other in the following order:
+the Quarantine Bay and Streletzka Bay, which have
+been already mentioned; Krougly Bay, or the Round
+Bay; Cosatcha Bay, Bay of Cossacks, and Dvoiny Bay,
+or Double Bay, where the Heracleans first settled themselves
+before they moved to the Kherson, which has
+been described. One branch of Dvoiny Bay is also
+called Kamiesch, or the Reedy Bay, and it is here that
+the French ships are anchored and the stores for their
+army disembarked. The Chersonese is terminated to
+the west by Cape Chersonese, called also Cape Fanar,
+on account of the lighthouse, and the whole of the promontory
+on which it stands is covered with the ruins
+of the first Kherson.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_141" href="#Footnote_141" class="fnanchor">[141]</a> Crossing then in a south-east
+direction for several miles, over a plain covered
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_162">[162]</span>with ruins, we arrive at another cape, called in ancient
+times Cape Partheniké, or that of the Virgin, and now
+Cape Violente or St. George, from the monastery of the
+same name which is near it, on a spot interesting for
+several reasons.</p>
+
+<p>The cape derived its ancient name from the cruel
+Virgin divinity of the Tauri, so famous in early history,
+to whom all strangers were sacrificed who suffered shipwreck
+on this inhospitable coast. When the Greeks
+arrived from Heraclea they brought in the worship of
+Hercules and Diana, and, as they always respected the
+religion of the countries they visited, and found a great
+resemblance between their own Diana and the Virgin of
+the Tauri, they probably merged the two into one under
+the name of the Tauric Diana, discontinuing the ancient
+barbarous custom of offering human victims. At a later
+period, Iphigenia was confounded with the other two
+divinities, as Herodotus expressly says that in his time
+she was worshipped as a goddess.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_142" href="#Footnote_142" class="fnanchor">[142]</a> The Tauric goddess
+had her parthenon in Kherson, and her chapel on
+Cape Partheniké. The road is still visible by which
+the worshippers passed from Kherson to the promontory,
+crossing a ridge of rocks, on which the traces of the
+ancient chariot-wheels are distinctly visible.</p>
+
+<p>The cape is remarkable as being the exact limit between
+the most ancient and the most modern geological
+formations in the Crimea. Here, on the top of the precipice,
+an immense rock of Jurassic limestone juts out
+from the coast, on a level with the steppe, and bordered
+by sheer precipices on every side, except where it is connected
+with the mainland. In the centre are the foundations
+of an isolated edifice, almost square, constructed of
+hewn stone, like the Donjons of the houses on the Chersonese.
+It was placed at the angle of the two walls,
+which, advancing one to the west, and the other to the
+south, on the edge of the precipice, formed of the rest of
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_163">[163]</span>the platform a kind of court, of which the entrance-gate
+looked towards the Chersonese and the road. This could
+only have been a temple, for here are neither the wells
+nor buildings which always characterize a dwelling-house.
+This was also the fittest situation for the worship of
+the Tauric Virgin, for at this point only could the sea
+be reached on this side of the Chersonese, and close to
+it is a gorge in the form of an amphitheatre, where
+doubtless, in the earliest times, crowds assembled to
+witness the precipitation of the unhappy victims into
+the sea.</p>
+
+<p>Near it, ensconced in a ledge of the precipice, is the
+famous monastery of St. George.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_143" href="#Footnote_143" class="fnanchor">[143]</a> From the plateau
+above, which has all the aridity and monotony of the
+Steppes,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_144" href="#Footnote_144" class="fnanchor">[144]</a> its ancient walls are not visible, and it is
+not till the traveller approaches the edge of the cliffs,
+and looks over, that he sees, instead of a frightful
+wave-beaten precipice, a most charming little village,
+nestled in the rocks at about fifty feet below him. There
+are a church, and houses, and terraces, cut one below the
+other, and ancient poplars, and gardens irrigated by a
+fine rivulet of water. The spot looks like a little oasis
+suspended, as if by enchantment, at several hundred feet
+above the sea, in the midst of an amphitheatre of black
+basaltic rocks, which rise majestically around, and form
+a striking contrast to the rich verdure in which the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_164">[164]</span>monastery is hidden. A door and staircase, cut in
+the rock, form the only entrance to this great Hermitage,
+which was no doubt first created by the ancient Troglodytes,
+or dwellers under ground, whose remains are so
+numerous in the Crimea, as all the rocks near the
+monastery, which are composed of chalk, are pierced
+by ancient grottoes, which are now only used as cellars
+and poultry-yards, although they were inhabited by the
+monks so lately as the time of Pallas, in 1794. The
+monastery consists of many large buildings, several of
+which are devoted to the reception of strangers. The
+church has unfortunately been rebuilt, and the ancient
+chapel that stood here has been totally destroyed. A
+rivulet runs in front of the houses, and trickles into a
+stone basin, shaded by poplars, while below it are terraced
+gardens and small vineyards.</p>
+
+<p>This little nook generally enjoys a most unbroken
+quiet, but on the 23rd of April, St. George’s-day—when
+crowds arrive, and the plateau above is covered with huts
+and tents—the Greeks, from all parts of Crimea, flock
+to the place, and the women especially frequent the fête,
+and embellish the scene by their picturesque dresses and
+traditional beauty. As in most religious festivals, the
+world always claims its part, and a kind of fair is held
+here in the early part of the day, at which much
+business is done. But all at once the scene changes—the
+hour of divine service has arrived, the crowd flocks
+to the church, and, as soon as the benediction has been
+given, there is a rush to the basin containing the water,
+which is supposed at this season to be a remedy against
+all kinds of diseases.</p>
+
+<p>On a terrace, close to the monastery, there are traces
+of several Greek temples. A dreary and barren road
+leads past the village of Karany, through a valley, to
+Balaklava, at which town terminates the Chersonese.
+The Chersonese in winter serves as a refuge to a
+great quantity of bustards, that are driven from the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_165">[165]</span>plains by the snow. Thousands may be seen at once,
+and the hunters conceal themselves in little cabins and
+shoot them as they pass, for the birds, tired and thin
+at this season of the year, fly very low, and may be
+almost caught by the hand. There are two kinds, a
+large and a small; the latter are better eating, and
+both are very cheap, and a favourite article of food in
+Sevastopol.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_145" href="#Footnote_145" class="fnanchor">[145]</a> When the snow covers the Chersonese,
+and the cold reaches sometimes 16° Fahrenheit, the
+bustards fly to the southern coast, to Laspi, where it is
+always warm.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_166">[166]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI.<br>
+<span class="smaller">ON THE ANCIENT INHABITANTS OF THE CRIMEA.</span></h2>
+
+<p>The Cimmerii—The Tauri—Connexion of Greece with the Black Sea—Digression
+on the Crypts of the Crimea—<span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span> 600: The Scythians—The
+Greek colonies, <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span> 650—Milesian emigration—Dorian emigration—Trade
+of these early times—Mithridates, reigned <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span> 120-63—<span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> 62:
+The Alans—<span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> 100-200: The Goths—<span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> 376: The Huns—Second
+attack of the Huns—Justinian, reigned <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> 527-565—<span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> 679: The
+Khazars—<span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> 900-1000: The Petchenegues—About 1204: The Comans—1226:
+The Tatars—The Genoese—1473: Kaffa taken by the Turks—The
+Black Sea then shut up to European nations—Mixture of races in
+present inhabitants of Crimea.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>Having had occasion to mention various nations who
+have occupied the Crimea, it will perhaps be useful to
+bring together in one succinct view the numerous revolutions
+which the peninsula has undergone, and the order
+in which the various races of its inhabitants succeeded
+one another from the earliest times.</p>
+
+<p>First of all come the Cimmerians, who belong partly
+to history and partly to fable. The story in the ‘Odyssey’
+describes them as dwelling beyond the ocean stream,
+plunged in darkness, and unblest by the rays of Helios
+(the sun). According to Herodotus, they originally occupied
+the Steppes of Southern Russia, or the country between
+the Borysthenes and the Tanais, and being expelled
+from their country by the Scythians, skirted the shores
+of the Euxine, and devastated, for a number of years, the
+highly civilized countries of Asia Minor. The poets of
+that age lament the destruction of every exquisite production
+of Greek genius by this barbarian people, who
+were nomadic “milkers of mares,” like the Scythians,
+and wandered in tents over their grassy Steppes. They
+had already disappeared in the time of Herodotus, at
+which time the tombs of their kings were shown near
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_167">[167]</span>the Dniestr. They left their name in the Cimmerian
+Bosphorus, while the darkness in which they were supposed
+to have lived has perpetuated their memory down
+to our own times—</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+  <div class="poetry">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">“In black Cimmerian darkness ever dwell.”</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p>There was another people mentioned as early as the
+time of Homer, who, being mountaineers, were able to
+preserve their nationality for a very long period of time.
+These were the Tauri, who appear to have been a people
+of a most savage and unamiable character.</p>
+
+<p>It has been already said that they sacrificed to a cruel
+goddess all shipwrecked mariners, and they sometimes
+not only made offerings but feasts of human victims.
+These habits have procured them an immortal infamy in
+the writings of the Greeks and Romans, and, through
+the story of Iphigenia, have made the Crimea associated
+with one of the most famous legends of the Greek mythology.
+Her history and that of her fate-urged family,
+connected with great events, abounding in scenes of concentrated
+action, laid in mysterious and wild countries—contained
+much matter calculated to rouse the passions,
+and have made it a favourite subject for poets both in
+ancient and modern times.</p>
+
+<p>The works of almost every great poet of antiquity contain
+allusions to the tragic history of the Atridæ, and the
+fate of Iphigenia has occupied in modern times the pen
+of Racine and Göthe. It was also a popular subject
+with ancient painters, and Timanthes, having represented
+her just about to be sacrificed, after exhausting all his
+art in depicting the grief of the other bystanders, drew a
+veil over the face of her father as the best means of
+representing his inexpressible anguish.</p>
+
+<p>The story of Iphigenia is not an isolated instance of
+the attention which the most ancient Greeks seem in
+numerous cases to have directed to the East, and the
+expeditions of Phrixus and Helle, of the Argonauts, the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_168">[168]</span>long wanderings of Ulysses on the coasts of Colchis, the
+Crimea, and the Cimmerian Bosphorus, and the Achæans,
+who were said, in returning from Troy, to have settled
+on the Circassian coast,—all have the same tendency.</p>
+
+<p>In the time of Herodotus the Tauri occupied the hill-country
+of the Crimea, and were in all probability the
+people who formed the numberless dwellings and towns
+cut in the solid rock, which are found in many parts of
+the country. The chalk or green-sandstone formation,
+easily wrought, homogeneous, with few fissures, and
+horizontal beds, was peculiarly adapted for this purpose;
+and wherever it crops out of the soil, there are sure to be
+found these subterranean dwellings.</p>
+
+<p>These crypts are the most curious remains of antiquity
+in the Crimea, and abound chiefly in the south-western
+parts, forming perhaps the only relics of its most ancient
+inhabitants. Not that the use of crypts was confined
+solely to the most ancient times, for many Christian
+churches are found in them, and they must therefore
+have been inhabited at least down to the fourth or fifth
+centuries of the Christian era, when the inhabitants of the
+Crimea were converted to Christianity. Although there
+are few countries of the world in which they exist in such
+great numbers as in a portion of the Crimea, still this
+habit of living in subterranean dwellings was very common
+among ancient nations, and instances of it are familiar
+to all. The crypts are the only relics of those ages
+in the infancy of the world, when, according to mythic
+legends, men dwelt in caverns and were nourished on
+acorns.</p>
+
+<p>A large portion of the populations of Asia, when they
+became fixed, began by burrowing out holes for themselves
+in the rocks. Caverns were then used as their
+temples and their sepulchres.</p>
+
+<p>The rock temples scattered over various parts of India
+are some of them imperishable monuments of times on
+which history is silent.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_169">[169]</span></p>
+
+<p>Persia has its crypt tombs and cities, that have called
+forth the admiration of all travellers. Egypt, Nubia,
+and Abyssinia began by crypts, and the rock temples,
+palaces, and immense necropoleis (which were at first
+towns for the living) attest the art and industry of one
+of the most remarkable of ancient nations. The traditions
+of Greece point back to a time when caverns were
+common dwellings. In Sicily the rocks are pierced with
+crypt towns of very ingenious workmanship. In Magna
+Græcia and Etruria crypt tombs are common, and the
+labyrinth of Crete was the theatre of some of the earliest
+Greek myths. In Asia Minor, and even in Thrace, the
+same sort of works may be found.</p>
+
+<p>Notices of them are also frequent in the Bible. The
+Kaphtorians or Phœnicians came from the southern
+coasts of the Red Sea, and disembarked at its northern
+extremity under Edom, who gave his name to the country,
+so that it is no wonder that we find the Idumæans
+or Edomites dwelling in caves down to a late period.
+The antique towns in the valley of the Jordan and the
+Dead Sea are crypt towns, like those of the Crimea, but
+executed by a people in a higher state of civilization.
+The Edomites or Phœnicians played a great part, before
+the arrival of the Hebrews in Egypt, and their commerce
+embraced the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. They
+extended their mercantile relations as far as Sidon and
+Tyre, and carried at the same time to the foot of Mount
+Lebanon their custom of excavation. The northern
+valley of the Jordan, the Ard el Hule, is pierced with
+crypt towns, of which the most remarkable are Hatsor
+and Bostra. Their inhabitants were proud of their
+dwellings in the rocks, which they regarded as impregnable,
+which made the prophet Jeremiah exclaim, ch. xlix.
+v. 16, “Thy terribleness hath deceived thee, and the
+pride of thine heart, O thou that dwellest in the clefts of
+the rock, that boldest the heights of the hill, though
+thou shouldest make thy nest as high as the hill, I will
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_170">[170]</span>bring thee down, saith the Lord.” Every reader is
+familiar with the caves of Makeda, Adullam, and Engeddi,
+in the patriarchal history, and Jerusalem itself was surrounded
+with crypt tombs. In the country of Tubal, the
+modern Georgia, the ancestors of that ancient and chivalrous
+people dwelt in subterranean dwellings, such as
+are now to be seen at Ouphlitsikhé and Armasi. In
+Armenia, which enjoys the high privilege of having been
+the first Christian nation, and of having suffered more
+than any other for its faith, the art of the crypt has
+always been in great favour, and innumerable specimens
+are to be seen at Hrachegapert, and at the monasteries
+of Airivauk, Kieghart, and other places.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_146" href="#Footnote_146" class="fnanchor">[146]</a></p>
+
+<p>On the banks of the Upper Kour, in Imeritia, a country
+adjoining on Georgia, there are many places, such as
+Vardsic and others, where these dwellings are to be found,
+and the termination “kvabi,” or cavern, in the names of
+places always indicates their existence.</p>
+
+<p>In Mingrelia, the ancient Colchis, there are an infinity
+of grottoes on the banks of the Upper Phasis (modern
+Krivila), and one whole district, Semokvákana (the high
+dwellings), takes its name from them.</p>
+
+<p>Lastly, in the centre of the Caucasus, in the valley of
+the Kouir, and near Kislavodsk and other places, are to
+be found the dwellings of the Troglodytes of Strabo.</p>
+
+<p>Thus it appears how largely the crypt enters into the
+early history of mankind, and how much of human
+labour has been expended upon a species of dwelling
+which is so widely spread over the Crimea.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_147" href="#Footnote_147" class="fnanchor">[147]</a></p>
+
+<p>Even among the modern Tatars in that country their
+habitations are seldom wholly detached from the rocks.
+They generally choose some shady sloping place for their
+villages, and supporting two sides of their houses by
+walls of brick or mud, with a little verandah in front,
+they let the other parts rest either in a niche cut in the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_171">[171]</span>earth, or against the side of a precipice. In Georgia it
+is often dangerous riding from the subterranean villages
+formed in the sloping sides of hills, the flat roofs of
+which look just like the common earth, and a person
+unused to the country might easily sink into the midst of
+an astonished family, did not the wreath of smoke generally
+prove a warning of the treacherous nature of the soil.</p>
+
+<p>Returning from this digression to the history of the
+Tauri, I will only further remark that, from a similarity
+of manners, and other causes, they are considered to
+belong to the Tchud or Finnish race of nations, and thus
+to be related to the Lesghins and Tchetchens of the
+Caucasus, and the famous Finnish pirates who infested
+the shores of the Baltic down to the tenth and eleventh
+centuries.</p>
+
+<p>The resemblance of the Virgin goddess of the Greeks
+and the cruel divinity of the Tauri, perhaps may arise
+from the fact of the Greek nation itself being composed
+of the two elements of an Indo-Germanic graft upon a
+primitive Finnish stock. When the Indo-Germanic
+wave of population rolled towards the West it drove
+the earlier races before it, or forced them aside into the
+mountains as the only secure resting-place. Thus the
+mountain chain of the Crimea played on a small scale
+the part of the Caucasus, and served as a refuge for the
+remnant of the Finns against the Indo-Germanic races
+who surrounded them, of which the most ancient known
+to us were the Kimmerians. The word Tauri probably
+means mountaineers.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_148" href="#Footnote_148" class="fnanchor">[148]</a></p>
+
+<p>In <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span> 600 the Scythians, who were also a nation of
+Finnish origin, invaded the Crimea, and mixing with the
+Tauri formed the nation of the Tauro-Scythians, whose
+principal seat was in the valleys to the north of the
+Tauric chain.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_172">[172]</span></p>
+
+<p>A short time before the Scythian invasion, about
+<span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span> 650, the Greeks, who, as I have said, had been before
+connected with these countries, began to plant colonies
+about which we have definite historical information.
+The Milesians first established themselves on the peninsula
+of Kertch, an open country of easy cultivation.
+Their agricultural prosperity was quickly known in
+Greece, and new and important emigrations took place.
+Theodosia, Nymphæum, Panticapæum, and Myrmékium
+quickly raised their heads on the shores of the little
+peninsula, and served as ports for the rich establishments
+of the colonists.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_149" href="#Footnote_149" class="fnanchor">[149]</a></p>
+
+<p>Stimulated by the success of the Milesians, the Heracleans
+endeavoured on their side to found some colonies
+in the Crimea. They turned to the western part of the
+peninsula, and disembarked not far from the celebrated
+Cape Partheniké, and, having beaten and driven back
+into the mountains the savage Tauri, they fixed themselves
+in the Heracleotic Chersonese. Thus was founded
+the celebrated republic of Kherson, which, conquered for
+a moment by a Grand Duke of Russia in the tenth century,
+as has been related, became the point of departure
+of that great religious revolution which completely
+changed the character and destinies of the Russian
+Empire.</p>
+
+<p>While the Heracleans were consolidating their power
+by their manufactures and commerce, the Milesian establishments
+on the Bosphorus were rising with extraordinary
+rapidity, and spread to the Asiatic side, where
+the towns of Phanagoria, Hermonássa, and Cépos were
+founded. At first, independent one of the other, all
+these different Milesian colonies were influenced by an
+inevitable chain of events, and, 480 <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span>, their political
+union gave rise to the kingdom of the Bosphorus. As
+has been said, agriculture was the essential basis of the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_173">[173]</span>public wealth of the Milesians, and the attention of the
+new government was directed specially to this branch of
+employment.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as Leucon ascended the throne he released
+the Athenians from the thirtieth, which they had hitherto
+paid as an export duty on grain. By this liberal measure
+the exportation of it increased enormously, and the
+Cimmerian or Panticapæan peninsula became the granary
+of Greece, and merchants flocked for grain to Theodosia
+and Panticapæum, where they also bought woollen cloths,
+furs, and the salted fish which still forms one of the
+staples of Southern Russia. The imports are little spoken
+of in history, but it is evident from the late excavations
+at Kertch that they must have consisted of articles of
+luxury.</p>
+
+<p>The Bosphorians, then, no doubt received in return
+for their productions all the manufactured articles which
+luxury and riches had introduced into usage at Athens,
+and it is probably to the artists of Greece that are due
+the magnificent works of art which are admired in the
+Museums of Kertch and Petersburg, which prove that
+the agricultural colonists of the Crimea were not behind
+their kinsmen of the brilliant metropolis of Athens in
+their love for the arts and the refinements of civilised
+life. Materials for building must also have formed an important
+part of the imports. There is no trace of white
+marble in the Crimea, nor on the northern shores of
+the Black Sea, although immense quantities of it are
+found in the excavations at Kertch, and there is every
+reason to believe that the enormous pieces of sculpture
+which were employed there in the public and private
+buildings were brought ready worked from the quarries
+of Greece. Notwithstanding the dangerous neighbourhood
+of the Sarmatians, the kingdom of the Bosphorus
+enjoyed perfect tranquillity for more than three hundred
+years, and, thanks to a policy as firm as it was intelligent,
+it increased in riches and prosperity up to the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_174">[174]</span>moment when the conquest of Greece by the Romans
+upset all the commercial relations of the East.</p>
+
+<p>At this epoch the Bosphorians attacked by the
+Scythians, and too feeble to resist them, threw themselves
+into the arms of Mithridates, who made their
+state a province of Pontus, and gave it as an appanage
+to his son Macharés.</p>
+
+<p>After the defeat and death of her implacable enemy,
+Rome preserved to the traitor Pharnáces the crown of
+the Bosphorus; but the sovereignty of the new prince
+was only nominal, and the successors of the son of
+Mithridates, without power, and despoiled of their possessions
+on the Asiatic side of the Bosphorus, depended
+on the caprice of the Roman emperors.</p>
+
+<p>In the sixty-second year of our era the Alans ravaged
+the country, and attacked the Tauri even in their
+mountains. They devastated the country, and utterly
+destroyed Theodosia, which offered them some resistance.
+They continued masters of the country, without changing
+their vagabond life, till they were conquered by the Goths
+in the middle of the second century.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_150" href="#Footnote_150" class="fnanchor">[150]</a> The Goths, although
+they have undeservedly gained a bad reputation in Europe,
+were the only people who brought the germs of peace
+and civilization to this much-disputed peninsula; and
+they kept possession of it longer than any other people,
+for the remnant of them, and its name of Gothia, remained
+to it more than a thousand years—till nearly the
+end of the sixteenth century. They mixed intimately
+with the vanquished people, founded many colonies in
+the vast plains situated to the north of the mountains,
+and quickly gave themselves up to their taste for a
+sedentary and agricultural life. Then there began for
+the Crimea a new period of tranquillity, which might
+also have been one of agricultural prosperity; but, unfortunately,
+Greece, conquered by the Romans, was at
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_175">[175]</span>this period rapidly falling, and Rome, become the capital
+of the world, was supplied with grain by Egypt, Sicily,
+and Africa. The Crimea, notwithstanding its efforts,
+could not rise from the obscurity to which it was condemned
+by the great political events which signalized
+the first century of the Christian era. In the midst of
+the first invasions of the barbarians, the little republic
+of Kherson, protected by its remote and inaccessible
+situation, preserved its independence. In the reign of
+the Emperor Diocletian, the Khersonites, who possessed
+nearly all the high country, had centered in themselves
+the commerce which existed between the Crimea and
+some parts of the shores of the Black Sea, and their
+republic was the most powerful state in the Crimea,
+until a war broke out between them and the Sarmatians,
+who had seized the kingdom of the Bosphorus, in which
+they were defeated. The struggle between the rival
+nations at the Bosphorus lasted nearly a century, until
+the Sarmatians were driven out, and the Bosphorians
+again enjoyed some years of liberty and internal prosperity.</p>
+
+<p>This peace, however, was of short duration, and like
+a calm before a terrible tempest. After a few years, the
+Huns poured down from the interior of Asia, and at
+first occupied the Asiatic side of the Bosphorus; then,
+crossing the Sea of Azof, they annihilated for ever the
+ancient kingdom of the Milesians, <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> 375. The numerous
+colonies of the Goths, united with the Alans,
+were overcome, and all their agricultural establishments
+were reduced to ruins. Protected by their western
+position, the Khersonians alone escaped.</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately for the Goths of the Crimea, the Huns
+only passed through the country, for they were attracted
+to the banks of the Dniestr and the Danube by the great
+events which were there taking place, after the death of
+Ermanrich the Ostrogoth, which had just removed the
+only obstacle to their progress. The Goths of the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_176">[176]</span>Crimea, who had yielded to the torrent and retired to the
+mountains, again spread themselves over the country.
+After the death of Attila the Huns again appeared, and
+this time Kherson was threatened, and implored the
+assistance of the Greek emperor. Justinian hastened to
+accede to their demand, and, being also friendly to the
+Goths, built long walls to protect their country against
+the nomades of the Steppes, and two fortresses, Aloushton
+and Gorzubita (Alouchta and Oursouf), on the
+southern coast of the Crimea. He built no towns or
+fortresses to the north of the mountains, because the
+Goths did not like to be shut up within walls, but to
+live freely in the open country.</p>
+
+<p>They had at this time the reputation of being excellent
+warriors, laborious husbandmen, and the most hospitable
+of mankind towards strangers. They then occupied both
+sides of the Cimmerian Bosphorus, and, becoming converts
+to Christianity, they sent four deputies to Constantinople
+to ask the emperor to send them a bishop in the place of
+their autistes, who had died.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_151" href="#Footnote_151" class="fnanchor">[151]</a></p>
+
+<p>Near the end of the seventh century, <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> 679, the
+Crimea was invaded by the Khazars, whose hordes at
+first accompanied the Huns, and afterwards established
+themselves in Lithuania (Bersilia), and constituted a
+kingdom independent even of Attila. The apparition of
+these new conquerors, already masters of a vast territory,
+made such a sensation at Constantinople, that the sovereigns
+of the East sought their alliance, and the court
+of Byzantium even asked in marriage the daughter of
+the Khakan, as the chief of the nation was called, for
+the son of the Emperor Leo.</p>
+
+<p>The forebodings of the imperial government about the
+Khazars were quickly realized, and in the short space of
+150 years, this people, who had given their name to the
+peninsula of the Crimea, founded a vast monarchy, the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_177">[177]</span>limits of which reached in Europe to the Danube, and in
+Asia to the foot of the Caucasus, while even the Caspian
+was known in the middle ages as the Sea of the Khazars.</p>
+
+<p>After the Khazars, whose fall was in part hastened by
+the attacks of the Russians, and who then disappeared
+completely from history, the Petchenegues, or Patzinates,
+their conquerors, who are constantly mentioned in the
+annals of Constantinople and the early Russian history,
+succeeded to their dominions, with the exception of
+Kherson, which was incorporated in the empire of Constantinople.
+Under the rule of this people, who also
+came from Asia, the commerce and manufactures of the
+Crimea revived,—its relations with Constantinople increased,
+and its ports furnished to the merchants of
+the Greeks, purple, fine stuffs, embroidered cloths, ermines,
+and leopard skins, furs of all kinds, pepper and fine
+spices, which the Petchenegues bought on the south of
+the Kuban, and in the Trans-Caucasian countries, which
+extend as far as the Cyrus and the Araxes. Thus
+recommenced for this unhappy country, which had been
+so often devastated, the new era of a prosperity, which it
+had not enjoyed for several centuries. The empire of the
+Petchenegues lasted for about 150 years, and then they
+had to deplore similar calamities to those which they
+had inflicted on the Khazars. Attacked by the Comans,
+whom the extension of the Mongol power in Asia had
+expelled from their territory, they were vanquished in
+the struggle which ensued, and forced to retire into Asia.
+The Comans, a warlike people, took possession of the
+Crimea, and made Soldaya (Soudak) their capital. They
+had, however, hardly consolidated their power, when they
+were obliged to yield to other conquerors, and seek a
+refuge in more western countries.</p>
+
+<p>With the expulsion of the Comans ceased all those
+temporary invasions, which for ten centuries desolated
+the Crimea. To all these different hordes, of whom
+the greater number have left no trace but their name,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_178">[178]</span>there succeeded two remarkable nations. One of these,
+the conqueror of Asia, was just founding the most
+gigantic empire of the middle ages; and the other,
+issuing from a merchant city of Italy, was destined to
+make Khazaria the centre and the point of junction of
+the commercial relations between Europe and Asia. In
+1226 took place the memorable invasion of the Mongol
+Tatars, a notice of which has been already given, and
+from that moment the establishment of peace and security
+was sufficient to develope the great natural resources
+which this celebrated country possessed. Soldaya, taken
+from the Comans by the Tatars, and given back to the
+Christians, quickly became the most important port on the
+Black Sea, and a principal station in the commercial
+route between Europe and Asia. Soldaya, however, had
+but a short duration, and another people, as intelligent,
+and active as the Greeks, and endowed with a still
+bolder mercantile instinct, was, at this epoch, destined to
+enjoy a greater commercial grandeur than any since the
+time when the Milesians founded their first colonies
+on the Cimmerian Bosphorus. Already masters of the
+important factories at Constantinople, the Genoese had
+long been able to appreciate the position of the Black
+Sea, and the immense resources which it placed at the
+disposition of enterprising men, who might there centralize
+the relations of Europe with Russia, Persia and
+the Indies.</p>
+
+<p>The rivality which then existed between them and the
+Venetians accelerated the execution of their projects,
+and in 1280, after having acquired, partly by stratagem
+and partly by force, the territory of ancient Theodosia,
+they laid the foundation of the celebrated Kaffa, which
+secured to the republic the empire of the Black Sea and
+the exclusive command of its commerce. With the Genoese,
+the Crimea saw revived one of the most brilliant
+epochs of its history. Kaffa, by its size, its population,
+and its opulence, became the rival of Constantinople, and
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_179">[179]</span>soon its consuls of Cerco (Kertch), Soldaya (Soudak),
+and Cembalo (Balaclava), rendered themselves masters of
+all the southern coast of the Crimea. At a later period,
+they gained, beyond the peninsula, other conquests, not
+less important. The galleys of the republic penetrated
+into the Sea of Azof, and Tana, situated at the mouth of
+the Don, was taken from the Tatars; a fortress was
+erected at the mouth of the Dniestr, in Modern Bessarabia,
+and numerous factories rose in Colchis and the
+shore of the Caucasus, while the imperial town of Trebizonde
+itself was obliged to allow the establishment
+there of one of the largest factories of the republic in the
+Black Sea. The Genoese colonies thus became a general
+entrepôt for the rich productions of Russia, Asia Minor,
+Persia, and the Indies, and during more than two centuries
+monopolising to their profit all mercantile exchanges
+between Europe and Asia, they presented a wonderful
+spectacle of prosperity and riches. The term of
+all this glory at last arrived. In 1453 the standard of
+Mahomet was displayed on the dome of St. Sophia, and
+the relations of the Crimea with the Mediterranean were
+broken. The destruction of the Genoese establishments
+became inevitable, and the republic itself, despairing
+of preserving, decided upon abandoning them
+to the bank of St. George on the 15th November,
+1453. This cession, by politically detaching the colonies
+from the metropolis, naturally led to fatal results. A
+general discouragement took place in the colonies, each
+man thought only of himself, and the consular government,
+formerly so remarkable for its integrity and virtue,
+instead of making friends of the Tatars to defend them
+from the Porte, completely alienated them by their want
+of good faith, and by selling their assistance for gold to
+the various parties who at that time were desolating the
+Crimea. So many faults were followed by a fatal catastrophe.
+On the 6th of June, 1473, Kaffa was obliged
+to surrender at discretion to the Turks, and some months
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_180">[180]</span>later, all the points occupied by the Genoese fell successively
+into the power of the Ottomans. After the disaster
+of the Genoese colonies, the great lines of communication
+with the Trans-Caucasian countries, the shores of
+the Caspian Sea, and those down the Volga, the Don, and
+the Kuban, deprived of their support, were broken up,
+and all commercial relations with Central Asia were momentarily
+suspended. The Venetians, who had obtained
+from the Turks the right of navigating the Black Sea,
+on the condition of paying 10,000 ducats a-year, endeavoured
+without success to take the place of their rivals.
+They were in their turn expelled, the passage of the
+Bosphorus was interdicted to the nations of the West,
+and the Ottomans, with the Greeks of the Archipelago,
+subjects of the Porte, had alone the right of navigating
+the Black Sea and the Sea of Azof. The commerce of
+the East then found for itself new débouchés by way of
+Smyrna, and the discovery of Vasco de Gama produced
+a complete revolution in the trade.</p>
+
+<p>A slight sketch of the Crimea when it formed the
+seat of government of the khans of Little Tatary has
+already been given, and during all that period the Black
+Sea was unfrequented by the European nations. The
+English, however, always had the nominal right of
+navigating it; there are some vestiges of our having
+had a footing there in the days of Queen Elizabeth or
+James I., and when we ceased to frequent it is not ascertained.
+In the treaty made in 1675 between England
+and Turkey by Sir John Finch, there is an express article
+giving a general permission of ingress and egress into
+the Black Sea, “to enable English merchants and all
+under their banner to go by the way of the Tanais into
+Moscovia, and also to and from Persia, and to traffic by
+land and by sea through all their confines.” There is
+even a provision for the protection of English vessels
+should they be forced by stress of weather into Kaffa.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_152" href="#Footnote_152" class="fnanchor">[152]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_181">[181]</span></p>
+
+<p>This permission, however, remained a dead letter until
+the beginning of the present century, when our right to
+navigate the Black Sea having been claimed afresh and
+allowed, an active trade sprung up, which has been yearly
+increasing in importance.</p>
+
+<p>It might naturally be expected, after so many different
+nations had occupied the Crimea, that its population
+would be of a very mixed character, and such indeed is
+the case. It is not, however, in the plains, which are
+inhabited chiefly by Nogai Tatars of late date, nor in
+any of the towns, that the remnants of the ancient inhabitants
+of the country are to be sought. The mountains
+are in every country the refuge of the oppressed,
+and it is in the mountains of the Crimea, among the
+so-called Tatars, who are, however, a very different race
+from those of the plains, that a people is to be found of
+very mixed origin.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_182">[182]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII.<br>
+<span class="smaller">BALACLAVA AND VALLEY OF BAIDAR.</span></h2>
+
+<p>Balaclava—Karl Ritter’s views of the importance of the Black Sea in very
+early times—Homer’s account of Balaclava—The Cembalo of the Genoese—Tatar
+occupation of it—Arnaouts—Tchorgouna—Mackenzie’s Farm—Valley
+of Baidar—Manners of the Tatars—Woronzof road.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>Balaclava is now a busy scene; the little bay is crowded
+with transports; thousands of our countrymen disembark
+here to exercise their perilous profession, and as many
+re-embark, poor wounded soldiers, shattered in constitution,
+or with the loss of limbs, but henceforth immortal
+heroes, whose deeds will be the theme of the historian
+and the poet, whose future welfare will be a subject of
+anxious solicitude to their country, and who henceforth,
+however humble their rank, in whatever country they
+visit, will be marked men; marked for honour, and
+distinction, and respect, from all who admire chivalrous
+boldness, and that still rarer quality, calm unimpassioned
+endurance. Sevastopol is the grandest theatre of events
+that has yet been seen. The audience, so to speak, is
+the largest, and, for the first time, really comprehends
+the whole world. Even the wars of Napoleon were
+a subject of little interest in China, or Australia, or
+California; but each swaying to and fro of the mighty
+combatants at Sevastopol interests literally the whole
+globe, and that interest is doubled by the speed with
+which the news is carried, and the increased knowledge
+which all nations now possess of each other.</p>
+
+<p>When I visited Balaclava before the present war,
+nothing could be more quiet than this little port, and
+a few Greeks sauntering about, or exercising their
+peddling occupations in the village bazar, were the only
+persons to be met with. Yet even then, like most out-of-the-way
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_183">[183]</span>places in the world, there were some representatives
+of the British nation to be found, and I was
+asked to go and visit a crew of shipwrecked English
+sailors in the lazaretto, who had been saved with difficulty
+on the rocks at the entrance of the harbour. The
+ship had struck; the poor fellows were thrown on a
+ledge of the cliffs, where they remained for nearly a day
+and a night before they could be rescued; yet when they
+were brought in at last, exhausted, and at death’s door,
+nothing could induce them to touch the hot brandy that
+was brought them, lest they should break their pledge
+as teetotalers. It was impossible not to admire in them
+that British firmness of purpose, which was the same
+quality which showed itself in the defence of Inkerman,
+however mistaken in this application of it.</p>
+
+<p>Balaclava is the only bay on the southern coast
+resembling those about Sevastopol, where the land rises
+suddenly on each side, and the water is so deep that
+the largest ships may anchor close to the shore. On
+approaching it from the East, the geological formation is
+seen at once to change in its vicinity; the summits of
+the rocks are still, like the rest of the Tauric chain,
+calcareous; but they have been changed by violent
+action into red, blue, and grey marbles, below which
+reappears the coarse red pudding-stone of the Tchatyr-Dagh
+mountain, while a great rent, which opens on
+the sea, and was called the Valley of the Devil (Shaitan
+Déréh), shows a black or yellowish schist. I will here
+quote the words in which Dubois describes his arrival on
+this singular spot: “Each step,” he says, “in approaching
+Balaclava is an enigma to me, such an inconceivable
+disorder reigns among these masses of pudding-stone
+with enormous pebbles, which alternate with layers of
+marble and sandstone; and the marble finishes this
+strange series, which seems like a world turned topsy-turvy.
+When arrived at the top of the sterile mountain
+that overhangs Balaclava, I cry out with astonishment,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_184">[184]</span>What are these white antique towers perched on
+the top of rocks descending so rapidly to the water?
+What is this brilliant lake shut in by the steep mountains?
+And that red promontory reflected in the waves
+of the sea? Can this be Balaclava? Nothing but ruins
+are visible, where then is the town? Contemplating
+with admiration this romantic scene, I descended the
+mountain, looking continually for the town, of which I
+saw no vestige. My guide at last directed me suddenly
+to the left, and like magic, I found myself in Balaclava,
+which, placed on the narrow strip of land between the
+mountain with the ruins and the tranquil bay, is not
+seen till it is entered.”&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_153" href="#Footnote_153" class="fnanchor">[153]</a></p>
+
+<p>Like many other places in the Crimea, Balaclava has
+a very ancient history. Our first notice of it is in the
+dim twilight of archaic times. We have the high authority
+of Karl Ritter for supposing that it is the port of the
+Læstrigons mentioned in the Odyssey; and the extreme
+accuracy of Homer’s description of it, as will be presently
+more fully shown, seems to make Ritter’s supposition
+extremely probable. But before entering into the
+particular identification of Balaclava, I will shortly state
+what Ritter’s views are as to the part which the shores
+of the Black Sea played in very early times.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_154" href="#Footnote_154" class="fnanchor">[154]</a> He has
+undertaken to prove, from the most ancient monuments
+which are offered to us by ancient geography, archæology,
+mythology, architecture, and religious systems, that
+colonies of Indian priests, having departed with the
+ancient worship of Buddha from the centre of Asia, came
+directly or indirectly, before the historic times of Greece,
+to establish themselves on the banks of the Phasis,
+around the Euxine Sea, in Thrace, on the Ister, and in
+many countries of Western Europe, and even in Greece;
+that these colonies exercised a remarkable religious
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_185">[185]</span>influence, and that these facts are proved, not only from
+the relations of the Asiatics, but principally from the
+study of the most ancient fragments of the historians
+of Greece and Asia Minor. We in Europe, receiving
+our lights from Greece, are habituated to adopt all
+the illusions of the national pride of the Greeks; and,
+according to them, Greece was the focus of all light,
+whence science, and civilization, and religion had their
+origin. But in looking back to their myths, in reading
+Homer, and the history of the Argonauts, and
+of Phrixus and Helle, and others, it would seem that the
+Greeks were always civilized by those whom they called
+barbarians. The king and the people who received the
+Argonauts, the Tyrians, the Trojans, were all superior
+in civilization to the armies of adventurers, who, like the
+Normans of the middle ages, came to plunder them, in
+violating the laws of hospitality. All the ancient poets
+and historians seem to have chosen the Black Sea for the
+theatre of the exploits of their heroes. All their relations
+look towards it as the point whence civilization and wealth
+proceeded. Up to our days the wanderings of Ulysses,
+in the 10th, 11th, and 12th Books of the Odyssey, were
+supposed to be on the shores of Italy and Sicily. There
+were sought the Læstrigons, the Cyclops, and Scylla and
+Charybdis; but this is certainly wrong, and the poet
+wished to make Ulysses wander on that inhospitable
+shore, which appeared to him at the extremity of the
+world. The moment that Ulysses reaches the coast of the
+Læstrigons, we must recognize ourselves as on the shores
+of the Black Sea. Their country can be no other than
+the barbarous Crimea, and he evidently called the Tauri
+the Læstrigons, from the Greek “lêstês,” meaning pirate
+or brigand.</p>
+
+<p>After leaving them, Ulysses was driven on a low coast,
+the island of Æa, where the enchantress Circe reigned,
+the sister of Æetes. This was evidently Colchis or
+Mingrelia, which may be easily recognised by the broad
+river (the modern Rion) which received the fleet of
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_186">[186]</span>Ulysses, the vast forests which covered its banks, and
+the palace hidden in the trees, which exactly represents
+the Nikolakévi of our days. The wine there is as tempting
+as ever, the honey as fresh, and the women still pass
+their time in embroidery as in the time of Homer. From
+the beauty of the country and its inhabitants it is still
+the land of enchantment.</p>
+
+<p>That there may be no mistake about the position of
+Æa, here the poet places the palace of Aurora in which
+take place the songs and dances of the Hours, and
+where the sun renews its birth. After leaving Colchis
+Circe sends Ulysses to consult the oracle of the infernal
+gods, and when the hero has crossed the empire of
+Neptune, which he thinks the end of the world, he finds
+a coast of easy access, shaded with high poplars and
+sterile willows, where are the habitations of the Cimmerians
+covered with thick clouds and black obscurity.</p>
+
+<p>The Cimmerians, we know from later authors, lived at
+Kertch and in the island of Taman, at the extremity of
+the Black Sea, which to Ulysses appeared the end of the
+kingdom of Neptune. There he is described as finding
+one of the entrances to the infernal regions, and there
+to this moment exist the springs of black and burning
+naphtha, which roll their stinking waters like the Cocytus
+and the Acheron; and there also are the mud volcanoes,
+belching forth a mixture of fire and water, which have
+altered the form of all the country round.</p>
+
+<p>Then Ulysses returns to Circe, and starts for Ithaca,
+and leaves the Black Sea by passing through Scylla and
+Charybdis, which closed the entrance with their rocks surrounded
+by whirlpools. These are the islands of the “blue
+Symplegades,” familiar to all who have passed from Constantinople
+to the Crimea, standing at the entrance of
+the Bosphorus; and Homer cannot mean the straits of
+Messina, because he says that the only ship which had
+passed these straits was the Argo, when it went to
+Colchis on the expedition for the golden fleece.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_187">[187]</span></p>
+
+<p>Thus it seems almost beyond a doubt that the shores
+of the Black Sea were the mysterious regions where
+some of the scenes of Homer were laid, and in parts of
+which in the very earliest times, as in Colchis, were
+settled highly civilized communities. Let us now observe
+Homer’s description of Balaclava, as Pope has
+translated it:—</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+  <div class="poetry">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">“Within a long recess a bay there lies</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Edged round with cliffs, high pointing to the skies.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The jutting shores, that swell on either side,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Contract its mouth, and break the rushing tide.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Our eager sailors seize the fair retreat,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And bound within the port their crowded fleet;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">For here retired the sinking billows sleep,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And smiling calmness silvered o’er the deep.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">I only in the bay refused to moor,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And fixed without my hawsers to the shore:</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">From thence we climbed a point, whose airy brow</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Commands the prospect of the plains below;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">No tracks of beasts, or signs of men, we found,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">But smoky volumes rolling from the ground.”</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse right"><i>Od.</i>, b. 10, v. 101.</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p>It is impossible to give a truer or clearer picture of
+Balaclava than that which was thus drawn by old
+Homer nearly three thousand years ago. The two high
+rocks which advance into the bosom of the waves, and
+seem approaching to embrace one another, are there,
+and only leave a narrow passage turned towards the
+south, which barely allows two vessels to cross one another.
+Its width is eight hundred feet and its greatest depth
+one hundred fathoms, and the water of the bay looks
+very black. When the narrow passage is passed, the
+port enlarges to a width of twelve hundred feet, and its
+depth goes on diminishing from ninety to six fathoms,
+its entire length being nearly a mile.</p>
+
+<p>This bay is a phenomenon in geology, deeply encased
+as it is at its entrance in rocks of calcareous marble and
+pudding-stone, and finishing in a black schist, which
+opens on a basin of chalk.</p>
+
+<p>Wherever Ulysses landed, whether on the right hand
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_188">[188]</span>or the left, terrible rocks border the shore; and after
+scaling them, he could only see, as we do now, an unfruitful
+rocky soil, with no plants but a few juniper trees,
+and no trace of the labour, either of men or oxen. The
+smoke could alone show him the town of the Læstrigons
+hidden in the rocks.</p>
+
+<p>Homer then continues:—</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+  <div class="poetry">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">“Two with our herald thither we command</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">With speed to learn what men possessed the land.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">They went, and kept the wheels’ smooth beaten road,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Which to the city drew the mountain wood.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">When, lo! they met beside a crystal spring</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The daughter of Antiphates the king;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">She to Artacia’s silver streams came down</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">(Artacia’s streams alone supply the town):</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The damsel they approach, and ask what race</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The people were? Who monarch of the place?</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">With joy the maid the unwary strangers heard,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And showed them where the royal dome appeared.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">They went, but as they entering saw the queen,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Of size enormous, and terrific mien,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Not yielding to some bulky mountain’s height,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">A sudden horror struck their aching sight.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Swift at her call her husband scoured away,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">To wreak his hunger on the destined prey.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">One for his food the raging glutton slew,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">But two rushed out, and to the navy flew.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Balked of his prey, the yelling monster flies</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And fills the city with his hideous cries:</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">A ghastly band of giants hear the roar,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And pouring down the mountains crowd the shore.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Fragments they rend from off the craggy brow</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And dash the ruins on the ships below!</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The crackling vessels burst; hoarse groans arise,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And mingled horrors echo to the skies:</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">The men like fish they stuck upon the flood,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And crammed their filthy throats with human blood!”</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p>The herald and the two companions whom Ulysses
+sent, whether they went to the right or the left, must
+have come out on the chalky valley of Balaclava, where
+the people, as is done to this day, export the spoils of
+the forests on the neighbouring mountains, while the
+environs of Balaclava are quite naked. By following
+this road they arrived at the extremity of the port, where
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_189">[189]</span>is still the only spring of water, or, as it was then called,
+the fountain of the nymph Artacia, which was free to
+all the citizens. The younger daughter of Antiphates,
+the King of the Læstrigons, showed them the lofty gates
+of a palace which touched heaven, which stood no doubt
+where now are the ruins of the fortress of Balaclava.
+This was the palace of her father, which had been built
+by Lamus, an ancient King of the Læstrigons.</p>
+
+<p>The savage Antiphates, faithful to the character which
+the ancients always attributed to the Tauri, seized one
+of the ambassadors to devour him, while the other two
+fled away. Meanwhile the alarm had been given in the
+town; the people had seen the fleet of Ulysses enter, and
+they rushed to it from all parts.</p>
+
+<p>Balaclava was called the port of Symbols by the
+Greeks, and this name was corrupted into Cembalo by
+the Genoese, and the place was taken by them from the
+Greek dukes of the Crimea in 1365, and they then built
+the fortress which now exists, and by their enterprise
+greatly increased the commerce of the port. In 1433,
+the Greeks, who had remained at Cembalo, having conspired,
+drove out the Genoese, and replaced the town
+and castle in the hands of a noble Greek, called Alexis,
+the lord of Theodori (Inkerman). He was driven out
+in the following year by Charles Somellin, who was
+sent from Genoa with a fleet of twenty vessels, further
+augmented in passing through the Greek islands, so
+that he arrived with 6000 men.</p>
+
+<p>In 1475 Balaclava experienced the fate of Soudak,
+and was taken by the Turks, who gave it up uninjured
+to the Tatars, by whom it was held for several centuries,
+till they were driven out by its present inhabitants, the
+Arnaout Greeks, in 1780.</p>
+
+<p>When Catherine II. took the Crimea, the Tatars
+were still a powerful people, with a strong nationality.
+The object of Catherine was to break this up, and to
+prepare the country for the future habitation of the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_190">[190]</span>great Slave people. She, therefore, encouraged as many
+of the inhabitants of the Crimea, as she could influence,
+to emigrate, and appealing to the religious sentiments of
+the Greeks, and their hereditary hatred of the Turks,
+she called in Greek soldiers to assist her in expelling
+the Tatars that were refractory.</p>
+
+<p>A regiment of Albanians was raised, chiefly from the
+Greeks who had been in the Russian service in the
+Archipelago, and they were first called Arnaouts at
+Balaclava. The Tatars having emigrated, or been dispersed,
+this town, together with the surrounding country,
+extending to the banks of the Bouiouk Ouzéne, including
+the villages of Kadikói, Karáni, Kámara, and Alsou
+(after removing the rest of the Tatar families to other
+places), was given to the Albanians as a settlement.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_155" href="#Footnote_155" class="fnanchor">[155]</a> A
+few years before the breaking out of the present war they
+numbered 600 fighting men, and each colonist was liable
+to be called out for four months of active service, and had
+the other eight at his disposal for the cultivation of his
+lands. Each soldier had twenty-eight roubles yearly pay
+(about 4<i>l.</i> 10<i>s.</i>), and found his own equipment.</p>
+
+<p>The town of Balaclava has probably received its
+modern name from the strong Greek castle of Pallakium,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_156" href="#Footnote_156" class="fnanchor">[156]</a>
+which stood here, although some suppose it to have been
+taken from “Bella clava,” or “the beautiful port,” a
+derivation which every traveller would willingly concede
+as probable. It is mentioned by one Italian traveller of
+the seventeenth century under the name of Baluchlacca,
+and at that time it was inhabited by Turks, Greeks, and
+Armenians. “Its unrivalled beauty and security,” he
+says, “tempted him to stay there several days, and at
+that time its fine Genoese fortifications were entire.”&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_157" href="#Footnote_157" class="fnanchor">[157]</a>
+This old fortress, like all the strong places of the Genoese
+and Greeks in the peninsula, is erected on inaccessible
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_191">[191]</span>rocks, close to the mouth of the harbour, on the adjoining
+eastern hill, and is fortified with high walls and
+towers.</p>
+
+<p>When Clarke visited this magnificent fortress, the
+arms of Genoa were still upon the walls. “The mountain
+on the north-east side,” he says, “is covered with its
+mouldering towers, and the rock itself has been excavated,
+so as to exhibit stately magazines and chambers,
+the sides of which were lined with coloured stucco. It
+is surprising,” he continues, “that the inhabitants of
+Balaclava do not use these caves, for they are very
+habitable, and the stucco is still in the highest preservation.
+We entered one, which was a spacious oblong
+chamber, lined throughout with stucco, and somewhat
+resembling the famous <i>piscina mirabile</i>, near the supposed
+villa of Lucullus at Baiæ. We could form no conjecture
+for what purpose this place was intended, except as a
+granary or storeroom; it bore no marks of any aqueous
+deposit on its sides, and was at the same time dry, and
+in perfect preservation; it could not, therefore, have
+served as a reservoir for water.”&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_158" href="#Footnote_158" class="fnanchor">[158]</a> Might not some use be
+made of these dry caves for the stores of our army, if
+they be not situated at too high an elevation?</p>
+
+<p>The port of Balaclava is frequented by fish of passage,
+especially by mackerel, by the <i>mugil cephalus</i>, in great
+numbers, and also by the red mullet, a most delicate
+fish, whether eaten in a fresh or pickled state, which is
+also caught in the lakes of the interior. The mackerels
+become as tender and savoury as herrings, after being
+kept twelve months in brine.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_159" href="#Footnote_159" class="fnanchor">[159]</a> The fishermen, when
+our army arrived at Balaclava, came with their nets to
+Lord Raglan, and offered, if they were allowed protection,
+to supply our army with fish, as the season was
+just commencing, but, from some mistake, their offer
+was neglected.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_192">[192]</span></p>
+
+<p>By the shortest road, Tchorgouna is about four miles
+from Balaclava, and occupies a romantic situation, in a
+gradually contracting valley, through which the Tchornaya
+Retchka discharges itself into the bay of Sevastopol.
+Here is, or was, a lofty octagonal tower, which dated
+probably from the time of the Genoese, and placed half
+way between Balaclava and Mangoup, was intended to
+keep open the communication between them, when
+Mangoup was an important fortress. At four miles
+from Tchorgouna, in a north-east direction, is the
+“<i>Muilnaya gora</i>,” or Soap-hill of the Russians, which is
+literally burrowed with pits for extracting the fuller’s-earth,
+which is found under chalky marl, at a depth of
+about forty feet. The soap-hill is a gentle elevation,
+in a broad tract of level country, about six miles wide,
+at the foot of the steep mountain called Mackenzie’s
+Farm. It received this name, because Admiral Mackenzie,
+who was commander of the fleet at Sevastopol,
+towards the end of the last century, established a farm
+on the summit of this mountain, for the erection of
+which a considerable portion of the woods was granted
+to him, but subsequently repurchased by the Crown for
+the use of the navy. The Tatar name for the mountain
+is Kok-agatch, from the numerous white beech trees
+which once covered it. The oak, Christ’s thorn, and
+cornel-tree also grew here, and of the latter the long
+pipes were made, in such request among the Turks.
+In spring the ground is covered with large-flowered
+primroses, bearing white, and yellow, and pale violet
+blossoms. Veronicas, euphorbias, hyacinths, broad pionies,
+asphodels, and yellow irises, also deck the ground
+in spring, and the clematis, wild vine, and wild rose
+may be found among the shrubs in the neighbourhood
+of Inkerman.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_160" href="#Footnote_160" class="fnanchor">[160]</a></p>
+
+<p>On leaving Balaclava for the southern coast, the traveller
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_193">[193]</span>regains the high road, before it enters the celebrated
+valley of Baidar, which was much praised by the
+first travellers who wrote after the occupation of the
+Crimea by the Russians, even before its real beauties were
+fully known.</p>
+
+<p>The valley is rather more than ten miles in length
+and six in breadth; so beautifully cultivated, that the
+eye roams over meadows, woods, and rich corn-fields,
+enclosed and intersected by green hedges and garden
+plantations. The villages are neat, and the inhabitants
+healthy. It is protected on every side from the winds
+that blow with great fury on the northern slopes of the
+mountains, and is irrigated by clear streams, that fall
+imperceptibly through the fields. The mode of enclosure,
+and the manner of cultivation, are like those of our own
+country, and there is much to remind the traveller of
+the vales of Kent and Surrey. The mountains, as well
+as the plain, were formerly thick set with oak, wild
+pear, crab, and cornelian cherry trees, which shaded the
+road, and kept off the scorching rays of the sun, but all
+these have now disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>The domestic habits of the Tatars are very simple,
+and resemble those of other Oriental nations, except that
+they have been to a certain degree modified by contact
+with the Russians. When a stranger, says Clarke, arrives
+at a Tatar house, they conduct him to the apartment destined
+for the men, and present him with a bason, water,
+and a clean napkin, to wash his hands. They then place
+before him whatever their dwelling affords, of curd, cream,
+honey in the comb, poached eggs, roasted fowls, and
+fruit. After the meal is over, the bason and water are
+brought in as before, because all the Tatars, like the
+Turks and other Oriental nations, eat with their fingers,
+and use no forks. Then, if in the house of a rich Tatar,
+a long pipe is presented, of cherry-wood, which grows in
+the mountains, and with amber or ivory. After this,
+carpets and cushions are laid for the guests, that they
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_194">[194]</span>may repose. All the houses of the Tatars, even the
+cottages of the poor, are extremely clean, being often
+white-washed. The floor is generally of earth, but
+smooth, firm, dry, and covered with mats and carpets.
+The meanest Tatar possesses a humble dwelling, one for
+himself and his guest, and the other for his women.
+They do not allow their most intimate friends to enter
+the place allotted for the female part of the family.
+With so much cleanliness, it is surprising to find the
+itch prevalent. It is also difficult to escape venomous
+insects and vermin. The tarantula, the scorpion, cockroach,
+lice, bugs, fleas, flies, and ants, are more or less
+to be met with everywhere, but, with proper precautions,
+the traveller need not be much incommoded by them.</p>
+
+<p>A favourite beverage of sour milk, mixed with water,
+the yaourt of the Turks, is found in request with the
+Tatars, as among the Laplanders. They all shave their
+heads, both young and old, and wear in their houses a
+sort of scull-cap, over which, in winter, is placed a kind
+of helmet of wool, and in summer a turban. Their legs
+in winter are swathed in cloth bandages, like those worn
+throughout Russia, and their feet are covered by a kind
+of sandal. In summer both legs and feet are naked.
+Their shirts, like those of Turkey, are wide and loose
+at the sleeves, hanging down below the ends of their
+fingers. If they have occasion to use their hands, either
+to eat or work, they cast back the sleeve of the shirt
+upon the shoulder, and leave the arm bare. The jacket
+or waistcoat is generally of silk or cotton, and the
+trousers being made very large, full, and loose, though
+bound tight below the knee, fall over in thick folds on
+the calf of the leg.</p>
+
+<p>They have no chairs in their houses, and a little short
+stool, about three inches high, is used for supporting a
+tray during their meals. This stool is often ornamented,
+either by carved work or inlaid mother-of-pearl. During
+the summer months the chief delight of the men consists
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_195">[195]</span>in the open air, sleeping at night either beneath the
+shed before the door, or under the shade of the fine
+spreading trees which they cultivate near their houses.
+In the principal part of a Tatar dwelling there is a particular
+part which bears the name of Sopha. This is a
+platform raised twelve inches from the floor, occupying
+the entire side of the apartment, not for the purpose of
+a seat, but as a place for their household chests, the
+<i>dii domestici</i>, and heaps of carpets, mats, cushions, and
+clothes. The same custom may be observed in the tents
+of the Kalmucks.</p>
+
+<p>In some things the Tatars display a taste for finery.
+Their pillows are covered with coloured linen, and the
+napkins for their frequent ablutions, which hang upon
+their walls, are embroidered and fringed.</p>
+
+<p>If one of their guests falls asleep, although but for a
+few minutes, and by accident, during the day, they bring
+him water to wash himself as soon as they perceive he
+is awake. In their diet they make great use of honey,
+and their mode of keeping and taking bees accords with
+the normal simplicity of their lives. From the trunks
+of young trees, about six inches in diameter, they form
+cylinders, by scooping out almost all except the bark,
+and then closing their extremities with plaster or mud,
+they place them horizontally, piled one upon another,
+in the gardens for hives. They often open these cylinders
+to give their guests fresh honey, and the bees are
+detached merely by being held over a piece of burning
+paper, without any aid of sulphur. The honey of the
+Crimea is of a very superior quality; the bees, as in
+Greece, feeding on blossoms of the wild thyme of the
+mountains, and such flowers as the garden spontaneously
+affords. Every Tatar cottage has its garden, in the
+cultivation of which the owner finds his principal amusement.
+Vegetation is so rapid, that, in two years, vines
+not only shoot up so as to form a shade before the
+doors, but are actually laden with fruit. They delight
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_196">[196]</span>to have their houses as it were buried in foliage. These,
+consisting only of one story, with low flat roofs, beneath
+trees which spread numerous branches quite over them,
+constitute villages, which, at a distance, are only known
+by the tufted grove in which they lie concealed. When
+the traveller arrives, not a building is to be seen; it is
+only after passing between the trees, and beneath their
+branches, that he begins to perceive the cottages overshadowed
+by an exuberant vegetation of the walnut, the
+mulberry, the vine, the fig, the olive, the pomegranate,
+the peach, the apricot, the plum, the cherry, and the
+tall black poplar; all of which, intermingling their
+clustering produce, form the most beautiful and fragrant
+canopies that can be imagined.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_161" href="#Footnote_161" class="fnanchor">[161]</a></p>
+
+<p>Through this beautiful valley, now devastated by contending
+armies, the high road, called the Woronzof
+road, leads past the villages of Miskomia and Arnoutka,
+to reach the southern coast, and crosses the mountain
+barrier, which shuts out the valley from the sea by the
+pass of Phoros, which, till the road was made, was only
+accessible by stone stairs cut in the rock, perilous alike
+to man and beast.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_197">[197]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII.<br>
+<span class="smaller">THE SOUTHERN COAST, AS FAR AS ALOUCHTA.</span></h2>
+
+<p>Pass of Phoros—First view of the Southern Coast—The climate—Valley
+of Laspi—Mount Aia, or Cape Saritch—Modern Laspi—Phoros to
+Kíkineis—Land slips—Liméne—Singular appearance of Tatars—Aloupka—Prince
+Woronzof’s palace—Gardens—Luxuriant vegetation
+Craters—Account of Prince Woronzof—Miskhor—Koureis, seat of
+Princess Galitzin—Madame de Krudener and Comtesse La Mothe—Gaspra—Mount
+A’ithodor—Imperial Oriánda—Ouchansóu—Yalta—The
+mountain pass to Baktchéserai—Marsánda—Cyclopean remains—Magaratch—Nikita—Botanical
+gardens—St. Daniel—Oursouf—Ancient
+castle of Justinian—Cyclopean remains—Mount Aioudágh, the ancient
+Kriumetôpon Prom—Village of Partheníte—Great and Little Lambat—The
+Chaos—Numberless ancient remains—The pass of Mount Castéle—The
+descent to Alouchta.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>From the top of the pass of Phoros, over which a good
+macadamised road has been made, the traveller enjoys
+his first glimpse of the celebrated southern coast of the
+Crimea.</p>
+
+<p>The sea lies at his feet at the distance of a mile, and
+the high precipitous mountains, which rise in an amphitheatre
+on his left hand, recede a short distance
+from the coast, and leave a narrow margin of fertile
+country, with a climate like that of Greece or Italy.
+The glittering haze of the blue sea, the balmy air, the
+lofty mountains, with clear outline drawn against a
+cloudless sky, and softened by the delicate tints of a
+southern atmosphere, are natural phenomena of which
+no description can give an idea, but which once seen
+enrich the mind with a new stock of images. To a
+traveller who like myself had just left the shores of
+Greece, this beautiful region seemed like a continuation
+of the same scenery. I felt pleasure at the view stretched
+out before me, but not that astonishment which many
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_198">[198]</span>travellers from the north have expressed. The country
+from here to Alouchta is, however, quite an exceptional
+region, and although I think the coast of Italy about
+Amalfi, the south of Sicily, Corfu, or the bay of Corinth,
+offer spots still more striking and beautiful, there is
+nevertheless a great charm in the wildness and richness
+of the Crimean coast.</p>
+
+<p>We cannot be astonished at the Russians themselves
+being much struck with it, for after a weary journey
+over the flat steppes from Petersburg or Moscow, the
+total change which it presents to the gloomy and monotonous
+aspect of their own country must make it seem
+to them like a land of enchantment. The temperament
+of the Russians also, like that of all the Slavonic
+race, is highly poetical, and it is no wonder that they
+should be strongly affected by their first glimpse of a
+southern land—that they flock to the only spot in their
+empire (except the Caucasus) where they can feel the
+genial warmth and admire the beauties of the Mediterranean
+region, or that they covet a larger share of those
+countries where such charms can always be enjoyed.</p>
+
+<p>The climate of the southern coast is completely different
+from that of every other part of the Crimea. To the
+north of the mountains, even as far as Balaclava and the
+valley of Baidar, there is always a severe winter, and the
+ground, as we too well know, is covered with snow. But
+when once the pass of Phoros is crossed, the climate
+entirely changes. No snow ever falls on the sea region,
+but a perpetual spring reigns there. Thus our poor
+soldiers, during this lamentable winter, have been within
+a few miles of a genial climate, where they would have
+wanted no warm clothing and no huts. The call
+of duty, the necessity of guarding the trenches and
+watching Sevastopol, has kept them at a tantalizing
+distance from it. It may indeed be a matter of doubt,
+whether, if our army had left Sevastopol in November, and
+then entered into winter quarters on the southern coast,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_199">[199]</span>we should not have been as far advanced towards taking
+the place as we now are. Its capture depends upon
+beating the army in the field; and if the bivouac on the
+Chersonese could have been avoided, we should now have
+a complete army of veterans, instead of the skeleton
+regiments which survive. Unfortunately also the mountains
+jut out to the sea between Balaclava and the
+southern coast, thus preventing any communication with
+it, except through the Valley of Baidar. Were this
+not the case, perhaps some warm spot might have been
+occupied, where at least the sick and convalescent might
+have regained their health and strength.</p>
+
+<p>From Phoros there runs an excellent macadamised
+road all the way along the coast for forty miles to
+Alouchta, which was made by Mr. Hunt, an English
+gentleman, who came over to superintend the building
+of the palace of Prince Woronzof, at Aloupka. On descending
+from the pass of Phoros, the road leads to the
+left, but before we follow it we will visit one beautiful
+site to the right, the furthest on the southern coast
+before the mountains reach the sea. This secluded
+nook, being out of the high road, is seldom visited, although
+it was a favourite spot in early Greek times.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_162" href="#Footnote_162" class="fnanchor">[162]</a></p>
+
+<p>The sheltered little valley of Laspi has been created
+by an igneous agency, which has detached Mount Ilia
+from the principal Tauric chain, to which it is united
+by a ridge of schist and sandstone, about six hundred feet
+broad. On the top of this ridge arise at intervals about a
+dozen enormous aiguilles, forty or fifty feet high, which
+look as if, like Stonehenge, they belonged to some gigantic
+work of man. Here, however, a close inspection shows
+them to be natural, as the strata of the neighbouring mountains
+are vertical, and these are débris of rocks of similar
+formation, that were raised up in this way at the time of
+the convulsion which tore away Mount Ilia.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_163" href="#Footnote_163" class="fnanchor">[163]</a> All the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_200">[200]</span>way from Phoros to Laspi, the ground, although a
+labyrinth of trees and verdure, is covered by vast blocks
+of porphyry, and in some places there are jets of it rising
+to the height of a thousand feet.</p>
+
+<p>The ancient village of Laspi was on the side of
+the valley, high up on the connecting ridge, touching
+the aiguilles, and its inhabitants thus enjoyed a
+magnificent view over the valley and the sea, and far
+away along the coast on the other side of the bay, which
+is terminated by the promontory of Mount Aia. Just
+below the village are the ruins of a church of the early
+Christian times, surrounded by a cemetery in which are
+tombs in the shape of long sarcophagi, with a square
+tower at the head, entered by a small door, which is
+finished above in a triangle. Over this a cross is
+sculptured, and some attribute, as a pastoral staff, or a
+Tatar hatchet with two edges, a pick-axe, a spur, a
+plough, or a table,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_164" href="#Footnote_164" class="fnanchor">[164]</a> emblematic of the occupation of those
+who sleep below. These tombs belonged to the Greeks,
+who inhabited many places in this part of the Crimea;&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_165" href="#Footnote_165" class="fnanchor">[165]</a>
+but there are no inscriptions remaining here, except one
+of the late date of 1772. Around the church of the
+cemetery are the ruins of houses and esplanades, with
+allées of fruit-trees now become wild, among which one
+observer counted not less than five thousand plum-trees.</p>
+
+<p>The village of Laspi, true to the ancient Greek traditions,
+according to which they placed their temples on
+elevated sites, whence the majesty of the gods might be
+recognised from all parts, had on the summit of Mount
+Ilia a church which might be recognised from the vast
+plains of the sea around it, dedicated to St. Elias, and
+still a favourite place of pilgrimage. From the top of
+the ridge it is easily approached by a winding path
+across the mossy turf, on each side of which are the
+ruins of houses. The church, now a ruin, occupied
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_201">[201]</span>the highest point of the mountain, and near it is a
+sacred cavern, vaulted with the stone of Inkerman, of
+which the church itself was built. A sculptured cross
+marks this as a Christian construction, and a warm
+damp air that escapes from it is the cause of the superstition
+attributing to it miraculous powers for the recovery
+of health. A sheer precipice is in front, and the
+view from it splendid.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_166" href="#Footnote_166" class="fnanchor">[166]</a></p>
+
+<p>From ancient Laspi the road descends through a fine
+wooded valley to modern Laspi, an estate belonging to
+General Potier,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_167" href="#Footnote_167" class="fnanchor">[167]</a> and one of the most beautiful along the
+southern coast. It is placed in the centre of the amphitheatre
+of mountains, which terminate on each side
+respectively in Mount Ilia and Mount Aia; the view all
+around is delicious, and the sea advances to the port of
+Laspi, which is commodious and safe for the exportation
+of the timber of the surrounding forests. The valley in
+ancient times was thickly peopled, and the ruins of seven
+villages have already been discovered. In the month of
+February there was no frost, the yellow crocuses were in
+full flower, and, with the exception of two rainy days,
+the weather was constantly beautiful. Mr. Rouvier,
+the father-in-law of General Potier, introduced the vine
+here, and brought his plants from Malaga.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_168" href="#Footnote_168" class="fnanchor">[168]</a> On the
+summit of Mount Aia there are the remains of an ancient
+fortress, and beyond the mountain, between it and
+Balaclava, is another little valley, filled with ruins, but
+now uninhabited.</p>
+
+<p>Returning to the high road at Phoros we travel to
+Kíkineis, over twenty versts of a road comparatively
+uninteresting, since it is bounded on the side of the
+mountains by a regular precipice of Jurassic limestone,
+from five hundred to eight hundred feet high, which,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_202">[202]</span>having as an understratum a crumbling schist, is continually
+falling down in huge masses, which sometimes
+bury whole villages.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_169" href="#Footnote_169" class="fnanchor">[169]</a> Pallas observes that the Tatar
+mountaineers of the three villages of Kíkineis, Liméne,
+and Simëis, have a strange physiognomy, different from
+that of all the other inhabitants of Crim Tatary. Faces
+of uncommon length, as well as arched noses exceedingly
+long, and a high head compressed with a view to render
+them unusually flat, all contribute to produce diversified
+caricatures, so that the greater part of these persons
+have distorted countenances, and the least deformed
+resemble the figures of Satyrs. There was an ancient
+habit of the Genoese that may perhaps account for their
+peculiarities. They had adopted from their predecessors,
+the Moors, the custom of compressing the heads of the
+new-born infants about the temples, so that perhaps
+these villagers, with their singular faces, are the remaining
+descendants of the ancient Genoese who inhabited
+the Crimea, and, notwithstanding the lapse of time, have
+preserved their extraordinary visages. It is farther remarkable
+that the hair and beards of these mountaineers
+are almost uniformly light reddish or even flaxen; a circumstance
+seldom occurring in the Crimea. It is certain
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_203">[203]</span>all the inhabitants who at present occupy the villages
+situated on the southern coast, though regarded as
+Tatars, are nevertheless the offspring of other nations,
+who have either landed here or have been driven thither
+from the interior, and who were strangers to the later
+race, but especially to that of the Mongols; hence the
+original natives of Crim Tatary consider them as aliens,
+and point them out by the contemptible name of Tat.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_170" href="#Footnote_170" class="fnanchor">[170]</a></p>
+
+<p>From Kíkineis to Aloupka is twelve versts, or about
+eight miles, and between them lie Liméne and Simëis,
+with very ancient olive-groves and splendid fig-trees, and
+country houses occupying each favourable spot.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_171" href="#Footnote_171" class="fnanchor">[171]</a> Liméne
+was one of the most important fortresses along the coast,
+placed on a high, steep rock, only approachable by one
+path, and defended by a strong wall, the construction of
+which the Tatars attributed to the Genoese.</p>
+
+<p>Liméne is about three English miles from Kíkineis,
+and here the traces of a violent volcanic action are apparent.
+The whole space, from the top of the mountains
+to the sea below, is covered with stupendous blocks of
+stone thrown pell-mell one upon another, some even
+half-buried in the sea, whence only their tops are visible
+beaten by the waves; one of the largest of these erratic
+blocks is called Pánea, and upon it are the ruins of
+an ancient castle. The agents of all these convulsions
+are to be seen in two jets of porphyry, which, piercing
+through the schists underlying the limestone, have struck
+against the stupendous walls of the limestone itself,
+which forms the flat table-land or yaila of the mountains
+above. In one place the yaila is broken, and through
+the limestone there appears forced up the schists and the
+porphyry mixed together in a paste, which proves that
+they were in a liquified state when the jets arose.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_172" href="#Footnote_172" class="fnanchor">[172]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_204">[204]</span></p>
+
+<p>Passing on now a few miles further through the same
+kind of scenery we come to Aloupka, the seat of Prince
+Woronzof, where he has built a magnificent palace on
+a spot where the rocks approach very near to the sea, and
+are tossed about with great violence. The promontory
+of Aithídor is seen to the East jutting out into the sea,
+and giving a curve to the coast, which adds greatly to its
+beauty; while immediately behind the palace rises Mount
+Ai Petri, or Mount St. Peter, to a height of nearly four
+thousand feet.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_173" href="#Footnote_173" class="fnanchor">[173]</a></p>
+
+<p>The strata of schist, from the promontory to the
+mountain, may be seen rising in a great arch up to
+about thirteen hundred feet above the level of the sea,
+heaved up by the volcanic rocks which are seen beneath,
+and bearing on its stupendous span the limestone
+aiguilles which form the mountain.</p>
+
+<p>The palace of Aloupka is built after the design of
+Mr. Blore, the English architect, in the Moorish style,
+and was at first intended to be a small villa, which afterwards
+grew to be a vast palace. The whole exterior is
+faced with a green granite, which is extremely difficult
+to cut, but takes a beautiful polish. In consequence of
+the immense labour required to work it, the green sandstone
+from Nikita and Oursouf, which is soft and of the
+same colour, has been used for the less important parts
+of the buildings. The palace stands at the height of
+about one hundred and fifty-five feet above the level of
+the sea, and the gardens descend to the shore. Behind
+it the mountains rise at once precipitously, so that there
+is no room for the stables, which were intended to have
+been built on the other side of the public road running
+close behind the palace. The gardens and the park
+extend to the east of it, where the view is more open, in
+the direction of Miskhor, and here cascades, and fountains,
+and lawns, and shady thickets succeed one another. The
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_205">[205]</span>vegetation is most luxuriant, and the trees grow to an
+enormous size. M. de Castelnau measured three walnut
+trees, which were respectively sixteen, eighteen, and
+twenty-one feet in circumference, and an olive tree, at four
+feet from the ground, measured eleven feet round, and
+several vines from two to three feet.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_174" href="#Footnote_174" class="fnanchor">[174]</a> There are also
+two remarkable cypresses, said to have been planted by
+Prince Potemkin, when the Empress Catherine visited
+the Crimea in 1787. In the midst of all this vegetation
+vast masses of granite rock are seen lying about, in some
+places piled into grottoes, or bordering the edges of a
+beautiful little lake, fed by the purest streams, and
+inhabited by a number of trout. Behind the garden the
+visitor is led to a very different scene, which is the solution
+of the whole enigma of the appearance of the surrounding
+country. Here is a large hollow basin, filled
+with masses of granite of every conceivable shape, both
+angular and rounded, forming the crater of a volcano,
+while around rise the perpendicular walls of schist,
+through which the fiery agent forced its way. There is
+a second crater like this near the village of Aloupka, and
+both have a depression on the south side, next the sea.
+The explanation of these phenomena appears to be,
+that the granite formed a solid bed, which, by a violent
+commotion from underneath it, was broken and forced
+up to the point of eruption, and some of the blocks
+rolling down over the ground as far as the sea-shore, are
+scattered over the garden, and give to it so picturesque
+an appearance.</p>
+
+<p>Such is the character of this singular spot, which has
+been chosen by the venerable Prince Woronzof as his
+favourite residence, and in which he hoped to spend the
+declining years of his life. No man in Russia holds so
+high a position in public estimation as Prince Woronzof,
+who is valued equally by the Emperor and the people.
+He was born at Petersburg, but educated in England,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_206">[206]</span>where his father was for a long time ambassador, and
+afterwards lived till his death as a private individual.
+His son, the present Prince Michael Woronzof, remained
+here till he was sixteen years old, when he entered the
+military service, and from an early age has held high appointments
+in the service of his country. When Russia
+was pressed for money, at the commencement of the
+revolutionary wars, father and son placed a considerable
+portion of their immense fortunes at the disposal of the
+late Emperor Alexander, and materially assisted in relieving
+his financial difficulties. At the age of twenty the
+son was “<i>chef d’état-major</i>” to General Tiziánof when
+Georgia was taken, and the Russian army narrowly escaped
+annihilation before Erivan, by cutting their way during
+the night through the Persian force which surrounded
+them. He greatly distinguished himself in the wars of
+Napoleon, and commanded a division of 12,000 men
+at the battle of Borodino, in which he was severely
+wounded, and had the whole of his division cut to
+pieces, so that I have heard that the next morning a
+serjeant-major was left in command of the survivors, all
+the officers having been either killed or wounded.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_175" href="#Footnote_175" class="fnanchor">[175]</a> He
+commanded the Russian cavalry at the battle of Leipsic,
+and offered so obstinate a resistance to Napoleon himself
+at the battle of Craon, in the campaign of 1814, as to
+elicit from the emperor the flattering observation, “Voilà
+le bois dont on fait des maréchaux.” He subsequently
+commanded the Russian army of occupation in France
+after the peace of 1815, and when, on leaving, many
+of his officers, seduced by the temptations of that
+delightful country, had contracted debts, and left the
+country without paying, he, in order to save the honour
+of the Russian name, ordered all the bills to be brought
+to him, paid them out of his own pocket, and burnt the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_207">[207]</span>whole of them. For the last twenty-five years he has
+been Governor-general of New Russia, and governor of
+Bessarabia, and in 1844 was made Lieutenant&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_176" href="#Footnote_176" class="fnanchor">[176]</a> of the
+Emperor in the Caucasian provinces, commander-in-chief
+of the army of the Caucasus,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_177" href="#Footnote_177" class="fnanchor">[177]</a> and admiral of the
+Caspian Sea, so that he held the supreme command over
+all the country from Poland to Persia.</p>
+
+<p>Since his assumption of the reins of government in the
+Caucasus, the whole aspect of the country has changed.
+Towns have been built, roads made, peculation checked,
+honourable feelings stimulated in the officers, and the condition
+of the private soldiers greatly improved. The natives
+have been raised to a level with the Russians, and all
+have been alike treated with respect and urbanity. He displayed
+administrative abilities of the highest order, and
+possessed the rare quality of securing the affection and
+raising the tone of all around him. The soldiers admired
+him for his calm intrepidity, and loved him for his never-failing
+generosity and kindness, and the officers feared him
+for his inflexible justice. Those who hated the Russian
+name made an exception in his favour, and the chivalrous
+Georgians would have died to serve him; in short, I
+never yet have met an individual in whom the fundamental
+virtues of courage, prudence, generosity, and
+magnanimity were enhanced by such acute sagacity, such
+delicate refinement of sentiment, such simplicity of
+manners, and a modesty which when it survives the trial
+of power is the surest sign of a superior mind.</p>
+
+<p>A German poet once observed to me that although the
+general average of them was low, the most perfect women
+he had ever seen for charms both physical and mental
+were Russian women, and in the same way, although the
+character of the men is often chequered by various failings,
+we sometimes find among them wise men like Prince
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_208">[208]</span>Woronzof, whom it is no sin to covet for our own country.
+Prince Woronzof, although a true Russian patriot, has
+always been a great admirer of England, the country of
+his education, and he is understood to have been much
+opposed to the present war between Russia and England,
+believing that the two countries might long have pursued
+their glorious careers without clashing. Intemperate
+pride in the ruling power on one side, and lamentable
+incompetence on the other, have brought about a struggle
+which skill and firmness would probably have averted; and
+the French and English have lately visited as enemies
+the halls of Aloupka, where in years gone by so many
+of their countrymen have found the heartiest welcome.</p>
+
+<p>At two or three miles from Aloupka is Miskhor, the
+seat of the late General Leon Narishkin, a celebrated
+beau, who followed the prevailing fashion of having a
+villa on the southern coast, and a vineyard of six hundred
+acres, which produces a wine something like hock.
+Adjoining it is the estate of the Princess Galitzin, called
+Koureis, one of the earliest formed upon the coast.
+Princess Galitzin was one of a celebrated trio of ladies
+who, under the reign of the impressionable Emperor
+Alexander, first exercised a great influence at the Court,
+and then, turning from the world to heaven, endeavoured
+to form a religious society for the immediate conversion of
+the whole world to Christ, which they thought had been
+too long delayed. The poor surrounded their doors in
+crowds at Petersburg, for they were very charitable of
+alms for the body as well as the soul, and their influence
+rose so rapidly, that the ministers grew frightened lest
+the Emperor himself should join them. He was therefore
+induced to sign the order for their banishment to
+the Crimea, a sentence which they accepted with joy as a
+mission from heaven to evangelize the Tatars.</p>
+
+<p>The other two ladies were the celebrated Madame
+de Krudener and a mysterious personage who went under
+the name of the Countess Guacher.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_209">[209]</span></p>
+
+<p>After their arrival in the Crimea, the police soon put
+an end to all their efforts at conversion, and Madame de
+Krudener died within a year, worn out by her strong
+religious feelings, which were not permitted to exercise
+themselves. The Princess Galitzin renounced the russet
+conventual dress which she had adopted, and the mystic
+principles of Madame de Krudener, to return to the
+free Voltairian ideas in which she had been brought
+up. Endowed with a masculine intellect, a prodigious
+memory, wonderful powers of conversation, once the admiration
+and fear of Paris and Petersburg, and possessing an
+immense fortune, she made herself the centre of a little
+court of <i>beaux esprits</i> at Koureis, and lived there till her
+death in 1839. Her daughter married the Baron de
+Berckheim, and is a permanent resident on the coast.
+The third of the trio, the Countess Guacher, gave up her
+dress as a nun and her religious enthusiasm very soon
+after her arrival, and lived at a romantic cottage on the
+wild sea-shore, perfectly secluded, and only seen occasionally
+in her gallops along the beach. Both she and
+Princess Galitzin adopted a kind of male attire suited
+to their independent mode of life. When she died,
+after a few years, it was discovered that she was the
+Countess de la Mothe, who was publicly whipped and
+branded on the Place de la Grève as an accomplice in
+the scandalous affair of the diamond necklace of Marie
+Antoinette.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_178" href="#Footnote_178" class="fnanchor">[178]</a></p>
+
+<p>At each moment from this spot the coast widens, and
+leaves a greater space between the overhanging mountains
+and the sea. Around the little village of Gaspra
+the ground undulates prettily, and every spot is cultivated,
+and covered with rich woods, orchards, vineyards,
+and gardens, in the midst of which peep out villas
+and country houses. It resembles a view in the neighbourhood
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_210">[210]</span>of Naples. On the top of a hill not far from
+the road and near some old ruined fortresses is an ancient
+monument we should little expect to find in Crim Tatary,
+namely, rocks piled up exactly like the Celtic remains of
+Brittany and Cornwall.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_179" href="#Footnote_179" class="fnanchor">[179]</a></p>
+
+<p>Beyond Gaspra the road winds inwards in order to
+pass the high limestone strata of the promontory of
+Aithodor. A wild path of two miles leads from the
+road to the summit of the promontory, in the midst of
+oriental juniper-trees and ruins at every step. On the
+top are five columns of white marble, and the remains of
+an ancient monastery, which probably occupies the site
+of some ancient Greek temple, placed like that at Sunium.
+Beyond it is Mourgoudoú or Oriánda de Witt, the palace
+of Count de Witt, built on a terrace nine hundred feet
+above the sea, and forming a fantastic assemblage of
+buildings in a mixed oriental Gothic and Greek style.
+Around it is a kind of natural park, in which splendid
+trees grow on the broken ground interspersed with
+enormous masses of rock at the foot of the precipice of
+Mount Megábi, and here the arbutus and juniper-tree
+grow to an enormous size.</p>
+
+<p>The width of the plain is here nearly four miles, and
+Mount Megábi rises in the midst of it, and close to the
+sea-shore is the spot chosen by the Emperor Alexander
+to build a retreat, which he called Oriánda. In the
+midst of the picturesque chaos peculiar to the coast, he
+formed an English garden, and planted a vineyard and
+olive-grounds near the modest dwelling-house. The late
+emperor, however, erected here a splendid palace, having
+the disposition of an old Greek house, and richly ornamented
+with wall-painting. The celebrated Schinkel
+was the architect, and a beautiful work has been published
+upon it at Berlin. Its low situation on the sea-shore,
+with high cliffs and tall trees overshadowing it, render it
+gloomy, but suited to the health and taste of the Empress
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_211">[211]</span>Dowager of Russia, who has spent here several winters.
+In the grounds are shown two celebrated fig-trees seventy
+feet high. Here the Emperor Alexander intended to retire,
+surrounded by his friends, to whom he meant to allot
+estates near his own. His sudden death put an end to
+these projects, and Marshal Diébitch, who afterwards
+commanded in the Turkish and Polish wars, was the only
+one who had already received a property of about one
+hundred acres adjoining the emperor’s garden. Just where
+the two estates meet is a precipitous hill, with many
+traces of a settlement of the ancient Tauri, whose acropolis
+occupied its summit. At a mile from Oriánda is
+the little Greek village of Livadia, which now belongs to
+Count Leon Potócki, and near it is the castle of Outchansoú,
+in a gloomy gorge of the mountains, which was used
+by the Turks as a prison, for which it was well suited.</p>
+
+<p>About three miles further on is the port of Yalta,
+which is quite a new town, in an admirable position,
+whence in time of peace steamers ply regularly to and
+from Odessa. Its proximity to the finest scenery of the
+coast, a good port, and a charming situation, make
+Yalta the great rendezvous of the tourists, who flock in
+great numbers to the Crimea during the summer season.
+The quay then presents an animated scene, and small
+craft from all parts lie at anchor in the little bay.
+Nothing then can be more pleasing than the effect of
+the white town placed at the extremity of the bay, surrounded
+by rich scenery, with the high crests of the
+hills behind, also covered with verdure. The elegant
+buildings, the handsome hotels, and the general appearance
+of the population, all announce it as a town favoured
+by the rich and pleasure-seeking. In fact Yalta depends
+entirely upon tourists, who fill the hotels for several
+months, and rich people who live in its neighbourhood.
+There is here a custom-house and a garrison.
+The valley of Yalta is very beautiful, and there is
+nothing on the whole coast more grand than to look
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_212">[212]</span>down upon it in descending the hill from Magaratch,
+stretched out in a noble amphitheatre at the foot of the
+precipices of the Tauric chain.</p>
+
+<p>Mount Megábi is then in front, with the village and
+vineyards of Aoutka at its foot; and Oriánda and Cape
+Aithodor may be seen behind it. On the right looking
+down upon Yalta, a great promontory of the Tauric chain,
+called Mount Yoprákl, about four thousand feet high,
+divides the valley into two parts, and at its foot is the
+little village of Derekoi, hidden by the trees. The right
+branch of the valley is called Ai Vassili; and a village
+whence it takes its name is situated at the foot of Mount
+Lapata.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_180" href="#Footnote_180" class="fnanchor">[180]</a> To judge by the steep rough aspect of this
+mountain one would not imagine that down its sides is
+one of the principal roads leading from Baktchéserai to
+the coast. The road as far as Ai Vassili follows the
+course of a rivulet, and the surrounding country has the
+appearance of a natural English park, with magnificent
+trees and cascades. At Ai Vassili the gardens are filled
+with date plum trees, ash, turpentine trees, figs, and
+walnuts. Around the village and above it are seen the
+sandstone and the schists, and the oak and the elm cover
+the ground, but at the height of one thousand feet the
+limestone is reached, and the Tauric pine takes the place
+of other trees, and grows to a great size. It lasts over
+the first layers of the limestone for about seven hundred
+feet, and is succeeded by the beech and wich elm.</p>
+
+<p>Above these is the naked summit of the mountain, and
+then on passing a narrow gorge in the rocks, the traveller
+emerges on one of the mountain plains, called Yailas.
+As far as the crest of the mountain, the sunny landscape
+of the valley of Yalta in all its beauty is spread out, with
+a glorious expanse of sea beyond it shining through a
+warm and clear atmosphere. Upon the Yaila everything
+becomes changed in a moment, and to the warm rays of
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_213">[213]</span>the sun succeed a cold damp air and the thick icy fog
+of a northern region. To mark the road across it, lest
+travellers should lose their way, heaps of stones are
+placed at distances of twenty yards, as far as the woods on
+the northern slope which extend nearly to Baktchéserai.</p>
+
+<p>But to return to Yalta. The road on leaving the
+town ascends a hill, and on the left are some Cyclopean
+remains, the stones of which have been partly removed
+to build the new pier at Yalta. At the top of the hill
+is the church of Marsánda, which has been rebuilt by
+Prince Woronzof, in the Doric style, on the ruins of an
+ancient chapel famous for its spring of water, which
+bubbled forth beneath the altar. The spring still follows
+its ancient course undisturbed, and escapes from the
+church by an arch in the wall, and here the weary
+traveller may refresh himself with a cool draught, and
+rest under the fine trees which surround the church,
+among which is one of the largest and most venerable
+oaks on the whole southern coast. Near it is the village
+of Magaratch, which the crown has divided among a
+number of wealthy colonists, who have planted vineyards
+and built houses, and form an agreeable little society of
+their own.</p>
+
+<p>About three miles further on is Nikita, where are
+the Imperial botanical gardens, a vast establishment for
+experiments on acclimatation and practical studies on the
+plants and trees which might be profitably introduced
+into the Crimea.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_181" href="#Footnote_181" class="fnanchor">[181]</a> Here on the public road may be
+observed distinctly the three formations of which the
+Tauric chain is composed, and which have been raised up
+by volcanic action. First the schists from the sea to the
+road, then the sandstone, and above that all the strata of
+the jurassic limestone.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_182" href="#Footnote_182" class="fnanchor">[182]</a></p>
+
+<p>After passing Cape Nikita and the mountain of St.
+Daniel, which belongs to Prince Woronzof, we enter
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_214">[214]</span>the valley of Ourzouf, the Gorzubita of ancient times,
+where the emperor Justinian built a castle, the walls
+and towers of which still crown an immense rock on
+one side of the valley. The part built by Justinian
+is easily distinguished from a second system of defence
+round it, which appears to be Genoese, on the walls
+of which Pallas saw embrasures for cannon which have
+since disappeared. The country here is still extremely
+rich, and the view from the ruins magnificent. Enormous
+walnut trees, fig-trees, and poplars, form labyrinths of
+verdure, and here is situated the retreat which the Duke
+de Richelieu, the second founder of Odessa, created for
+himself among the wild Tatar population, when as yet
+there was no road along the coast. This was the first of
+the modern Russian attempts at colonisation on the coast,
+and the Duke bought this estate in 1817, with rights
+upon the village of Ourzouf for 120<i>l.</i> Up to 1825, this
+and Kutchuk Lambat and Nikita were the only European
+establishments in this now fashionable locality.</p>
+
+<p>A mole and a tower are still visible defending the little
+bay of Ourzouf. The eastern side of it is formed by the
+mountain of Aioudágh which juts out into the sea to the
+height of about 1800 feet, presenting a precipice on the
+side of Ourzouf, and only to be ascended from the village
+of Partheníte, on the opposite side. On the summit are
+the remains of an ancient castle, the walls of which are
+composed of enormous blocks of stone without cement.
+The fortifications are in a large semicircle, the diameter
+wall of which is about seven hundred feet in length, and
+the thickness of the walls about five feet. Where the
+wall can be approached from the land thirteen towers
+defend it, but on the side of the precipice there are none.</p>
+
+<p>In looking at the style of this construction, it is
+impossible to recognise in it a work of the Byzantine
+Greeks, or the Genoese, who always used lime and mortar,
+as may be seen in the ruins of Alouchta, Ourzouf, Soudak,
+Theodosia, and Balaclava. These ruins are built like
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_215">[215]</span>those at little Castéle, Demir Kapou, and other of
+the most ancient remains in the Crimea. They resemble
+the Cyclopean walls of Kimmericum (Opouk),
+and the Tumuli of the Gold Mountain near Kertch, and
+Dubois attributes them to the Tauri, and the Tauro-Scythians.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_183" href="#Footnote_183" class="fnanchor">[183]</a></p>
+
+<p>This little fortress has not been inhabited since 1475,
+that is to say, since the destruction of the Genoese power
+in the Crimea, but there is no reason to think that it
+was ever inhabited by the Genoese or the Greeks.
+There is no trace of temple or other edifice within it,
+and the only remains of such are to be found immediately
+on arriving at the top of the mountain, where, nestled
+among some large trees, rise the ruins of a monastery dedicated
+to St. Constantine and St. Helen. It immediately
+overlooked the village of Partheníte; and Dubois, who
+imagines that it occupied the site of the ancient temple
+of the Tauric Diana, thinks that this would be a most
+interesting place to commence some excavations. He
+believes that, while the temple at Cape St. George
+in the Chersonese was also dedicated to the goddess,
+this one of Aioudágh was the particular temple where
+Iphigenia exercised her cruel mission; that it was here
+that Orestes and Pylades appeared to her; hence the
+bodies of the victims were precipitated from the top of
+the rock into the sea below; hence she gazed over the
+wide horizon, and watched for the vessels of her victims.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_184" href="#Footnote_184" class="fnanchor">[184]</a></p>
+
+<p>There has been much discussion as to the cape which
+was really the Kriumetôpon, or “ram face,” promontory
+at which Iphigenia arrived.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_185" href="#Footnote_185" class="fnanchor">[185]</a> Some have placed it at Ai
+Petri near Aloupka, others at Mount Ilia near Laspi,
+others at Aithodor; but Clarke, Heber, Mouravief Apostol,
+Koeppen, and Dubois, consider it to apply to the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_216">[216]</span>Aioudágh.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_186" href="#Footnote_186" class="fnanchor">[186]</a> Its position is very distinctly indicated by Strabo
+where he says, “far along the Tauric coast there detaches
+itself into the sea a promontory, which looks towards
+Paphlagonia and the city of Amastris, and this is called
+Kriumetôpon. Opposite to it corresponds Cape Carambis
+in Paphlagonia, and they divide the Euxine Sea into
+two parts.” “At Kriumetôpon,” says Scymnus,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_187" href="#Footnote_187" class="fnanchor">[187]</a> “arrived
+Iphigenia, when she disappeared from Aulis. The Tauri
+abound here, and their numerous tribes lead a wandering
+life in the mountains. Barbarians by their cruelties
+and murders, they adore a divinity which resembles them
+in its impious crimes.” An additional reason for believing
+this to have been the place alluded to by the ancients is
+the fact that the Tatar village at the foot of the promontory
+is still called Partheníte, or the village of the Virgin.
+Partheníte is situated in a beautiful valley, and a sandy
+beach enables the inhabitants still, as in the Homeric
+times, to draw their barks up on the land. Two little
+streams irrigate the orchards and fields, in which are
+cultivated flax and the best flavoured tobacco along
+the whole coast. Here is a celebrated walnut-tree of
+enormous size, surrounded by benches, under the shade
+of which the Prince de Ligne wrote the letter to the
+Empress Catherine, describing to her his astonishment
+at the extraordinary beauty of the southern coast.</p>
+
+<p>Pursuing our road we come to the two Lambats,
+Bouiouk and Kutchuk (great and little). The word
+Lambat is the old Greek name of the place, and means
+the town of the Lamps (Lampadôn). The Little Lambat
+is now a village on the shore of the bay, defended
+from the East by the promontory Plaka, and there is in
+it a good anchorage. Between the two Lambats the
+ground is covered with ruins of every age, from the most
+early at the Great Lambat to the most recent on the
+sea-shore. It is called Halmites by Arrian, and this
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_217">[217]</span>name may have its origin in the Greek word to leap, as
+rough ground on which one is obliged to leap, and it may
+also have some connexion with the river Alma, which
+rises on the other side of the Tauric chain exactly opposite
+the plateau on which Great Lambat is situated.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_188" href="#Footnote_188" class="fnanchor">[188]</a></p>
+
+<p>After passing Cape Plaka, between Great Lambat and the
+sea-shore is one of the most extraordinary spectacles that
+can be witnessed.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_189" href="#Footnote_189" class="fnanchor">[189]</a> There suddenly appears a place which
+is called, by the moderns the Chaos, and by the Tatars
+Sunenkáia. It is a vast assemblage of enormous masses
+of rock, as large as houses, and as high as towers, composed
+of fetid black limestone, thrown together in confusion and
+sometimes leaning against one another, somewhat in the
+same way as at the Trossachs in Scotland. In one place
+they look like aiguilles or pyramids, in another place
+like the enormous ruins of some Cyclopean edifice, while
+further on they have the wild and broken appearance of
+the moraine of a glacier.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_190" href="#Footnote_190" class="fnanchor">[190]</a> The shumac, the walnut, the
+wild vine, and many different kinds of thorns grow in
+the deep crevices, and push their roots down to the
+water that filters below. Numbers of these blocks also
+have fallen into the sea, and form a chain on which the
+waves vent their fury. The Chaos lasts for about half a
+mile along the sea-shore, and is terminated by the black
+porphyry of Cape Plaka. This great amphitheatre of
+confusion goes on widening for a mile and a half inland,
+up to Great Lambat, and on crossing the high road, and
+going up towards the mountains, a new Chaos is met with,
+composed of blocks of ophitic granite instead of the limestone.
+From the highest point of the mountain all
+through the Chaos down to the sea-shore the ground is
+covered with ancient ruins, and the place was evidently
+chosen by the barbarous population of ancient times, as
+one secure from attack on account of the difficult nature
+of the country.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_218">[218]</span></p>
+
+<p>Above the second Chaos may be observed the solution
+of the whole scene. There is the enormous mouth of a
+crater, whence these vast fragments, broken in the bosom
+of the earth, have been vomited forth. The limestone,
+situated upon the ophitone, was rolled down to the sea-shore,
+while the ophitone itself appears only at the mouth
+of the crater, or near it, in a disturbed state. The schist
+and the grey limestone, whose beds were broken by
+the eruption of the ophitone, have been turned into red
+marble at the points of contact with it, which shows it to
+have been erupted in a heated state. The best situation
+for observing these interesting phenomena, is Mount
+Aithodor, or the hill of St. Theodore,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_191" href="#Footnote_191" class="fnanchor">[191]</a> so called from the
+ruins of a Greek church on the summit. Hence may be
+contemplated, as a whole, the mighty agency by which
+the Tauric chain, which towers above us, has been raised
+up, and the igneous domes of Kastele, Ouraga, and
+Aithodor itself are perceived as the immense levers which
+have raised up Mount Babougan, and the plains surrounding
+it, for several thousand feet.</p>
+
+<p>At a place called Karabagh, near Bouiouk Lambat,
+is the country-house of M. Peter de Koeppen, whose
+valuable works on the statistics and geography of Russia
+are well known.</p>
+
+<p>Further on, Mount Kastele completely bars all passage
+along the coast, and the road is carried through a defile
+between it and the main chain, which the Tatars call
+Demir Kapou, or the gate of iron, and, according to their
+usual system, the Tauri had here established one of
+their fortresses, in the narrowest part of the gorge, to
+defend their settlements at Lambat.</p>
+
+<p>Three walls formed the enceinte; two, about two hundred
+paces long, run from the perpendicular flanks of Mount
+Kastele, and meet a third nearly at right angles on the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_219">[219]</span>opposite side of the valley.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_192" href="#Footnote_192" class="fnanchor">[192]</a> They are composed of great
+blocks of granite piled one on the other without cement,
+and sometimes as much as six feet in thickness and in
+height, and the interior forms a narrow enclosure, in
+which are the remains of some rude edifices. Everything
+here shows the infancy of art, and recalls the Cyclopean
+constructions of Greece, or even the Gaulish camps of
+France and Switzerland.</p>
+
+<p>On the eastern side of the Kastele, the only remains
+of the Greeks or Genoese, are the foundations of a little
+edifice outside the fort in the midst of some trees looking
+towards Alouchta. The Tauri are probably the builders
+of a second fortress much more considerable than the
+first, and occupying a part of the summit of the mountain.
+A wall, constructed without cement, here runs from
+north to south from one precipice to another, and encloses
+numerous traces&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_193" href="#Footnote_193" class="fnanchor">[193]</a> of habitations, and fragments of pottery.
+The traveller, after passing the gorge, soon finds himself
+at the top of the descent leading to Alouchta, with the
+town placed on the opposite side of the valley, which
+here widens out again considerably, presenting its usual
+features of wildness and Asiatic luxuriance. Here ends
+the really fine scenery of the southern coast, which extends
+over a distance of about forty miles from Phoros to
+Alouchta.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_220">[220]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV.<br>
+<span class="smaller">THE EASTERN COAST AND SOUDAK.</span></h2>
+
+<p>Alouchta—The Eastern and Western Coast—Oulou Ouzéne, the property of
+Mrs. Lang—Mdlle. Jacquemart—The Bay of Soudak—Ruins of the triple
+fortress—The Kiz Koullé, or Girl’s Tower—Ancient Soldaya—Its history—Remains—Vandalism
+of the Russians—Ruined barracks—The Crimean
+Wine Company—The wines of the Crimea—Prices of land in the Crimea—Road
+to Theodosia—Tatar hospitality—Koktebel.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>Alouchta&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_194" href="#Footnote_194" class="fnanchor">[194]</a> is beautifully placed on the sloping side of a
+gentle elevation, near the sea-shore, and the cultivation
+of the vine has made here rapid progress. Its situation,
+in a wide and fertile valley, at nearly the centre of the
+southern coast, must always have rendered it an important
+place, although the only mention of it in ancient times
+is with reference to the castle built here by Justinian, the
+remains of which are to be seen on a little hill near the
+sea-shore. The ancient town of Alouchta was built in
+front of the fort on the right bank of the river Oulou
+Ouzéne, but the place is now deserted and covered with the
+wild vine and tamarisk. Some remains may still be discovered
+of houses and of several Greek churches placed
+on the most elevated positions. The churches are nearly
+as large as those of Kherson; and in the principal one
+a semicircular apse shows that either a bishop or at least
+a priest of high rank presided over the clergy attached
+to it. Alouchta is the limit between the eastern and
+western coast, which are great rivals for public favour.
+There can, however, be no doubt that in remarkable
+scenery and romantic beauty the western coast has greatly
+the advantage. The igneous jets of ophitic granite do
+not come further east than Alouchta; and while the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_221">[221]</span>granite domes of Kastele, Aioudágh, and Liméne form
+promontories and bays, and sublime variations of scenery,
+the eastern coast is a monotonous repetition of narrow
+ravines, covered with meagre vegetation, of the wich elm
+(the commonest tree in the Crimea), the turpentine-tree,
+and the oriental juniper, some specimens of which measure
+as much as a foot and a half in diameter.</p>
+
+<p>A ride of eight miles along a sterile and desert shore
+of the eastern coast brings the traveller to the valley of
+another river, called Oulou Ouzéne, the property of Mrs.
+Lang, who has planted vineyards and orchards, and converted
+it into one of the most agreeable residences
+along the coast. Some miles further on is the bay of
+Soudak, and the residence of an eccentric French lady,
+Mdlle. Jacquemart, who, having originally gone to
+Russia as a governess, and then, by her brilliant conversation
+and wit having gained a great reputation in
+the highest circles, both in Petersburg and Vienna,
+suddenly renounced the world, and retired to solitude on
+the shores of the Crimea. Marshal Marmont, in his
+works, tells a romantic tale about a rejected and despairing
+lover, who in a paroxysm of fury attempted her life;
+but according to Mdlle. Jacquemart’s own account the
+story differs wonderfully from the unpoetic truth, which
+was, that a Greek, whom she had never seen before,
+brutally attacked and nearly murdered her, as she was
+returning home one evening to her solitary dwelling.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_195" href="#Footnote_195" class="fnanchor">[195]</a></p>
+
+<p>The view of the bay of Soudak, on approaching it
+from the west, is very striking. Its shores present a
+charming rural prospect; and the valley which leads down
+to the water is entirely occupied with orchards and vineyards.
+Near the extremity of the bay, on the right, the
+rocks jut out boldly, and the fortifications of the old
+Genoese town crown the heights. Soudak, as will presently
+be more fully explained, was in ancient times a very important
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_222">[222]</span>place, and its beautiful position attracted here
+the population of a town even in time of the ancient
+Greeks. The Russians, since they have possessed it,
+have done much injury to the ancient remains; but even
+the ruins of the fortress and citadel, which alone have
+been spared, possess great interest. The traveller threading
+his way among the vineyards may approach the
+pyramidal rock, on which is built the three stages of the
+vast and carefully-constructed fortress, which once protected
+the surrounding city of Soldaya,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_196" href="#Footnote_196" class="fnanchor">[196]</a> as Soudak was
+anciently called. The rock is inaccessible on the side of
+the sea, but may easily be approached from the interior
+of the valley, where it opens on a broad terrace, defended
+by an immense rampart, flanked by ten towers.</p>
+
+<p>The entrance-gate is defended by an exterior work;
+and in front of it, where a German colony has lately been
+planted, there formerly stood the Genoese part of the
+town of Soldaya. Between the colony and the gate is a
+beautiful fountain, of ancient workmanship, the water of
+which formerly supplied the fortress; and above it is
+placed a bas-relief, which has been brought from the
+ruins, of St. George killing the Dragon, and the scutcheon
+of the Doge Adorno. Over the gate is an inscription,
+declaring it to have been built in the year 1385, when
+the noble and puissant lord, James Gorsevi, was the
+consul and castellan of Soldaya.</p>
+
+<p>On entering the gate the traveller stands within the
+lower fortress, and finds the ground covered with ruins.
+Here are the immense brick cisterns which contained
+enough water to supply the garrison for several years;
+and the aqueducts of earthen tubes, which conducted the
+rain-water from the rocks above are still visible. Near
+them are the remains of some Genoese houses in the Gothic
+style, with dates and scutcheons; the only ones which
+escaped destruction when the Russians occupied the place.</p>
+
+<p>Here are also the most uninteresting remains of the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_223">[223]</span>huge Russian barracks, to construct which, the beautiful
+architectural erections of the Genoese were destroyed.
+These barracks were built by Prince Potemkin after the
+conquest of the Crimea, when he entertained an idea,
+which was afterwards abandoned, of making Soldaya the
+Russian capital of the peninsula.</p>
+
+<p>Beyond the ruins of the barracks, in the north-east
+corner of the platform, where the rock overhangs the sea
+with a sheer precipice, is a curious edifice, which bears
+traces of many styles of architecture. It must have been
+originally built as a mosque, because it does not look
+east and west, like a Christian church, but north and
+south, with the altar, formerly the <i>maharab</i> of the
+mosque, turned in the direction of Mecca.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_197" href="#Footnote_197" class="fnanchor">[197]</a> It was
+probably raised by the Tatars, when, in a moment of
+fanaticism, they drove the Greek Christians from Soudak
+in the beginning of the fourteenth century, as the
+arrangement of the parts and the style of the ornaments
+are of an earlier date than the Turkish occupation.
+In 1323, on the demand of Pope John XXII.,
+Soldaya was restored to the Greek Christians; and it
+was from them that the Genoese captured it in 1365,
+when the Greek churches were turned into Catholic ones.
+In 1575 Soudak was taken by the Ottomans, and all
+the churches were again turned into mosques; and thus
+they remained till, on the conquest of the Crimea by the
+Russians, the mosques were once more devoted to the
+Greek form of Christianity. Thus this church has undergone
+no less than five changes of religious destination,
+having first been built as a Tatar-Mongol mosque, then
+converted into a Greek Christian church, then changed to a
+Latin Catholic church, then once more a mosque, and being
+at the present day, for the second time, a Greek church.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_198" href="#Footnote_198" class="fnanchor">[198]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_224">[224]</span></p>
+
+<p>A steep path leads from near the church to the middle
+fortress, called Katara Koullé, built in a ledge of the
+precipitous rock, with the sea chafing round its base.
+The principal tower is constructed in the noble style of
+the fifteenth century.</p>
+
+<p>A narrow path along the edge of the precipice leads to
+the third and highest fortress, called the Kiz Koullé
+(The Girl’s Tower), which is the real acropolis on the
+summit of the rock, and consists of a simple square
+tower, placed like the eyrie of an eagle, commanding a
+view of the expanse of the sea, the whole of the fortifications,
+the recesses of the valley, and the circuit of the
+ancient town of Soudak, in which the smallest details
+may be observed.</p>
+
+<p>The eye also follows the windings of the coast as far
+as Kastele and Aiondagh, and wanders over the terraces
+of the Tauric chain that rise one above another, while
+turning round and looking inland, the traveller sees the
+Swiss colony which has replaced the Scythians, Greeks,
+Komans, Genoese, and Turks, and occupies the entrance
+of the beautiful gulf of verdure which stretches inland in
+the midst of the dark grey rocks.</p>
+
+<p>As early as the eighth century, Soldaya, or Sougdai,
+the origin of which goes back to the remotest times, was
+the seat of a bishop, and although then depending on the
+empire of the East, had its own sovereign princes. Four
+hundred years later the Komans, an Asiatic people,
+driven from its seats in Asia towards the West by the
+hordes of Zingis Khan, arrived in the Crimea, and were
+the precursors of the terrible invasion of the Mongols,
+which occurred soon afterwards. The arrival of the
+Komans in their flight was fatal to the Greek establishments
+in the Crimea, and the princes of Soldaya were
+exterminated, and the conquerors seized on their capital.</p>
+
+<p>The Tatars soon followed, and the Komans, after thirty
+years’ possession, were obliged to abandon the Crimea,
+and seek an asylum in the more western countries of Thrace.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_225">[225]</span></p>
+
+<p>Under the Tatar domination the Greeks re-entered
+Soldaya, which again became a Christian city, and the
+most important port in the peninsula. Although it was
+certainly tributary to the Tatars, it had a bishop, and
+governed itself.</p>
+
+<p>In the beginning of the fourteenth century, when the
+Tatars of Kiptchak adopted the Mahometan religion,
+Musselman fanaticism predominated for a moment in the
+Crimea, and the Christians, driven from Soldaya, saw all
+their churches converted into mosques. But it is a
+remarkable fact, that the remonstrance of the Pope
+John XXII. was sufficient in 1323 to procure from
+Usbek Khan the restitution of the city to the Christians,
+and the restoration of their ancient privileges.</p>
+
+<p>Thirty years had hardly elapsed when a new revolution,
+arising from intestine discord, annihilated in Soldaya
+the Greek power. On the 18th June, 1365, the
+Genoese, already masters of Kaffa for nearly a century,
+incorporated in their dominions the ancient capital of the
+Komans. It was then that these bold merchants, to
+secure the possession of the fertile country of Soudak
+and to defend it from the Tatars, constructed on the most
+inaccessible part of the rock commanding the entrance to
+the town the formidable fortress with three stages, that
+has been mentioned, crowned by the gigantic Maiden
+Tower (Kiz Koullé), whence sentinels were ever on the
+alert to watch over the port, the sea, and the neighbouring
+country.</p>
+
+<p>The Genoese remained undisturbed possessors of their
+castle for more than a century; but after the taking of
+Constantinople by Mahomet II., and the immediate destruction
+of Kaffa, the capital of their colonies in the
+Crimea, the last hour arrived for unfortunate Soldaya.
+In 1475 the Turks besieged the place,—the resistance
+was long and obstinate, and famine alone achieved the
+triumph of the besiegers over the valour and heroism of
+the garrison. With the Genoese possession terminated
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_226">[226]</span>the glory and prosperity of Soldaya, which had lasted for
+so many centuries. The population of the town was
+expelled and dispersed; the port, once so animated, became
+desert, and grass grew in the streets, formerly
+trodden by the elegant Greeks of Byzantium, the victorious
+Komans, and the proud citizens of Genoa. To
+all these various populations, so rich or so powerful, succeeded
+a feeble Turkish garrison, which witnessed during
+three centuries with indifference the degradation and
+solitude of one of the most ancient and famous cities on
+the shores of the Black Sea.</p>
+
+<p>In 1781 the imperial eagle of the Czar floated on the
+towers of Soldaya, and then began, for the monuments of
+the Genoese colony, that destruction which everywhere
+characterizes the conquests of Russia. All the public
+and private buildings, which Pallas in his first voyage
+had so much admired for their beautiful architecture,
+disappeared, and their precious remains were used by the
+Muscovite Vandals to build huge barracks, which were
+utterly useless, and which now form themselves the most
+uninteresting of ruins. At this day Soldaya, utterly
+effaced from the list of towns and fortresses, does not
+possess even a guard to watch over its walls and magnificent
+towers with their proud inscriptions. Each year
+new mutilations take place, and soon there will remain
+none of the tablets of marble, with elegant arabesques,
+which adorn each tower and gateway, retracing their
+origin and history. Certainly the absence of all Russian
+authorities is the only thing that can preserve the Genoese
+castle from utter destruction.</p>
+
+<p>Unfortunately the government seems now to wish for
+its preservation, and no doubt the remains of Soldaya
+will be threatened with entire destruction the moment
+an employé, having nothing to live upon but his wretched
+pay, becomes officially invested with the right of protecting
+them from the ravages of time and men.</p>
+
+<p>The best view of the valley of Soudak and the surrounding
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_227">[227]</span>country is from the monastery of St. George,
+placed on a high mountain, a projection from which runs
+into the sea, and forms the eastern side of the bay.
+There are few eminences in the Crimea that offer so
+vast and varied a landscape. Every detail of the valley
+is visible; and the vast fortress is below, a pyramid of
+ruins, without a living soul near them, except a stray
+traveller, or the children from the neighbouring German
+colony, who make it their play-ground. The coast is
+visible far beyond Alouchta; and in the interior of the
+country the dark and barren mountains are thrown pell-mell;
+while among them penetrates, in pleasing contrast,
+the bright green valley of Soudak. Here the dark foliage
+of the fruit-trees and the tall poplars is mixed with the
+pale green of the vineyards; and white houses are dotted
+about, each in their own domain. Although there is a
+considerable population, there is no town at modern
+Soudak; and the only spots where a few houses are placed
+together is near the church, where a Greek has built a
+hotel.</p>
+
+<p>Near here, also, are the vast establishments of the wine
+company of the Crimea, and the house of their manager,
+M. Larguier, a French gentleman. As the wine company
+have chosen Soudak as their head-quarters, and the
+wine of this neighbourhood has always been famous,
+this will, perhaps, be a proper place to say a few words
+upon the cultivation of the vine in the Crimea.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_199" href="#Footnote_199" class="fnanchor">[199]</a> The
+Crimean wine company has been established to make
+known the different kinds of Crimean wines in the markets
+of the world, and to facilitate the sale of them. The
+production of wine has received an immense development
+in the Crimea since the beginning of the present century,
+and especially since Prince Woronzof has been governor-general
+of New Russia; but a great difficulty has always
+been found in disposing of the produce.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_228">[228]</span></p>
+
+<p>In all times, the Crimea has exported wine into
+Southern Russia. Bronevski,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_200" href="#Footnote_200" class="fnanchor">[200]</a> in the middle of the sixteenth
+century, says that Soudak had large vineyards
+which gave the best wine in the Crimea. De la Motraye,
+in 1711, speaks of a wine of Soudak, which did not differ
+from Burgundy in colour, and was not inferior to it in
+taste. He also mentions a wine of Katche (Katchik)
+which sparkled in the glass like Burgundy or Champagne,
+and was sold at a farthing a bottle. At a later period,
+Peyssonel, in 1762, speaks of the wines of the Crimea,
+and praises their excellence and abundance. They were
+white, light, and wholesome; and the wine of Soudak
+was the only one that was strong. The best qualities
+then came from Soudak and the banks of the Belbek,
+the Alma, and the Katcha. The price was about a
+penny a quart for the best wine of Soudak, and the
+Cossacks of the Ukraine and the Zaporogues bought a
+large quantity every year.</p>
+
+<p>The wines of the Crimea could not, however, compete
+with those of France or Greece, and they were consumed
+only among the people; while the rich classes, accustomed
+to the wines of Sauterne, Bordeaux, Hungary,
+and the Rhine, despised the productions of Soudak or
+the Katcha, where the vine, cultivated after the Greek
+or Tatar method, at the best, produced only a feeble
+aqueous beverage, without body, and impossible to keep.
+The wines of the Crimea, therefore, had no reputation;
+the mode of making them was defective; and it was
+necessary that there should be a complete revolution in
+the whole system of culture and manufacture before the
+vines of this country could enter into competition with
+those of foreign ones.</p>
+
+<p>A number of proprietors in the Crimea resolutely
+undertook this task, and, with Prince Woronzof at their
+head, spared neither money nor encouragement of every
+kind. They procured from Spain and France, and the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_229">[229]</span>Rhine, plants from the most celebrated vineyards; and
+Prince Woronzof collected 200 sorts, in small quantities,
+at Aloupka, for experiments. They also brought over
+good vine-dressers, and consulted the best works on the
+subject. The most suitable lands on the coast were
+carefully prepared and covered with fine plantations.
+Experienced persons were brought over to teach the art
+of treating the wines; vast cellars were built and fitted up
+with immense vases; in short, neither trouble nor expense
+were spared to perfect the qualities of the wine. The enterprise,
+however, still failed, because the rich continued
+to drink Bordeaux and Burgundy, and the common consumers
+the cheap wine of Soudak and the Katcha; so
+that the bad old kinds of Crimean wines still found a
+market, and the good remained unsold in the cellars of
+the proprietors. As a remedy, the Crimean wine company
+was established, with a considerable capital, managed
+by M. Larguier, to buy the choice wines of the proprietors,
+and to place itself in relation with the principal
+towns of Russia; to make known by their travellers the
+best sorts of Crimean wines; and to have dépôts in the
+towns; and try, by every means, to remove the prejudices
+against them. This was the more necessary, as
+the common wine-merchants, by adulteration, continually
+depreciated them in the public estimation. The greater
+part of the weak wines of Soudak and the Katcha, which
+they bought cheap at the time of the vintage, and carried
+immediately to their cellars at Moscow, and elsewhere,
+were mixed with all kinds of substances, and lost their
+reputation as soon as tasted: the pure wine was nowhere
+procurable.</p>
+
+<p>The head-quarters of the company were fixed at Soudak,
+and cellars and an office were established at Simpherópol.
+The commencement was difficult, as relations had to be
+established; and only inferior sorts could at first be
+bought with any chance of obtaining a profit. As the
+proprietors had been at great expense, they asked an
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_230">[230]</span>enormous price for the good wines; and, besides this,
+their quality could never be depended upon, on account
+of the newness of the vineyards, and the consequently
+uncertain and variable flavour of the grapes.</p>
+
+<p>The ancient culture of the vine by the Greeks and
+Tatars, who looked only to quantity, was carried on
+entirely on the flat grounds in the bottom of valleys,
+which were easy to irrigate. The valley of Soudak, which
+runs in nearly two miles from the sea to Taraktache,
+was adapted for this cultivation; and no doubt the vine
+was planted here in the early Greek times, when Athenæon
+flourished where Soudak was afterwards founded.
+At Alouchta, also, there was then much wine made, as
+is evident from the immense quantity of amphoræ found
+there.</p>
+
+<p>The other vineyards of the Crimea were on the
+Katcha, the Belbek, and the Alma; where the clayey
+or limestone soil was favourable, and the valleys easy to
+irrigate. The climate however was inferior to Soudak,
+and so were the wines, with the exception of some parts
+of the valley of the Belbek near the sea. The vine is
+buried each winter in these valleys; and its culture must
+be very ancient, as wine-presses are found cut in the
+living rock in the grottoes of Katchi Kalene.</p>
+
+<p>Such were the ancient vineyards of the Crimea.</p>
+
+<p>The new vineyards extend all along the southern coast
+from a place near Kertch to Laspi. One of the first plantations
+was that of Laspi. M. Rouvier entered into an engagement
+with the government to introduce merino sheep,
+and plant with vines a certain extent of ground which
+should be given him; and, bringing his plants from Malaga,
+his wine retains some qualities of the original. In 1826,
+Prince Woronzof began the first vineyard of Ai Daniel.
+The Princess Galitzin began at the same time; and the
+example once set, vineyards quickly sprung up all along
+the coast; and already, in 1834, 2,000,000 of vines had
+been planted.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_231">[231]</span></p>
+
+<p>The climate of the coast is very like that of Provence.
+The winters are mild, the spring early, the summer hot
+and stormy, and the autumns long. In winter the thermometer
+seldom falls below 6° or 7° Réaumur. The soil is
+generally a black decomposed schist, mixed with limestone,
+and forms into a grey clay, more or less stony,
+very compact, and in dry weather impossible to work, so
+that it can only be broken up in winter, when softened
+by the rain. The vines are planted in terraces, and in
+winter have plenty of water from springs, which disappear
+in the dry time of the year. The grapes are
+retarded by this cause, and by the great heats of the
+coast, so that their development is checked till the rains
+of September, and then, being gathered very late, the
+fine quality of the wine is injured. Alouchta is the only
+place that never suffers from drought.</p>
+
+<p>From wherever the plants come, they all, after a certain
+time, have a tendency to the strong qualities of the Spanish
+wines. In a new plantation, when the first grapes appear,
+they give a wine like that of the country from which
+they have been transplanted; but scarcely two more years
+pass before there is a change; and from year to year the
+difference becomes greater, till at the end of ten years
+there is no longer Burgundy or Bordeaux, but a particular
+sort of wine, far less delicate and strong.</p>
+
+<p>The vineyards of Prince Woronzof at the Ai Daniel,
+and those of the Baron of Berckheim at the same place,
+where the plants have been kept totally distinct, give the
+results that have been mentioned. In the other vineyards
+the plants are much mixed, and Gros Bourgogne,
+and Pincan Fleuri, Rissling, Bordeaux, and Kakour,
+are all mixed together. The last plant, of uncertain
+origin, is said to give a very good flavour, and a bouquet
+which would make it sought even in Europe, as it differs
+greatly from all known wines. Here is planted also a
+certain quantity of Aleatico, and some ancient Crimean
+plants from the Katcha. The grape which loses the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_232">[232]</span>most of its primitive qualities by the change of climate
+is the Rissling from the banks of the Rhine. It has
+been particularly grown in the valley of Alouchta, where
+a schistous soil, mixed with calcareous particles and the
+detritus of sandstone, lighter, and less exposed to drought
+than the rest of the coast, would seem to recall the qualities
+of its primitive soil. At Miskhor also, Mr. Leon
+Narishkin planted, in 1834, a vineyard of Rissling, which
+produced a good wine, of a fine taste, but without the
+exquisite qualities of Rhine wine.</p>
+
+<p>Everything then proves that the wines of the coast of
+the Crimea are still in a state of transition, and cannot
+have a fixed reputation for some time to come. Then
+alone can the wines of the Crimea be spoken of as a class,
+and their place will probably be between the fine wines
+of the north and the strong wines of Spain. The
+Crimea has so many different climates, and soils, and
+situations, that if the stony lands of the coast will not
+give the qualities desired, they may be found elsewhere.
+Long experience has shown that the soil and climate
+of the Heracleotic Chersonese is as favourable to the cultivation
+of the vine as that of the coast of the Crimea,
+for already in ancient times this peninsula had vineyards
+and cellars and amphoræ. This fact is, besides, proved
+by an inscription found in 1794 in the ruins of Kherson,
+stating that the people had voted a crown of ivy to
+Agazikletos, “who had made the cultivation of the vine
+to flourish in the country;”&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_201" href="#Footnote_201" class="fnanchor">[201]</a> so that this cultivation
+was a branch of the industry and commerce of the Khersonians.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bardac, captain of the port of Sevastopol in 1803,
+again introduced the vine on the soil of the Chersonese,
+where the flocks of sheep and goats of the Tatars had
+extirpated it. He planted with vines from Smyrna some
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_233">[233]</span>land near Sevastopol, on the ravine running into South
+Bay, and the successful results encouraged other proprietors.
+In 1834 a wine was made at least equal to any
+other in the Crimea, and this may perhaps be accounted
+for by the nature of the soil, which is a detritus of
+limestone, mixed with cinders and volcanic remains, the
+whole reposing on the rock as a subsoil.</p>
+
+<p>I will now give some account of the prices of land in
+the Crimea. At the beginning of the present century
+the coast-lands were worth nothing, and persons were able
+to buy large tracts for a trifling sum, which they afterwards
+sold for fifty times their value. The Duc de Richelieu
+bought in 1817, for 140<i>l.</i>, the estate of Oursouf, and
+laid out upon it about 800<i>l.</i> In 1834 the Prince Woronzof,
+who had become the proprietor, retained 200 acres,
+and resold the house and the remaining 80 acres for
+4000<i>l.</i> The estate of Khanime, containing 160 acres,
+was bought by M. Poniatowski for 240<i>l.</i>, and was valued
+in 1834 at upwards of 3000<i>l.</i> The lands fit for the vine
+in the valley of Alouchta, which were first sold at 15<i>s.</i>
+and 1<i>l.</i> an acre, now cost 30<i>l.</i> or 40<i>l.</i>, and this is about
+the average price along the coast. The valuation of
+the new vineyards that have been planted can be only
+approximative, as no proprietors of them are inclined to
+sell. The valuation of a vineyard is made according to
+the number of plants it contains, and not according to
+the extent of the ground it covers. The number of plants
+varies considerably according to the nature of the soil,
+and there are generally 12,000 plants an acre in the
+heavy land, and 17,000 in the light land.</p>
+
+<p>There were vineyards sold in 1842 at 600<i>l.</i> an acre,
+and afterwards at as much as 1000<i>l.</i> an acre, while on the
+gravelly soil they were not worth more than 80<i>l.</i> an
+acre.</p>
+
+<p>In 1834 the Crimea possessed in new and ancient
+plantations 7,100,000 plants, distributed as follows:—</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_234">[234]</span></p>
+
+<table>
+  <tr>
+    <th></th>
+    <th>Vines.</th>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>South-east Coast of the Crimea</td>
+    <td class="tdr">1,600,000</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Soudak, &amp;c.</td>
+    <td class="tdr">2,000,000</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Valley of the Katcha</td>
+    <td class="tdr">2,000,000</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td><span class="ditto">”</span> Alma</td>
+    <td class="tdr">500,000</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td><span class="ditto">”</span> Belbek</td>
+    <td class="tdr">500,000</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>German colonies.</td>
+    <td class="tdr">500,000</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>Since that time the number of vineyards has enormously
+increased, but I have not been able to procure
+any details upon the subject.</p>
+
+<p>The road from Soldaya to Theodosia is very mountainous,
+and the country thinly peopled. The great
+calcareous chain of mountains here recede from the sea,
+and are barely covered with a meagre vegetation, and
+only a few Tatar villages occupy the low valleys. Completely
+abandoned by the aristocracy, with impracticable
+roads, and none of the luxurious habitations which fashion
+has raised about Yalta, the shore between Alouchta and
+Theodosia is rarely visited by tourists, and only occasionally
+explored by some scientific traveller.</p>
+
+<p>Although the coasts of Soudak are abandoned by the
+Russian nobles, although there are there no Italian villas,
+or Gothic mansions built in porphyry, there is instead a
+hearty welcome to the traveller and real Oriental hospitality.
+Far from the centres of civilization which the
+Russians have raised in the Crimea in the last twenty
+years, the Tatars of these regions have preserved intact
+the traditions of the past, and all the remarkable traits of
+their primitive character. In every village the traveller,
+especially if he be not a Russian, is received with the
+most affectionate care. Everywhere the best house, the
+most beautiful cushions and carpets, are placed at his
+disposal, and he is installed in a good apartment with
+coffee and a tchibouk, in a way which can be appreciated
+only by those who know the inconveniences as well as
+pleasures of travelling in the East. At Toklouk, Kouz,
+and Otouz, the Tatar dwellings, with their flat roofs, are
+raised against the hills which border the valley, and by
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_235">[235]</span>this arrangement the inhabitants communicate generally
+by the terraces of their houses. Nothing can be more
+picturesque than the appearance of these terraces of an
+evening: at that moment the whole population, men,
+women, and children, are on the alert, and desert their
+dark chambers, where they seek a refuge against the sun
+during the heat of the day, to install themselves on the
+roofs of the houses.</p>
+
+<p>The most agreeable animation succeeds the silence of
+the day, loud conversations are heard on all sides, and a
+very picturesque effect is produced by the various groups,
+who, still employed in household occupations, thus enjoy
+the coolness of the evening.</p>
+
+<p>At Koktebel, a little village situated on the borders
+of the sea, about twenty miles from Soudak, near the
+sombre Cape Karadagh, are the really mountainous parts
+of the Crimea. Beyond it the country possesses no
+features of picturesque beauty; vast plains gradually succeed
+to the hills, and at a distance the Steppes, which
+form all the northern part of the peninsula, extend to
+the east of Theodosia as far as the Cimmerian Bosphorus.
+On all the line from Soudak to Theodosia there is no
+ancient monument or ruin; and the nature of the coast,
+sometimes abrupt, sometimes open and undefended,
+appears little favourable for the foundations of a town,
+or the establishment of either a military or commercial
+port.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_236">[236]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV.<br>
+<span class="smaller">FROM ALOUCHTA TO SIMPHERÓPOL, KARASOUBAZAR, ESKI KRIM, AND THEODOSIA.</span></h2>
+
+<p>Valley of Alouchta—Obelisk—Valley of the Angar—Tavshan Bazar—Fortified
+Gorge—Yenisála, a Greek Colony—Aian and the source of the
+Salghír—Ascent of the Tchatyr-Dagh—Yaila—Snow reservoirs—From
+Tchafki to Simpherópol—Excursion up valley of Little Salghír to caves of
+Kisilkoba—Caverns—Simpherópol to Karasóubazar—The Shireen family—Eski
+Krim—Theodosia, or Kaffa—<span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span> 700, Theodosia founded by Milesians—<span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span>
+250, totally destroyed by the Huns—Desert for 1000 years—<span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span>
+1280, Kaffa founded by Genoese on site of Theodosia—Short history
+of it—<span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> 1475, taken by Turks—Its decline—Revival in seventeenth
+century—1781, taken by Russians—Description of ruins—Their destruction
+by the Russians—Position of Kaffa in commercial point of view—Arabat—The
+wall of Asander—The approach to Kertch.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>The macadamised road does not extend along the coast
+further than Alouchta, and here turns off northwards to
+Simpherópol, a distance of about forty miles. It mounts
+for the first twelve miles through the rich valley of
+Alouchta, till an obelisk marks the highest point, whence
+it descends through the cheerful little valley of the Angar,
+which runs into the Salghír. Here the Tchatyr-Dagh,
+the highest mountain in the Crimea, rises immediately
+on the left, and the valley is an enormous rent in the red
+pudding stone of which the mountain itself is composed.</p>
+
+<p>A little further on, a shady spot, called Tavshan Bazar
+(the Hare market), serves as a resting-place for carriages
+coming from Simpherópol, before they encounter the hilly
+part of the journey to the coast, and from Tavshan Bazar
+to Simpherópol the road is good and even.</p>
+
+<p>Two limestone mountains&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_202" href="#Footnote_202" class="fnanchor">[202]</a> here rise above the road on
+the right, and vast blocks which have rolled down from
+them nearly fill up the valley of the Angar, and advantage
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_237">[237]</span>has been taken of the narrow passage, called Demirkapou,
+or the gates of iron, to erect one of the walls so common
+in the Crimea, by which the southern coast was protected
+against invasions from the north.</p>
+
+<p>A little beyond Tavshan Bazar,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_203" href="#Footnote_203" class="fnanchor">[203]</a> to the right, is the
+village of Yenisála, occupying the bottom of the valley.
+This was a Greek village, abandoned in 1778, of which
+there only remain now the ruins of a chapel and some
+tombs. The inhabitants were induced to remove at the
+great emigration which took place five years before
+the Russian conquest of the Crimea, and were transferred
+to the shores of the Sea of Azof, near Mariopol,
+where they founded a new Yenisála. They never, however,
+forgot their old abodes, and the present possessor of
+the village, M. Grot, has seen old men arrive to visit the
+scenes of their youth, and find out among the tangled
+bushes their ancient home, which they came once to
+revisit before their strength failed them. A little beyond
+Yenisála the Angar falls into the Salghír, and the high
+road follows the banks of the latter river all the way to
+Simpherópol. There are no remains of antiquity, except
+an old Tatar palace, called Eski Serai; but the country
+around is rich and wooded, with fine poplars and aspens,
+and Tatar villages are dotted thickly over it, with tiled
+houses and white minarets rising among the trees.</p>
+
+<p>It is worth while, however, to stop on the high road at
+Tchafki and make an excursion to the source of the Salghír
+and the summit of the Tchatyr-Dagh. From Tchafki the
+ride is short to the little Tatar village of Aian,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_204" href="#Footnote_204" class="fnanchor">[204]</a> which is
+close to the sources of the Salghír, to visit which the
+traveller must descend from the limestone terrace, on
+which the village is situated, into the neighbouring
+narrow valley, which is a rent in the red marble rocks,
+terminating, at a few hundred yards distance, in a great
+chasm in the flank of the mountain. There, under an
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_238">[238]</span>enormous rock, surmounted by other broken fragments,
+is a large mouth, which vomits forth the Salghír in the
+midst of mossy blocks of stone. The wave, scarcely
+escaped from its cavern, falls in a cascade over a mass of
+marble, and the noise of the waterfall is mingled with the
+roaring of the waters in the gulf from which it issues in
+the very bowels of the mountain. From a grotto above
+it the water may be seen boiling and foaming in the dark
+abyss. These subterranean gulfs penetrate into the heart
+of the mountain, where they communicate with other
+gulfs and abysses, which reach the whole way through
+the mountain from near its summit, and, preserving the
+snow during the whole year like glaciers, continually feed
+the river.</p>
+
+<p>To mount the Tchatyr-Dagh,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_205" href="#Footnote_205" class="fnanchor">[205]</a> on its eastern side, the
+first part of the ascent is in the direction of Tchafki, over
+the schists, which to a considerable height compose the
+western side of the valley of the Angar. Then follows
+the red marble, and a very steep ascent, which leads to the
+table-land or Yaila of the mountain, four or five miles in
+length and two miles broad, and upwards of 4000 feet
+above the level of the sea. It is very even and covered
+with fine pasture, on which feed numerous flocks of sheep;
+but strange to say the strata of black limestone which
+compose it are not horizontal, as might have been expected
+from its even surface, but vertical, at right angles
+to the surface of the earth, and planed off by some agency
+which nobody has been able to determine. The heads of
+the beds may be seen running east and west, and the
+harder strata rise slightly above the others, and have
+scarcely any vegetation upon them. There are frequent
+slight depressions in the soil, from 40 to 100 feet in
+diameter, and about 10 feet deep; but sometimes they
+sink into the unfathomable abysses which have been
+mentioned as forming reservoirs of snow to supply the
+rivers which issue from the Tauric chain. From this
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_239">[239]</span>lower table rises another, 700 or 800 feet high, which
+forms the summit of the mountain, offering the magnificent
+view I have already described in a former chapter.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing of interest occurs on the road from Tchafki
+to Simpherópol; from which latter place there is an
+agreeable excursion up the valley of the Little Salghír,
+which runs on the east, parallel to the great river of
+the same name.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_206" href="#Footnote_206" class="fnanchor">[206]</a> After passing the village of Mamak,
+at a short distance from Simpherópol, a vast wall of
+porphyry, fifteen miles long, closes the valley to the
+east, and extends from Djamatai to Yenisála, which
+has been mentioned as being close to the high road to
+Alouchta. This wall is the eastern side of the great circular
+crater, in the midst of which Mount Tchatyr-Dagh
+has been raised up, and along it there are rents, which
+form narrow valleys to the east, in many of which villages
+are situated. At Terenair is some black schistous
+earth, somewhat resembling coal in appearance; but
+although it would no more burn than so much granite,
+the possessor of it, Mr. Kortchan, always uses his utmost
+endeavours to obtain a certificate of its carbonaceous
+virtues from geological travellers, that he may enter into
+contracts to supply it as coal to the fleet at Sevastopol.
+Higher up is the valley of the Kisilkoba, with a
+village of the same name at its entrance, and a rivulet
+running through it, shaded by high trees. After passing
+the village, and following, for a short distance, a
+narrow path by the side of the stream, we come to a
+very steep ascent among the rocks, where numberless
+fragments of pottery mark the spot as once having been
+inhabited. Ascending the sombre and narrow glen, we
+then arrive at an even terrace, some acres square, covered
+with fine trees, and surrounded by high rocks, in which
+grottoes have been excavated. It is impossible to conceive
+a spot more fitted for a hermitage, where the world
+is only seen at a distance through the entrance of the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_240">[240]</span>little valley. At the back of the terrace the stream
+bursts forth from subterranean canals, like those under
+the Tchatyr-Dagh, and at the time of the melting of
+the snows a great body of water issues forth.</p>
+
+<p>The course of the stream appears to have been several
+times changed, for above its present place of exit, there
+are two other stages of the empty canals, which form
+a series of majestic grottoes. The least elevated, but
+the most beautiful, rise above the cascade, with a fine
+entrance about twenty feet high, and within them the
+ground is found to be sandy, and the cavern descends
+into the interior of the mountain. At half its depth
+there is a passage of rising ground, which leads into
+other canals, of such extent, that a French gentleman,
+having taken provisions and lights, walked for a
+whole day with the guide, Mambet, without reaching
+the extremity.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_207" href="#Footnote_207" class="fnanchor">[207]</a> In the lower grotto, at sixty paces from
+the entrance, there is a basin of limpid water, and
+between the strata of the limestone the Tatars of Karasóubazar
+collect a red and yellow clay for the manufacture
+of pipe bowls. The upper grottoes are two hundred feet
+above the terrace, and the access to them is difficult.
+Their entrance is low, but the passage rapidly increases
+in height and breadth in a north-east direction. It
+then turns towards the north-west, and three more
+caverns are passed, covered with white stalactites, which,
+by the light of the flambeaux, make a beautiful contrast
+with the red rocks around. The length of these caverns,
+as far as they are generally followed, is seven hundred
+feet, and supposing that the dislocation of the strata,
+which formed them, dates from the raising up of the
+Jurassic island of the Crimea, fossil bones might perhaps
+be found here of great importance.</p>
+
+<p>At a mile and a half&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_208" href="#Footnote_208" class="fnanchor">[208]</a> from Kisilkoba is another
+gorge, Koutchouk Yankoi, which much resembles the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_241">[241]</span>one I have described, and here ends the valley of the
+Salghír, between the foot of the Tchatyr-Dagh and
+the heights of the Samarkaia.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_209" href="#Footnote_209" class="fnanchor">[209]</a></p>
+
+<p>We will now return to Simpherópol, and follow the
+post-road thence to Theodosia. From Simpherópol
+to Karasóubazar the road is very uninteresting, and runs
+over a chalky undulating ground with little cultivation
+and few trees. Half way is the post station of Konia,
+near which are two large tumuli.</p>
+
+<p>Karasóubazar,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_210" href="#Footnote_210" class="fnanchor">[210]</a> or the market of the black water, is
+one of the two towns reserved by Catherine II. at the
+conquest of the Crimea, for the exclusive occupation of
+the Tatars, and it therefore retains a strictly Oriental
+character, which has quite disappeared from the towns
+inhabited by the Russians.</p>
+
+<p>The only public edifices of any importance here are
+the khans or caravanserais, where merchants rest on
+their journeys, and of these there are between twenty and
+thirty, not equalling in architectural beauty those of
+Georgia and Persia. The largest, called the Tachekhan,
+was built in 1656 by Sefir Ghazi Atcheiou, minister of
+Mehmet Geray, and is an immense square edifice, presenting
+outside only four blank walls, but in the inside
+there is a large court occupied with rooms for travellers
+and a number of shops. One of the last constructed
+khans is that of the Armenians, which contrasts favourably
+with the others in point of luxury and comfort.
+It is built like one of the covered arcades or the “<i>passages</i>”
+of Paris, on a much greater scale, with wider
+arcades, lighted by large apertures in its lofty roof. The
+shops are ranged on each side, and there is a large passage
+or street between them always filled with busy groups.
+There are also twenty-two mosques in Karasóubazar, but
+none of them remarkable for beauty.</p>
+
+<p>The Greek church deserves a visit for its originality;
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_242">[242]</span>it is built in the shape of a cross with a dome which
+lights the centre. Karasóubazar was in former times
+celebrated for its cutlery, and about 1755 it exported to
+the Caucasus and Mingrelia as many as 400,000 small
+knives or daggers, such as are commonly worn in the
+girdle in eastern countries. The cemeteries round the
+town are of enormous extent, and from that of the Greeks
+there is an admirable view of the town, with its red-tiled
+houses, winding streets, and shady gardens.</p>
+
+<p>Between Karasóubazar and Kertch are situated the
+vast domains of the Shireen family, which was the
+second in rank in the Crimea after that of the Gerays,
+and so powerful that they were almost their rivals.
+Their importance dated from the time when a certain
+Dangey Bey of this family, in a general revolt, saved
+the last scion of the Geray family, who was afterwards
+raised to the dignity of khan, and showed his gratitude
+to the Shireens by conferring upon them many privileges.
+They alone could marry the princesses of the
+Geray family, and near Karasóubazar is a mountain,
+called by the Russians Shireenskaia Gora, or the Hill of
+the Shireens, where they used to hold meetings of their
+dependents, when, as was often the case, they disapproved
+of the conduct of the khans, and wished to influence
+their government. According to one tradition, the
+ancestor of this family was the companion in arms of
+Zingis Khan, and conquered the Crimea for him, so that
+they might be even said to have some claims to the
+throne itself.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_211" href="#Footnote_211" class="fnanchor">[211]</a></p>
+
+<p>The only point of interest between Karasóubazar
+and Theodosia are the ruins of Eski Krim, which was
+the most ancient capital of the Tatars after their conquest
+of the Crimea. The date of its foundation is
+unknown, but already in 1266 it was the appanage of
+Oran Timour. Under the Mongols it was one of the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_243">[243]</span>greatest towns in Asia, and a well-mounted horseman
+required half a day to ride round it. It is now almost
+deserted, and scarce any traces remain of the great city
+where the rich caravans of olden times used to come laden
+with all the precious products of Asia. The traces of
+the pavements of the streets may be observed in the
+fields that now occupy its site. The ruins of five
+mosques and large vaulted baths remain; and one Greek
+church and one mosque are still used for religious purposes.
+The Armenians are the only inhabitants who have
+remained here, and they still retain their church and a
+convent, dedicated to St. George, on the neighbouring
+hill of Karasou, which is the object of numerous pilgrimages.
+The best view of the town is from the hill
+of Aghermiche, which embraces the whole valley, once
+occupied by buildings, and on one side may be traced the
+remains of the ancient wall, flanked with towers, which
+surrounded the city, and included an enormous cemetery,
+in which tombs may still be seen of every variety of
+form.</p>
+
+<p>Near Eski Krim is the post-station of Krinitski, and beyond
+it begins the flat uncultivated peninsula of Kertch.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_212" href="#Footnote_212" class="fnanchor">[212]</a>
+There is now no sign of a tree or a shrub, although
+traces exist in some parts of ancient forests, and there is
+so great a want of water that the Tatars are obliged to
+dig ponds in the soil to water their flocks.</p>
+
+<p>At fifteen miles from Krinitski is the once famous
+town of Theodosia or Kaffa, situated on the shores of the
+finest bay on the northern coasts of the Black Sea after
+those of Sevastopol.</p>
+
+<p>Twice have the commercial advantages of this situation
+been recognised, and twice has a proud city arisen
+on the gentle slopes of this bay. The Milesians, at the
+time of their first expedition into the Black Sea, founded
+here a flourishing colony, which prospered long in an
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_244">[244]</span>independent state, and was then incorporated into the
+kingdom of the Bosphorus. After an existence of 900
+years, from the seventh century before Christ to the
+third of our æra, there then intervened a period of ten
+centuries, during which the plough passed over the site
+of Theodosia, and it is barely mentioned by contemporary
+historians. Thus it remained a ruin during the
+millennium, from the third to the thirteenth century,
+when so many nations in succession made the Crimea
+their temporary dwelling-place. Then, in the thirteenth
+century, soon after the Tatars had made their first inroad,
+there landed on the shores of the Crimea navigators, not
+less intelligent and enterprising than the Milesians, and
+soon, on the site of the ancient Greek city of Theodosia,
+arose Kaffa, the annals of which form undoubtedly one
+of the brightest pages in the political and commercial
+history of the Black Sea.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_213" href="#Footnote_213" class="fnanchor">[213]</a></p>
+
+<p>In the middle of the thirteenth century, after the
+conquest of the Crimea by the Mongols, at the moment
+when three powerful republics were disputing the empire
+of the seas, the Genoese, landing in the bay of Theodosia,
+on the deserted spot, which was then called Kaffa,
+obtained from Prince Oran Timour a small territory
+on the shore. In 1280 the colony was founded, and
+its rise was so rapid, that nine years afterwards it was
+enabled, without neglecting its own defence, to send
+three galleys to the relief of Tripoli besieged by the
+Saracens. The Genoese obtained from the Tatars the
+monopoly of wheat and salt, and established themselves at
+Kertch (Cerco), Taman (Materca), and Tana at the mouths
+of the Don. The foundation of Kaffa increased the hatred
+between the Genoese and the Venetians, and in 1295 the
+former massacred the latter at Constantinople, and the
+next year, in 1296, the Venetians took their revenge,
+defeated the Genoese in a great battle on the Bosphorus,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_245">[245]</span>near Constantinople, and, having surprised Kaffa with a
+fleet of twenty galleys, utterly destroyed the town. Such
+was the energy and vitality of the Italian republics at
+that time, however, that the next year the Genoese again
+took possession of their territory,—Kaffa arose quickly
+from its ruins, and in 1318 Pope John XXII. erected it
+into a bishopric. It was then governed by a consul, and
+the Podesta, the supreme ruler of all the Genoese establishments
+in the Black Sea, resided at Galata.</p>
+
+<p>In 1343 a war having broken out with the Tatars,
+Djanibek Khan, the King of Kiptchak, besieged Kaffa,
+and a crusade was preached in its favour by Clement VI.
+The Genoese were victorious, but the dangers to which
+they had been exposed made them feel the necessity of a
+formidable system of fortification. The southern ramparts
+and palisades of the town were replaced by high and thick
+walls, flanked with towers, and surrounded by a deep
+ditch, lined with masonry. These magnificent works,
+of which even the traveller at the present day may admire
+the admirable execution, were commenced in 1353, by
+Godefrey de Zoaglio, and finished in 1386 by Benedict
+Grimaldi. The most remarkable tower of the enceinte,
+the southern one, which commands the whole town, was
+consecrated to the memory of Pope Clement VI., with an
+inscription relating to the crusade preached by him at
+the moment the Tatars were besieging the colony. The
+Genoese probably drew the materials for their fortifications
+from the ancient Greek city of Kimmericum, now
+Opouk. In 1365 they conquered the Greek colonies of
+Cembalo (Balaclava), and Soldaya (Soudak), which were
+tributary to the khan of the Tatars, and in 1380 obtained
+from him a grant of Gothia, or all the sea-coast between
+Balaclava and Soudak, which was inhabited by the Christians.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_214" href="#Footnote_214" class="fnanchor">[214]</a>
+After that time Kaffa went on increasing in
+prosperity, and had commercial relations with the most
+distant countries of Asia, and soon, according to its
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_246">[246]</span>historians, it equalled in size and population the capital
+of the Greek empire, and surpassed it in trade and wealth.</p>
+
+<p>The Genoese colony thus arrived, in the middle of the
+fifteenth century, at the zenith of its glory and power,
+when the capture of Constantinople by Mahomet II.
+isolated it from the mother city, and prepared the way
+for its entire destruction. On the 1st of June, 1475, four
+hundred and eighty-two sail of galleys, commanded by
+the grand Admiral Achmet Pasha, appeared before Kaffa,
+and some hours afterwards the Genoese town saw its walls
+bombarded by the formidable artillery of the Ottomans.
+The siege lasted only a short time, and a large portion of
+the enceinte, raised at a time when artillery was unknown,
+gave way; breaches were multiplied, and on the 6th
+of June, 1475, the besieged surrendered at discretion,
+after having in vain attempted to obtain a capitulation.
+Achmet Pasha entered Kaffa irritated by resistance
+and hostile to the Christian name. After taking possession
+of the consular palace, he disarmed the population,
+levied a large sum of money on the town, and seized half
+the property of the inhabitants, as well as all slaves of
+both sexes. The Latin Catholics were then embarked
+on board the Turkish fleet and carried to Constantinople,
+where the Sultan established them by force in the
+faubourgs of his new capital, after taking fifteen hundred
+of their male children, to incorporate in his guards. Thus
+in the space of a few days, after a glorious existence of
+two hundred years, was ruined this celebrated city, which
+European genius had raised in this remote country, and
+which had developed a most important traffic with
+Eastern Europe and Asia.</p>
+
+<p>Kaffa, the ruin of which was followed immediately by
+that of Soldaya and Cembalo, was directly united to the
+Ottoman Empire, and was not, like the rest of the
+Crimea, left as a fief in the hands of the Tatars. During
+one hundred and fifty years it had no other importance
+than that which it derived from being the seat of a
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_247">[247]</span>Turkish garrison, and a strong military position on the
+borders of a Mussulman state, which the Sultans were
+always anxious to conquer. In the middle of the seventeenth
+century the ancient Genoese city again became
+considerable on account of the great commercial and
+manufacturing movement which took place at that time
+among the Tatars, and which caused it to become once
+more an important commercial port of the Black Sea.</p>
+
+<p>In 1663 Chardin found in the bay of Kaffa more than
+400 ships. The town was then called by the Turks
+Kutchuk Stamboul (little Constantinople) and had 4000
+houses, and more than 80,000 inhabitants. The prosperity
+of Kaffa, however, did not last long. Since the
+time of Peter the Great, Russia has been continually
+advancing towards the Black Sea, and already in the time
+of that monarch, she had pushed her victorious armies to
+the Danube. In this progressive march towards the
+south, the Crimea especially excited the ambition of the
+Tzars, and in the reign of Catherine II., was incorporated
+into the Russian Empire.</p>
+
+<p>Under the Muscovite dominion Kaffa sunk again. It
+lost even officially the name under which it had pursued
+so glorious a career in modern times, to resume at the
+caprice of the Emperor Alexander its ancient Greek
+name, and it now does not possess more than 4500
+inhabitants. At Kaffa, as at Soldaya, the erection of
+useless barracks was the signal for the destruction of the
+ancient Genoese monuments. The revêtements of the
+ditches were first carried away, and then, owing to the
+indifference of the government, the walls themselves disappeared.
+The magnificent towers which defended them
+were successively thrown down, and at this day there
+only exist three remnants of the remarkable bastion,
+christened in honour of Pope Clement VI.</p>
+
+<p>The Genoese fortifications once destroyed, the vandalism
+of the administrative authorities next attacked
+the civil monuments. When the Russians took possession
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_248">[248]</span>of the place, two imposing buildings ornamented
+the principal square of Kaffa; the great Turkish baths,
+an admirable monument of Oriental architecture, and the
+ancient episcopal church of the Genoese, an edifice built
+in the fourteenth century, and then converted into a
+mosque after the Turkish conquest. Under the reign of
+Catherine II., it was decided to restore the mosque to the
+Christian faith, and it was given to the established Greek
+church of Russia. Unfortunately, instead of preserving it
+intact, they entertained the fatal idea of decorating it
+with a miserable portico in the quasi Doric style, such as is
+seen from one end of Russia to the other. The elegant
+domes, which surrounded in a graceful manner the principal
+part of the building, were then demolished, and the
+bases of the new columns were hardly laid, when money
+failed, and the government refused to make further advances.
+The beautiful mosque, from which the lead
+had been torn off, doubtless to be sold for the profit of
+the employés, was thus abandoned to the injuries of the
+weather and the public, and soon became a perfect ruin.</p>
+
+<p>In 1833 the civil governor, M. Kasnatcháief, in a most
+barbarous and ignorant manner, completed the work of
+destruction, by attacking the great baths which had
+hitherto remained intact. He asked permission from
+Prince Woronzof to enlarge the great square, because it
+was too small for a parade ground, and the instant he
+obtained it (knowing that he would be stopped when
+his intentions were found out), he set about destroying
+the mosque and the baths.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_215" href="#Footnote_215" class="fnanchor">[215]</a> In the space of a fortnight,
+by the aid of the pick-axe and powder, both these admirable
+monuments, with which the Genoese and Turkish
+occupations had enriched the town, completely disappeared.
+In 1840 the great square was filled with their
+precious materials, which the local administration were
+selling at the price of common stone.</p>
+
+<p>Of all the splendid edifices of the Genoese colony, only
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_249">[249]</span>two churches have escaped the Russian vandalism;
+having been granted to the Catholics and the Armenians,
+and preserved by them. For a long time, these two
+foreign communities struggled against the indifference
+of the government, and endeavoured to obtain assistance
+to repair their churches; and having been unsuccessful,
+they in a spirited manner restored them at their
+own expense.</p>
+
+<p>If from the interior of the town we cast our eyes to
+the environs, the same spectacle of destruction saddens
+the view. All the beautiful gardens, and the rich
+orchards, which surrounded the town in the time of the
+Tatars, have disappeared. One single winter was sufficient
+for two Russian regiments to annihilate every trace of
+the brilliant cultivation which formerly covered the hills.</p>
+
+<p>From&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_216" href="#Footnote_216" class="fnanchor">[216]</a> the fort of the tower of Clement VI. there is a
+fine view of the town and the bay. In the midst of the
+panorama rises the ancient Genoese citadel, now dismantled,
+with its walls threatening to fall down. Before
+the citadel, a building, remarkable by its two massive
+groups of building, but without any exterior ornament,
+is the principal Armenian church, which the emigrants
+of that nation constructed when they arrived here under
+the protection of the Genoese, after the terrible earthquake
+of 1319, which destroyed Anni,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_217" href="#Footnote_217" class="fnanchor">[217]</a> and so terrified
+one portion of the Armenian nation, that they took refuge
+with the Tatars of Kiptchak, in the environs of Astrakhan.
+Hence they sent colonies into the Crimea and
+established themselves, with the consent of the Genoese,
+at Kaffa, Eski Krim, and in the environs of Soudak.</p>
+
+<p>Before the Russian conquest, in 1713, Peyssonel relates
+that the Armenians had twenty-four churches at
+Kaffa, and Levasseur de Beauplan, a century earlier,
+counted thirty-two.</p>
+
+<p>The church in question is now converted into a warehouse,
+but its interior has preserved the distribution of
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_250">[250]</span>the religious edifices of Armenia—a grand oratory as an
+entrance, then a nave, a dome, and a choir with lateral
+sacristies. The other Armenian church, which has been
+already mentioned, deserves a careful study as a good
+and well preserved specimen of Armenian architecture,
+and is an exact copy of those still to be seen in Armenia.
+The portico is the most ornamental part of the edifice,
+and the mouldings and roses are as varied as in Gothic
+and Byzantine styles. There are two images of St.
+George, the saint in which the Georgians and the
+Armenians have so much confidence, and the walls of
+the church are covered both inside and outside with
+funeral crosses, as in Armenia.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_218" href="#Footnote_218" class="fnanchor">[218]</a> In every detail it is
+interesting to observe how faithfully the Armenians, in
+their distant colonizations, preserved the artistic traditions
+of their country.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_219" href="#Footnote_219" class="fnanchor">[219]</a></p>
+
+<p>Hommaire de Hell is not the only traveller who deplores
+the vandalism of the Russians. Dubois says,
+“that he dare not express his feelings at seeing the
+noble works of the Genoese so uselessly ruined.”</p>
+
+<p>The “mild and amiable” Pallas was a Russian subject,
+and dared not express his indignation at the atrocities he
+saw perpetrated. When he first visited Theodosia, the
+great mosque was complete, with its noble cupola 54
+feet in diameter, surrounded on three sides by eleven
+smaller domes. “There were also,” as Pallas says, “two
+minarets 96 feet high, furnished with serpentine staircases
+leading to the top; <i>though both structures have been
+since destroyed</i>.”&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_220" href="#Footnote_220" class="fnanchor">[220]</a></p>
+
+<p>Clarke, it appears, was an eye-witness of this last barbarous
+proceeding, and describes the painful feelings it
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_251">[251]</span>occasioned to all the civilized persons who beheld it.
+“The melancholy devastation,” he says,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_221" href="#Footnote_221" class="fnanchor">[221]</a> “while it
+draws tears down the cheeks of the Tatars, and extorts
+many a sigh from the Anatolian Turks who resort to
+Kaffa for commercial purposes, cannot fail to excite the
+indignation of every enlightened people. At Kaffa, during
+the time we remained, the soldiers were allowed to overthrow
+the beautiful mosques, or to convert them into
+magazines, to pull down the minarets, to tear up the
+public fountains, and to destroy all the public aqueducts,
+for the sake of a small quantity of lead, which they were
+thereby enabled to obtain.</p>
+
+<p>“Such is the true nature of Russian protection; such
+the sort of alliance which Russians endeavour to form
+with every nation weak enough to submit to their power,
+or to become their dupe. While these works of destruction
+were going on, the officers were amusing themselves
+in beholding the mischief. Tall and stately minarets,
+whose lofty spires added such grace and dignity to the
+town, were daily levelled with the ground, which, besides
+their connection with the religious establishments
+for whose maintenance the Russian empire had been
+pledged, were of no other value to their destroyers than
+to supply a few soldiers with bullets, or their officers
+with a dram. I was in a Turkish coffeehouse, at Kaffa,
+when the principal minaret, one of the ancient and characteristic
+monuments of the country, to which the
+Russians had been some days employed in fixing ropes
+and blocks, came down with such violence that its fall
+shook every house in the place. The Turks, seated on
+divans, were all smoking, and when such is the case,
+an earthquake will scarcely rouse them; nevertheless,
+at this flagrant act of impiety and dishonour, they rose,
+breathing out deep and bitter curses against the enemies
+of their Prophet. Even the Greeks who were present
+testified their anger by similar imprecations. One of
+them, turning to me, said, with a countenance of contempt
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_252">[252]</span>and indignation, Εκυθαι! Scythians! which I afterwards
+found to be a common term of reproach; for though
+the Greeks profess the same religion as the Russians,
+they detest the latter as cordially as the Turks or Tatars.
+The most lamentable part of the injury thus sustained
+has been in the destruction of the conduits and public
+fountains which conveyed, together with the purest water
+from distant mountains, a source of health and comfort
+to the people. They first carry off the leaden pipes to
+make bullets; they then take down all the marble slabs
+and large stones for building materials, which they employ
+in the construction of barracks; lastly, they blow
+up the channels which convey water, because they say
+the water-porters cannot earn a livelihood where there
+are public fountains.”</p>
+
+<p>In spite of all the depredations of the authorities, and
+the stupid ignorance of the governor, Kaffa has never
+been completely metamorphosed into a Russian town.
+Its principal monuments have been demolished, its walls
+razed to the ground, its later population expelled, but the
+general appearance of the town, the private dwellings, the
+streets paved with large flags, all announce a different
+people. It is to be hoped the town may long preserve
+this picturesque aspect, which resembles that of many
+little ports on the shores of the Mediterranean.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_222" href="#Footnote_222" class="fnanchor">[222]</a></p>
+
+<p>There is a museum at Theodosia, which is an ancient
+Turkish mosque, with two lions at its entrance, which
+were brought from Phanagoria. Whatever ancient Greek
+monuments are here have been brought from Kertch,
+when Theodosia was the capital of this part of the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_253">[253]</span>Crimea; and among them is a griffin of fine workmanship.
+But there are no inscriptions or important monuments
+of the ancient Theodosia, which, indeed, Clarke
+and others suppose to have been at some distance from
+the site of Kaffa.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_223" href="#Footnote_223" class="fnanchor">[223]</a> There are, however, many Genoese
+inscriptions in the museum, and among them an important
+one found on the tower of Pope Clement VI.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_224" href="#Footnote_224" class="fnanchor">[224]</a></p>
+
+<p>The peninsula of Kertch was formerly closed by three
+ramparts, which were raised for political reasons to defend
+it from dangerous enemies. The most ancient is that
+of Asander. It starts from the extremity of the Tauric
+chain, and finishes at the sea of Azof, near the commencement
+of the tongue of Arabat. The Scythian
+slaves of Sindic origin raised it to defend themselves
+against their masters when they returned from Asia.
+Asander, King of the Bosphorus from 49 <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span> to 14 <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span>,
+renewed it and fortified it with towers as a defence
+against the invasions of the Scythians, and it has ever
+since borne his name. It may still be traced with the
+places for the towers. The rampart of the Golden
+Mountain, at a few miles from Kertch, was the primitive
+frontier of the kingdom of the Bosphorus and the colony
+of Panticapæum. The success of the Leuconides in the
+4th century before Christ had carried it beyond the
+peninsula of Kertch, by uniting Nymphæum and Theodosia
+to the kingdom. Asander fixed it at the rampart
+of the Scythian Slaves, and this was for several centuries
+its limit. In the mean time the Chersonians replaced
+the Scythians as the predominant people in the Crimea,
+and they had taken Panticapæum during the absence of
+Sauromates V., who had gone to pillage Asia Minor in
+the third century after Christ, notwithstanding the army
+which the Emperor Constance opposed to him. In order
+to re-enter his capital, Sauromates was obliged to give up
+his prisoners and booty. His grandson, Sauromates VI.,
+who reigned <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> 302 to 310, wished to avenge himself
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_254">[254]</span>on the Chersonians; he was however beaten by them
+near the rampart of Asander, and obliged to swear never
+to pass it in arms. Violating his oath, he again appeared
+in the field, and consented to terminate the war by a
+single combat with Pharnáces, the chief of the Chersonians.
+He was killed, and his army, undergoing the
+yoke of the conquerors, was obliged to retire half-way
+from Theodosia to Kertch, where the Chersonians permitted
+the limits of the kingdom to be fixed. Then
+was erected the rampart of Akkos, or Cybernicus, which
+commences at the salt lake of Itar Altchiek and finishes
+at the Sea of Azof. It is very well preserved; the ditch
+turned towards the Crimea is still very deep, and the
+mounds along the rampart would lead to the belief that
+it had been supported by towers. These three ramparts
+are almost the only ancient monuments between Theodosia
+and Kertch; and the road is most uninteresting and
+monotonous, passing through a thinly-peopled steppe,
+covered with deserted Tatar villages and vast cemeteries.</p>
+
+<p>The first station from Theodosia is Porpatche, at 22
+versts distance. The second is Arghin, at 27 versts; and
+between these two is passed the rampart of Asander. At
+Arghin travellers turn off who wish to visit or to pass
+along the Arabat. The third station is Suftanofka, at
+28 versts distance, and in this stage the rampart of Akkos
+is passed. At this station there are springs and a well,
+and here for the first time the horizon is seen crowned
+by the tumuli and coral-rag peaks which characterize the
+environs of Kertch. Those who go to Simpherópol from
+Kertch, and have their own horses with them, may avoid
+the détour by Theodosia, and continue their road straight
+across the Isthmus to Krinitski. The road then lies
+through Ormeil and Karagos, celebrated for its ancient
+mosque in the primitive style of Tatar architecture. This
+is one of the four most ancient mosques in the Crimea, in
+the architecture of which are to be observed only straight
+lines or semicircles.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_225" href="#Footnote_225" class="fnanchor">[225]</a></p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_255">[255]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI.<br>
+<span class="smaller">KERTCH.</span></h2>
+
+<p>Approach to Kertch—The Cimmerian Bosphorus—Russian Conquest of
+Kertch in 1771—Its rise since 1833—Its chance of becoming the emporium
+of trade for the Sea of Azof—Russian authorities—Ancient church—Kertch,
+the ancient Panticapæum—Acropolis—Arm-chair of Mithridates—Allée
+of Tumuli on Theodosian road—The Tumulus a sign of Milesian
+occupation—Contents of Tumuli on Theodosian road—Etruscan Vases at
+Kertch—Burial-places of the Poor—Tomb of the Pigmies—The Catacombs—The
+Tombs of the Kings—The Golden Mountain—The rich
+discoveries at Kouloba—Description of the contents of the Tomb—Pillaged
+by the people—Probably that of Leucon I., or Paerisádes I.—The
+Museum—Myrmékium—Mud Volcanoes—Naphtha Springs—Cape Akboroun—Nymphæum—Herring
+fishery—Opouk, the ancient Kimmericum.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>After&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_226" href="#Footnote_226" class="fnanchor">[226]</a> a long journey across an uninterrupted flat
+steppe, slight undulations appear above the horizon on
+approaching the Cimmerian Bosphorus, and shortly after
+this appearance the traveller finds himself in a principal
+necropolis of the ancient Milesian city. Immense cones
+of earth rise on each side of the road, and ridges of coral
+rag lying among these sepulchral monuments, give a
+grand aspect to this singular field of death. On arriving
+at the extremity of the plateau, the view extends over
+the whole Bosphorus. On an evening in summer the
+last rays of the setting sun tint the cliffs on the Asiatic side,
+and light up the triangular sails of a few fishing boats
+lazily floating down the current. The outline of the tumuli
+of Phanagoria becomes distinctly traced on the blue sky,
+and, as the sheet of water of the straits gradually assumes
+the sombre colouring of evening, the shadow of Cape
+Akboroun stretches over the water. These fine effects
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_256">[256]</span>of light and shade are visible but for a few moments; the
+sun descends with tropical quickness below the horizon, and
+the uniform tones of the dark twilight envelop the Bosphorus,
+its shores, and the solitary barks upon its waters.</p>
+
+<p>Descending from the plateau, the traveller enters the
+town of Kertch, which is completely Russianized, of new
+construction, occupying the site of the ancient Greek
+colony of Panticapæum, once the queen city of the Bosphorus.
+The straits on which it stands, called the Cimmerian
+Bosphorus, leading from the Black Sea to the
+Sea of Azof,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_227" href="#Footnote_227" class="fnanchor">[227]</a> and separating Europe from Asia, are about
+eight miles wide, and in parts so shallow, that they
+do not admit vessels drawing more than twelve feet of
+water, although in the time of Peter the Great, at the
+taking of Azof, corvettes of forty guns could pass through
+them. Kertch is a corruption of the name Gherséti,
+which the Turks gave to the fortress erected here by the
+Genoese, which was called by the geographers of the
+fourteenth and fifteenth centuries Bospro, Vospro, and
+Pandico. The Russians took possession of Kertch in
+1771, and then 500 or 600 huts surrounded the Turkish
+fortress, which was circular. This the Russians at first
+strengthened, but afterwards abandoned, because it was
+completely commanded from behind.</p>
+
+<p>Yenicáleh, at a few miles distance, was then fortified
+for the defence of the straits, and Kertch dwindled away,
+until, in 1821, the Emperor Alexander, appreciating its
+commercial importance, declared it a port of the empire,
+and raised it to the rank of a town, with an independent
+municipality.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_228" href="#Footnote_228" class="fnanchor">[228]</a> Since that time Kertch has slowly increased,
+although it has scarcely now as many inhabitants
+as it had during the occupation of the Turks; for Peyssonel
+allowed it, in 1787, from 3000 to 4000 souls. It
+is now the chief town of a little government, comprising
+Yenicáleh and about 13,000 acres of land, which form
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_257">[257]</span>the eastern point of the peninsula; and the whole number
+of inhabitants in Kertch and Yenicáleh together is only
+2800 souls, living in 680 houses.</p>
+
+<div class="transnote" id="illus4">
+Transcriber’s Note: The image is clickable for a larger version.
+</div>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp100" style="max-width: 12.5em;">
+  <a href="images/illus4-full.jpg"><img class="w100" src="images/illus4.jpg" alt=""></a>
+  <figcaption>
+      <p>PLAN OF PANTICAPÆUM NOW KERTCH, ANCIENT CAPITAL
+       OF THE KINGDOM OF THE BOSPHORUS.</p>
+      <p><i>Published by John Murray Albemarle Sᵗ. 1855.</i>
+      <i>Ford &amp; West. Lithʳˢ.</i></p>
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>On the proposition of Prince Woronzof in 1833, the
+suggestion which Pallas&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_229" href="#Footnote_229" class="fnanchor">[229]</a> had made forty years before
+was acted upon, and Kertch was declared the place of
+general quarantine for the Sea of Azof, and since that
+time no vessel has been allowed to pass the straits without
+a clean bill of health obtained here. The object of
+the Russian government in this measure was to do away
+with all quarantine establishments in the Azof, which has
+been effected, and to throw into the hands of natives the
+carrying trade between the ports of the Azof and Kertch,
+which has not been found so easy of accomplishment.
+Kertch has not become, as was expected, the emporium
+for all the valuable commerce between the Black Sea and
+eastern Russia; this still remains in the ports of the Azof;
+and Rostof, notwithstanding the difficulty of reaching it
+with large vessels, still goes on increasing in importance
+far more rapidly than Kertch. Of all the ships that frequent
+the Azof, by far the greater number are content
+to pass a long quarantine at Kertch, and to ascend the
+sea to load, although, if Kertch were the emporium, and
+merchants had large stores there, ships might arrive at
+the straits, load at once, and be off with their cargoes
+without any quarantine at all.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_230" href="#Footnote_230" class="fnanchor">[230]</a> In accounting for the
+fact that advantage has not been taken of the great privileges
+accorded to Kertch, something is doubtless due
+to the difficulty of changing any established course of
+trade; and merchants who have laid out capital in establishments
+at Taganrok and Rostof have, of course, been
+unwilling to remove to a new town. There are, however,
+real advantages for commerce at the towns of the
+Azof, which Kertch does not possess. The trade of that
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_258">[258]</span>sea is almost entirely confined to exports, and the merchants
+at the ports on its shores are nearer to the
+country which supplies them, and to their agents who
+are scattered over it, and with whom they want to maintain
+a constant communication, than they would be at
+Kertch. At present there is no steam communication in
+the Azof, and the means of transit across it must be very
+much improved before it will be possible to transfer to
+its southern extremity the point of rendezvous between
+the internal and external commerce. And, again, if
+Kertch should become the emporium of trade, a larger
+capital would be required for carrying on business there,
+because stocks would be longer on the road, and more
+of them would have to be kept in store. The necessity
+for a larger capital is a great objection to the change,
+because capital is very scarce in Russia, as in all new or
+ill-governed countries, so that even that which is required
+for the tillage of the ground is supplied by foreigners, as
+will afterwards be explained. It is besides doubtful, if
+an emporium were established on the Black Sea, whether
+Kertch is the most eligible place for it. The merchants
+generally are in favour of Theodosia rather than Kertch,
+because the anchorage at the former place is better, and
+the bay of Theodosia does not freeze in winter, like the
+Bosphorus. A glance at the map will also show, that a railway
+might be made, or a canal cut across the peninsula of
+Kertch, which at Theodosia is only forty miles broad, to
+some point between Arabat and Cape Kazantip, where the
+Russians landed their stores last autumn for Sevastopol,
+and then the difficulties of the navigation of the Bosphorus
+would be avoided, the distance shortened, and the
+communications would be easier with the western parts
+of new Russia.</p>
+
+<p>Kertch, like all Greek colonies, is charmingly situated.
+A hill, called the Arm-chair of Mithridates, on the top
+of which the rock is scooped out in a peculiar way, rises
+at a short distance from the shore, and gently slopes
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_259">[259]</span>down to the sea. Around this hill was originally built
+the old Greek town, and on its sides were once clustered
+a variety of Greek temples, crowned on the top by the
+acropolis, which in Greek cities was nothing more than
+the walls surrounding the sacred spot in which was
+placed the tutelary deity, upon the safe custody of which
+the security of the town was supposed to depend. The
+Turkish fortress below the hill has now been cleared away
+to make room for a handsome open square surrounded by
+arcades, from which streets are building in all directions.</p>
+
+<p>I was kindly lodged during my stay here by Mr.
+Cattley, the English vice-consul, a son of one of the great
+Russian merchants of St. Petersburg, whom I had met
+at Sevastopol, and who is now the interpreter to Lord
+Raglan in the Crimea.</p>
+
+<p>The civil Governor was Prince Herkheolídze, of
+Georgian extraction; and the military Governor, whose
+command extends all down the eastern coast of the Black
+Sea, and includes all the fortresses erected against the
+Circassians as far as Redout-kalè, was General Budberg,
+who had been the aide-de-camp of Marshal Diébitch in
+the first Turkish and Polish wars, and who was lately
+commissioner to the Emperor in the Principalities.</p>
+
+<p>General Budberg was exceedingly polite, but would not
+allow me a passage to Redout-kalè, down the eastern
+coast of the Black Sea, in one of the Government vessels,
+which then occasionally plied there, although as soon as
+Prince Woronzof came to the Caucasus he made them
+start at stated times, and receive passengers at fixed
+charges, to the great convenience of travellers and merchants.
+During the ten days I staid in Kertch I spent
+the time very agreeably in visiting the numberless
+ancient remains in the neighbourhood, and profiting by
+the kind hospitality of the society there.</p>
+
+<p>As I was going to visit a country so little known as
+the Caucasus, having obtained leave to take the road along
+the line of the Kuban, and across the mountains to Tiflis, I
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_260">[260]</span>was anxious to obtain every information in my power,
+and met with many officers at Kertch who had served in
+various parts of the mountains, and were very obliging
+in satisfying my curiosity. General Budberg told me
+of the anthracite which is found in large quantities on
+the banks of the Don, and which was found to be,
+he said, better than coal for the steamers. He had just
+been superintending the experiments which two new
+English engineers had been making with it, and they
+found that a ship could be provided with it for one-third
+time longer than with coal, although it required a different
+arrangement of some parts of the machinery of the
+vessels.</p>
+
+<p>I met here several educated Russians, of what I may
+call the middle classes, and was pleased to find in the unguarded
+moments of familiar conversation a tone of sound
+good sense in all their remarks, which I believe fairly
+represents the general state of feeling through the country.</p>
+
+<p>Giving generally the fruit of my observations among
+many classes of Russians for several years, I believe they
+think their government a wise and good one on the whole,
+although they are not slow to criticise it in its details.
+They believe that an iron hand is necessary to keep the
+empire together, and that a great destiny is in store for
+it, and as long as progress is made, and the Slavonic name
+upheld, it has always seemed to me, and I think my
+opinion has been borne out by recent events, that they
+would be willing to rally round their Government, and
+make every sacrifice required by it.</p>
+
+<p>Great efforts have been made of late years by the
+Government to rouse a national feeling in the people,
+and for this reason almost insurmountable obstacles are
+placed in the way of Russians either leaving Russia, or
+having their children educated abroad. As a general
+rule, to which very few exceptions are allowed, no Russian
+can be absent from his country between the age of twelve
+years old and twenty-five, or the whole time during
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_261">[261]</span>which the character is supposed to be forming; and after
+the age of twenty-five a medical certificate is necessary
+in order to obtain permission to travel, and a tax of
+one hundred silver roubles, or about 16<i>l.</i>, is levied
+during each year of absence as the price of a passport.
+No Russian can be absent more than five years from his
+country without ceasing to be a Russian subject, and
+forfeiting all his property. These rules were a good deal
+the subject of conversation while I was at Kertch, and
+they seemed generally approved of, on the grounds that
+young Russians came back with such very absurd notions
+after having been to foreign countries, and that, without
+understanding what was good in them, they aped everything
+that was bad. It was also observed that the revolution
+of 1824 originated entirely with the army that had
+served in Western Europe, which brought home notions of
+freedom that were impracticable in their native country.
+A constitution it was said was now impossible in Russia,
+and so little was the meaning of the term known by the
+people when they called out for it at the revolution of
+1824, that they thought “Constitutia”&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_231" href="#Footnote_231" class="fnanchor">[231]</a> meant the wife
+of the Grand Duke Constantine, who resigned his rights
+to the throne in favour of the late Emperor Nicholas.</p>
+
+<p>The church of Kertch, which formerly stood in the
+fortress, is a curious specimen of Byzantine architecture,
+and the date of its erection engraven on one of its columns,
+viz. the year of the world 6225 (757 <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span>), proves it to be
+the oldest Byzantine temple now remaining in the Crimea.</p>
+
+<p>The plan of the church is that of a cross with very
+short transepts, and a cupola rising in the middle, which
+lights the centre by eight narrow windows. The cupola
+is supported by four short marble columns of the Corinthian
+order, and some idea may be formed of the small
+dimensions of the church, as the distance between these
+columns is only twelve feet.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_262">[262]</span></p>
+
+<p>The appearance of the whole is mean and gloomy, and
+resembles the churches which may be seen in various
+parts of Greece. Under the Justinians and their successors,
+in the sixth and seventh centuries of the Christian
+era, architecture had degenerated, and leaving more and
+more the beautiful models of Greece, had changed into a
+new style suited to the wants of the Christian ritual, and
+therefore continually less like the old Greek edifices.
+This new style, which took its origin at Constantinople,
+was called the Byzantine style, and all the countries which
+bordered on the Black Sea adopted it. The cupola was
+necessary for the church service, as its light being shed
+on the table of the love feast, or the altar, was considered
+emblematic of the divine light descending from
+heaven.</p>
+
+<p>Such was the origin of the Byzantine style, and it was
+natural that the Crimea, which was so near Constantinople,
+should be greatly influenced by it, and that the
+traces of it should be everywhere found throughout the
+peninsula. There are the remains of such churches at
+Phanagoria and Taman, and the churches of Kherson,
+Aithodor, and Aioudágh, in the Crimea, are built in the
+same style. There were several in Kertch, the remains
+of which may still be seen.</p>
+
+<p>The marble that was commonly used at this period was
+white with large grains, striped with blue bands. Dubois
+supposes that there was a quarry of it near Constantinople,
+and that it was a great manufactory for church
+columns and ornaments, which were exported all round
+the Black Sea, because it is in all the principal ports
+that traces of churches are found, adorned with this
+marble. It is not found in buildings erected before
+the foundation of Constantinople, and the two kinds,
+then most usual, were the marble of Paros, of which
+fragments are found belonging to all ages, and a streaked
+marble of blue, or grey, or white, called “cipolino” by
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_263">[263]</span>the Italians, the use of which is confined almost exclusively
+to the Bosphorus.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_232" href="#Footnote_232" class="fnanchor">[232]</a></p>
+
+<p>The ancient name of Kertch was Panticapæum,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_233" href="#Footnote_233" class="fnanchor">[233]</a> and
+it was one of the many Milesian colonies founded in the
+Black Sea, in the seventh century before Christ. After
+about half a century of independent existence, it became
+the centre of a kingdom the political limits of which
+varied considerably. In its palmiest days the territory
+extended as far north as the Tanais, while to the west it
+was bounded on the inland side by the mountains of
+Theodosia. This fertile and narrow region was the
+granary of Greece, especially of Athens, which drew
+annually from it a supply of 400,000 medimni of corn.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_234" href="#Footnote_234" class="fnanchor">[234]</a>
+Although there are no fine buildings, or even fragments
+left standing, as at Athens and Rome, to attest
+the ancient magnificence of Panticapæum, heaps of brick
+and pottery and the foundations of buildings encumber
+the soil for a considerable distance round the Hill of
+Mithridates, and show how great was the extent of the
+ancient city.</p>
+
+<p>The acropolis occupied the summit of the Hill of
+Mithridates, in shape an irregular polygon, and the
+ditches and some parts of the walls, the last in the coarse
+limestone of Kertch, may still be traced. The fortified
+town touched the acropolis in the form of a long square,
+of which the acropolis occupied the south-east angle. The
+wall in its circuit enclosed only the summit and the
+northern slope of the Hill of Mithridates. The southern
+side seems never to have been fortified, although there
+are numerous traces of the foundations of buildings.</p>
+
+<p>It is probable that, in very early times, the bay
+advanced much further into the land. Not to speak of
+the groups of tumuli which seem to mark the ancient
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_264">[264]</span>limits of the water, the alluvial nature of the soil, its
+low level, which is almost that of the sea, and the
+absence of all buildings on this space, make it probable
+that this ground was formerly covered by the water.
+This was the case with all the other bays of the
+Bosphorus, and particularly of one to the south of Mount
+Mithridates, which formed in ancient times a second port,
+but is now covered with a salt-lake, separated from the
+sea by a bar of sand, which the waves sometimes overleap
+in stormy weather.</p>
+
+<p>Thus in ancient times the hill of Panticapæum was
+bounded on three sides by the sea. The principal
+faubourg extended from the mole, the remains of which
+are still visible, along the sea-shore to the foot of the
+mountain, and as far as the southern port. In the
+midst of the immense heaps of ruins which cover the
+surrounding country, may be traced the principal streets
+which ended at the gates of the town, and among them
+one of the most distinct is that leading from the port
+to the acropolis, entering it at what seems to have been
+its only gate. This is probably the gate that is seen on
+the coins of the king, T. J. Reskóuporis, because it is not
+placed in the middle of the wall of the polygon, and the
+same peculiarity may be observed on the coins. The
+street after entering the acropolis, ascended the hill by a
+zigzag, until it reached the peak at the top called the
+Arm-chair of Mithridates. The base of the peak is
+hidden under a mass of ruins, and the whole rock has
+been carefully hewn. This is especially the case on the
+western side, where a niche is excavated, eight feet wide
+with steps leading up to it, and evidently intended
+for a statue, and this is the work which has given rise to
+the name of the “Arm-chair” of Mithridates. This
+“Arm-chair” is evidently only part of an ancient edifice
+in which it was included, the form of which may be
+traced by the foundations of the walls.</p>
+
+<p>This edifice had probably a religious destination, as in
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_265">[265]</span>the excavations which M. Scassi made at the foot of the
+rock, he discovered a fine torso of a colossal statue of
+Cybele in white marble, which forms one of the chief
+ornaments of the museum. There are also friezes and
+cornices which came from the same spot. The head
+of Cybele is found on the coins of some of the kings,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_235" href="#Footnote_235" class="fnanchor">[235]</a>
+although not on those of the town of Panticapæum, and
+Cybele is the same divinity as Astarte, or the Eastern
+Venus.</p>
+
+<p>The interior of the acropolis, which was 200 yards
+square, allowed plenty of room for the erection of two
+sanctuaries, one to Cybele and the other to Ceres, and
+still left space for the lodgings of the priests, and the
+garrison, and for a palace for Mithridates the Great, who
+came here to die. The acropolis of Athens had not more
+available room than that of Panticapæum. The plateau
+of the Hill enclosed in the walls of the town was also
+ornamented with palaces and perhaps temples, for several
+peaks of rock have been sculptured like the Arm-chair
+of Mithridates, and the inscriptions and medals of Panticapæum
+show that there was the worship of several other
+divinities besides Cybele and Ceres.</p>
+
+<p>There are no signs of aqueducts in the acropolis, but
+the lower town was probably supplied with water from
+two springs at the bottom of the valley, which now
+furnish the two principal fountains of Kertch. One is
+within the old fortifications, and has been repaired by
+the Turks with the fragments of ancient marbles, on one
+of which is an inscription, showing it to have belonged to
+a monument which Sauromates III. raised to his father
+Mithridates Eupator (<span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> 162).</p>
+
+<p>The principal gate of the town was turned towards the
+interior of the peninsula in the centre of the western
+wall. It led to Nymphæum and Theodosia, and the
+place is easily recognized by the interruption of the deep
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_266">[266]</span>ditch which ran along it. At 240 yards from the gate
+the road which led to Theodosia reached an allée of
+tumuli ranged several rows deep on each side in an
+irregular manner, and continuing for two-thirds of a
+mile. This long series of tombs seems to date in great
+measure from the foundation of the town by the Milesians.
+At a later period the dwellings of the dead became
+more extended, and occupied the range of hills in continuation
+of Mount Mithridates for six or seven miles in
+length, and here are found the tombs of the kings.
+Tumuli are also found on the other side of the low plain
+to the north, where they form three grand groups, the
+best known of which is near the modern quarantine.
+The gate to the north of the Theodosian gate led to the
+Greek city of Dia, near Kamishboroun, and the road
+crossed the hill through a gentle dip. Along it were the
+tombs of the poorer inhabitants, who buried their urns
+and cinders around a coral-rag peak, 245 feet above the
+level of the bay.</p>
+
+<p>Such is a short sketch of the Milesian Panticapæum.
+Afterwards, as the bay became filled up, and the low
+ground between the mountain and the sea increased, the
+population descended and left the old site of the town,
+until in the fourth century, soon after Kertch became
+converted to Christianity, its Kings disappeared, and
+barbarous hordes destroyed all the cities of the Bosphorus.
+The population then became very much reduced,
+and the Panticapæum of the Eastern empire was a
+decayed and unimportant town.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as there was space enough on the sea-shore,
+the inhabitants fortified themselves there; and the
+Milesian acropolis, on the summit of the mountain,
+with its temples and palaces, has ever since served as a
+cemetery. This was proved by the excavations which
+were made for building a mortuary chapel for Mr. Stempkovsky,
+who wished to be buried on the highest point.
+To the depth of eight or ten feet were found broken
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_267">[267]</span>Etruscan pottery, fragments of marble, and building
+stones with inscriptions. In the midst of this new soil
+were a number of tombs, irregularly placed one on the
+other, containing stone coffins made of thin layers of
+Kertch limestone, filled simply with bones, which proved
+them to be Christian.</p>
+
+<p>The Greeks never allowed the dead to be placed near
+the temples of the Gods, as their contact was considered
+pollution. Even close to the Arm-chair of Mithridates
+was found a sarcophagus, like those of Inkerman and
+Tepekerman, 7½ feet long and 1½ feet broad, and the
+eastern end, that of the head, cut in the shape of a
+semicircle. The tomb was covered with a great slab,
+and approached by five steps cut in the southern side of
+the rock. The Arm-chair itself was perhaps the apse
+of a little Christian chapel.</p>
+
+<p>The enormous quantity of tumuli round Kertch form
+one of the distinguishing features of the place—many
+of them have been opened, and unfortunately without
+sufficient care. The tumulus on the shores of the Bosphorus
+is essentially Milesian. This is also remarkable
+on the Asiatic side, where the towns of the Sindes have
+no monuments of this kind, while Phanogoria, Kepos,
+and Kimmericum, which are known Milesian colonies,
+are surrounded by them. The same is the case on
+the European shore where Panticapæum, Myrmékium,
+Porthmium, Nymphæum, Milesian towns, are distinguishable
+from a distance by the multitude of their tumuli,
+while the other Kimmericum, now Opouk, and Kherson,
+colonies of Heraclea, and consequently Dorian, have none.
+The same is the case with the towns of the Tauri; except
+the residence of Skilouros near Simpherópol, which has a
+few tumuli near its walls.</p>
+
+<p>It would be curious to inquire what is the reason of
+the tumulus being peculiar to the Ionic race. Does
+it arise from their differing with the Dorians in their
+religious ideas respecting the dead? and are the same
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_268">[268]</span>facts observable in Greece and other Greek colonies?
+Must we go back for an explanation to the origin of the
+Greek nation, of the Ionians from the Pelasgians, and of
+the Dorians from the Hellenes?</p>
+
+<p>The group of tumuli near the Theodosian gate&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_236" href="#Footnote_236" class="fnanchor">[236]</a> are the
+most ancient, as is proved both by the nature of the
+objects found in them, and by their worn appearance.
+Mr. Blaremberg was the first to excavate them in 1824;
+and he has left in the museum of Kertch a list of the
+articles which he found in four, which had not been previously
+opened.</p>
+
+<p>The head was generally surrounded by leaves of beaten
+gold, of which it was the custom to make a crown; and
+the following is a list of the articles found in one tomb,
+which he calls, without any good reason, that of the
+wife of King Eúmeles.</p>
+
+<p>1. A bust of Isis in terra cotta.</p>
+
+<p>2. Two doves in terra cotta.</p>
+
+<p>3. A fragment of a Serapis in plaster.</p>
+
+<p>4. A fragment of a large necklace in carbonated silver,
+finished by two heads of lions.</p>
+
+<p>5. Ornaments in a vitreous paste imitating glass.</p>
+
+<p>6. Fragments in oxided iron.</p>
+
+<p>7. Two medals in bronze of King Eúmeles (died
+<span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span> 304), having on one side a head of Apollo, and on
+the reverse a Priapus before a branch of myrtle.</p>
+
+<p>8. A pair of golden bracelets, beautifully worked.</p>
+
+<p>9. Two golden ear-rings, with small cupids, ornamented
+with precious stones.</p>
+
+<p>10. Two golden rings, with convex green stones.</p>
+
+<p>11. A golden ring, with an engraved stone of Minerva,
+very fine.</p>
+
+<p>12. A golden pin, with a stone, on which is a butterfly.</p>
+
+<p>13. A silver pin, with an engraved stone, with a head.</p>
+
+<p>14. Four chalcedony ear-drops, and some leaves in
+beaten gold.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_269">[269]</span></p>
+
+<p>The tumuli near the quarantine are clearly less ancient
+than those on the road to Theodosia. They are less worn
+by time, of more colossal dimensions, and their interior
+construction, and the objects contained in them, show a
+more advanced state of civilisation. These tumuli were
+also crossed by a public road, which branched off on the
+right to Myrmékium, and on the left to Porthmium.
+The greater number contain vaults built of masonry, instead
+of excavations in the limestone, and their floor is
+on the same level as the ground outside. The arch of
+the ceiling is formed by each row of stones projecting
+more than the one below, until they almost touch at the
+top; and there are several tombs in the same tumulus.
+On cutting through one, on the new road to Yenicáleh,
+three tombs were found. The two first were those of
+men, as was proved by two swords and a lance which
+were found in them, and in the third was a skeleton of a
+woman, crowned with leaves of golden laurel.</p>
+
+<p>There were also the following golden ornaments,
+which evidently belonged to a lady of high rank.
+Ear-rings two inches long; a necklace in filigree an inch
+broad, with ornaments below like the points of lances;
+two fibulæ, four inches long, worked with beads; a large
+bulla, like the fastening of a belt, with a head of Mercury
+upon it. Besides these, there were many plates of gold,
+which had fallen from the dress, now disappeared, on
+which were embossed vine-leaves and bunches of grapes;
+pearls of gold, with little tubes, separated by small enameled
+flowers, composed necklaces of various patterns.
+There were two rings, one very massive, with a stone
+having a head upon it, and the other with a stone cut into
+the shape of a lion couchant; and there was another representing
+two owls. By the side of the body was a gold
+coin of Philip of Macedon, a metal mirror, a clay vase
+two feet high, and a shallow covered vessel a foot and a
+half in diameter. At the same time another discovery
+was made by chance; by the side of the third tomb a
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_270">[270]</span>fourth was found, in which were two large Etruscan urns,
+and one amphora about the head of the dead, who was
+crowned with a crown of golden laurel; with it were two
+necklaces, a pair of precious ear-rings, and a coin, all of gold.</p>
+
+<p>It is interesting to find, on the shores of the Cimmerian
+Bosphorus, the same vases which in Italy are
+called Etruscan, from the place in which they were first
+found. They were soon known, however, not to be peculiar
+to Etruria, and Magna Græcia was discovered to be
+a still more prolific mine of them. Further researches
+established the fact, that wherever Greece had carried
+her civilisation and her colonies, these vases were found,
+and that there was not a spot within those limits, even
+as far as the banks of the Kuban and the Sea of Azof,
+which did not possess this kind of pottery, manufactured
+on the spot.</p>
+
+<p>The number of these vases found at Kertch is small,
+but many were broken when the tombs were first opened,
+and fragments of them are scattered in great quantities
+all over the ruins of the town. The late Empress possessed
+two at Petersburg. General Potier and Prince
+Volkhonsky each had one, and a fourth was sold by
+Count de Betencourt for 160<i>l.</i> The Chevalier Gamba,
+in his Atlas, gives a drawing of one found at Kertch.
+There is a fine series in the museum there, and many
+private persons in the Crimea and Odessa possess others.</p>
+
+<p>The following is a short account of the form and destination
+of these vases:—&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_237" href="#Footnote_237" class="fnanchor">[237]</a></p>
+
+<p>In the East manners and customs have always remained
+in a singular degree unchanged, and this remark
+applies to all the objects of exterior life, and even to the
+vases. Each form had its particular destination, and, when
+manners do not change, forms likewise remain the same.</p>
+
+<p>The Greeks partook with the East of this stability
+and uniformity in their vases. This may be observed
+from one end of Greece to the other, and both the fine
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_271">[271]</span>and coarse vases of Italy are precisely on the same model
+as those of the Greek islands and Panticapæum.</p>
+
+<p>They may be divided into two categories—profane and
+sacred. First, those for domestic use, or ornaments and
+offerings, as the <i>kados</i>, cups, bowls, viols, and lacrymatories;
+and secondly, the sacred or funeral vases, which
+formed a distinct kind. The latter are always of the shape
+of an urn with two handles, more or less large. The forms
+of all the vases are Greek, and, with few exceptions, they
+are ornamented with designs upon them.</p>
+
+<p>Of the profane vases, or those for common use, the
+<i>kados</i> was that one used for drawing water; and for this
+all the people of the East, and the Greeks, had a peculiar
+form, varying in different countries according as the
+pitcher was carried on the head or the shoulder. Rebecca
+carried it on her shoulder when she met the servant of
+Abraham near the fountain of Charan.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_238" href="#Footnote_238" class="fnanchor">[238]</a></p>
+
+<p>The Greeks gave to this vase the name of <i>kados</i>; and
+with them it had three handles, of which the one in the
+middle served to hold it while water was poured out
+into smaller vessels, and the other two were to balance
+it upon the head. The <i>kados</i> of the Tatars of the Crimea
+has two handles, because they carry it on the head, like
+the Greeks. The Georgian <i>kados</i> is very broad below,
+and has only one handle, being carried on the shoulder.
+The Armenians use tinned copper vessels ornamented
+with designs.</p>
+
+<p>The funeral vases, wide below, with narrow necks, nine
+to fifteen inches high, are found in the tombs, always
+with two handles, and two compositions painted on them,
+one on each side, differing both in execution and the style
+of the subject. On comparing them with those found in
+Italy, they will be seen to be precisely similar, even to
+the singular difference in the two compositions which
+ornament them. The one is always some scene in private
+or public life; and the design is elegant and the execution
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_272">[272]</span>very careful. The other is a coarse sketch, hastily
+done in a rough way, and an eternal repetition of the same
+personages, with some variations in the pose, the number
+of figures, and the emblems which accompany them.</p>
+
+<p>The personages in the long cloaks are the initiated
+during some scene of the mysteries of Ceres Thesmophora,
+as may be seen by comparing them with the relief on
+the altar of that goddess, found in the acropolis of Panticapæum,
+where the whole scene is precisely the same.
+These vases placed in the tombs must, therefore, be
+regarded as a kind of certificate of baptism, to prove
+that the dead had been initiated into such or such a
+grade of the mysteries. As the principal object of these
+mysteries was to teach, that there was an Almighty
+Divinity, punishing vice and recompensing virtue, the
+presence of these vases would be a proof of their faith in
+this doctrine, by which they hoped to reap eternal happiness
+after death. Some of the scenes relate to the
+mysteries of Bacchus, as well as Ceres, and the two have
+an intimate relation with each other, as they both come
+from the mysteries of Isis and Osiris. The essential
+elements in the mysteries of Ceres are the ample cloak,
+or <i>pallium</i>, without sleeves, descending to the feet, and
+was the same as was used in the mysteries of Eleusis.
+The initiated, on the vases, have the head bare, and with
+some the hair is bound by a narrow white fillet, which
+seems worn only by those of superior rank. This fillet
+has a little ornament in front, which may be the leaf
+<i>persea</i>, or the little serpent <i>knouphis</i>, the good demon
+so often seen on the images of Isis and Osiris. The
+crown of laurel and myrtle belongs only to an important
+personage, perhaps an hierophant. There is also a white
+stick held in the right hand, and sometimes the <i>strigillum</i>,
+or scraper. There is also an altar in the form of
+a truncated pyramid, and a large branch, and sacred
+cakes, <i>placenta</i>, oval, round, triangular, or square, placed
+in baskets, which were not to be seen by profane eyes.
+They were generally marked by one of four mystic signs:
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_273">[273]</span>1st, — or ꖌ; 2nd, +, or ⁜, or + +; 3rd, Ϲ, or Ͽ
+4th, ☉ —. These scenes were so completely considered,
+merely as a general emblem, that on some vases the
+figures can hardly be made out; and the whole care of
+the artist was devoted to the scenes of life on the other
+side of the vase. The subjects chosen go far to prove
+that they were manufactured at Panticapæum, for the
+<i>griffin</i>, which was the emblem of Panticapæum, constantly
+appears, and various details of Scythian costume. On one
+there is a warrior with the Scythian cap; in front the
+crest of his horse; behind him the griffin. On another
+is a Scythian on horseback, in his costume, covered with
+little plates of gold, fighting the griffin. On a third the
+griffin follows in a procession by torchlight, and carries
+on its back a personage with a sacred emblem. On another
+is the history of the Amazons, evidently a Panticapæan
+subject; for the Sauromatæ, governed by women,
+were in daily contact with the Bosphorians; and the
+Amazons on the vase wear a complete Caucasian dress,
+the <i>bachelik</i>, or covering for the head, worn still universally
+in the Caucasus, of precisely the same form; the
+narrow trousers, the Tcherkess coat, the little morocco
+shoes, without soles,—in short, the whole Scythian costume
+is represented on this vase in the dress of the
+Amazons, but elegant and coquette, as it would be, if
+adopted by women. In the Hamilton vases of Naples&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_239" href="#Footnote_239" class="fnanchor">[239]</a>
+there is likewise one scene of three Amazons fighting
+three griffins, which may, perhaps, have come from the
+Bosphorus.</p>
+
+<p>Three classes of tombs must still be mentioned—those
+of the poor, the catacombs, and the tombs of
+the kings. On going out of the gate leading to Dia,
+along the mountain of Mithridates, there is an eminence,
+which a gentleman began to excavate. His labours,
+however, seemed to end in the solid rock, below a mass
+of amphoræ, which contained the cinders of the poor
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_274">[274]</span>population. At last he remarked a sepulchral slab, and,
+lifting it up, found the entrance to a funeral cavern. This
+was built with an Egyptian roof,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_240" href="#Footnote_240" class="fnanchor">[240]</a> and had been despoiled
+of everything precious, but was still most interesting, from
+a suite of small pictures drawn on the wall below the commencement
+of the roof, about a foot high, representing the
+war of the cranes and the pigmies. In one place there
+is seen a pigmy, armed with lance and shield, struggling
+against a crane; in another place he is overthrown by
+his desperate adversary; in another he is attacking him
+by the tail, and the crane is turning round to punish
+him; in another he is running away, or defending himself
+with his hands and feet against the terrible pecks of
+his enemy; while another pigmy is wrestling with a
+crane, and succeeds in vanquishing it by pressing its
+neck. The roof was ornamented with garlands and arabesques
+to suit the pictures, and at the end of the cavern
+are two peacocks drinking from the same vase,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_241" href="#Footnote_241" class="fnanchor">[241]</a> and a
+winged genius, with a basket of flowers in his hand, is
+over the entrance door. Unfortunately, soon after this
+tomb was discovered, it was completely defaced by
+visitors.</p>
+
+<p>The catacombs are among the tumuli on the road to
+Theodosia, and are deep excavations 15 or 20 feet deep,
+7 or 8 feet long, and 2½ feet broad, and, on descending
+and entering by an arched door, large subterranean chambers
+are found, cut in the white calcareous clay, with
+niches all around for the bodies. Some remains of coffins
+are to be found, and the whole is probably a Christian work.</p>
+
+<p>The last group of tumuli to be mentioned are those
+of the kings, at what was called the Golden Mountain.
+After following the old road to Theodosia for two
+miles, Mount Mithridates is seen to offer a passage across
+it by a narrow valley. The mountain rises again directly,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_275">[275]</span>and continues in a north-west direction to the Sea of
+Azof. This continuation is called the Golden Mountain.
+An enormous tumulus, which rises above the road, where
+it passes between the hills, seems to announce a more
+powerful race than that which raised the tombs of the
+plain. On the crest of the mountain, at 323 feet above
+the level of the sea, rises the tumulus, in the form of a
+cone, 100 feet high and 150 feet in diameter, different
+from those of the neighbourhood, because it is walled
+from top to bottom like a Cyclopean monument. It is
+cased on its exterior, like the Pyramids, with large blocks
+of Kertch stone, cubes of three or four feet, placed without
+cement or mortar. This monument, almost unique of
+its kind from its size, was a tomb, and from all times had
+been the object of a number of mysterious legends. The
+Tatar, Turk, and more ancient traditions, spoke of immense
+treasures hidden in this tomb, which was known
+by the name of Altun Obo, or the Golden Mountain. It
+was even added that, on each feast of St. John, a virgin
+was seen on the summit of the tumulus, waiting for him
+whom she had chosen to share with her the treasures of
+the Cyclopean monument. It may be observed that there
+is the same style of legend from the north to the south
+of Europe, and this of the Golden Mountain is similar
+to that, which the Tatars relate of the Kisiltach rock,
+the Lithuanians of the golden table buried in the swamps
+of Vokroi, and the Rughians of the stone of the Virgin
+at Stubenkammer.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_242" href="#Footnote_242" class="fnanchor">[242]</a> The tradition existed that there
+was an entrance to the tomb, which the Tatars had often
+tried to find, without success. It was not until 1832
+that Mr. Kareiche carefully sought for it, and employed
+thirty-five men for fifteen days in attacking the tumulus
+from the south-west. At last he had the good fortune
+to find the entrance to a gallery, by which he penetrated
+without obstacle to the centre of the tumulus.
+The gallery was constructed of layers of worked stone,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_276">[276]</span>without cement, and was 60 feet long, 10 feet high—taking
+in the Egyptian roof, and three or four feet broad.
+Arrived at the end, M. Kareiche found himself on the
+edge of a precipice which opened before him. He saw
+with astonishment that the centre of the tomb was
+formed of a circular tower 25 feet high and 20 feet in diameter.
+The floor of this construction was 10 feet below
+the floor of the gallery, and the vaulted roof was composed
+of four rows of advancing stones.</p>
+
+<p>At length M. Kareiche perceived that he could descend
+into the tomb by stones placed at distances in the side,
+and was hastening to reap the treasures promised in the
+legend, when to his stupefaction he perceived that the
+tomb was empty. On the ground was a large square
+stone, on which a sarcophagus might have been deposited,
+and half way up the wall was a large empty niche. He
+searched in vain to penetrate further, supposing that the
+tower was only a well to arrive at other hidden caverns:
+nothing indicated any passage, or any loose stone, and
+it is still an enigma what was the object of this expensive
+and magnificent monument, the rival of the pyramids.
+The tower is not in the centre of the tumulus, and it is
+possible that there may be other interior chambers. The
+distance between the interior tower and the exterior
+Cyclopean wall is filled with fragments of stone from the
+fine quarries in the neighbourhood.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_243" href="#Footnote_243" class="fnanchor">[243]</a></p>
+
+<p>The modern Greek legend made this the tomb of
+Mithridates, although it is well known that he was buried
+at Sinope, and Souvorof, deceived by this account, is said
+to have made a pilgrimage to this tumulus as the tomb
+of the great king, and to have knelt and shed tears here.</p>
+
+<p>This tumulus is placed exactly at the spot where the
+two branches of the long rampart meet, which extends
+from the Black Sea to the Sea of Azof. It is visible,
+extending from the foot of the tumulus to the gorge of
+Katerles, which opens in a second range of hills parallel
+to the Golden Mountain and Mount Mithridates, and the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_277">[277]</span>peaks above it are covered with ruins. To the south the
+rampart is quite effaced, where the road to Theodosia
+crosses it, but beyond it its zigzags are seen as far as the
+White Cape, where it of course terminates.</p>
+
+<p>This rampart was probably the ancient boundary of
+the territory of Panticapæum, and the primitive kingdom
+of the Bosphorus, before the conquest of Nymphæum and
+Theodosia, which were added to the kingdom, the first
+in <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span> 410, and the second about <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span> 390.</p>
+
+<p>Within the rampart, at 150 paces to the east, near
+Kertch, there is another monument of the same kind as
+the other, but unfinished. It consists of a circular esplanade,
+500 paces round and 166 in diameter, with an
+exterior covering of Cyclopean masonry, built of worked
+stones, 3 feet long and high. There are five layers of these;
+but it seems to have been the intention of the builders to
+raise a monument like the one before mentioned. Perhaps
+a revolution, or the death of the prince who was building
+his own monument, like the kings of Egypt, caused the
+works to be abandoned. Several ranges of enormous stones
+between this and the first monument indicate ancient
+walls of houses, and adjoining these are traces of ancient
+gardens, while on the slope of the mountain, in the midst
+of the ruins near the Khouter Scassi, there is a fine well
+in good preservation, cased with wrought stone and full
+of water. This seems extraordinary in the midst of a
+country now so dry, desert, and devoid of wood; but
+proves that in the time of Panticapæum the general
+aspect of the land was very different, since country houses
+and trees existed where there are now only wild rocks.</p>
+
+<p>The view from the summit of the hill, and still more
+so from the top of the tumulus, is magnificent, and
+extends as far as the rock of Opouk, the ancient Kimmericum,
+which is 24 miles distant. To the north it
+extends over several pretty country houses, situated at
+the foot of the mountain. That of M. de Scassi is a real
+Italian <i>villa</i>, surrounded by gardens and orchards, where
+the proprietor has planted 30,000 plants of vines and
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_278">[278]</span>more than 2000 fruit-trees, which he imported from
+France. There is in the park the ash and the elm, and the
+red pine of the Caucasus. There are several small tumuli
+around; but a detailed description must now be given of
+the great discovery of all, which was made by accident.</p>
+
+<p>There is a spur of the Golden Mountain running south,
+called by the Tatars <i>Kouloba</i>,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_244" href="#Footnote_244" class="fnanchor">[244]</a> or the hill of cinders,
+beyond the ancient rampart, and four miles from Kertch.
+Near it is a tumulus 165 feet in diameter, and some
+soldiers, carrying away stones from it, discovered an interior
+construction. They soon arrived at a vestibule,
+6 feet square, turned to the north, covered by an Egyptian
+roof of three rows of stones, which they were obliged
+to remove in order to penetrate further, because this roof
+was supported by beams reduced to dust. At the end of
+the vestibule was a door, 8 feet 10 inches high and 5 feet
+9 inches wide, closed half way up by large wrought stones,
+and above by those of the common size. Large pieces of
+wood formed the covering, but the beams were reduced to
+dust, and the stones which closed the entrance supported
+the upper part, which threatened soon to fall. This difficulty
+was soon removed, and two <i>savans</i>, Mr. Dubrux and
+Dr. Lang, were commissioned by the governor to enter
+alone and take an inventory of the contents. An immense
+crowd besieged the approaches, which were guarded by soldiers,
+while the commissioners entered the funeral dwelling
+of one who had evidently been an important personage.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_279">[279]</span></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp58" id="tomb-plan" style="max-width: 34.375em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/tomb-plan.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      <p>INTERIOR OF ROYAL TOMB OF KOULOBA, NEAR KERTCH.</p>
+      <p>From Dubois’ Atlas. 1 archine = 28 inches.</p>
+      <ul>
+      <li>A. Vestibule.</li>
+      <li>B. Tomb of king.</li>
+      <li>C. Bones of the King.</li>
+      <li>D. Bones of the Queen.</li>
+      <li>1. Heap of sharp flints.</li>
+      <li>2. Arms and whip of king.</li>
+      <li>3. Five statuettes in electrum.</li>
+      <li>4. Attendant of the king.</li>
+      <li>5. Bones of a horse, with greaves and helmet.</li>
+      <li>6. Hundreds of arrow-heads.</li>
+      <li>7. Two large lances.</li>
+      <li>8. Queen’s golden vase.</li>
+      <li>9. <i>Crater</i> in silver.</li>
+      <li>10. Second crater.</li>
+      <li>11. Amphoræ, containing wine of Thasos.</li>
+      <li>12. Bronze vase.</li>
+      <li>13. Silver-gilt plate.</li>
+      <li>14. Bronze saucepans, with mutton bones.</li>
+      </ul>
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_280">[280]</span></p>
+
+<p>The tomb was almost square, measuring 15 feet from
+east to west, and 14 feet from north to south, and the
+entrance-door was not in the centre of the wall. The
+walls were built of hewn stones, each 3 feet long and 2 feet
+high. Five rows of stones raised it to 7 feet 8 inches,
+and then began the spring of the Egyptian arch, formed
+by seven rows of advancing stones, the front row advancing
+5 inches and the upper rows 6 or 8 inches, so that at
+the top there only remained a space 2 feet square, filled
+by a single stone: the tomb was thus 16 feet high. At
+10 feet 10 inches above the pavement began the wooden
+ceiling, which had fallen, when the beams which supported
+it gave way. The floor had a stone pavement, and the
+principal place was occupied by a sarcophagus formed of
+a case of yew wood, 8 feet 9 inches long and 10 inches
+high, and was joined by thick beams, on which the outward
+planks were fitted. The side facing the interior of
+the tomb was open, and the interior was divided into two
+parts by a plank. In one of the compartments, larger
+than the other and nearest to the wall, was extended the
+body of a man of great stature. The thigh bone was
+17½ inches long, and the skull extremely thick. On his
+brow were the remains of a <i>mitra</i>, or Persian cap, of
+which the top is more narrow than the base. Two plates
+of gold ornamented the top and the bottom: the one
+below was 1½ inches broad, ornamented with festoons and
+griffins, the emblem of Panticapæum, and was of less careful
+workmanship than the upper plate, ornamented with
+figures, leaves, and arabesques. Around the neck was a
+grand necklace in massive gold, of beautiful workmanship,
+in the form of an open ring, and twisted like a cord,
+with the extremities passing one over the other. At each
+end was a Scythian on horseback, and the extremities were
+for a distance of 2 inches enameled with blue and green.
+Similar ones have frequently been found of copper, and
+rarely of any other metal, in the tombs of the north, and,
+among others, in those of the ancient Lithuanians.</p>
+
+<p>The arms were extended on each side of the body,
+and on the right arm, above the elbow, was a circle or
+bracelet in gold, an inch broad, and adorned with reliefs.
+Below the elbows were two other bracelets in electrum,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_245" href="#Footnote_245" class="fnanchor">[245]</a>
+1½ inches broad. A third pair of open bracelets in fine
+gold encircled the wrists, and finished in Persian winged
+sphinxes, the claws of which held the thick thread of gold
+which served to close the bracelet when it was passed on
+the wrist. The workmanship was very fine, and their
+thickness about half an inch. At the feet of the king were
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_281">[281]</span>a multitude of little sharp flints piled up. In Scythian
+mourning it was a custom to tear the face and the rest of
+the body with such instruments, and they were then placed
+in the tombs as a mark of grief; some bodies found in
+a tumulus near Simpherópol were covered with them.
+In the narrower compartment of the sarcophagus were
+placed the gods and arms of the king—first there was
+his iron sword, the handle of which, covered with leaves
+of gold, was adorned with figures of hares and foxes
+embossed on the gold. Beside the sword lay the
+Tcherkess or Cossack whip (called <i>nogaik</i>), adorned with
+a leaf of gold, and above it was the shield in fine
+gold. The thickness of the latter was about that of
+a five-franc piece, and its shape showed that it was
+principally a protection for the shoulder, and fitted to
+the arm. It was 8½ inches long and 7½ broad, and
+its weight was 1½ lbs. of fine gold. The <i>umbo</i> or
+centre of the shield was surrounded by a simple circular
+fillet, and one with the egg pattern, leaving an
+interval of 3½ lines, on which were chiselled dolphins
+and other fishes. The rest of the shield was divided
+into twelve compartments by a fillet, and was covered
+with masques imitating the head of Medusa, alternating
+with faces with pointed beards, and flies and heads of
+seahorses.</p>
+
+<p>The bow and its wooden case&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_246" href="#Footnote_246" class="fnanchor">[246]</a> were reduced to dust,
+and there only remained the plate, in <i>electrum</i>, which
+ornamented the quiver. It was adorned with embossed
+work, representing a wild goat seized by a tiger, and a
+deer attacked in front by the griffin of Panticapæum, and
+behind by the lion of Phanagoria. The deer was the
+emblem of the town of Diana, which was Kherson.
+A seahorse filled the wider part of the plate, and a
+masque the other extremity. Above the tail of the
+tiger was written the Greek word ΠΟΡΝΑΧΟ, engraven
+on the metal. Some suppose this to mean Pharnáces
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_282">[282]</span>the son of Mithridates, whose tomb this may be, but
+Dubois considers it the name of the artist, which, under
+the more recent form, ΦΑΡΝΑΚΟϹ, frequently recurs
+in the inscriptions of Sindika, now Anapa.</p>
+
+<p>Among these arms was found one boot in bronze, and
+the fellow was on the right of the king, opposite the
+head. In the same compartment, and near the head of
+the king, were found, in the exterior angle, five statuettes
+in <i>electrum</i>. One figure represented two Scythians
+embracing one another, and tightly holding a horn,
+probably filled with hydromel. The horn is like
+those which all the statues, or <i>babas</i>, so often found in
+one part of Southern Russia, hold with both hands.
+Another figure holds a purse in its right hand, and a
+strange instrument in the left, and is like a Celtic
+Mercury. There was likewise the Scythian Hercules
+among these divinities. Their costume recalled the
+Slavonic and Tatar dress, and particularly the tunic of
+sheepskin, which the Tatars call <i>toun</i> or <i>teretoun</i>, the
+Russians <i>touloup</i>, and the Poles <i>kozuch</i>, which was the
+Scythian garment found in the most ancient monuments.
+The fleece is turned inwards, or the garment
+is only edged with fur, and it is found of all lengths,
+from the short Tatar tunic, and the Slavonic <i>katskaveika</i>,
+to the long sheepskin gown of the Russian peasant. These
+different kinds are all visible in the different dresses of
+the figures of this tomb, where may be recognized the
+real Lithuanian <i>sermedje</i> and the Tcherkess <i>tchok</i>.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp46" id="illus5" style="max-width: 31.25em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/illus5.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      <p>1. Ornament found in the Tomb of Kouloba.</p>
+      <p>2. Electrum Vase for perfumes, found near the Queen’s
+      remains. See <a href="#Page_282">page 282</a>.</p>
+      <p>3. Embossed Work running round the Vase.</p>
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>Thus was arranged the sarcophagus of the king, and
+around it, on the pavement, were the objects which
+completed the furniture of the tomb, in which nothing
+had been forgotten which could contribute to the material
+wants of life. At his feet a kind hand had placed
+three large cauldrons of molten bronze. Two were oval
+or oblong, and one was spherical, and all reposed on a
+cylindrical foot, of which the base spread out into three
+hooks to fix it on the soil. These three vases had been
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_283">[283]</span>often on the fire and used for cooking; there was a
+thick coat of suet still on them, and the interior was
+filled with mutton bones.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_247" href="#Footnote_247" class="fnanchor">[247]</a></p>
+
+<p>There was another oblong vase, near the door, filled
+in the same manner. After the kitchen of the king
+came his provision of wine, and his drinking-cups. The
+wine was contained in four clay amphoræ, placed upright
+against the wall on the right. On the handle of one
+was inscribed ΘΑΣΙ, and below ΑΡΕΤΩΝ, and in the
+midst was a fish. These then were filled with wine of
+Thasos, which, to judge by the quantity of amphoræ
+found in the tombs, bearing this name, was the favourite
+kind of wine. Two large <i>crateres</i> were naturally placed
+near the amphoræ, because the Scythians always drank
+wine mixed with water. The first, the nearest to the door,
+was of silver, nearly eighteen inches in diameter, and contained
+four drinking cups in silver, two of which were
+of beautiful workmanship, particularly the one which
+terminates below in the head of a ram. The second
+<i>crater</i> in bronze contained also four silver drinking cups,
+the largest of which is ornamented with chiseled work
+gilt, on which may be recognised the birds and fish of
+the Black Sea and the Cimmerian Bosphorus. On the
+right is a duck plunging and seizing a fish; under it
+swims a <i>labra</i> and a sturgeon, and further on a cormorant
+with extended wings is seizing while flying a small fish.
+On another is a combat of a wild boar about to yield
+under the claws of a lion.</p>
+
+<p>On the right is a <i>toura</i>&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_248" href="#Footnote_248" class="fnanchor">[248]</a> of the Caucasus, brought to
+the ground by two griffins of Panticapæum. On the
+left the deer of Kherson suffers the same fate, being torn
+by a lion, while a female leopard, with open mouth, is
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_284">[284]</span>about to seize it by the throat. In the part which the
+wild-boar, the deer, and the toura play in the midst of
+griffins and lions, there is a manifest design. The lion
+of Phanagoria and the griffin of Panticapæum are not
+always represented as victorious without intention, while
+the deer of Kherson, the toura of the Caucasus, and the
+wild-boar of the Kuban, are always vanquished by them.</p>
+
+<p>Beyond the drinking-cups were the arsenal of the
+king, composed of two lances and several bundles of
+arrows, laid along the wall. The last had triangular
+points in bronze, with three barbs, to prevent their
+being drawn out of the flesh, and are similar to those
+found in Scythian monuments in Southern Russia. Between
+the arrows and the sarcophagus there appeared a
+second skeleton, laid on the pavement, and much covered
+with earth, but adorned so richly that it was impossible
+not to recognise the wife of the king, who thus accompanied
+him to his last resting-place. She was laid in the
+same direction as the king, and wore on her forehead a
+mitre like him, with a plate in electrum terminating it,
+which showed a skilful workman. Four women, in Greek
+costume, sit in the midst of garlands of <i>lotuses</i>, the stalks
+of which form seats and backs. Four masques of lions
+formed on each side the means by which the plate was
+attached to the mitre. On the bottom the mitre was
+bordered by a diadem of gold, adorned all round with
+small enameled rosettes. The queen bore on her neck,
+like the king, a grand necklace with the ends moveable,
+and, instead of horsemen, the extremities were formed of
+couchant lions. She had on besides another necklace of
+gold filigree, to which were suspended small chains, supporting
+little bottles of fine gold. Five medallions of
+exquisite workmanship, and different sizes, descended on
+her bosom, and they were fastened together by small
+chains and bottles. These were enameled blue and
+green, like other objects that have been mentioned. The
+two largest of these medallions represented Greek
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_285">[285]</span>Minervas, but evidently worked at Panticapæum, because
+of the chiseled griffins on the wings of her helmet.
+The attributes of Minerva, besides the owl and the
+winged Pegasus, are the serpents of Medusa, which
+ought to ornament her shield, a winged sphinx like that
+on the bracelets of the king, and a row of deer’s heads
+on the viser of the helmet. The arabesque which surrounds
+the helmet is also enameled.</p>
+
+<p>At the foot of the skeleton was discovered a magnificent
+vase in <i>electrum</i>, resembling in form and size those
+in the second <i>crater</i>, which stands on a foot. It probably
+contained perfumes, particularly as some of the little
+bottles usually called lacrymatories were found, as in the
+other tombs. The exquisite chiselings upon it are of the
+greatest interest for art and history. (See <a href="#illus5">Plate</a>.) Four
+groups of figures succeed each other as episodes in the
+same history, in which the personage playing the principal
+part reappears three times. In the first group,
+beginning from left to right, he is seated, the two hands
+and the head leaning on the lance, listening attentively
+to the report of a warrior. The king is known by the
+royal band round his head, perhaps the very one which
+is placed in the tomb. His costume is completely Scythian:
+he has the narrow trousers, the boots, and the
+<i>tchok</i> which has been described. The warrior who makes
+the report is also a Scythian, kneeling before him, dressed
+as on the Etruscan vases, and armed with lance and
+buckler. Neither the one nor the other has the warlike
+quiver; their hair is long, and spread over their shoulders;
+but the bearer of the despatch has no diadem; he wears
+only the <i>bachelik</i> of the Caucasus, or the Phrygian bonnet,
+or rather the Lithuanian bonnet, which has for many
+centuries remained the same. The next figure turns its
+back to the messenger, and, kneeling on one knee, is
+much occupied in bending a bow, which may be that of
+the king, for this warrior has his own by his side. They
+are preparing for war. This war then takes place; and
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_286">[286]</span>next are depicted the fruits of it, for the king has been
+badly wounded. He is recognised in the half sitting,
+half kneeling, figure, from whom the Scythian <i>magus</i> is
+extracting a tooth from the left side of the jaw. On
+examining the skull of the king, deposited in the museum,
+it may be seen that the lower jaw presents the marks of
+a wound, with a fracture which has carried away several
+teeth; for the two large teeth are wanting, and a third,
+shorter than the others, has been attacked by a disease
+which has made the jaw swell.</p>
+
+<p>A fourth episode represents the king wounded in the
+leg; a warrior is fomenting it with bandages. In this
+place the trousers and a part of the <i>tchok</i> are covered
+with something that looks like embroidery. These are
+the little golden and electrum scales sewn on the garments.
+Strabo says that the Aorses, on the banks of
+the Tanais, wear gold on their garments.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_249" href="#Footnote_249" class="fnanchor">[249]</a> These little
+scales are embossed, pierced with holes at the sides to
+sew them on, and represent an infinity of subjects. This
+tomb furnishes some very rich examples of them.</p>
+
+<p>On attentively examining the interior when it was
+first opened, it was perceived that at the foot of the
+walls were heaped up an infinity of these little plates.
+The walls showed signs of having had pegs of wood
+fixed in them, to which were suspended the rich wardrobe
+of these great personages. The clothes had fallen,
+and nothing was found but a mass of dust, mixed with
+these little plates, which were carefully collected. The
+greater number were in the form of triangles or roses,
+of different sizes, without any relief; on others were fine
+heads of women or divinities, and figures of griffins, lions,
+hares, foxes, and other animals. One of them, with
+the figure of a woman upon it, proves that if the men
+of that period wore the Caucasian dress, the same was
+the case with the women, whose long veil or <i>tchadra</i>
+seems just the same as that which the Caucasian women
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_287">[287]</span>still wear. The robe is flowing. One of the women
+bears in her hand a goblet, and in the other a key.
+Another little plate represents two Scythian archers,
+back to back, ready to shoot their arrows. Two others
+represent Scythian hunters on horseback, pursuing a
+hare. In the left hand they hold the reins, and in the
+right the javelin.</p>
+
+<p>By the side of the body of the queen were found two
+golden bracelets with bas-reliefs in two ranges, that is
+to say, six figures on each bracelet, the breadth of
+which is three and half inches. Around the head were
+disposed six knives, with handles of ivory, the blades of
+which were like surgical instruments. A seventh knife
+had a handle of gold, and reliefs upon it. A bronze
+mirror, with a handle of gold, ornamented with a griffin
+pursuing a deer, in relief, was also one of the objects
+which surrounded the queen.</p>
+
+<p>According to the Scythian customs, the queen must
+have been strangled before being placed in the tomb of
+her husband; and the same cruel laws required the
+presence of the king’s servant. He was found accordingly
+stretched across the tomb, along the southern
+wall, and round him were many plates of gold. His
+helmet and greaves, in silver, very much oxidised, were laid
+with the bones of a horse in an excavation two feet square,
+which occupied the south-east corner of the tomb. Among
+the things which were taken out of the cavern were
+several highly-worked pieces of wood, which belonged to
+musical instruments, the only thing wanting to complete
+the whole establishment. Several of the pieces showed
+designs executed with an engraver’s point, of exquisite
+workmanship. There was a chariot, a woman holding
+a helmet in her hand, a slave with a large bowl giving
+drink to a horse, some women seated, and other designs.</p>
+
+<p>If all the objects which adorned the inside of the tomb
+bear the stamp of Scythian ideas and the customs and
+usages of that nation, the same cannot be said of the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_288">[288]</span>ornaments and pictures of the sarcophagus of yew wood,
+which presents in perfect preservation paintings on
+wood, which have resisted upwards of twenty centuries.
+These paintings covered the pannels of the sarcophagus.
+The principal subject is entirely Greek, and proves that
+if they buried a king surrounded by Scythian luxury,
+Greek artists were employed at his interment. Two
+Victories, mounted on chariots, turned one against the
+other, filled the extremity of the picture, of which seven
+Greek figures, in different positions, occupied the centre,
+three women and four men. A goose and a swan are
+mixed with these figures, all represented as very agitated,
+running, gesticulating, with expressions of joy, which is
+justified by the approach of the two triumphal cars. The
+chariots are drawn by four white horses, two of which
+are spotted. On the frieze, which surrounded the pannel
+above, the artist has represented warriors drawing the
+bow.</p>
+
+<p>When the tomb was opened, the savans deputed for
+the purpose were busy in making a plan and putting
+down the position of each object which they found.
+This occupied the whole day, while two soldiers guarded
+the entrance. These gentlemen in the evening thought
+their work was finished, but for greater precaution the
+sentinels kept at their post, with orders to let no one
+pass. The crowd which visited the tomb during the night
+from curiosity was so great, that the sentinels could not
+keep it back. The people penetrated into the tomb, examined
+everything, and then were discovered the little
+plates of gold which covered the pavement.</p>
+
+<p>While they were thus occupied in examining and disputing
+about the smallest spoils, some persons perceived
+that the tomb resounded as if there was something hollow
+underneath. Raising the stones of the hollow square
+in the corner, they discovered a second tomb below
+much richer than the first, and from this the masses
+of gold were drawn which for several years afterwards
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_289">[289]</span>were in circulation at Kertch. There was not a Greek
+woman there who did not retain some relic of this
+great discovery, especially in the form of ear-rings. It
+was said that no less than 120 lbs. weight of gold jewellery
+were extracted from these tombs, of which the Government
+obtained about 15 lbs., and the rest was dispersed.
+In this pillage the people acted in the most barbarous
+manner: they tore the objects from one another, and
+chopped up the most precious with the hatchet. Such was
+the fate of the golden shield of the lower tomb, part of
+which the Government bought back piece by piece for the
+weight of the gold. On one of the pieces recovered there
+is a Greek woman, like a Fury, with her long hair blown
+by a tempest, bearing in her hands a lance and torch:
+wolves, of which one carries a <i>labrus</i> in its mouth,
+surround her and complete the picture of this terrible
+divinity. The tomb is probably anterior in date to the
+reign of Mithridates, both from the style of the ornaments
+and various minor circumstances. The letter 𐅃
+(P) is often repeated on the reliefs, and is written with one
+side shorter than the other, a form which quite disappears
+before the time of Mithridates the Great. It is so written
+on the great vase in electrum, which is of extraordinary
+enigmatical shape, representing a deer lying down, while
+on its sides are chiselled a griffin, a ram, like the one of
+Jupiter Ammon, a lion, and a dog turning its head, all
+of which appear on the most ancient medals of Panticapæum.
+Again the two medallions of Minerva, with
+her attributes, of exquisite workmanship, must have been
+made at a time when the kings of the Bosphorus were
+proud of their alliance with Athens, and of being citizens
+of that city, as were Leucon, Paerisádes I., and Eúmeles.
+At a later period the connexion ceased between the
+Bosphorus and Athens. There is, besides, no sign of the
+influence of Rome in any part of the tomb. Its construction
+is very ancient, and the idea of propping the ceiling
+with posts is not found in any more recent tombs.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_290">[290]</span></p>
+
+<p>The Scythian costume also was much in vogue under
+the Leuconides, as most of the figures on the vases wear
+it. We might indeed expect at that period to find the
+Scythian manners and costumes by the side of the Greek
+worship. The Scythians who had invaded Central Asia,
+destroyed by the stratagem of Cyaxares in 605 <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span>, returned
+in small number, hoping to re-enter upon the territory
+which they had abandoned on the shores of the
+Bosphorus; but they were opposed by the children of their
+wives and their slaves, during the long absence of their
+husbands. Repulsed on every side, they renounced the
+idea of crossing the Cimmerian Bosphorus; and making
+the circuit of the Sea of Azof, they thought to force the
+rebels in their retreat in the peninsula of Kertch. They
+passed the Isthmus of Perecop and the Crimea; but their
+slaves were beforehand with them, and raised a rampart
+of earth from the Sea of Azof to the Tauric chain. The
+Scythians in despair are said to have then had recourse
+to their whips, when from old recollections the slaves
+ran away, and the Scythians re-entered on the possession
+of their domains, which their Sindic slaves cultivated
+for them. The Sindes of the peninsula of Kertch were
+then the ancient inhabitants of the peninsula and of the
+island of Taman, a race mixed with Mæotes and the remains
+of the Kimmerian population, while the aristocrats
+of the country were the Scythians, who levied tributes
+upon them.</p>
+
+<p>It was among this Sinde people, governed by Scythians,
+that the Milesians came to found the colonies
+of Panticapæum, Nymphæum, Theodosia, Phanagoria,
+Kepos, and others, sixty years after the return of the
+Scythians. These colonies depended at first directly on
+the metropolis, paying a tribute for their establishment
+on foreign soil. Their commerce and industry enriched
+them and increased their population, and they then took
+up an independent position, and thus Panticapæum was
+governed by its proper <i>archianactides</i>, who remained at
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_291">[291]</span>the head of the municipality from 480 to 438 <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span> But
+by the side of those magistrates there existed in the
+Bosphorus of Europe, as well as in that of Asia, an indigenous
+Scythian or Mætic power, whose ambition it was
+to conquer the Greek towns. In 437 <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span> a certain
+Spartocus seized on Panticapæum, and replaced the <i>archianactides</i>.
+Not to offend the Greeks, whom a royal title
+would have frightened, he called himself <i>archon</i> of the
+Bosphorus (<i>i. e.</i> Panticapæum and Phanagoria), while he
+took the title of <i>king</i> of the countries which surrounded
+the colonies, and which were his patrimony. The colonies
+preserved their municipal forms (which resembled the
+Swiss municipalities and the imperial towns in Germany)
+during 402 years, until Asander took the title of king of
+the Bosphorus in 36 <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span> Under the first Archon and
+his successor Seleucus, the rampart of the Golden Mountain
+was the limit of the territory of Panticapæum and
+Nymphæum; and the latter colony was in the power of
+Athens. The treachery of a certain Gelo, the maternal
+grandfather of Demosthenes, opened the gates of Nymphæum
+to Spartocus II., <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span> 410, and the Athenians were
+dispossessed.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_250" href="#Footnote_250" class="fnanchor">[250]</a></p>
+
+<p>Satyrus I. (<span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span> 407), son of Spartocus II., was nevertheless
+a great friend of Athens. He increased the kingdom
+on the Asiatic side, and, having been killed at the
+siege of Theodosia, Strabo says that the tumulus of
+Koukóuoba was raised in his honour.</p>
+
+<p>Leucon I., son of Satyrus (reigned 393-353 <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span>), was
+made a citizen of Athens, and took Theodosia, to which
+he left its municipal administration.</p>
+
+<p>Paerisádes I. (349 <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span>) son of Leucon, increased the
+power of the Bosphorus, by his successful wars in the
+Crimea and in Asia; and one part of the Tauric chain
+and the valleys of the Caucasus obeyed him. There is
+a medal of Kherson, with his effigy on one side and a
+Diana on the other, that makes it probable that he also
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_292">[292]</span>took Kherson, although there is no mention of this fact
+in history.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_251" href="#Footnote_251" class="fnanchor">[251]</a></p>
+
+<p>Diodorus relates the tragic history of three sons of
+Paerisádes—Satyrus, Eúmeles, and Prýtanas—who all
+died a violent death. Satyrus, the eldest, trying to
+appease the revolt of Eúmeles in Asia, was wounded in
+the arm, and died the next night. The body, it is said,
+was brought to Panticapæum, and buried with magnificence
+in the tomb of his ancestors. Thus we have
+mention of a family burial-place.</p>
+
+<p>Dubois thinks that the king found in the tomb was
+either Leucon or Paerisádes I., on account of the allegories
+on the reliefs. Unfortunately the contents of the
+lower tomb were never investigated, so that the only
+thing that can be considered certain is that they belonged
+to the dynasty of the Leuconides, from the emblems, the
+allegorical scenes, the form of the letters, and the architecture.</p>
+
+<p>The value and abundance of the remains of antiquity
+found at Kertch naturally required a Museum, which has
+been built by the government on the Hill of Mithridates.
+It is an exact copy of the Temple of Theseus at Athens,
+with a flight of steps leading up to it, and has a good
+effect overlooking the sea. Situated, as is Kertch, on
+the confines of Scythia, the Caucasus, the Sauromatæ,
+and other nations little known, it would require a very
+experienced antiquarian to arrange the contents of the
+museum; but, unfortunately, none such are to be found
+there, and its precious contents are thrown pell-mell,
+and daily plundered. When Dubois visited the Museum
+in 1832, there were three very curious skulls in
+it, with remarkably high foreheads, found in a very
+ancient tumulus near Yenicáleh, which probably belonged
+to the ancient Kimmerians. The only perfect
+skull had disappeared a few months afterwards, having
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_293">[293]</span>been sold by the conservator for 100 francs to a stranger,
+who fortunately destined it for the museum of Munich,
+where it will be preserved.</p>
+
+<p>The quarantine is about three miles distant from Kertch,
+and within its boundary are the ruins of Myrmékium, the
+highest part of which is on a little promontory overlooking
+the sea. Here, to hoist a flagstaff, some sailors made
+a hole in the rock, and were surprised to find the mast
+suddenly run down a considerable distance. On examining
+the ground they found that there was a tomb underneath,
+which had, however, been opened, and nothing
+remained in it but a very fine sarcophagus, ornamented
+with bas-reliefs, which had been dragged towards the
+entrance, and then left mutilated.</p>
+
+<p>Yenicáleh is at the point of the peninsula, about seven
+miles from Kertch to the north-east, and its castle was
+built by the Turks to command the passage of the Bosphorus:
+it is inhabited by a few Greeks, who are occupied
+in the fishery for turbot. Two ranges of hills, with coral-rag
+peaks, cross the peninsula of Kertch, and terminate
+at the Bosphorus—the one at Yenicáleh, and the other
+a little higher up; on one is built the castle of Yenicáleh,
+and on the other the lighthouse. Between them
+was formerly a bay, which is now a salt lake, closed by a
+bar of sand.</p>
+
+<p>Higher up the valley, ranged in an amphitheatre,
+are many different kinds of springs, and the celebrated
+mud volcanoes. The springs and the mud volcanoes
+have their principal seat in the formations of the foliated
+clay and the white chalk; and starting from the west,
+near the Khouter Khronevi, the series begins by a sulphurous
+spring rising at the foot of a limestone peak,
+and the sulphur is seen floating on the water. There
+are other springs in the neighbourhood, which seem
+to take their origin in the midst of a black, bituminous,
+brilliant mud, which when stirred sends forth a strong
+smell of hydrogenetted sulphur. The cattle are very
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_294">[294]</span>fond of this water. To the east are pure springs, which
+supply the aqueduct of Yenicáleh; and near the lighthouse
+are the springs of naphtha and the mud volcanoes.
+These have continually been in activity for a very
+long period of time. The principal crater, which seems
+the patriarch of all this volcanic formation, is a tumulus
+completely isolated, of 500 feet in diameter and 35 feet
+in height. Its summit presents a depression of 6 feet,
+filled by a pond of mud and water, 70 feet long and 35
+feet wide. The mud is grey and thick, and gives out a
+strong smell of sulphur and bitumen. Here and there
+on the thick mud are liquid spots, whence bubbles of
+hydrogen gas rise, of a foot in diameter, and sometimes
+they burst into fire, and the volcano is in a blaze. When
+this violent commotion happens, the mud flows on all
+sides over the borders; but in ordinary times it escapes
+in a little steam. Naphtha springs, of 14° temperature,
+rise at 150 paces from the crater, in the midst of a fine
+black mud, from a stream of water which passes near the
+tumulus. They have a very strange appearance, and
+seem like the chimneys of the infernal regions, as the
+crust of the soil is pierced with black holes surmounted
+by little cones, from whence the mud and gas bubble up
+together. The whole soil around trembles when walked
+upon, and one fears to sink into the bowels of the earth.</p>
+
+<p>To complete our view of the peninsula of Kertch, I
+will now follow the coast line to the south of Kertch
+by Nymphæum and Kimmericum to Theodosia.</p>
+
+<p>At Cape Akboroun, or the white cape, there are
+two groups of tumuli. One group has seven of enormous
+size. The other extends along a ridge which joins the
+southern spur of the Golden Mountain. Near the last
+there is a high cliff, with a depression beyond it, which
+has the appearance of an immense theatre overlooking
+the sea. This was the site of the old quarantine, and
+was originally covered with vineyards, whence it received
+its old Greek name of Ambeláki, from <i>ampelos</i>, a vine.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_295">[295]</span>There is here a rich mine of phosphated iron, where the
+fossils published by M. de Verneuil are found in great
+quantities. From the colour of the soil, this cape is
+called Kamish Boroun, the blue cape, in opposition to
+Ak Boroun, the white cape.</p>
+
+<p>Between the iron mine and a country house of the
+same name as the cape are the ruins of Dia, which occupied
+the extreme southern point of the entrance of the
+<i>ancient</i> gulf of Nymphæum, now the Lake of Tchourbach,
+for the flow of the current of the Bosphorus has
+closed the entrance of the gulf, and no less than four
+lakes bordered with sand occupy its site. Their formation
+is recent, and up to 1830 merchant vessels of Kertch
+used to come and winter in the northernmost lake.
+Since then a bar of sand has closed the port; for, owing
+to the zigzag shape of the Bosphorus, it may be seen that
+the long bar of sand, called that of the South, in increasing,
+has driven the current to the European coast, and
+against the southern point of the bay of Nymphæum,
+which presented itself like a spur to catch the sand.</p>
+
+<p>The ancient town of Nymphæum occupied exactly this
+southern point; but to visit it, it is necessary to go
+round the gulf, at the end of which is the village of
+Tchourbach, and the country-house of M. Gourief.
+There is salt on the lake, but its naphthous nature
+prevents its being used for salting purposes; and in the
+whole peninsula there is only the salt of Tchokrak which
+is perfectly pure.</p>
+
+<p>Following a little rivulet which runs into the lake
+of Tchourbach, the rocks increase in height, and an
+ancient road leads to the summit of one of them, on
+which are the ruins of a large square castle, surrounded
+by a wall almost buried under the turf. There was a
+deep ditch outside, and there are no tumuli round it, but
+many tombs cut in the rock. It is about eight miles
+from Kertch, and may be the Tyrictaca of Ptolemy.
+Nymphæum is four miles from Tchourbach, and the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_296">[296]</span>road, which appears to be the ancient Greek road, leads
+to it amidst coral-rag peaks and a profusion of tumuli.</p>
+
+<p>On the angle between the ancient gulf and the Bosphorus
+was situated the town, built on a kind of platform.
+The rampart is easily traced, and the faubourgs
+were around the metropolis. There are large masses of
+ruins everywhere, and the soil is several feet deep in
+broken pottery, much of which is Etruscan. At about
+one-third of a mile from the town the tumuli begin, and
+encircle it in great numbers; but nothing valuable has
+been found here, as at Panticapæum. The excellent port,
+of which Strabo speaks, is of course filled up, but three
+roads leading down to it from the town may still be seen.
+A small colony of Russians is established at the foot of
+the Acropolis, on the side of the Bosphorus; and here
+are wells of excellent water, which date from the time of
+Nymphæum. The colony is employed in the herring
+fishery, as masses of these fish come close to the shore: at a
+single haul 50,000 have sometimes been caught. In 1833
+the government brought here from Holland a master-salter
+to teach the art of salting and curing them. According
+to his account the herrings of the Black Sea are not
+inferior to those of Holland; but those of Kamish Boroun
+are fatter and more delicate than those of the Danube.
+The fishery lasts from 15th October to the 15th of
+March, and as many as two millions of herrings are
+yearly caught here.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_252" href="#Footnote_252" class="fnanchor">[252]</a> Very possibly the Greeks also
+carried on this commerce, for their mother country drew
+from the Bosphorus their largest supplies of salt-fish.</p>
+
+<p>Nymphæum was founded at the same time as Panticapæum,
+and fell into the power of the Athenians in the
+time of Pericles. It was betrayed into the hands of the
+Bosphorians in <span class="allsmcap">B.C</span>. 410. In the time of Mithridates it
+was still a strong place, where he lodged the greater
+part of his army which he destined for his grand expedition
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_297">[297]</span>by the Danube and the Alps against the Romans.
+Nymphæum afterwards rapidly decayed, and in the time
+of Pliny existed only as a name.</p>
+
+<p>Takil-boroun, the promontory at the entrance of the
+Black Sea, where there is the lighthouse, was probably
+the site of Akra, another Greek town, mentioned by
+Strabo.</p>
+
+<p>At thirty miles from Kertch, on the coast of the
+Black Sea, is Opouk, a Tatar village at the extremity of
+the fine roadstead which is defended by Cape Elkenkáleh
+from the north and east winds. Here a volcanic effort
+has raised the horizontal tertiary limestone of the peninsula
+of Kertch, and lifted the fragments to different
+heights, without very much disturbing their horizontal
+position. The largest is the hill of Opouk, about two-thirds
+of a mile long. The surface is raised about fifty
+feet above a chaotic mass of rocks below, which descend
+like steps to the sea, forming on one side Cape Elkenkáleh,
+which closes the western entrance to the bay of Opouk,
+and on the other side a similar cape which marks the
+entrance of another ancient gulf, now closed by a bar of
+sand. Here in very ancient times a numerous population
+was established, taking advantage of the strong and
+advantageous position, where the rocks advanced like a
+magnificent mole between two fine ports. Although the
+eastern one is filled up, the western one still affords a safe
+and convenient anchorage for vessels of war, which are
+here completely sheltered from northern and westerly
+winds. At a short distance from the shore are two
+rocky islands, called Karavi, and by these the place is
+identified as the ancient <i>Kimmericum</i>.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_253" href="#Footnote_253" class="fnanchor">[253]</a> Like all the
+towns of the peninsula of Kertch, it was almost desert
+in the time of Strabo, and at a later period was called
+Kibernicus. The south-east extremity of the rock was
+the acropolis, cut off from the plain by a wall 200 feet
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_298">[298]</span>long and 9 feet thick. The corner of this wall touched on
+a construction of extreme solidity. The walls of it, about
+50 feet square and 12 feet thick, and a ditch cut in the
+living rock, separated it from the exterior town. There are
+ruins and grottoes all around, and there is a block cut into
+the form of a pedestal, on which stood the statue of a
+divinity. There is likewise a well cut in the rock, and a
+great deal of pottery. A great gate communicated from
+the acropolis to the town. The most populous part was
+that to the south-east, and numberless remains of houses
+may here be traced. There were also exterior fortifications,
+and a polygonal wall defended the whole of the peninsula
+between the bay and the gulf, embracing a space of about
+four square miles. Thus there were two castles and two
+ports, and probably villas and gardens, within the circuit
+of the wall. An excellent fountain of water, which never
+fails, is the only thing which interrupts the solitude that
+reigns in this vast assemblage of ruins. There is not a
+single tumulus to be seen, probably because, as has been
+observed, Kimmericum was not a Milesian city. The
+Genoese are supposed to have carried away the remains
+of Kimmericum, in order to build Caffa.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_254" href="#Footnote_254" class="fnanchor">[254]</a> Opouk is
+twenty miles from the post station of Arghin.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_299">[299]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII.<br>
+<span class="smaller">THE SEA OF AZOF.</span></h2>
+
+<p>The Sea of Azof—Its extent and boundaries—Its depth continually
+diminishes—Its sweet water—Its rivers—Currents—The Straits of
+Kertch—The Russian defences of it—The eastern shores—Temróuk-Okhtor—Cape
+Obriv—The fishing huts—Bay and new town of Yeisk—Cape
+Tchimborsk—Mouths of Don—Bars of the Don—Old town
+of Azof—Rostof—Its commercial importance—Shallowness of water in
+Gulf of the Don—The Azof frozen in winter—Ruins of ancient Tana—Taganrok
+founded by Peter the Great—Its history—Its importance—Mariopol—Cape
+Bielo-Serái—Berdiansk—Its foundation—Port is
+filling up—Lake Moloshenska—Peninsula of Berútchi—Straits of
+Yénitchi.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>The Sea of Azof&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_255" href="#Footnote_255" class="fnanchor">[255]</a> is situated from latitude 45° to 47° and
+in longitude 32° to 36°. From the straits of Kertch
+to the point of Bielo-Serái at the entrance of the gulf
+of the Don, is 90 miles, and from Bielo-Serái, to the
+mouths of the Don, is 76 miles, so that the total length
+of the Sea of Azof is 166 miles. Its breadth from the
+extremity of the Tonka, on the west, to the lagoon
+of Beislitz on the east, is 142 miles.</p>
+
+<p>The north coast of this sea is from 84 to 132
+feet in height, and is generally flat, although in some
+parts it is bordered by low hills and reddish cliffs.
+Extensive strips of land, bordered by sand banks, have
+formed around all the promontories, and, subjected as
+they are to the influence of the currents of the
+Don, have a tendency to move towards the west.
+The east coast of the Sea of Azof is inhabited by the
+Tchernomorski Cossacks, and, beginning at Temróuk, it
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_300">[300]</span>is very low, often sandy, and cut up by lagoons and
+rushy marshes. There are also on the coast many sand
+banks, particularly in the gulf of the Don, which, like
+those of the opposite shore, incline towards the west.
+The Tonka,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_256" href="#Footnote_256" class="fnanchor">[256]</a> a low narrow long peninsula (called also
+the “Streolka” or arrow, or the Arabate), forms the west
+coast of this sea, which by it is separated from the
+<i>Shiváshe</i> or mud sea, an immense lagoon, into which
+all the rivers of the western side of the Crimea flow.
+The Sea of Azof is bounded on the south by the Crimea
+and the peninsula of Taman, on the east by the country
+of the Tchernomorski Cossacks, and the Don Cossacks,
+on the north by the country of the Don Cossacks and
+governments of Ekaterinoslaf and the Tauride, and on
+the west by the Tonka. Its greatest depth at present
+is 46 feet between the straits of Kertch and the point
+of Bielo-Serái, where the passage is narrow, on account of
+two vast sand banks. A little further on the depth
+diminishes to 26 feet and there are but 8 or 10 feet
+water in the greater part of the roadstead of Taganrok.
+It extends however southwards beyond the Greek bank,
+where there is about 18 or 20 feet of water, and where
+most vessels finish taking in their cargoes.</p>
+
+<p>It has been remarked that from the year 1706 to the
+year 1808, the depth of this sea has diminished 3 feet;
+and from this latter date to the year 1833, it has again
+diminished 3 feet, so that it has lost 6 feet of depth in 127
+years. This diminution in depth is caused by the accumulation
+of sand and mud from the Don, and in some
+measure likewise by the large quantities of ballast that
+are yearly thrown into the sea, by vessels loading in
+the roadstead of Taganrok. The sand banks have increased
+in extent, and new ones have been formed;
+which render the navigation of this sea daily more
+difficult and perilous. The bottom is everywhere mud
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_301">[301]</span>and shells, and the water is of a dull yellow colour.
+The Don sweetens this sea, and the water of it is used
+for the provisioning of ships as far as 20 miles to the
+west of Taganrok. Besides the Don, several small rivers
+run into it on the north and east coasts, beyond the
+lagoon of Temróuk.</p>
+
+<p>The current is not so rapid in the Sea of Azof as it is
+in the straits of Kertch. In the sea it rarely runs beyond
+one knot an hour, even with a violent north-east wind,
+and with a south wind it runs in an opposite direction.
+From the Don to the point of Bielo-Serái, it runs west,
+and then divides into two; the largest portion of the
+water runs direct for the straits of Kertch, and the other
+portion round the north coast, until it meets the waters
+of the Shiváshe, and, uniting with them, flows down the
+steep shore of the Tonka, and along the coast of the
+Crimea to Kertch. During the winter the ice renders
+this sea unnavigable, and it is available to shipping only
+from the middle of April to the latter end of October.
+When a vessel approaches the straits of Kertch, with a
+view of passing them from the Black Sea, she steers at
+about equal distances between Cape Panaghia on her right,
+and Cape Takli Coolári on her left. The latter cape is
+crowned with a lighthouse. The distance between the
+two capes is about 8 miles, and the depth of the water
+55 feet. The course of the vessel is then nearly due
+north for about 8 miles, till she reaches Cape Karaboroun,
+which is remarkable for several hillocks and
+buildings which precede it. Here there is a sandy beach
+at a quarter of a mile distance, and 20 feet of water.
+About a mile and a half further on is Cape Kamishboroun,
+where there is a good anchorage, and a small
+lake near it, which has 12 feet water and communicates
+with the sea by a channel 5 or 6 feet deep.</p>
+
+<p>The course of the ship is now nearly due east, and the
+narrowest part of the whole straits is approached. In
+them the water is 26 feet deep, the passage is very confined,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_302">[302]</span>and ships are obliged to pass near the western
+shore. This spot has therefore been chosen for the
+defence of the straits, and a battery, called the battery of
+Paul, has been placed there. It is a little to the northward
+of this narrow passage that thirty-three ships have
+been sunk to defend it, in the same mode that has been
+adopted at Sevastopol. The ships were only sunk in
+May 1854, two months after our declaration of war with
+Russia; and while our enormous fleet was inactive in the
+Black Sea, this passage was free and undefended, except
+by a few hundred invalids, who formed the garrison of
+Kertch. Cape Akboroun ends the passage, and immediately
+afterwards there opens on the left the snug little
+bay of Kertch, around which, as has been related, were
+situated the Greek colonies of Nymphæum, Panticapæum,
+and Myrmékium. When a vessel has passed Cape Akboroun,
+if she wish to continue her course to the Sea of
+Azof, without stopping at Kertch, she steers nearly due
+east, and having passed in 14 feet water the little town of
+Yenicáleh, about six miles from Kertch and further on
+the Cape Poritálo, on which there is a lighthouse, the
+water deepens to 30 feet, and the muddy expanse of the
+Sea of Azof opens before her. It is to be observed that
+the very shallow part of the straits does not occur till
+after Kertch, which is by far the most important place on
+the straits, and which is undefended by any fortifications.</p>
+
+<p>The shores on both sides of the straits are very thinly
+inhabited: on the Asiatic side by the Tchernomorski Cossacks,
+the descendants of the famous Zaporogues, who
+were transplanted here by Catherine II., and on the
+European side by remnants of the broken nation of the
+Tatars, and a mixed population of Russians, Greeks, and
+Levantines, who only occupy the towns.</p>
+
+<p>I will now make a periplus of the Sea of Azof, pointing
+out the most important places in the desolate countries
+that for the most part surround it. Beginning to the east,
+we first come to Temróuk, occupied by the Tchernomorski
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_303">[303]</span>Cossacks, which is only a small village, situated on the
+border of a lagoon, celebrated for the immense quantities
+of fish caught in it. Vessels coming for their
+cargoes of fish anchor to the north at the mouth of
+the lagoon, in 17 feet water, with a sandy bottom. At
+53 miles further up the coast is Okhtor, situated on the
+banks of a wide and shallow bay. In its vicinity there
+are salt lakes and fisheries. The bay terminates in Cape
+Kamishavát,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_257" href="#Footnote_257" class="fnanchor">[257]</a>
+    which is 36½ miles from Bielo-Serái,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_258" href="#Footnote_258" class="fnanchor">[258]</a> on the
+opposite coast, and 56 miles from Kertch. At 12 miles
+further north is Cape Obriv,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_259" href="#Footnote_259" class="fnanchor">[259]</a> where there are two extensive
+sandbanks jutting out like horns, on the northernmost of
+which, that of Dolgoi,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_260" href="#Footnote_260" class="fnanchor">[260]</a> there is a beacon. At 9½ miles
+hence is seen the lighthouse on Bielo-Serái point, and the
+church of Mariopol almost due north.</p>
+
+<p>Fishing-huts are to be found on nearly all the sandy
+points of the Sea of Azof. These buildings are raised on
+posts in order to preserve them from being carried away
+by the inundations, and seen from a distance they have
+an extraordinary appearance as if floating on the water.
+Beyond Cape Obriv, the coast runs 19 miles to the east
+as far as the mouth of the bay of Yeisk, which is 13 miles
+in length from east to west, and 6½ from north to south.
+This bay would be one of the very best anchorages in the
+sea had it a few feet greater depth; but as it is, the lead
+marks only 5 feet, and its entrance is five miles wide and
+from 13 to 7 feet deep. This is a populous locality, and the
+old town of Yeisk is situated to the south-east, near the
+river Yé. A new town was founded here in 1848 by
+Prince Woronzof, at Yeisk, on the western sandy point
+of the bay; but it will probably not answer the expectations
+formed of it, as the sea is so shallow that vessels
+cannot approach it, and the produce of the surrounding
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_304">[304]</span>countries is too small to induce commercial men to settle
+there, notwithstanding the privileges accorded to it. One
+of these privileges is, that merchants settled here do not
+pay the personal tax levied on them, which is very heavy.
+Merchants in Russia are divided into three guilds, and
+the tax on a merchant of the first guild is about 150<i>l.</i>
+a-year, and every partner and clerk who has a power of
+attorney to act for the firm must pay the tax. By
+being the possessor of a house at Yeisk, exemption is
+obtained from it. From the mouth of this bay the coast
+runs 6¼ miles to the north, and forms Cape Sazanitskoi,
+near which are several fisheries. At 17 miles further east
+is Cape Tchimborsk, whence it is about 18 miles to
+Kagalnik, situated on the southernmost branch of the
+Don, called Staroi&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_261" href="#Footnote_261" class="fnanchor">[261]</a> Don, and at the commencement of its
+delta. The whole country between Yeisk and the Don,
+and likewise all around Rostof, is cultivated with wheat.
+The land is similar to that on the opposite coast, and very
+fertile. It bears a crop of wheat once every three years,
+and lies fallow for the intermediate time. The inhabitants
+are Don Cossacks and Russian proprietors, who
+have bought lands and brought down peasants from the
+interior of Russia. There are no Calmucks or Nogais
+here.</p>
+
+<p>The Don has several mouths between Kagalnik and
+Siniávka, the northernmost point of its delta, which
+measures 12 miles across in its widest part. The delta
+is uncultivated, and covered with rushes and high reeds,
+and the whole forms an immense lake in the month of
+June, when the waters rise. The climate of all this
+country is very dry, like that of the steppes in general,
+and the want of water often occasions severe injury to
+the crops. It is not unhealthy, although dysentery prevails
+in the hot weather at Rostof, which is to be attributed
+to imprudence in eating the melons, cucumbers,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_305">[305]</span>and other fruits, which grow there in wonderful abundance
+and perfection. Proceeding from south to north,
+the first mouth, called <i>the</i> mouth of the Don, used to be
+the principal one, and upon it, at 6 miles inland, is the
+town of Azof, which is now only a large village, with
+the remains of an old fort. The second mouth is the
+Kalántcha; the third the Perevóloki; the fourth the
+Kasterna; and the fifth the Donetse,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_262" href="#Footnote_262" class="fnanchor">[262]</a> near Siniávka. At
+present the only branches available for navigation are
+the Kalántcha and the Perevóloki.</p>
+
+<p>The town of Rostof is placed on the north bank of the
+Don, 22½ miles from the sea before the commencement
+of the delta. Vessels of low draught can alone proceed
+to it, because of the bars at the entrance of the river.
+The town of Rostof is one of the most important on the
+shores of the Sea of Azof, and a great centre for commercial
+dealings with eastern Russia. A full account of
+it will be given in the next chapter.</p>
+
+<p>In May and June the water of the Don rises to a great
+height, and the whole country is flooded. It then suddenly
+falls, although it is liable at all times to rise again when
+the wind blows up the river. This increases the difficulty
+of navigation, and a vessel of 100 tons can only
+take in a part of her cargo at the mouth of the river.
+She is obliged to take in the rest of it gradually, dropping
+down the gulf of the Don, followed by lighters. In
+this way she sometimes proceeds for 40 miles before
+she is completely loaded, and then she must again
+unload a part of her cargo at Yenicáleh if she draws
+more than 12 or 13 feet of water, in order to pass the
+straits. Shipments through the Azof are, therefore, very
+expensive. The bed which the waters of the Kalántcha
+have formed has 6 and 8 feet in depth at 2½ miles from
+the shore, and 9 at the mouth of the river. There are
+three successive bars at the entrance of the Don, but
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_306">[306]</span>when these are passed, on nearing Rostof, the river becomes
+deep, and continues navigable for many hundred
+miles.</p>
+
+<p>Taganrok is by sea about 8½ miles from the Perevóloki
+mouth of the Don, and the water may be said to
+average 8 feet. The depth of the water is, however, extremely
+variable in all the upper part of the gulf of the
+Don, and the common question asked by merchants at
+Taganrok and Rostof every morning is as to what is the
+depth of the water. South and east winds increase the
+depth, and north and west winds diminish it to 2 or 3
+feet, so that with a strong north-east wind, the small bay
+to the eastward of Taganrok is sometimes quite dry. The
+water also varies much, according to the season of the year.
+When the snows have melted in Russia, and the Don becomes
+unfrozen, the whole country is one great lake, and
+this lasts for a couple of months, during which time the
+water is very deep, and vessels of any tonnage can come
+up to Rostof. Messrs. Yeames, at their wool washeries
+there, which are constructed on low ground, choose this
+season to bring the coals&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_263" href="#Footnote_263" class="fnanchor">[263]</a> necessary for their establishment.
+The lighters, when they get to a certain point,
+pitch the coals overboard into the water, and when the
+river goes down they find them ready for use. Their
+houses, being of wood, are uninjured by remaining under
+water, and the stoves are rebuilt every year. The sheep
+are sheared in May, the wool comes in in June, and is
+washed in July and September. The water of the gulf
+of the Don is yearly becoming more shallow, one reason
+of which is, the quantity of ballast yearly thrown into
+it. As the trade is almost entirely an export trade, and
+ships come up to Rostof empty, the masters are in the
+habit of throwing their ballast overboard when they
+receive their cargoes. This is strictly forbidden by the
+government; and every vessel is measured at Kertch,
+and again at Taganrok, to see that there has been no
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_307">[307]</span>alteration in the lading. A fee, however, to the harbour-master
+gets rid of all difficulties; and the constant practice
+is to throw the ballast overboard, and it forms nuclei
+round which the alluvium of the Don continually accumulates.</p>
+
+<p>Both the Don and the Volga are frozen up in winter,
+and this is the case with the greater part of the Sea of
+Azof, which is then used as a means of communication
+between the opposite shores, considerably further down
+than Cape Obriv. The ice is very irregular, and, while
+in some places there are smooth plains many miles long,
+in others it is what is called “hummocky,” or raised in
+ridges as high as a house. The year before last year there
+was a regular mountain-chain of ice for many miles in
+length, between Cape Obriv and Yeisk; and an English
+vessel which was lost there, whose position was accurately
+known, was searched for in vain for many weeks, and at
+last only discovered by one of her masts that was seen
+sticking out of the ridge of ice.</p>
+
+<p>Russians never skate, and communication is carried on
+by horses and carts, as on the land. At Medvidovka, on
+the Donetse mouth, some ancient ruins have been discovered
+on the estate of an enterprising gentleman who
+has excavated them; and they are supposed to be those of
+the ancient city of Tana, which was formerly considered
+to have stood near Azof. A commission of antiquaries
+has been appointed at Petersburg to investigate the matter,
+but their report, I believe, has not yet been received.</p>
+
+<p>The town of Taganrok is prettily situated on high
+ground, on the cape of the same name, and contains
+27,000 inhabitants, of whom one-third are Greeks. It
+stands in the government of Ekaterinoslaf, and is about
+300 miles distant from the town of that name, and 50
+miles from Rostof. It forms, however, with a small
+territory round it, a separate government of its own, and
+pays in taxes of all kinds a total sum of about 360,000<i>l.</i>
+Peter the Great laid the first foundations of it in 1706,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_308">[308]</span>after the capture of Azof, on the spot where there was at
+that time a lighthouse. The town was demolished in
+1711, according to an article in the disastrous treaty of
+the Pruth. It was only rebuilt in 1769, at the commencement
+of the war between Russia and the Turks.
+The port was then deepened, and the place fortified.
+The fortress is constructed on the end of the tongue of
+land on which the town is built. The Emperor Alexander
+died here in 1824, and his bedroom is kept exactly
+as he left it, and is lighted with tapers, and shown to
+the public.</p>
+
+<p>“The port of Taganrok,” says Vsevolovski, “is an absolute
+necessity for the Russians, independent of all commercial
+considerations, because this is the only means of
+procuring the masts,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_264" href="#Footnote_264" class="fnanchor">[264]</a> iron, and all stores which come down
+the Don and Volga from Russia and Siberia for Kherson,
+Nicolaief, Odessa, and Sevastopol. A coal of good quality
+is also exported from here, which comes from the sources
+of the Kryneka and Severny Donetse, at a distance of
+about 80 miles.”&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_265" href="#Footnote_265" class="fnanchor">[265]</a></p>
+
+<p>The greatest depth of the basin of Taganrok is 10, 11,
+and 18 feet; but all measurements are very uncertain,
+and sometimes there is no water at all in the bay, and
+vessels stick in the mud for a length of time. At all
+the ports of the Sea of Azof the water is too shallow
+to admit loaded vessels to approach near the shore, and
+cargoes are, therefore, taken in with the aid of lighters in
+the manner that has been described. At the extremity of
+Cape Taganrok exist the remains of a port, 570 yards
+in length and 220 in breadth, constructed by Peter the
+Great: it offers at present but 2 feet water. Near this
+port, towards the north, a great quay has been constructed
+since 1847, ending in a mole resting on piles,
+which now forms the east side of Peter the Great’s
+port. The water which runs from the rivulet of Sambek,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_309">[309]</span>four miles beyond, into the bay of Taganrok, gives at its
+extremity a depth of 7 feet, and sometimes more, during
+high water.</p>
+
+<p>Mariopol is eighty miles from Taganrok, on the
+right bank of the river Kalmiousse, and at two miles
+from the shore is an anchoring ground, in 15 feet
+water, with a muddy bottom. The mouth of the Kalmiousse
+forms a port for the lighters, which load and
+discharge the vessels in the roads. The port might be
+made a few feet deeper, if measures were taken for
+dredging the bar which obstructs the mouth of the river,
+where the water has only a depth of 3 or 4 feet. Mariopol
+is exclusively a Greek town, and was founded for the
+Greeks of the Crimea, who were induced to emigrate by
+the Russians in 1778, five years before its conquest.
+It is difficult to conceive how the Russian Government
+could ever have induced them to leave their beautiful
+seats for this dreary and comfortless town, or why since
+that period they have not made an effort to return
+to their old haunts, which they have never ceased to
+regret. Commercial considerations probably keep them
+at Mariopol, as the town has a good deal of business,
+and the wheat exported hence is the finest Russian
+wheat that comes to the English market, and bears the
+highest price.</p>
+
+<p>Beyond Mariopol the coast for nearly 10 miles is bold,
+until it reaches Cape Bielo-Serái,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_266" href="#Footnote_266" class="fnanchor">[266]</a> which forms one side
+of the entrance to the Gulf of the Don; there is the
+whole way about 14 feet water at one mile distance from
+the shore. At Cape Bielo-Serái there are a number of
+fishing huts, and previous to arriving at the point, there
+is a lighthouse 81 feet above the level of the sea, and
+72 feet above the level of the ground. Its light is fixed,
+and seen at 14¾ miles distance. At 23 miles south-west
+of Cape Bielo-Serái, the river Berda empties itself into
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_310">[310]</span>the sea, but its mouth is barred by a strip of sand
+two miles long, called the tongue of Berdiansk, at the
+extremity of which, jutting out into the sea, is a lighthouse
+85 feet above the level of the sea, with a light
+which is seen from minute to minute, and which is
+visible at a distance of 15 miles.</p>
+
+<p>The town of Berdiansk is situated near the right bank
+of the Berda, at seven miles from the lighthouse, and
+at the foot of the bold table-land which backs it.
+It was founded about 1840 by Prince Woronzof, and
+has gone on increasing in population and commercial
+prosperity. I can find no account of its population, but
+its exports were upwards of a million, and its imports
+about 7000<i>l.</i>, in the year 1853.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_267" href="#Footnote_267" class="fnanchor">[267]</a> This is the port where
+there is the best anchorage in the Sea of Azof, and
+there are 12 or 14 feet of water at a quarter of a
+mile from the landing place. The Bay of Obitochnia
+close by, with a river of the same name, is still more
+favourable for shipping, but no town has been founded
+on its shores. The land, however, gains ground every
+day in the roadstead of Berdiansk, which fills up, on
+account of the sea winds depositing great quantities of
+sand. A jetty, which was constructed some five or
+six years ago, is now completely useless, from being
+surrounded with sand, and a second, that has been constructed
+220 yards in length, will evidently be soon
+in the same predicament. The commercial community
+of Berdiansk proposes to construct a barrier of 700 or
+800 yards to protect it, and at the same time shelter
+coasting crafts of low draught. This will be useless,
+unless they previously concert means for dredging it, as
+the sands will accumulate all round it, and form a lagoon.
+At four miles to the south of Berdiansk, a large point
+running to the north forms a port which is the resort of
+coasters for wintering, where there is shelter from all
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_311">[311]</span>winds, and 7 or 8 feet of water. Shallows extend to the
+west and north, and these are increasing, so that in time
+this port will become a salt lake, like many others that
+are found in the vicinity. Berdiansk is the port of shipment
+for the produce of the flourishing German colonies
+of the Moloshna, which are not distant from it.</p>
+
+<p>At 33 miles from the mouth of the Berda, there is a
+lagoon, called Lake Moloshenska, into which the waters of
+the river Moloshnia Vodi have their issue. Cape Fedotov,
+on which several houses and windmills stand, is near
+it to the south. Here commences the Isthmus of the
+Peninsula of Berútchi, which, intercepted by a small
+table-land, detached from the mainland, runs to the
+S.S.W. for 12 miles, with a breadth of several yards. The
+peninsula of Berútchi, called also the tongue of Yedotov,
+turning to the west towards the Tonka, is 11 miles in
+length. At three quarters of a mile from the shore of this
+isthmus and peninsula, there are 18 feet of water, but
+much less towards the extremity of the peninsula opposite
+the Tonka. Between Berútchi and Vizariónov is a strong
+current running to the east, formed by the waters of the
+Shiváshe, which flow into the sea of Azof by the narrow
+strait of Yénitchi. This strait is 129 yards wide, and
+18 feet deep, but at the entrance there is only 4 feet
+water. On its northern shore is the village of Yénitchi,
+which is eight miles from Point Berútchi, the last bold
+table-land which borders the sea of Azof. There is a very
+good roadstead between Berútchi and the Tonka, exposed
+only to the S.S.E. wind. The depth between the two
+shores at one and two miles is in 18 and 21 feet, muddy
+bottom. Behind the peninsula of Berútchi, and commencing
+just opposite the straits of Yénitchi, there is a
+vast gulf 20 miles long, but of its depth there are no
+accounts. At the bottom of the gulf there is a great
+lagoon, and on its western shore the Lake of Atsuanai.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_268" href="#Footnote_268" class="fnanchor">[268]</a></p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_312">[312]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII.<br>
+<span class="smaller">ON THE COMMERCE OF THE SEA OF AZOF.</span></h2>
+
+<p>Rostof, key to commercial system of Eastern Russia—A district of the
+Government of Ekaterinoslaf—Its gradual rise since 1835—Articles
+of export—Wheat—Linseed—Rye—Military stores sent hence to
+Sevastopol, &amp;c.—Salt-fish—Caviare—Tallow—Wool—Iron—Iron
+foundries of Lugan—The system of advances on produce—Made through
+agents at Pavlosk—Exports paid for, not by imports, but by cash—Political
+reasons for high tariff—Attempt to make Kertch the emporium
+for the Sea of Azof—Failure of it—Lighters of the Azof—Passage of
+exports from the great producing countries of the North—By the Don and
+the Volga—Dubofka and Katchálin—Loss to Russia from high tariff—Commercial
+and peaceable disposition of Russian people—Advantages of
+free trade to them.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>Rostof is the key to all the trade of the Sea of Azof and
+the south-eastern parts of the Russian empire.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_269" href="#Footnote_269" class="fnanchor">[269]</a> It is a
+town of about 12,000 inhabitants, composed of Russians,
+Cossacks, Armenians, Greeks, and a few foreigners. The
+merchants generally have only their offices here, and
+live at Taganrok, which is 50 miles distant. They go
+to Rostof once or twice a week, and send there the orders
+for their purchases. Rostof is the capital of a district
+(Uezd) in the government of Ekaterinoslaf, and is the
+station of one of the two brigades of the reserve division
+of the army of the Caucasus. In the course of last year
+these troops were marched away to the Caucasus, and the
+town was left undefended, as it appeared in no danger
+of being attacked. Rostof has grown up from a small
+fishing village to its present importance, solely on account
+of its admirable geographical position with respect to
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_313">[313]</span>trade, and so gradual has been its rise, that it would
+be difficult to say at what period it was first founded.
+It is since the year 1835 that its trade has undergone a
+marked yearly increase. Rostof enjoys no special privileges,
+and its flourishing state is entirely due to its convenient
+site, and to the large amount of foreign capital of
+which it is the centre, which has drawn to it the produce
+of the interior of the empire, and made it one of the most
+important commercial towns.</p>
+
+<p>As Odessa is the outlet for the produce of the southern
+Polish provinces, and from this circumstance derives its
+importance, so Rostof is one of the principal débouchés for
+the agricultural produce of Great Russia, and consequently
+likely to become a place still more flourishing than it is
+at present. Great Russia, as the governments around
+Moscow are called, is the most thickly peopled and most
+productive part of the Russian empire, containing an
+industrious and active population, and the principal seats
+of agriculture and manufactures. It formerly sent its
+produce almost entirely to the Baltic for exportation, but
+of late years there has been a tendency in growers to
+avail themselves of the great arteries of the Don and the
+Volga, and shipments from the Azof and the other ports
+of southern Russia have consequently much increased.</p>
+
+<p>Rostof from its situation may also compete with the
+North of Russia for a portion of the Asiatic trade, for it
+has a nearly complete water communication with the
+Caspian, and has likewise constant dealings with the
+northern parts of the Caucasus. Its great importance,
+however, arises from the fact that it stands at the point
+of communication between the widely extended river
+system of Great Russia and the Southern Seas.</p>
+
+<p>The ports of the Azof are Taganrok, which is so intimately
+connected with Rostof, Mariopol, Berdiansk, and
+the nominal port of Yeisk. There is no import trade of any
+importance carried on in any of them, because of the high
+duties of the Russian tariff. The total amount of the imports
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_314">[314]</span>at all the ports of the Sea of Azof was only 300,000<i>l.</i>
+for the year 1853, while the exports exceeded 3,350,000<i>l.</i>&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_270" href="#Footnote_270" class="fnanchor">[270]</a>
+The imports consisted wholly of articles of luxury chiefly
+the produce of the Levant, such as fruits, oil, and wines,
+and the largest item was Greek wines, of which there was
+a demand for no less than 600,000 gallons. There can
+be no doubt that the imports are checked by the high
+tariff, for the exports have more than trebled in the last
+four years from 1850 to 1854, having increased from
+1,100,000<i>l.</i> to 3,350,000<i>l.</i>, while the imports in the same
+time have only increased 40,000<i>l.</i> It is true that the same
+population which finds it more convenient to export their
+produce by the Azof, may have the same reason for receiving
+their imports by Petersburg, and such to a certain
+extent is the case, for while the whole exports&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_271" href="#Footnote_271" class="fnanchor">[271]</a> from all
+Russia amounted in the year 1852 to nearly 18,000,000<i>l.</i>,
+the imports in the same year were upwards of 16,000,000<i>l.</i>,
+so that the sum which had to be paid in cash was about
+1,800,000<i>l.</i>, and on looking to the tables of the imports
+and exports of bullion, it appears that in the year 1852
+there was imported in gold and silver 1,988,000<i>l.</i>&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_272" href="#Footnote_272" class="fnanchor">[272]</a></p>
+
+<p>The principal articles of exportation from the Azof
+are wheat,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_273" href="#Footnote_273" class="fnanchor">[273]</a> linseed, rye, wool, tallow, iron, and military
+stores. The stock of wheat, under ordinary circumstances,
+is comparatively small, as the vessels which
+carry it abroad reach the shipping port about the time
+when the chief supplies from the interior, either by
+water or by land, arrive. The wheat shipped from Rostof
+may be classed as follows:—First, the wheat from the
+country of the Line, that is, the districts occupied by the
+Line and Tchernomorski Cossacks, which are situated to
+the northward of the Terek and Kuban rivers, between
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_315">[315]</span>the territory of the Don Cossacks and Circassia, and the
+Black and Caspian seas. Secondly, the wheat that is
+grown on the lands watered by the Don, which is superior
+to the former in quality and condition. Thirdly, the
+Volga wheat, which is with justice preferred to the Don
+and Line wheats, and is chiefly grown by the wealthy
+German colonies situated on both banks of the Volga
+and its tributary rivers northwards of Saratof. The bulk
+of the wheat shipped from the port of Taganrok consists
+of hard wheat which is principally consumed in the Mediterranean,
+where it is used for the manufacture of maccaroni,
+but a small quantity is imported into this country.</p>
+
+<p>Hard wheat requires a virgin soil, and this accounts for
+its being in Europe almost entirely grown in the south of
+Russia.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_274" href="#Footnote_274" class="fnanchor">[274]</a> It is remarkable for its bright yellow colour,
+heavy weight and hard grain. Of late years the proprietors,
+whose estates are situated in the vicinity of Taganrok,
+have directed their attention to the growth of soft wheat,
+and their crops have yielded a wheat whose quality has
+been found quite equal to that of Mariopol and Berdiansk.
+It is worthy of notice that in some districts, if the same
+wheat be sown for three or four consecutive years, it
+gradually loses its original character, and finally turns
+into hard wheat. The wheat, whilst in this state of
+transition, bearing at the same time the character both
+of hard and soft wheat, is called by the Russians,
+“Pererodka” (from the verb <i>perachadit</i>, to go over).
+The wheat shipped from Mariopol and Berdiansk is
+grown in the immediate vicinity of those towns by the
+German and Greek colonists, and likewise by the
+Russians. It is of a reddish colour, weighing on an
+average from 60 to 63 lbs. per bushel English, and commands
+a higher price than either the hard wheat of
+Taganrok, or the soft Polish that is shipped from Odessa.
+Most of it was formerly shipped to the Mediterranean,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_316">[316]</span>but of late years the English millers have learnt to
+appreciate the peculiar qualities it possesses, which
+principally consist in the strength of the flour it produces,
+and since 1851 and 1852 large quantities have
+been imported into this country.</p>
+
+<p>The linseed, which is shipped from Rostof, is grown
+throughout those districts that are watered by the Don
+and the Volga, as far as the point where, making a bend
+in their course, these two rivers approach for a short
+space, within 45 miles of each other. The linseed plant
+is cultivated by proprietors, as well as by the peasantry.
+The plant is of a coarse kind, and the fibre is thrown
+away as useless;&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_275" href="#Footnote_275" class="fnanchor">[275]</a> but many good authorities consider,
+as the demand for flax is so great in Europe, that the
+stalk of the plant might be turned to account at least for
+the coarser kinds of linen.</p>
+
+<p>Rye is grown over the whole country principally for
+home consumption in the shape either of flour or brandy.
+Russian brandy, “Vodka,” is extremely strong, measuring
+about 30°, which is nearly equal to common spirits of
+wine.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_276" href="#Footnote_276" class="fnanchor">[276]</a> A small quantity of rye has been lately exported
+to Holland, for the manufacture of Schiedam. The
+Government are the chief purchasers for the rye brought
+to Rostof for exportation. They contract for it in the
+shape of flour, which comes down the river packed in
+mat bags, of which 500,000 or 600,000 Tchetwerts&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_277" href="#Footnote_277" class="fnanchor">[277]</a> are
+yearly received, and shipped from Rostof to the Crimea,
+and the coasts of Circassia. It is ground by windmills,
+and watermills high up in Great Russia.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_317">[317]</span></p>
+
+<p>Besides the rye flour, munitions of war, such as anchors,
+chains, cables, shells, shot, cannon, and ironware of every
+description, are shipped hence for Sevastopol and other
+places. The ammunition stores of metallic composition
+come firstly from Lugan, at the confluence of that tributary
+of the Don called the Donetse,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_278" href="#Footnote_278" class="fnanchor">[278]</a> and the river Lugan
+about 100 miles from Rostof. Here are iron-works, and
+a cannon foundry belonging to the crown, which in the
+time of Dr. Clarke were all under the direction of an
+Englishman named Gascoigne, formerly superintendent
+of the Carron works in Scotland, whose improvements he
+betrayed to the Russian Government. “From thence,”
+says Dr. Clarke, “the Emperor’s artillery passes by water
+to the Black Sea. Mr. Gascoigne found excellent coal
+at Lugan, in consequence of which discovery, as well
+as its convenient situation for water carriage, the foundry
+was there established.” Probably some of the finer articles
+required for military use come from Toola, which is
+the Birmingham of Russia, and famous for its guns and
+pistols, and many articles are now supplied from some
+parts of Siberia.</p>
+
+<p>The exports of wool from the Sea of Azof have not
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_318">[318]</span>kept pace with the large increase which has taken
+place in other articles of export. The amount exported
+in 1853 was 5,196,708 lbs., being a decrease of nearly 2
+millions of lbs. on the quantity exported in 1852, and an
+increase on that of the preceding years, the average
+exports of which seem to have been about 4 millions of lbs.
+The decrease may be ascribed to the great competition
+offered in the western markets by the shipments made
+from Australia, and by the increasing home consumption
+in Russia. In the trade carried on by caravans through
+Siberia, between Russia and China,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_279" href="#Footnote_279" class="fnanchor">[279]</a> cloth is the chief
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_319">[319]</span>article of barter, and the prices of the wool in the grease
+are less influenced by those which the exporter, guided
+by the state of the London market, is able to pay, than
+by the greater or lesser demand for Russian cloths at
+home and in China. There is little or none of the wool
+shipped in its original greasy state. It is either brook-washed
+previous to the sheep being clipped, which is
+accomplished by driving them through a stream, or hand-washed
+in warm and then rinsed in cold water. This
+latter operation, which cleanses the wool much more
+effectually than the former, is generally managed by the
+foreign merchants themselves, who for that object have
+large wash-houses established at Rostof and Kherson.
+The Merino fleeces require particular care, for previous
+to their being washed they have to be assorted according
+to the fineness of the hair. This process requires some
+skill and considerable experience, as a parcel of wool
+seldom consists of less than five or six assortments.</p>
+
+<p>The common Russian sheep, which is raised as well by
+the rich landed proprietor as by the poorest serf, requires
+little care. Its wool is of a long staple, coarse and wiry,
+and at all times finds a ready demand in the English
+market, where it is particularly well suited for purposes
+where a long stapled wool is the chief requisite. The
+best wool of this kind is produced in the Cossack
+territories, and goes in the trade under the denomination
+of Donskoy. The Tatar broad-tailed sheep is generally
+of a brown greyish colour, and is found in all the steppes
+inhabited by the Nogais Tatars, Kalmuks, Khirgiz, and
+other eastern tribes. It produces a wool of considerably
+less value than Donskoy, which is used by the natives
+in the manufacture of coarse cloths and carpets. The
+Merino sheep was introduced into the south of Russia
+about forty years ago. The climate is not altogether
+favourable for the growth of fine wool, and the losses
+incurred during and after long and severe winters are
+great. The quality of the wool is generally good, and
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_320">[320]</span>there are flocks which produce an article equal in texture
+and fineness to the best Silesian wool. The Merino sheep
+are spread all over the country, but are principally to be
+found in New Russia, and in the government of Saratof
+and others adjoining it. They require considerable care,
+and as the rearing of them is attended with great expenses
+they are only to be found on the lands of the German
+colonists and of wealthy Russian proprietors. The Merino
+sheep of South Russia is a descendant of the Saxon breed
+originally introduced into this country, which it still
+closely resembles. The Valachian sheep, otherwise called
+Zigay, has been successfully crossed with the Merinos,
+and the breed thus produced, which has retained much of
+the character of the Spanish sheep, generally goes under
+the name of Metis or Schlonsky.</p>
+
+<p>The quantity of fine wool produced in Russia has
+not, I believe, increased of late years. Some five or
+six years ago, in the governments of Ekaterinoslaf
+and Kharkof, it was estimated that upwards of one-third
+of the Merino sheep reared in those governments
+had perished through disease and want of fodder. On
+the whole the proprietor of Merino sheep is exposed
+to greater risks and losses than those incurred in any
+other branch of husbandry. Cases often occur, when, in
+the course of a few days, the toil of many years is irrecoverably
+lost. A late spring, with frosty nights in
+April, is sometimes the cause of the greatest mischief;
+the fodder collected during the autumn proving insufficient
+for the maintenance of the sheep, and the frost
+killing the lambs the moment they are dropped by their
+mother. Most of the flocks are under the care of a
+German shepherd, and on many estates no expense has
+been spared in introducing in the management of the
+sheep every possible amelioration. Amongst the finest
+flocks in the south of Russia is that belonging to Don
+Baguer, the Spanish Consul-General at Odessa, and his
+brother, an establishment which dates from about the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_321">[321]</span>year 1839, and numbering lately 15,000 head of Merino
+sheep. In 1844 he shipped a cargo of rams to the
+Sultan, some of which were of the value of 40<i>l.</i>, which
+presents a great contrast to the common price of sheep
+in Southern Russia, which is from 4<i>s.</i> to 6<i>s.</i> a-head. In
+well-managed flocks a regular register is kept of the rams
+and ewes and of the quality of their offsprings. Every
+sheep is branded with a number in the ear, and it is the
+art of the shepherd to take care that the breed is so
+mixed as to keep one uniform average in the wool and
+raise the standard. The lambing time is in April, shortly
+after the sheep quit the sheepfolds, in which they are
+sheltered during the winter.</p>
+
+<p>The exports of tallow from the Sea of Azof in the year
+1853 amounted to 35,926 cwt. In the south-east part of
+Russia the principal melting establishments are at Bachmut,
+Slavansk, and the neighbouring towns. In the early
+part of the spring the melters proceed to the various cattle
+fairs held in the governments of Ekaterinoslaf, Kharkof,
+the Tauride, and the lands of the Cossacks, to effect their
+purchases. After they have collected the quantity of cattle
+which their means allow them, their next care is to select
+and rent tracts of land on either side of the Sea of Azof
+for them to feed upon. Considerable experience is required
+in the selection of the pasturage grounds, for the
+profit which the melter derives, after his cattle have been
+converted into tallow, depends less on the price paid for
+them and the price he receives for the tallow, than on
+the fat state of the cattle and the amount of tallow which
+they consequently yield. Thus, in years of drought, when
+the cattle can but barely subsist on a scanty vegetation,
+and hundreds perish through want of water, the tallow-dealer
+incurs losses against which it is impossible to guard.
+In the beginning of September the herds of cattle quit their
+summer pasturages, and are slowly driven towards the
+melting stations, where the process of slaughtering and
+melting generally commences about the 10th of October.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_322">[322]</span></p>
+
+<p>The animal, after being killed and stripped of its hide,
+and after the head and the legs (at the knees) have been
+cut off and the inside taken out, is then divided into four
+parts, which are thrown into the cauldron. With the
+exception of two strips of flesh taken from off each side
+of the spine, the whole of the meat is converted into
+tallow. The bones are crushed, and a small quantity of
+fine tallow is collected from the marrow contained within
+them. Old sheep, especially of the Merino breed, whose
+wool deteriorates after they have reached their fourth or
+fifth year, are likewise converted into tallow, which may be
+valued at about 1<i>l.</i> less per ton than that produced from
+cattle. The average price of tallow on the spot is 25<i>l.</i>
+to 28<i>l.</i> per ton. There is a large home consumption for
+hides, and of late years very few have been shipped
+abroad, although the export duty has been considerably
+reduced. Oxen being found more valuable when used
+for draught, cows are principally used in the manufacture
+of tallow. Some twenty years ago there was hardly any
+tallow shipped from the Azof; all that was produced in
+the districts surrounding it being sent to the fairs
+which are held at Belgorod, where it was bought up by
+the Petersburg dealers, who sent it over land to the North.</p>
+
+<p>The cattle in the South of Russia are of the same
+breed which is found in Bulgaria and the Danubian Principalities,
+of a uniform white-greyish colour, long horned
+and with large bones. The German colonists have imported
+cattle from their own country, and their cows are
+found, especially for dairy purposes, much superior to
+those of Russia. A Russian cow costs about 9 or
+10 R. = about 1<i>l.</i> 10<i>s.</i>; a German cow from 20 to
+25 R. = from 3<i>l.</i> to 4<i>l.</i> In the South of Russia no cheese
+or butter is made beyond what is required for the wants
+of the inhabitants, but a considerable quantity of salt-butter
+is brought down the Volga and the Don from
+Siberia, and is shipped to Turkey and the Greek Archipelago.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_323">[323]</span></p>
+
+<p>Formerly wheat was the only article of importance
+shipped at Rostof for a foreign market. Linseed, wool,
+and tallow were first introduced as articles of export by
+the house of Messrs. William Yeames and Co., the
+only English merchants on the shores of the Sea of
+Azof.</p>
+
+<p>The exports of Russia consist almost wholly of articles
+of raw produce, which are raised by the assistance of
+foreign capital. Of the whole exports of the empire,
+which of late years have reached a total of nearly 18
+millions sterling, about 7 millions are yearly sent from this
+country as an advance upon goods that are to be delivered
+afterwards. Thus upwards of one-third of the price of the
+whole exports is paid from three to nine months before
+the merchant receives his goods.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_280" href="#Footnote_280" class="fnanchor">[280]</a> This system is necessary
+because there is a great dearth of capital in Russia;
+and if money were not advanced to her beforehand by
+foreigners, she would not be able to pay the expense of
+raising and forwarding so large a quantity of agricultural
+produce as she at present exports. From the difficulty
+of communication in Russia, and the great distances
+that have to be traversed, the expense of carriage frequently
+forms a more considerable item in the price of
+the article at the port of shipment than the original
+cost paid to the producer. Thus a quarter of wheat
+which costs at Rostof in store 22<i>s.</i>, its average price in
+ordinary years, has been bought of the grower of the
+wheat for about 10<i>s.</i> The expense of carriage has
+amounted to about 8<i>s.</i>, so that about 4<i>s.</i> per quarter
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_324">[324]</span>remains to the exporter as interest on his money, remuneration
+for his labour, and other incidental charges.</p>
+
+<p>Russia is a poor country; she has not had time and
+opportunity to lay up, as we have done, a vast amount
+of money, always seeking for employment in all parts of
+the world. With a rich soil and an industrious population,
+she has numberless opportunities of laying out
+money so as to bring in large profits, as is proved by the
+current rate of interest, which is about 12 per cent.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_281" href="#Footnote_281" class="fnanchor">[281]</a></p>
+
+<p>Most of the purchases of Russian produce are made on
+contract during the autumn and winter months, when
+two-thirds, three-fourths, and sometimes even more, of
+the total amount is paid for in advance in hard cash.
+The foreign merchant established on the shores of the
+Sea of Azof reimburses himself for the produce he has
+shipped abroad by emitting bills at three months’ date;
+and as the import trade, as has been shown, is comparatively
+insignificant, and hitherto no banks have been
+established, he is obliged to send his bills for negotiation
+either to St. Petersburg or to Odessa. From thence the
+proceeds are remitted to him by post either in gold or
+silver. The commission and brokerage on the negotiation
+of the bills, and the insurance and postage on the
+transmission of the money, amount to about 1 per cent.
+Most of the bills drawn at Taganrok are negotiated at St.
+Petersburg, because the exchange there is generally more
+favourable than at Odessa. It frequently occurs that a
+whole month elapses from the time the bill is advised
+until the money which it has realised is received. The
+heavy stamp-duties now charged on bills are a serious if
+not an insurmountable obstacle to any improvement in
+the transaction of money operations.</p>
+
+<p>Merchants now deal directly with the producers, through
+the agency of confidential clerks settled in various parts
+in the interior of the country. Pavlosk, on the Don,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_325">[325]</span>about 400 miles from Rostof, is the principal station for
+these agents. The great house of Ralli&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_282" href="#Footnote_282" class="fnanchor">[282]</a> has, besides their
+establishment at Pavlosk, a complete network of agencies
+over all the country situated to the east of Moscow,
+where such of the linseed and wheat as is shipped at
+St. Petersburg is chiefly produced.</p>
+
+<p>I have now given a list of the principal articles of
+export from the Sea of Azof, and endeavoured to explain
+the manner in which so large an amount of agricultural
+produce is raised in so poor a country. The imports, as
+I have said, are kept out not because the population are
+unwilling to receive them, but solely by the high duties
+of the Russian tariff. These were reduced in 1850, but
+not low enough to create any sensible benefit. M. Tegoborski,
+in his answer to M. Léon Faucher, at once admits
+this fact, and says that the finances of the state would
+undoubtedly profit by a different policy. The reason for
+not relaxing the tariff is probably political. The manufacturers,
+whose trade has been created by protection,
+would undoubtedly cry out at any change, but the more
+powerful body of the consumers would be favourable to
+it, so that the Government would have little to fear from
+the hostility of the public feeling. It would have, however,
+a decidedly liberal political tendency. It would be
+impossible to admit foreign goods in large quantities and
+at the same time prevent a greater intercourse with foreigners,
+who would be chiefly the inhabitants of Western Europe.
+These would bring with them their own ideas, the
+results of unfettered reason, for which the natives of
+Russia, of all people in the world the most unprejudiced,
+feel a natural yearning. The Russian Government is too
+wise not to see that it would be impossible for it to keep
+up its present system under such altered circumstances;
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_326">[326]</span>and therefore, although it admits the beneficial effects
+of larger foreign importations so far as an increase of
+wealth is concerned, yet, considering as indispensable
+the maintenance of its present military system, it is
+obliged consistently to refuse free trade.</p>
+
+<p>The Don and the Volga are both frozen every year
+from about the beginning of December to the middle of
+March. When the navigation is no longer possible, very
+little produce arrives at Rostof, and the average quantity
+brought down by the sledges is insignificant, owing to
+the general unsteadiness of the weather. As the shallowness
+of the water makes the navigation of the Sea of Azof
+very difficult (by the Greeks and Romans it was called
+a marsh, and not a sea),&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_283" href="#Footnote_283" class="fnanchor">[283]</a> it has naturally been felt that
+the emporium of goods for exportation should be at some
+place to which large ships can have access, after the difficulties
+of its navigation in coming from the interior of
+Russia have been passed. This led to the establishment
+of the quarantine at Kertch, as has been explained in a
+former chapter. It was thought that goods would be
+brought at leisure down the Azof by lighters, and that
+stores would be erected there, as they have been at Odessa,
+for the raw staple articles of exportation. For reasons
+that have been detailed, this expectation was not realized;
+and while in the year 1852 no less than 1606&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_284" href="#Footnote_284" class="fnanchor">[284]</a> vessels
+with an average tonnage of about 250 tons passed the
+Straits of Kertch, and entered the Azof to take in their
+cargoes at some of its ports, a very small number stopped
+to be loaded at Kertch. As ships are obliged to stand
+out so far from the shore at the ports of the Azof,
+receiving their cargoes by degrees, and cannot be fully
+laden till they have passed the Straits of Kertch below
+Yenicáleh, there is a great employment of lighters in
+the Azof, which are manned chiefly by Cossacks of the
+Don and Little Russians. They are an inferior description
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_327">[327]</span>of craft, and the rates they charge vary extremely
+according to the season.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_285" href="#Footnote_285" class="fnanchor">[285]</a></p>
+
+<p>In years when an unusually large amount of trade has
+been carried on, great inconvenience has been felt from
+the inadequate means of conveyance by water. The
+delays also in the arrival of the lighters, which sometimes
+take six weeks to come down the Azof, cause a great
+waste of time and capital. A plan has often been set on
+foot for having steam-tugs on the Azof, which would
+cause a great saving in time and expense, and might
+easily be effected, because the anthracite mines are very
+near Rostof. The failure of this and other beneficial
+projects must be attributed to the extreme scarcity of
+capital, and the languor attending all efforts at improvement
+under the restrictive regulations necessary in a
+despotic monarchy.</p>
+
+<p>Such are a few remarks on the passage of goods
+down the Sea of Azof from the great producing countries
+of the north. The way in which they reach Rostof
+from the interior is by the noble river of the Don,
+which rolls its full tide of waters through the governments
+of Toola, Tambof, Orel, Woroneje, and the vast
+and fertile territory of the Don Cossacks. Toola is only
+about 150 miles to the south of Moscow, and there is
+therefore water communication with all the seas of the
+world within a short distance of the capital of Great
+Russia.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_286" href="#Footnote_286" class="fnanchor">[286]</a> But this is not the only river that feeds the
+commerce of Rostof. At about 125 miles from the
+mouth of the Don, by two happy bends in their course,
+the Volga and the Don approach within 45 miles of
+each other, and thus goods can be transported from the
+former to the latter river, and another vast circle of fertile
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_328">[328]</span>regions can be drained of their produce for the southern
+market. As the Don runs through some of the most
+productive governments of Great Russia, so the Volga&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_287" href="#Footnote_287" class="fnanchor">[287]</a>
+sweeps in a larger circle to the north and east, and rising
+in the ancient government of Tver, becomes navigable at
+about an equal distance from Moscow as the Don, describes
+a quarter of a circle round the town, and then, bending
+northwards into the government of Jaroslav, passes
+through Kostroma and Nijni Novgorod. At this celebrated
+place of Oriental traffic it effects its junction with
+the Oka, another artery of Great Russia, and then rolling
+its increased volume directly eastward to Kazan, the Tatar
+capital, it there changes its course to the south till it
+nearly meets the Don. The two rivers run for a short
+distance parallel to one another, till, suddenly diverging
+at right angles, the one falls into the Azof and the other
+into the Caspian Sea. At the point where the rivers
+nearly meet, Dubofka on the Volga is about 45 miles
+from Katchálin on the Don, and vast quantities of merchandise
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_329">[329]</span>are yearly carried across by bullock-carts from
+one river to the other. The importance of their junction
+of course fixed the attention of Peter the Great, and it
+was one of his projects which he did not live to execute.
+The canal he ordered has never been dug; and thus one
+link is wanting in this magnificent system of river communication.
+If it were made, a great saving to merchants
+in time and money would be effected, and commerce
+proportionately increased.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_289" href="#Footnote_289" class="fnanchor">[289]</a></p>
+
+<p>From this short review of the countries which naturally
+depend upon Rostof as their port, and from the great
+lines of water communications which meet under its
+walls, it would appear that its commerce, although it has
+greatly increased, is not a twentieth part of what it
+ought to be, and that it is capable of an indefinite extension.
+The 40,000,000 of Slavonians round Moscow,
+which form the real heart and strength of the Russian
+Empire, send through it now a continually increasing
+portion of the produce of their labour, and would, if they
+could, receive through it innumerable articles which
+can be more advantageously produced in more civilised
+countries than their own. If free trade were allowed,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_330">[330]</span>this natural interchange would go on rapidly increasing
+to the benefit of both parties. At present the exports are
+great, but the Russian does not get nearly his full share of
+profit, owing to the necessity he is under of receiving to a
+considerable extent money instead of goods in payment.
+With this hard cash which he receives, for which Europe
+would gladly substitute manufactured goods, he is obliged
+to buy these latter articles made by his own countrymen
+of bad quality and high price. Thus a considerable
+amount of Russian labour and capital, which are so scarce
+in proportion to the opportunities for employing them, are
+consumed less profitably than they might be, in manufacturing
+these commodities, instead of developing the
+dormant resources of a most fertile soil.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_290" href="#Footnote_290" class="fnanchor">[290]</a> Still in the face
+of all these checks to a natural system of exchange, agricultural
+production has greatly increased of late years, and
+the beneficial effects of the change in our navigation laws,
+and the abolition of the duties on corn, have been very
+distinctly felt. English capital flows willingly to Russia,
+and, while there is the greatest difficulty in getting a few
+hundred thousand pounds for India, millions find their
+way to Russia, so that I was informed by the late General
+Duplat, who was for many years our Consul-General at
+Warsaw, that two years ago he had officially conveyed the
+offer of capitalists in London to the Russian Government
+to lay out 12,000,000<i>l.</i> for the construction of railways in
+Russia upon very moderate terms. The whole of the exports
+of Russia are raw produce, consisting of articles of
+first necessity in Europe, of which she can never send us
+too much. Her people are essentially agricultural and
+commercial, and not a martial race, as is generally supposed.
+It is a mistaken notion to suppose that the Russians
+are a military or warlike nation. To the eyes of
+Europe their military despotic government, with its
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_331">[331]</span>grasping tendency to increase its territories by conquest,
+has given them a character which they do not deserve. The
+serfs and the lower classes are forced by the conscription
+into the ranks of the army, which experience has taught
+them to consider as the hardest fate they can meet
+with. Of the higher classes of society few devote themselves
+from taste to the military profession, but in order
+to maintain their station in the nobility, and to preserve
+its privileges to themselves and their heirs, they
+are obliged to serve the state for a certain number
+of years, until they obtain at least a subordinate rank,
+such as that of lieutenant. Thus among the officers
+possessed of landed property or independent fortunes, it
+is not surprising that there are many who view with
+disgust any event, such as war, which obliges them to
+remain in the army longer than they otherwise would
+have done. Kept in the ranks against their inclination,
+it is natural that on the field of battle when facing the
+enemy they are not moved by the same martial and
+stirring spirit which animates the officers of other armies.</p>
+
+<p>It is not intended by these remarks to impeach the
+bravery of the Russian officers and soldiers, which would
+be absurd in the face of their former conduct in the
+French wars, and recently of their gallant defence of
+Sevastopol, but to account for their want of success when
+made to face in the open field the soldiers of two free
+nations.</p>
+
+<p>The Russian merchant conducts his commercial operations
+with intelligence, and amongst them are some, who,
+without being able either to read or write, transact with
+singular ability and success an amount of business which,
+in more civilised countries, would require an experienced
+manager, assisted by a staff of experienced clerks.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_291" href="#Footnote_291" class="fnanchor">[291]</a> There
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_332">[332]</span>is, likewise, no lack of enterprise in him; but the restrictive
+laws of the country, the obstacles placed in the way
+of intercourse with foreign lands, and the prohibitory
+duties charged on imports, prevent this spirit of enterprise
+from developing itself to its full extent. In no
+country do I believe would the effects of free trade be
+so rapidly felt, and tend more to ameliorate the physical
+and moral condition of the people.</p>
+
+<p>All customs, all prohibitions, are drawbacks on the
+free or natural system of trade between nations; and
+it might even be contended that manufactures would be
+far more likely to spring up in Russia under such a
+system, than under the protective system now in force.
+If free trade were established, at first, undoubtedly, the
+Russians would buy foreign manufactures, but the price
+of all articles of consumption except the common necessaries
+of life would be immensely reduced, and an
+improved style of living would be possible among all
+classes. The agriculturists would get more for their produce,
+and be able to let us have it on cheaper terms; manufactures
+in our countries and agriculture in theirs would
+be much stimulated; roads would be made, the desert tracts
+cultivated; the population would be raised both morally
+and physically, and wealth gradually accumulated; until
+at first the coarser and then the finer manufactures were
+attempted in the natural progress of events, and with
+undoubted success. The Russian people, patient, laborious,
+admirable workmen, have nothing to fear from
+foreign competition. I have said elsewhere, that English
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_333">[333]</span>masters find them inaccurate; but this I believe to proceed
+from no natural incapacity for accuracy, but from
+their not understanding the use of their work, from their
+want of general education, and the little inducement and
+encouragement that exist for improving their condition
+in their degraded social position.</p>
+
+<p class="mt2">It appears, then, from what I have said in this chapter,
+that the commerce of the Sea of Azof is rapidly increasing
+in importance; that the countries surrounding it are rich
+and, as yet, undeveloped; and that, from the fine system
+of river communication which reaches the sea at Rostof,
+it is constantly drawing towards it for shipment a
+larger portion of the productions of Great Russia. There
+cannot be a doubt that, when peace is restored, a great
+impetus will be given to its trade; that it will benefit by
+the increased movement that will probably take place on
+all the shores of the Black Sea; and, should the Russian
+Government wisely change its military policy, and allow
+its stout-hearted and enterprising subjects to pursue their
+natural industrious bent, capital and population will flock
+to the south, and Rostof and Kertch will rival the Tana
+and Panticapæum of ancient days. No restrictions will
+then be placed on those who wish to come and learn in
+Europe; no passports will be refused to enterprising
+young Russians who wish, in France or England, to gain
+that knowledge of the arts and sciences which is impossible
+in their own country; and no vulgar and ignorant
+censors will be placed at the gates of the empire to keep
+out books as the most dangerous enemies of the existing
+system, because the most valuable of them treat of truth
+and liberty. Russia will allow the fraternisation of her
+people with us, and admit the imports of more civilised
+countries as the surest way to increase her own commerce,
+and by these means she, as well as Turkey, will
+be really admitted into the European federation. Can it
+be said that she has been one of us as yet, when she has
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_334">[334]</span>isolated her people, and kept gigantic armies hovering
+in what we may call with Ritter her territory of European
+Asia, to menace poor down-stricken, corrupted
+Germany on one, and the Asiatic nations on the
+other side? If she will really, once for all, fix the
+limits of her empire, and give up her menacing attitude
+and aggressive tendencies, she will not require
+a million of bayonets in time of peace; and we ought
+not to believe that she has changed her policy unless
+she consents to reduce her armies. This we know that
+on former occasions she has positively refused to do; let
+her be obliged to diminish them when peace shall be
+made, as the best guarantee for its future maintenance.
+If the peace party in England really wish for peace, they
+ought to urge this point, which will be far more useful
+than motions for the reduction of our own forces. For
+how can we safely reduce, with the enormous standing
+armies on the Continent, and how can the continental
+Powers reduce their forces, with a million of men always
+hovering over them, and ready to fall upon them without
+notice? Russia has said by her ambassadors that her
+position is exceptional, and for that reason she cannot
+reduce like other powers. Why is her position exceptional?
+This she has not condescended to tell us. Her
+people is the most peaceable in the world, and the troops
+cannot be wanted to coerce them. Indeed, it is notorious
+that there are hardly any troops in Great Russia,
+the most thickly peopled and important part of the
+empire. There is only one infantry corps stationed at
+Moscow out of ten corps which compose the whole army.
+Where are the rest of her forces stationed? There where
+she expects to make conquests. They are distributed
+fan-shape round the European edge of the Russian
+empire, from the Baltic to the Black Sea, that they
+may overawe Germany, and advance to support one
+another in any move upon Turkey; while 170,000
+men are kept in the Caucasus to root out the principles
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_335">[335]</span>of liberty and extend Asiatic conquests.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_292" href="#Footnote_292" class="fnanchor">[292]</a> Can
+any man believe that 400,000 men are kept in Poland
+merely to coerce the shattered, prostrate form of that
+unfortunate kingdom? Is there not a sufficient guarantee
+for Russian possession of it in the share which Austria
+and Prussia accepted of the spoil? When Austria and
+Prussia offered to reduce their armies, and Russia refused
+to reduce hers, was it because she wanted so large a
+force for self-defence? This was evidently impossible;
+and the army in Poland was required, not to prevent
+a rising of the Poles, but to support a Russian influence
+in Germany which has been most detrimental to the
+best interests of that country. If we wish, then, for
+permanent peace, the Russian army ought surely to be
+reduced, and who would benefit more by this measure
+than the inhabitants of Russia themselves? See how
+they hate the army; look at the miseries which the conscription
+entails upon them; observe how large a portion
+of the resources of the empire is wasted to support it,
+and think if those millions of capital created yearly by
+human labour were laid out in permanent improvements
+instead of being unproductively consumed, how great
+would be the increase to Russia in wealth and intelligence!
+There is, I believe, no good result from war
+which may not better be brought about by peace; but,
+as we are engaged in this tremendous contest, let us hope,
+when peace shall at length be made, and perhaps the last
+great knot in human affairs resolved which prevents the
+even progress of the world to its destined termination,
+that as many nations will be freed as are able to enjoy a
+rational liberty, and that peace may be secured on such
+a basis, with such guarantees for its continuance, that
+future difficulties may be resolved by some form of
+national arbitration.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_336">[336]</span></p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_337">[337]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="APPENDIX">APPENDIX.</h2>
+
+</div>
+
+<h3 id="APPENDIX_A">(A.)<br>
+LIST OF THE RUSSIAN NAVAL FORCE IN THE BLACK SEA IN JANUARY, 1853.</h3>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp100" style="max-width: 9.375em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/line2.jpg" alt="">
+</figure>
+
+<table class="borders">
+  <tr>
+    <th>Names of Ships.</th>
+    <th>No. of Guns.</th>
+    <th>When Laid Down.</th>
+    <th>When Launched.</th>
+    <th colspan="2">Observations.</th>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_293" href="#Footnote_293" class="fnanchor">[293]</a>Silistria</td>
+    <td class="tdr">84</td>
+    <td>Dec.  1833</td>
+    <td>Nov.  1835</td>
+    <td class="br0">}</td>
+    <td rowspan="2">Unmanned, not being fit for service.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Sultan Mahmoud</td>
+    <td class="tdr">84</td>
+    <td>Feb.  1835</td>
+    <td>Oct.  1836</td>
+    <td class="br0">}</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&#x2060;<a href="#Footnote_293" class="fnanchor">[293]</a>Tri Svetiteli</td>
+    <td class="tdr">120</td>
+    <td>Dec.  1835</td>
+    <td>Aug.  1838</td>
+    <td class="br0">{</td>
+    <td rowspan="2">Docked for repairs in 1852.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Tri Hezarhef</td>
+    <td class="tdr">84</td>
+    <td>Nov.  1836</td>
+    <td><span class="ditto2">”</span> <span class="ditto2">”</span></td>
+    <td class="br0">{</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Gabriel</td>
+    <td class="tdr">84</td>
+    <td>Aug.  1838</td>
+    <td>Nov.  1839</td>
+    <td class="br0">}</td>
+    <td rowspan="13">All ships of the line are built at Nicolaief.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Selafael</td>
+    <td class="tdr">84</td>
+    <td><span class="ditto2">”</span> <span class="ditto2">”</span></td>
+    <td>July  1840</td>
+    <td class="br0">}</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&#x2060;<a href="#Footnote_293" class="fnanchor">[293]</a>Uriel</td>
+    <td class="tdr">84</td>
+    <td><span class="ditto2">”</span> <span class="ditto2">”</span></td>
+    <td>Oct. <span class="ditto2">”</span></td>
+    <td class="br0">}</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Twelve Apostles</td>
+    <td class="tdr">120</td>
+    <td>Oct. <span class="ditto2">”</span></td>
+    <td>June  1841</td>
+    <td class="br0">}</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Varna</td>
+    <td class="tdr">84</td>
+    <td><span class="ditto2">”</span> <span class="ditto2">”</span></td>
+    <td>July  1842</td>
+    <td class="br0">}</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&#x2060;<a href="#Footnote_293" class="fnanchor">[293]</a>Yagudil</td>
+    <td class="tdr">84</td>
+    <td>Sept. 1839</td>
+    <td>Sept. 1843</td>
+    <td class="br0">}</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&#x2060;<a href="#Footnote_293" class="fnanchor">[293]</a>Rostislaf</td>
+    <td class="tdr">84</td>
+    <td>May   1843</td>
+    <td>Nov. <span class="ditto2">”</span></td>
+    <td class="br0">}</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Sviatolaf</td>
+    <td class="tdr">84</td>
+    <td><span class="ditto2">”</span> <span class="ditto2">”</span></td>
+    <td><span class="ditto2">”</span> 1845</td>
+    <td class="br0">}</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Hvabri</td>
+    <td class="tdr">84</td>
+    <td>June  1841</td>
+    <td>July  1847</td>
+    <td class="br0">}</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Tchesnie</td>
+    <td class="tdr">84</td>
+    <td>July  1842</td>
+    <td>Oct.  1849</td>
+    <td class="br0">}</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Paris</td>
+    <td class="tdr">120</td>
+    <td><span class="ditto2">”</span> 1847</td>
+    <td><span class="ditto2">”</span> <span class="ditto2">”</span></td>
+    <td class="br0">}</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Grand Duke Constantine</td>
+    <td class="tdr">120</td>
+    <td>May   1850</td>
+    <td>Sept. 1852</td>
+    <td class="br0">}</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Empress Maria</td>
+    <td class="tdr">84</td>
+    <td>Oct.  1849</td>
+    <td>On the stocks</td>
+    <td class="br0">}</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Bosphorus</td>
+    <td class="tdr">120</td>
+    <td>Sept. 1852</td>
+    <td>Ditto.</td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td>Screw steamer; engines ordered in England.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>——</td>
+    <td class="tdr">120</td>
+    <td></td>
+    <td></td>
+    <td class="br0">}</td>
+    <td rowspan="2">To be laid down during the year.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>——</td>
+    <td class="tdr">120</td>
+    <td></td>
+    <td></td>
+    <td class="br0">}</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="6" class="tdc2"><span class="smcap">Frigates.</span></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Flora</td>
+    <td class="tdr">44</td>
+    <td>Nov.  1837</td>
+    <td>Sept. 1839</td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td>Built in Nicolaief.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Messembria</td>
+    <td class="tdr">60</td>
+    <td>Oct.  1838</td>
+    <td>Oct.  1840</td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td>Ditto.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&#x2060;<a href="#Footnote_293" class="fnanchor">[293]</a>Sizopoli</td>
+    <td class="tdr">54</td>
+    <td><span class="ditto2">”</span> <span class="ditto2">”</span></td>
+    <td class="nw">March 1841</td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td>Built in Sevastopol; docked in 1852 for thorough repair.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Medea</td>
+    <td class="tdr">60</td>
+    <td>July  1840</td>
+    <td>Sept. 1843</td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td>Built in Nicolaief.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Kagul</td>
+    <td class="tdr">44</td>
+    <td>Oct. <span class="ditto2">”</span></td>
+    <td><span class="ditto2">”</span> <span class="ditto2">”</span></td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td>Ditto.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Kovarna</td>
+    <td class="tdr">52</td>
+    <td>March 1841</td>
+    <td><span class="ditto2">”</span> 1845</td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td>Built in Sevastopol.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>&#x2060;<a href="#Footnote_293" class="fnanchor">[293]</a>Kulefehi</td>
+    <td class="tdr">60</td>
+    <td><span class="ditto2">”</span> 1844</td>
+    <td><span class="ditto2">”</span> 1847</td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td>Built in Nicolaief.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="6" class="tdc2"><span class="smcap">Corvettes.</span></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Raylades</td>
+    <td class="tdr">20</td>
+    <td>Oct   1838</td>
+    <td>June  1840</td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td>Built in Nicolaief.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Andromache</td>
+    <td class="tdr">18</td>
+    <td>June  1840</td>
+    <td>July  1841</td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td>Ditto.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Calypso</td>
+    <td class="tdr">18</td>
+    <td><span class="ditto2">”</span> 1841</td>
+    <td>Sept. 1845</td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td>Ditto.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Orestes</td>
+    <td class="tdr">18</td>
+    <td>Dec.  1845</td>
+    <td>Oct.  1846</td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td>Ditto.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Ariadne</td>
+    <td class="tdr">20</td>
+    <td>Jan.  1847</td>
+    <td>Aug.  1853</td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td>Sevastopol.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_338">[338]</span></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="6" class="tdc2"><span class="smcap">Brigs.</span></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Mercury</td>
+    <td class="tdr">18</td>
+    <td>Jan.  1819</td>
+    <td>May   1820</td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Argonaut</td>
+    <td class="tdr">12</td>
+    <td>Feb.  1837</td>
+    <td>Sept. 1837</td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td>Sevastopol.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Temistocles</td>
+    <td class="tdr">16</td>
+    <td>Oct.  1838</td>
+    <td>Nov.  1839</td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td>Nicolaief.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Perseus</td>
+    <td class="tdr">18</td>
+    <td>June  1839</td>
+    <td>June  1840</td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td>Ditto.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Endymion</td>
+    <td class="tdr">12</td>
+    <td>Sept. 1839</td>
+    <td>Nov.  <span class="ditto2">”</span></td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td>Ditto.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Nearchus</td>
+    <td class="tdr">12</td>
+    <td><span class="ditto2">”</span> <span class="ditto2">”</span></td>
+    <td><span class="ditto2">”</span> <span class="ditto2">”</span></td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td>Ditto.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Euroas</td>
+    <td class="tdr">16</td>
+    <td>June  1840</td>
+    <td>July  1842</td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td>Ditto.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Ptolemy</td>
+    <td class="tdr">18</td>
+    <td>July  1842</td>
+    <td>Sept. 1845</td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td>Ditto.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Theseus</td>
+    <td class="tdr">18</td>
+    <td><span class="ditto2">”</span> <span class="ditto2">”</span></td>
+    <td><span class="ditto2">”</span> <span class="ditto2">”</span></td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td>Ditto.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Achilles</td>
+    <td class="tdr">16</td>
+    <td colspan="4">From the Baltic.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Orpheus</td>
+    <td class="tdr">16</td>
+    <td>Dec.  1842</td>
+    <td>Sept. 1845</td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td>Sevastopol.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Jason</td>
+    <td class="tdr">12</td>
+    <td>Jan.  1847</td>
+    <td>Oct.  1850</td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td>Ditto.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="6" class="tdc2"><span class="smcap">Schooners.</span></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Gonetz</td>
+    <td class="tdr">16</td>
+    <td>Sept. 1834</td>
+    <td>March 1835</td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td>In Nicolaief.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Latoshka</td>
+    <td class="tdr">16</td>
+    <td>Feb.  1837</td>
+    <td>June  1838</td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td>Ditto.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Smelaya</td>
+    <td class="tdr">16</td>
+    <td>Oct.  1838</td>
+    <td>May   1839</td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td>Sevastopol.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Drotig</td>
+    <td class="tdr">16</td>
+    <td>Nov.  1837</td>
+    <td>June  1839</td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td>Nicolaief.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Zabiaka</td>
+    <td class="tdr">16</td>
+    <td>Oct.  1838</td>
+    <td>Aug.  <span class="ditto2">”</span></td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td>Ditto.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Urcilaya</td>
+    <td class="tdr">8</td>
+    <td class="nw">March 1844</td>
+    <td>Sept. 1845</td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td>Ditto.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Skulchwaya</td>
+    <td class="tdr">8</td>
+    <td><span class="ditto2">”</span> <span class="ditto2">”</span></td>
+    <td><span class="ditto2">”</span> <span class="ditto2">”</span></td>
+    <td class="br0">}</td>
+    <td rowspan="2">Built in Nicolaief.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Opil</td>
+    <td class="tdr">16</td>
+    <td>Oct.  1849</td>
+    <td><span class="ditto2">”</span> 1852</td>
+    <td class="br0">}</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Soudjuk Kalé</td>
+    <td class="tdr">10</td>
+    <td colspan="4">Formerly Vixen, taken in 1837.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="6" class="tdc2"><span class="smcap">Cutters.</span></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Struya</td>
+    <td class="tdr">12</td>
+    <td>Sept. 1834</td>
+    <td>July  1835</td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td>Built in Nicolaief.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Lutch</td>
+    <td class="tdr">12</td>
+    <td><span class="ditto2">”</span> <span class="ditto2">”</span></td>
+    <td><span class="ditto2">”</span> <span class="ditto2">”</span></td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td>Ditto.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Legki</td>
+    <td class="tdr">12</td>
+    <td><span class="ditto2">”</span> <span class="ditto2">”</span></td>
+    <td>Sept. <span class="ditto2">”</span></td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td>Ditto.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Nerok</td>
+    <td class="tdr">10</td>
+    <td>Oct.  1838</td>
+    <td>July  1839</td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td>Sevastopol.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Skori</td>
+    <td class="tdr">12</td>
+    <td>March 1844</td>
+    <td>Sept. 1845</td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td>Nicolaief.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Pospeshnoy</td>
+    <td class="tdr">10</td>
+    <td><span class="ditto2">”</span> <span class="ditto2">”</span></td>
+    <td><span class="ditto2">”</span> <span class="ditto2">”</span></td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td>Ditto.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Provornoy</td>
+    <td class="tdr">10</td>
+    <td><span class="ditto2">”</span> <span class="ditto2">”</span></td>
+    <td><span class="ditto2">”</span> <span class="ditto2">”</span></td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td>Ditto.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="6" class="tdc2"><span class="smcap">Yachts.</span></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Strela</td>
+    <td class="tdr">10</td>
+    <td>Sept. 1834</td>
+    <td>April 1835</td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td>Built in Nicolaief.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Oriánda</td>
+    <td class="tdr">10</td>
+    <td>July  1836</td>
+    <td>May   1837</td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td>Ditto.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="6" class="tdc2"><span class="smcap">Bombard.</span></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Peroun</td>
+    <td class="tdr">—</td>
+    <td>June  1839</td>
+    <td>July  1842</td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td>Built in Nicolaief.</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_339">[339]</span></p>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Steamers.</span></p>
+
+<table class="borders">
+  <tr>
+    <th>Names of Steamers.</th>
+    <th>Horse Power.</th>
+    <th colspan="5">Observations.</th>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Wladimir</td>
+    <td class="tdr">400</td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td></td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td colspan="2">From England in 1848.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Bessarabia</td>
+    <td class="tdr">260</td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td></td>
+    <td class="br0">}</td>
+    <td colspan="2" rowspan="5">From England in 1843.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Gromonosetz</td>
+    <td class="tdr">260</td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td></td>
+    <td class="br0">}</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Crimea</td>
+    <td class="tdr">260</td>
+    <td class="br0">}</td>
+    <td rowspan="3">Line steamers between Odessa and Constantinople.</td>
+    <td class="br0">}</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Odessa</td>
+    <td class="tdr">260</td>
+    <td class="br0">}</td>
+    <td class="br0">}</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Chersonesus</td>
+    <td class="tdr">260</td>
+    <td class="br0">}</td>
+    <td class="br0">}</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Elbrus</td>
+    <td class="tdr">250</td>
+    <td class="br0">{</td>
+    <td rowspan="3">Line steamers between Odessa, Crimea, and Soukhoum Kalé.</td>
+    <td class="br0">{</td>
+    <td colspan="2" rowspan="2">From England in 1848.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Yenikale</td>
+    <td class="tdr">180</td>
+    <td class="br0">{</td>
+    <td class="br0">{</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Taman</td>
+    <td class="tdr">180</td>
+    <td class="br0">{</td>
+    <td class="br0">{</td>
+    <td colspan="2">Ditto in 1849.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Bayetz</td>
+    <td class="tdr">136</td>
+    <td class="br0">}</td>
+    <td rowspan="4">Employed on the coast of Circassia and for the
+    forts on the coast.</td>
+    <td class="br0">}</td>
+    <td colspan="2" rowspan="3" class="nw">From England in 1839.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Mogutchi</td>
+    <td class="tdr">136</td>
+    <td class="br0">}</td>
+    <td class="br0">}</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Molodela</td>
+    <td class="tdr">136</td>
+    <td class="br0">}</td>
+    <td class="br0">}</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Cholchis</td>
+    <td class="tdr">120</td>
+    <td class="br0">}</td>
+    <td class="br0">}</td>
+    <td colspan="2">Ditto in 1837.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Grozni</td>
+    <td class="tdr">120</td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td></td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td colspan="2" class="nw">Built in Nicolaief, 1842.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="nw">Sevenain Zvezon</td>
+    <td class="tdr">120</td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td></td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td colspan="2">Ditto, in 1834.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Peter the Great</td>
+    <td class="tdr">100</td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td></td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td colspan="2">From England in 1834.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Andi</td>
+    <td class="tdr">100</td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td></td>
+    <td class="br0">}</td>
+    <td colspan="2" rowspan="2">From England in 1845. Packet boats.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Dargo</td>
+    <td class="tdr">100</td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td></td>
+    <td class="br0">}</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Danube</td>
+    <td class="tdr">100</td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td></td>
+    <td class="br0">{</td>
+    <td colspan="2" rowspan="2">From England in 1851. River boats.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Pruth</td>
+    <td class="tdr">100</td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td></td>
+    <td>{</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Berdeansk</td>
+    <td class="tdr">90</td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td></td>
+    <td class="br0">}</td>
+    <td colspan="2" rowspan="2">From England in 1845. Packet boats.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Taganrog</td>
+    <td class="tdr">90</td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td></td>
+    <td class="br0">}</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Inkerman</td>
+    <td class="tdr">90</td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td></td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td colspan="2">From England in 1838.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Molni</td>
+    <td class="tdr">80</td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td></td>
+    <td class="br0">}</td>
+    <td rowspan="4" class="br0">Built in Nicolaief. Tug boats.</td>
+    <td class="nw">{ 1840.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Meteor</td>
+    <td class="tdr">60</td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td></td>
+    <td class="br0">}</td>
+    <td class="nw">{ 1838.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Ordinaretr</td>
+    <td class="tdr">60</td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td></td>
+    <td class="br0">}</td>
+    <td class="nw">{ 1847.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Skromni</td>
+    <td class="tdr">40</td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td></td>
+    <td class="br0">}</td>
+    <td class="nw">{ 1842.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Argonaut</td>
+    <td class="tdr">40</td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td></td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td colspan="2">From England in 1851.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Vogin (Warrior)</td>
+    <td class="tdr">250</td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td></td>
+    <td class="br0">}</td>
+    <td colspan="2" rowspan="2">Now building in the Thames; screw steamers.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Vitiaz (Hero)</td>
+    <td class="tdr">250</td>
+    <td class="br0"></td>
+    <td></td>
+    <td class="br0">}</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Gun-Boats.</span></p>
+
+<p>Twenty-eight gun-boats built between 1841 and 1852 for service in the Danube.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Transports.</span></p>
+
+<p>Thirty vessels, measuring 10,627 tons, built from 1837 to 1852.</p>
+
+<p class="mt2 smaller">The Empress Maria, 84 guns, was launched on the 21st of May, but will not be rigged
+for some months.</p>
+
+<p class="smaller">The Bosphorus, 120 guns, has not been advanced since the day her keel was laid
+down, nor are the slips made for the two other three-deckers that are to be commenced
+this year.</p>
+
+<p class="smaller">There is no timber grown near Nicolaief; it comes down the Dniepr, and is employed
+in its green state.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_340">[340]</span></p>
+
+<h3 id="APPENDIX_B">(B.)<br>
+FIELD MARSHAL COUNT ALEXANDER VASSILIAVITCH SUVÓROF’S DISCOURSE UNDER THE
+TRIGGER.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_294" href="#Footnote_294" class="fnanchor">[294]</a></h3>
+
+<p class="center smaller">BEING</p>
+
+<p class="hanging">A SERIES OF INSTRUCTIONS DRAWN BY HIMSELF, FOR THE USE OF THE ARMY UNDER
+HIS COMMAND, AFTER THE TURKISH WAR; AND SINCE TRANSMITTED BY ORDER OF
+THE RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT TO EVERY REGIMENT IN THE SERVICE. IT IS COMMONLY
+CALLED SUVÓROF’S CATECHISM.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp100" style="max-width: 9.375em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/line2.jpg" alt="">
+</figure>
+
+<p class="center">(<i>The General is supposed to be inspecting the Line and addressing the Troops.</i>)</p>
+
+<p>Heels close! Knees straight! A soldier must stand like a
+dart! I see the fourth—the fifth I don’t see. A soldier’s step is
+an archine&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_295" href="#Footnote_295" class="fnanchor">[295]</a>—in wheeling, an archine and a half. Keep your
+distance well!</p>
+
+<p>Soldiers, join elbows in front! First rank three steps from the
+second—in marching, two!</p>
+
+<p>Give the drum room!</p>
+
+<p>Keep your ball three days: it may happen for a whole campaign
+when lead&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_296" href="#Footnote_296" class="fnanchor">[296]</a> cannot be had!</p>
+
+<p>Fire seldom—but fire sure!</p>
+
+<p>Push hard with the bayonet! The ball will lose its way—the
+bayonet never! The ball is a fool—the bayonet a hero! Stab
+once: and off with the Turk from the bayonet! Even when he’s
+dead you may get a scratch from his sabre.</p>
+
+<p>If the sabre is near your neck, dodge back one step, and push
+on again. Stab the second! Stab the third! A hero will stab
+half-a-dozen.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_341">[341]</span></p>
+
+<p>Be sure your ball’s in your gun! If three attack you, stab the
+first, fire on the second, and bayonet the third! This seldom
+happens.</p>
+
+<p>In the attack there is no time to load again. When you fire,
+take aim at their guts; and fire about twenty balls. Buy lead
+from your economy&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_297" href="#Footnote_297" class="fnanchor">[297]</a>—it costs little! We fire sure—we lose not
+one ball in thirty; in the light artillery and heavy artillery not
+one in ten.</p>
+
+<p>If you see the match upon a gun, run up to it instantly—the ball
+will fly over your head—the guns are yours—the people are yours!
+Down with ’em upon the spot! pursue ’em, stab ’em! To the remainder
+give quarter—it’s a sin to kill without reason; they are men
+like you. Die for the honour of the Virgin Mary—for your mother&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_298" href="#Footnote_298" class="fnanchor">[298]</a>—for
+all the royal family! The Church prays for those that die;
+and those who survive have honour and reward. Offend not the
+peaceable inhabitant! he gives us meat and drink—the soldier is
+not a robber. Booty is a holy thing! If you take a camp, it is all
+yours! If you take a fortress, it is all yours! At Ismael, besides
+other things, the soldiers shared gold and silver by handsful,
+and so in other places; but, without order, never go to booty!</p>
+
+<p class="mt2">A battle on the field has three modes of attack.</p>
+
+<p class="center">1st. <i>On the Wing</i></p>
+
+<p class="noindent">Which is weakest. If a wing is covered by wood, it is nothing;
+a soldier will get through. Through a morass, it is more difficult.
+Through a river you cannot run. All kind of intrenchment
+you may jump over.</p>
+
+<p class="center">2nd. <i>The Attack in the Centre</i></p>
+
+<p class="noindent">Is not profitable—except for cavalry, to cut them in pieces—or
+else they’ll crush you.</p>
+
+<p class="center">3rd. <i>The Attack behind</i></p>
+
+<p class="noindent">Is very good, only for a small corps to get round. Heavy battle
+in the field, against regular troops. In squares, against Turks,
+and not in columns. It may happen against Turks, that a square
+of 500 men will be compelled to force its way through a troop of
+6000 or 7000, with the help of small squares on the flank. In
+such a case, it will extend in a column. But till now we had no
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_342">[342]</span>need of it. There are the God-forgetting, windy, light-headed
+Frenchmen—if it should ever happen to us to march against them,
+we must beat them in columns.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><i>The Battle, upon Intrenchments in the Field.</i></p>
+
+<p>The ditch is not deep—the rampart is not high—Down in the
+ditch! Jump over the wall! Work with your bayonet! Stab!
+Drive! Take them prisoners! Be sure to cut off the cavalry, if
+any are at hand! At Prague the infantry cut off the cavalry;
+and there were three-fold, and more, intrenchments, and a whole
+fortress; therefore, we attacked in columns.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><i>The Storm.</i>&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_299" href="#Footnote_299" class="fnanchor">[299]</a></p>
+
+<p>Break down the fence! Throw wattles over the holes! Run
+as fast as you can! Jump over the palisades! Cast your faggots
+(into the ditch)! Leap into the ditch! Lay on your ladders!
+Scour the columns! Fire at their heads! Fly over the walls!
+Stab them on the ramparts! Draw out your line! Put a guard
+on the powder-cellars! Open one of the gates! The cavalry
+will enter on the enemy! Turn his guns against him! Fire down
+the streets! Fire briskly! There’s no time to run after them!
+When the order is given, enter the town! Kill every enemy in
+the streets! Let the cavalry hack them! Enter no houses!
+Storm them in the open places where they are gathering! Take
+possession of the open places! Put a capital guard! Instantly
+put picquets to the gates, to the powder-cellars, and to the magazines!
+When the enemy has surrendered, give him quarter!
+When the inner wall is occupied, go to plunder!</p>
+
+<p class="mt2">There are three military talents.</p>
+
+<p class="center">1st. <i>The Coup d’Œil.</i></p>
+
+<p>How to place a camp. How to march. Where to attack, to
+chase, and to beat the enemy.</p>
+
+<p class="center">2nd. <i>Swiftness.</i></p>
+
+<p>The field-artillery must march half or a whole verst in front,
+on the rising ground, that it may not impede the march of the
+columns. When the column arrives, it will find its place again.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_343">[343]</span>Down hill, and on even ground, let it go in a trot. Soldiers
+march in files, or four abreast, on account of narrow roads, streets,
+narrow bridges, and narrow passes, through marshy and swampy
+places; and only when ready for attack draw up in platoons, to
+shorten the rear. When you march four abreast, leave a space
+between the companies. Never slacken your pace! Walk on!
+Play! Sing your songs! Beat the drum! When you have
+broken off ten versts&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_300" href="#Footnote_300" class="fnanchor">[300]</a> the first company cast off their load, and lie
+down. After them the second company; and so forth, one after
+the other. But the first never wait for the rest! A line in columns
+will, on the march, always draw out. At four abreast, it will draw
+out one and a half more than its length. At two abreast, it will
+draw out double. A line one verst in length will draw out two.
+Two versts will draw out four; so the first companies would have
+to wait for the others half-an-hour, to no purpose. After the first
+ten versts, an hour’s rest. The first division that arrived (upon
+the coming of the second) takes up its baggage, and moves forward
+ten or fifteen paces; and if it passes through defiles on the march,
+fifteen or twenty paces. And in this manner division after division,
+that the hindmost may get rest. The second ten versts,
+another hour’s rest, or more. If the third distance is less than
+ten versts, halve it, and rest three-quarters, half, or a quarter of
+an hour, that the children&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_301" href="#Footnote_301" class="fnanchor">[301]</a> may soon get to their kettles. So
+much for infantry.</p>
+
+<p>The cavalry marches before. They alight from their horses
+and rest a short time, and march more than ten versts in one
+stage, that the horses may rest in the camp. The kettle-waggons
+and the tent-waggons go on before. When the brothers&#x2060;<a href="#Footnote_301" class="fnanchor">[301]</a> arrive
+the kettle is ready. The master of the mess instantly serves out
+the kettle. For breakfast four hours’ rest, and six or eight hours
+at night, according as the road proves. When you draw near the
+enemy, the kettle-waggons remain with the tent-waggons, and
+wood must be prepared beforehand.</p>
+
+<p>By this manner of marching soldiers suffer no fatigue. The
+enemy does not expect us; he reckons us at least a hundred versts
+distance, and when we come from far, two hundred, or three
+hundred, or more. We fall all at once upon him, like snow on the
+head. His head turns. Attack instantly with whatever arrives,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_302" href="#Footnote_302" class="fnanchor">[302]</a>—with
+what God sends. The cavalry instantly fall to work,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_344">[344]</span>hack and slash! Stab and drive! Cut them off! Don’t give
+them a moment’s rest!</p>
+
+<p class="center">3rd. <i>Energy.</i></p>
+
+<p>One leg strengthens the other! One hand fortifies the other!
+By firing many men are killed! The enemy has also hands, but
+he knows not the Russian bayonet (alluding to the Turks)! Draw
+out the line immediately; and instantly attack with cold arms (the
+bayonet). If there is not time to draw out in line, attack, from the
+defile, the infantry with the bayonet; and the cavalry will be at
+hand. If there be a defile for a verst, and cartridges over your
+head, the guns will be yours! Commonly the cavalry makes the
+first attack, and the infantry follows. In general, cavalry must
+attack like infantry, except in swampy ground; and there they
+must lead their horses by the bridle. Cossacks will go through
+anything. When the battle is gained, the cavalry pursue and
+hack the enemy, and the infantry are not to remain behind. In
+two files there is strength: in three files, strength and a half.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_303" href="#Footnote_303" class="fnanchor">[303]</a>
+The first tears, the second throws down, and the third perfects the
+work.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><i>Rules for Diet.</i></p>
+
+<p>Have a dread of the hospital! German physic stinks from afar,
+is good for nothing, and rather hurtful. A Russian soldier is not
+used to it. Messmates know where to find roots, herbs, and pismires.
+A soldier is inestimable. Take care of your health!
+Scour the stomach when it is foul! Hunger is the best medicine!
+He who neglects his men—if an officer, arrest; if a sub-officer,
+lashes;&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_304" href="#Footnote_304" class="fnanchor">[304]</a> and to the private, lashes, if he neglects himself. If loose
+bowels want food, at sunset a little gruel and bread. For costive
+bowels, some purging plant in warm water, or the liquorice-root.
+Remember, gentlemen, the field physic of Doctor Bellypotski.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_305" href="#Footnote_305" class="fnanchor">[305]</a>
+In hot fevers eat nothing, even for twelve days,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_306" href="#Footnote_306" class="fnanchor">[306]</a> and drink your
+soldier’s quas&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_307" href="#Footnote_307" class="fnanchor">[307]</a>—that’s a soldier’s physic. In intermitting fevers
+neither eat nor drink. It’s only a punishment for neglect if death
+ensues. In hospitals, the first day the bed seems soft; the
+second comes French soup; and the third the brother is laid in
+his coffin, and they draw him away! One dies, and ten companions
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_345">[345]</span>around him inhale his expiring breath. In camp, the sick
+and feeble are kept in huts, and not in villages: there the air is
+purer. Even without an hospital you must not stint your money
+for medicine, if it can be bought; nor even for other necessaries.
+But all this is frivolous: we know how to preserve ourselves.
+Where one dies in a hundred with others, we lose not one in
+five hundred in the course of a month. For the healthy, drink,
+air, and food; for the sick, air, drink, and food. Brothers, the
+enemy trembles for you! But there is another enemy, greater
+than the hospital,—the damned “<i>I don’t know</i>.”&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_308" href="#Footnote_308" class="fnanchor">[308]</a> <i>From the
+half-confessing, the guessing, lying, deceitful, the palavering, equivocation,
+squeamishness, and nonsense of</i> “<i>Don’t know</i>,” many
+disasters originate. Stammering, hackering,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_309" href="#Footnote_309" class="fnanchor">[309]</a> and so forth; it’s
+shameful to relate! A soldier should be sound, brave, firm,
+decisive, true, honourable! Pray to God! from Him come
+victory and miracles! God conducts us! God is our general!
+For the “<i>I don’t know</i>” an officer is put in the guard; a staff-officer
+is served with an arrest at home. Instruction is <i>light</i>! Not
+instruction is <i>darkness</i>! The work fears its master.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_310" href="#Footnote_310" class="fnanchor">[310]</a> If a peasant
+knows not how to plough, the corn will not grow! One wise man
+is worth three fools! and even three are little, give six! and even
+six are little, give ten!&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_311" href="#Footnote_311" class="fnanchor">[311]</a> One clever fellow will beat them all,
+overthrow them, and take them prisoners!</p>
+
+<p>In the last campaign the enemy lost 75,000 well counted men—perhaps
+not much less than 100,000. He fought desperately
+and artfully, and we lost not a full thousand.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_312" href="#Footnote_312" class="fnanchor">[312]</a> There, brethren,
+you behold the effect of military instruction.</p>
+
+<p>Gentlemen, officers, what a triumph!</p>
+
+<p class="mt2">N.B. This translation has been rendered perfectly literal, so
+that effect is often sacrificed to a strict attention to the real signification
+of the words, instead of introducing parallel phrases.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_346">[346]</span></p>
+
+<h3 id="APPENDIX_C">(C.)<br>
+ON THE TIMBER TRADE OF NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN RUSSIA.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_313" href="#Footnote_313" class="fnanchor">[313]</a></h3>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp100" style="max-width: 9.375em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/line2.jpg" alt="">
+</figure>
+
+<p>Most people will acknowledge it to be a matter of some difficulty
+to turn the habitual course of trade into any new channel. For a
+century the forests of Lithuania exported by the Duna from Riga
+timber, and more especially masts; supplying thereby all the
+dockyards of Europe. The value of this branch of commerce
+amounted to about 2,000,000 roubles per annum. Each piece of
+timber passed through the hands of two sorters, who are an incorporated
+body, and are responsible, by their oath, for the quality of
+the article. These qualities varying in different countries, the
+merchants are in the habit of sending their orders to the principal
+sorters, naming the quantity and the quality which they require.
+These men then despatch a cutter to the spot, to select and appropriate
+the timber according to the orders which they receive; and
+the timber so selected is inspected afresh at Riga previous to
+shipment. This sorting or surveying is a joint-stock affair, the
+profits upon which go to a general fund, and are divided at the
+end of the year. There are two modes of bargaining with the
+wood-growers: either by purchasing of them a certain number of
+trees, chosen by a competent judge, or by taking an entire wood
+on lease, with the right of felling such trees as may from time to
+time suit the lessee; in which latter case the price is regulated
+according to the quantity of timber removed, charging so much
+for masts and so much for planks. The time for felling the trees
+is in the months of October and November; and although it
+would be better to postpone it until the sap shall have left the
+trees, yet, at a further period of the season, the snow would render
+the woods almost inaccessible: and it is necessary to avail one’s
+self of the drawing or sledging, just in time to bring away the
+timber already cut. Nevertheless, the felling sometimes continues
+until the month of January, or even February. Despite the care
+of the surveyor, 10 per cent. may reasonably be deducted from the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_347">[347]</span>original cost of timber on account of the occasional felling of trees
+that are objectionable; which are left on the land. It is commonly
+understood that masts of this description shall be left to the
+land-owner, and that no more shall be paid for than are taken
+away. The timber intended for Riga is all lopped and trimmed
+on the spot; and upon the breaking up of the ice in the Dniepr
+or in the Beresina (near to which rivers the greater part of the
+woods are situated) the timber is launched, in order afterwards
+that it may be sent down the Duna to Riga. It is only from the
+nearest forests that timber can be delivered at Riga in the same
+year in which it is felled; for with reference to the more distant, a
+second land-carriage betwixt the Dniepr and the Duna becomes
+indispensable. It often happens that, the time to complete the
+squaring of the timber during the first winter being insufficient,
+advantage is taken of the delay caused by the frost, in the breaking
+up of the ice of the Duna, to complete it. By this means the
+timber arrives at Riga in the fine season, and is fit for immediate
+shipment.</p>
+
+<p>The thinning of the forests of Lithuania has compelled the
+fellers to move gradually farther and farther southward. Even
+now but few maiden forests are to be found near the river in the
+government of Minsk; and the supplies of timber are now chiefly
+furnished by the government of Tchérnigof and of Kief. The
+timber trade must, therefore, necessarily be driven into the hands
+of the Southern Russians. In lieu of transporting the timber, as
+before, against the current of the Dniepr, and of a long journey
+over land, it is now abandoned to the stream, and thus floats
+rapidly down to Kherson, where it arrives between May 15 and
+July 1.</p>
+
+<p>The masts and bulks are commonly fastened together in rafts
+of 100 pieces each, and are managed by four or five men.
+Planks and staves are conveyed by means of large barks, manned
+with fifteen or sixteen men. The expense of water-carriage is
+about 25 roubles each for large masts. The vessels that are without
+decks cost as much as 1200 roubles; those that are decked
+are worth double this sum; but owing to their inability to reascend
+the river, are usually sold at Kherson for a few hundred
+roubles each. The merchants of Odessa have not as yet directed
+much of their attention to the timber trade; either because grain
+chiefly occupies their attention, or because of the want of proper
+experience on the part of the speculators; the first purchases of
+masts at Kherson, for the arsenals at Toulon and at Carthagena,
+proved disastrous in their results. Nevertheless, as Odessa possesses
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_348">[348]</span>some very rich houses, with whom it is become almost a
+point of duty to open fresh outlets to the commerce of the country,
+and since bad harvests have obliged other houses to direct their
+capital to articles till then almost unknown, the timber trade at
+Kherson has progressed very rapidly. In 1833 the value of the
+timber and wood exported from that place amounted to 1,000,000
+roubles, or nearly 180,000<i>l.</i> In 1834 many ships loaded with
+masts and staves for France and Spain. The great saving effected
+in the charges of transportation to ports of shipment, as well as
+on freights, will render it impossible for the trade of Riga, henceforward,
+to compete with that of the Black Sea, in supplying the
+south of Europe, where the consumption (of staves more particularly)
+is very great. <i>Kherson is able to obtain timber from the
+very same forests which supply Riga, at from 20 to 30 per cent.
+cheaper</i>, owing to the loss of interest on the capital employed,
+six months being the intermediate time of its arrival at Kherson,
+whilst the passage to Riga occupies at least twenty months.
+Besides, on landing the timber from the Dniepr, it remains a long
+time exposed to the air before being again launched in the Duna,
+which cannot fail to injure it. A sorter, or surveyor, from Riga,
+is already established at Kherson, for the purpose of placing the
+timber trade on the same footing as in the former city. He is
+accompanied by twelve Lithuanian labourers, practised in the
+trimming of masts, which are prepared on the spot where they
+are felled. A skilful workman will not be able to trim a large
+mast in less than a week. Excepting pine planks, which are
+sawn in the town, all other sorts of timber are sent to Kherson
+ready trimmed. The largest masts shipped hence are not more
+than about 20 palms in diameter, and about 85 feet in length.
+Those of larger dimensions, being purchased chiefly for Holland,
+are sent of course to Riga, but there is no doubt of the possibility
+of conveying them to Kherson with as much facility as to the
+former place. Even the smaller masts, which are all very cheap,
+are very superior in quality to, and much more durable than, those
+of Moldavia, Tuscany, and the Adriatic. The Oak, on the contrary,
+like that of Moldavia, is too soft for ship-building; nevertheless
+for staves it is certainly superior to that of the Romagna.
+These staves are cut from six to eight feet in length, and six
+inches broad, by two and a half to three inches thick. They are
+sold in lots of sixty, called shocks, the cost of one of which shocks,
+at Kherson, of six feet, was, in 1834, about 37 roubles. They
+can, however, be had of all dimensions, by apprising the seller
+beforehand in the months of August and September.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_349">[349]</span></p>
+
+<p>In addition to the timber destined for ship-building, wood of
+almost every shape is brought from the greatest part of Southern
+Russia for building, and for other purposes. This trade is in the
+hands of speculators from Kherson, and is carried on at places
+where the timber is felled; it is only the timber intended for
+foreign shipment, and certain sorts, that would find but a very
+limited sale at home, that are ordered beforehand. Igren and
+Kakhóvka, the one above, the other below, the cataracts of the
+Dniepr, are important places for the trade in wood. At these places,
+the carmen of the environs, who fetch fish and salt from the ports
+of the Sea of Azof, load the wood that has come down the Dniepr;
+in this manner it comes to the same price as that which is brought
+down the Volga and the Don in small quantities. But it is
+probable that, in time, the oak of Kasan, which now supplies the
+shipyards of the North, will be obtainable by this last-mentioned
+route. The forests, with which the mountains of the Crimea are
+covered, furnish to the shipyard of Sevastopol excellent building
+timber and much firewood; Odessa, in particular, which procures
+it from the north of Bessarabia, likewise consumes a great deal of
+it; still, as a great part of this latter province is entirely stripped
+of wood, it is under the necessity of supplying itself from Moldavia,
+especially from the district of Kiatra, which is very woody, and
+which exports wood also to Constantinople. Bessarabia derives
+from thence only firewood; but building-timber, masts, planks, and
+staves, are sent down the Seret (a river which separates Moldavia
+from Wallachia), and find a vent at Galatz, whence they are sent
+off in great rafts to Constantinople; and, before the Sultan prohibited
+it, these articles were sent from thence into Egypt. In
+1832 the value of these exports amounted to more than 500,000
+francs. The masts of Moldavia are of a very inferior quality
+compared with those of Russia; but many vessels buy them at
+Constantinople, because they are so very cheap. Neither is the
+oak for ship-building so hard as that of Bulgaria, which, on this
+account, is generally preferred. In general, a great quantity of
+timber is imported from Bulgaria into Ismail and into Reni, as,
+for the last five years, that article has not been burthened with any
+duty, and it forms one of the most important branches of commerce
+at both places. Roumelia likewise exports a considerable quantity
+of timber, especially staves, from the port of Bourgas.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_350">[350]</span></p>
+
+<h3 id="APPENDIX_D">(D.)<br>
+COMMERCE OF PORTS OF CRIMEA, 1852.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_314" href="#Footnote_314" class="fnanchor">[314]</a></h3>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp100" style="max-width: 9.375em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/line2.jpg" alt="">
+</figure>
+
+<h4>I. <span class="smcap">Port of Eupatoria.</span></h4>
+
+<p>There was imported into this port in 1852—</p>
+
+<table>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Goods</td>
+    <td class="tdr">132,902</td>
+    <td>S. R.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Coin</td>
+    <td class="tdr">2,240</td>
+    <td>S. R.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdr">Total</td>
+    <td class="tdr total">135,142</td>
+    <td>S. R.</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>Exports—</p>
+
+<table>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Russian produce</td>
+    <td class="tdr">266,719</td>
+    <td>S. R.,</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p class="noindent">and no coin.</p>
+
+<p>31 foreign vessels entered the port of Eupatoria.</p>
+
+<p>The coasting trade presented the following numbers:—Arrivals,
+189—of which, 1 from Petersburg. Departures, 188—of which,
+5 for Petersburg.</p>
+
+<h4>II. <span class="smcap">Akméshed.</span>—III. <span class="smcap">Sevastopol.</span>—IV. <span class="smcap">Balaclava.</span>—V. <span class="smcap">Yalta.</span></h4>
+
+<p>These four ports have only a coasting trade.</p>
+
+<table class="borders">
+  <tr>
+    <th rowspan="2"></th>
+    <th colspan="2">Number of Coasters.</th>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <th>Arrivals.</th>
+    <th>Departures.</th>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Akméshed</td>
+    <td class="tdr">5</td>
+    <td class="tdr">5</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Sevastopol</td>
+    <td class="tdr">452</td>
+    <td class="tdr">466</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Balaclava</td>
+    <td class="tdr">7</td>
+    <td class="tdr">10</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Yalta</td>
+    <td class="tdr">66</td>
+    <td class="tdr">62</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>Besides, steamers anchored 49 times in the port of Yalta.</p>
+
+<p>The coasters brought and discharged in these four ports, besides
+provisions for the state, goods of the following value:—</p>
+
+<table class="borders">
+  <tr>
+    <th></th>
+    <th>Brought.</th>
+    <th>Took away.</th>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td></td>
+    <td class="tdc">S. R.</td>
+    <td class="tdc">S. R.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Akméshed</td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr">3,883</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Sevastopol</td>
+    <td class="tdr">1,051,451</td>
+    <td class="tdr">107,793</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Balaclava</td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr">749</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Yalta</td>
+    <td class="tdr">137,408</td>
+    <td class="tdr">130,315</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_351">[351]</span></p>
+
+<h4>VI. <span class="smcap">Theodosia.</span></h4>
+
+<p>The imports into the port of Theodosia in 1852 were—</p>
+
+<table>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Goods</td>
+    <td class="tdr">137,822</td>
+    <td>S. R.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Coin</td>
+    <td class="tdr">10,841</td>
+    <td>S. R.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdr">Total</td>
+    <td class="tdr total">144,663</td>
+    <td>S. R.</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>Exports—</p>
+
+<table>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Goods</td>
+    <td class="tdr">57,237</td>
+    <td>S. R.</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<table class="borders">
+  <tr>
+    <th></th>
+    <th>Arrivals.</th>
+    <th>Departures.</th>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Foreign vessels</td>
+    <td class="tdr">97</td>
+    <td class="tdr">14</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Coasters</td>
+    <td class="tdr">144</td>
+    <td class="tdr">229</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>The coasters brought goods, 150,823 S. R.; and loaded to a
+value of 96,862 S. R.</p>
+
+<h4>VII. <span class="smcap">Kertch.</span></h4>
+
+<table>
+  <tr>
+    <td>1852:</td>
+    <td>Foreign Imports</td>
+    <td>Goods</td>
+    <td class="tdr">40,395</td>
+    <td>S. R.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td></td>
+    <td></td>
+    <td>Coin</td>
+    <td class="tdr">2,900</td>
+    <td>S. R.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td></td>
+    <td></td>
+    <td class="tdr">Total</td>
+    <td class="tdr total">43,275</td>
+    <td>S. R.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td></td>
+    <td>Exports</td>
+    <td></td>
+    <td class="tdr">41,386</td>
+    <td>S. R.</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p class="noindent">and no coin.</p>
+
+<p>113 foreign vessels arrived, and 73 left: of these 113 arrivals,
+52, after passing quarantine at Kertch, entered the Sea of Azof.
+The coasting trade had 1111 arrivals, and 1094 departures.</p>
+
+<p>The coasters brought, in 1852—goods, 834,671 S. R., besides
+stores to the account of the state. They loaded goods 359,418 S. R.;
+of salt from the Lakes of Kertch, 1,464,140 poods were sent
+from the Lakes of Kertch to the ports of the Sea of Azof; 91,435
+poods to the Black Sea; and 74,775 poods to Petersburg:—total,
+1,630,360 poods; which makes 911,445 poods more than in 1851,
+and 576,020 poods more than in 1850. This is the largest exportation
+of salt that has ever been made; for even in 1837 the
+exports only reached 1,431,975 poods.</p>
+
+<p>The reduction of the excise, and the permission to pay for it in
+the ports of the Sea of Azof, are the causes of this increase in the
+export of salt to the interior of the empire.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_352">[352]</span></p>
+
+<h4><i>Résumé.</i></h4>
+
+<p>It results, from the accounts given above, that the commerce of
+the Crimea was more important in 1852 than in 1851. The reason
+was the good harvest of 1852. The export of its production was
+on a larger scale, and consequently the import was larger; more
+cottons and mixed Turkish silks were imported into Theodosia;
+more fruits and tobacco to Eupatoria; more coal to Kertch. The
+export of wheat and other grains was also larger; also of walnut-wood
+from Theodosia, and more linseed and wool, and tallow and
+butter, from Eupatoria. The increase in commercial affairs, of
+course, occasioned activity in the shipping.</p>
+
+<p class="mt2">The coasting trade, always more important in the Crimean
+ports than foreign commerce, has continued slowly to improve, as
+may be seen from the following tables for 1851 and 1852.</p>
+
+<h4>I. <span class="smcap">Foreign Commerce.</span></h4>
+
+<table class="borders">
+  <tr>
+    <th rowspan="3"></th>
+    <th colspan="4">Value of Goods.</th>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <th colspan="2">Importations.</th>
+    <th colspan="2">Exportations.</th>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <th>1851.</th>
+    <th>1852.</th>
+    <th>1851.</th>
+    <th>1852.</th>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Eupatoria</td>
+    <td class="tdr">119,289</td>
+    <td class="tdr">132,902</td>
+    <td class="tdr">126,070</td>
+    <td class="tdr">266,719</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Balaclava</td>
+    <td class="tdr">648</td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Theodosia</td>
+    <td class="tdr">94,832</td>
+    <td class="tdr">133,822</td>
+    <td class="tdr">44,933</td>
+    <td class="tdr">57,237</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Kertch</td>
+    <td class="tdr">35,353</td>
+    <td class="tdr">40,395</td>
+    <td class="tdr">21,677</td>
+    <td class="tdr">41,386</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdr">Total</td>
+    <td class="tdr total">250,122</td>
+    <td class="tdr total">307,119</td>
+    <td class="tdr total">192,689</td>
+    <td class="tdr total">365,342</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>Less coin was imported in 1852 than in 1851; it was 15,981 S. R.
+More was exported.</p>
+
+<table class="borders">
+  <tr>
+    <th rowspan="3"></th>
+    <th colspan="4">Navigation.</th>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <th colspan="2">Arrivals.</th>
+    <th colspan="2">Departures.</th>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <th>1851.</th>
+    <th>1852.</th>
+    <th>1851.</th>
+    <th>1852.</th>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Eupatoria</td>
+    <td class="tdr">22</td>
+    <td class="tdr">30</td>
+    <td class="tdr">14</td>
+    <td class="tdr">31</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Balaclava</td>
+    <td class="tdr">3</td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Theodosia</td>
+    <td class="tdr">56</td>
+    <td class="tdr">97</td>
+    <td class="tdr">10</td>
+    <td class="tdr">14</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Kertch</td>
+    <td class="tdr">108</td>
+    <td class="tdr">113</td>
+    <td class="tdr">64</td>
+    <td class="tdr">73</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdr">Total</td>
+    <td class="tdr total">189</td>
+    <td class="tdr total">240</td>
+    <td class="tdr total">88</td>
+    <td class="tdr total">108</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_353">[353]</span></p>
+
+<h4>II. <span class="smcap">Coasting Trade.</span></h4>
+
+<table class="borders">
+  <tr>
+    <th rowspan="3"></th>
+    <th colspan="4">Value of Merchandise.</th>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <th colspan="2">Importations.</th>
+    <th colspan="2">Exportations.</th>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <th>1851.</th>
+    <th>1852.</th>
+    <th>1851.</th>
+    <th>1852.</th>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Akméshed</td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr">380</td>
+    <td class="tdr">3,883</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Eupatoria</td>
+    <td class="tdr">243,097</td>
+    <td class="tdr">116,878</td>
+    <td class="tdr">199,799</td>
+    <td class="tdr">262,410</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Sevastopol</td>
+    <td class="tdr">757,920</td>
+    <td class="tdr">1,051,451</td>
+    <td class="tdr">143,522</td>
+    <td class="tdr">107,793</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Balaclava</td>
+    <td class="tdr">4,162</td>
+    <td class="tdr"></td>
+    <td class="tdr">2,190</td>
+    <td class="tdr">749</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Yalta</td>
+    <td class="tdr">177,290</td>
+    <td class="tdr">137,408</td>
+    <td class="tdr">85,153</td>
+    <td class="tdr">130,315</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Theodosia</td>
+    <td class="tdr">94,832</td>
+    <td class="tdr">150,823</td>
+    <td class="tdr">44,933</td>
+    <td class="tdr">96,862</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Kertch</td>
+    <td class="tdr">877,285</td>
+    <td class="tdr">834,671</td>
+    <td class="tdr">266,378</td>
+    <td class="tdr">359,419</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdr">Total</td>
+    <td class="tdr total">2,154,586</td>
+    <td class="tdr total">2,291,231</td>
+    <td class="tdr total">742,355</td>
+    <td class="tdr total">961,431</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<table class="borders">
+  <tr>
+    <th rowspan="2"></th>
+    <th colspan="2">Departures.</th>
+    <th colspan="2">Arrivals.</th>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <th>1851.</th>
+    <th>1852.</th>
+    <th>1851.</th>
+    <th>1852.</th>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Akméshed</td>
+    <td class="tdr">2</td>
+    <td class="tdr">5</td>
+    <td class="tdr">1</td>
+    <td class="tdr">5</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Eupatoria</td>
+    <td class="tdr">195</td>
+    <td class="tdr">188</td>
+    <td class="tdr">187</td>
+    <td class="tdr">189</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Sevastopol</td>
+    <td class="tdr">463</td>
+    <td class="tdr">466</td>
+    <td class="tdr">483</td>
+    <td class="tdr">452</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Balaclava</td>
+    <td class="tdr">15</td>
+    <td class="tdr">10</td>
+    <td class="tdr">12</td>
+    <td class="tdr">7</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Yalta</td>
+    <td class="tdr">84</td>
+    <td class="tdr">62</td>
+    <td class="tdr">96</td>
+    <td class="tdr">66</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Theodosia</td>
+    <td class="tdr">247</td>
+    <td class="tdr">229</td>
+    <td class="tdr">201</td>
+    <td class="tdr">144</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Kertch</td>
+    <td class="tdr">1,038</td>
+    <td class="tdr">1,094</td>
+    <td class="tdr">1,053</td>
+    <td class="tdr">1,111</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdr">Total</td>
+    <td class="tdr total">2,044</td>
+    <td class="tdr total">2,054</td>
+    <td class="tdr total">2,033</td>
+    <td class="tdr total">1,974</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_354">[354]</span></p>
+
+<h3 id="APPENDIX_E">(E.)<br>
+ADVANTAGES LIKELY TO ACCRUE TO THE TRADE OF THE DANUBE FROM THE
+ESTABLISHMENT OF A FREE PORT AT THE ST. GEORGE’S MOUTH OF THE RIVER.</h3>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp100" style="max-width: 9.375em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/line2.jpg" alt="">
+</figure>
+
+<p>The subject of the opening of the Danube is so intimately
+connected with the countries about which I have written, that I
+think it will be interesting to the public to read the following
+memorandum which has just been sent home by Mr. Cunningham,
+the English Consul at Galatz, and a merchant at that port.</p>
+
+<h4>MEMORANDUM.</h4>
+
+<p>As the navigation of the Danube forms one of the Four
+Points to be settled between the Allies and Russia, there can be
+little doubt that the present war will not terminate without the
+navigation of that river being placed on a clear, secure, and lasting
+footing, and such as to encourage the investment of capital in
+mercantile enterprises in the vicinity of this river. Further, that
+those nations interested in the trade and navigation of the river
+will adopt proper means not only to remove all material impediments
+to the navigation in the first instance, but also that they
+will provide a permanent fund, by a tax on vessels frequenting the
+river or otherwise, to keep the channels in the best state for the
+security and despatch of shipping; and will further make such
+arrangements as shall appear most conducive to the extension of
+the trade of the countries situate along its banks.</p>
+
+<p>No one measure would conduce more to the facility of the trade
+and navigation of the river, to the prosperity of the countries on
+the Lower Danube, and to the extension of their agriculture, than
+the formation of a free port at the mouth of the river Danube.</p>
+
+<p>In order to understand the advantages which a free port at the
+mouth of the Danube would confer on the trade of the river, it is
+necessary to state how it is carried on at present, and the difficulties
+it has to contend with, particularly in the export trade in
+grain.</p>
+
+<p>All the grain of Wallachia is exported from Ibraila.</p>
+
+<p>All the grain of Moldavia is exported from Galatz.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_355">[355]</span></p>
+
+<p>All the grain of Bulgaria which goes out by the Danube is exported
+from Matchin.</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="smaller hanging"><span class="smcap">Note.</span>—In spring, when the water in the Danube is high, some small
+sea-going vessels go up to Silistria to load Bulgarian wheat,
+and to Giurgevo to load Wallachian wheat.</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>All the grain of Bessarabia which goes out by the Danube is
+shipped from Reni and Ismail.</p>
+
+<p>The grain, the produce of one of these provinces, cannot be
+brought to any other province, not even for shipment, but the vessel
+must go to the port where the grain is in order to receive it.</p>
+
+<p>This state of things causes much trouble, inconvenience, and
+expense to the merchant, as the merchant residing in one of the
+towns mentioned (generally in Galatz) may be shipping grain
+from all these ports at one time, without being able to ascertain
+the quality or condition of the grain he is shipping at any port
+excepting at the place where he resides. It is also inconvenient
+and expensive to shipmasters, who must first call at Galatz for
+orders, and may afterwards be sent to any of the ports mentioned.</p>
+
+<p>Galatz and Ibraila are called free ports by their respective
+governments, but most improperly so: first, grain and tallow cannot
+be brought from Wallachia into Galatz, nor from Moldavia
+into Ibraila; the importation of these two articles into Moldavia or
+Wallachia from any quarter whatever, even for exportation, is
+prohibited. It follows therefore that the grain of Turkey cannot
+be warehoused in Galatz or Ibraila for exportation. As grain
+forms nine-tenths of the export trade of the Danube, it follows
+that the name of Free Port is altogether illusory.</p>
+
+<p>Excepting the above two articles, and salt, all other articles
+may be brought into Galatz and Ibraila, and exported without
+payment of duty, provided the following forms be observed. On
+introducing the article it must be declared for exportation, and it
+must not be sold. If sold, the buyer must pay duty on exporting
+the article. But it must be observed that all articles the production
+of Moldavia and Wallachia are brought into Galatz and
+Ibraila respectively by land without payment of duty, and the
+duty is only paid on being exported by water from the so-called
+free port.</p>
+
+<p>It is scarcely necessary to add that as in Turkey and Russia
+there is no pretension to a free port, the duty on all articles sent
+into either of these countries would have to be paid on entering,
+and again on being exported. The introduction of grain into
+Russia is prohibited.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_356">[356]</span></p>
+
+<p>It must be evident that it would be very advantageous to the
+export trade of the Danube, which is at present almost entirely
+confined to grain, to have some one point where the grain from
+all the different shipping ports could be brought forward in river
+craft, and there loaded on board of sea-going vessels. This can
+only be effected by having a free port established. But this free
+port would be equally advantageous for imports, which, being
+brought to one place, could be more conveniently sent forward to
+their various ports of destination along the Danube.</p>
+
+<p>As steam power for river navigation has such an evident advantage
+over sailing vessels, it is quite behind the age to take sailing
+vessels 100 miles up a river for cargo, when the cargo can be
+brought down more easily and economically to the mouth of the
+river by steam; it is therefore apparent that, in seeking to establish
+<i>a free port on the Danube for the first time</i>, it ought to be
+placed as near as possible to the sea. For this reason the free
+port should be placed either at the Sulina mouth or at the St.
+George’s mouth. As, however, Sulina consists only of a narrow
+strip of land between the river and a marsh, and as that strip is
+subject to be overflowed, Sulina is not suited for the site of a town.
+At the St. George’s mouth, on the right bank of the river, the land
+is high and well suited for the erection of a town, therefore the
+free port should in preference be placed there. It is probable
+that, on application being made, the Turkish Government would
+grant the rights of a free port to the whole of the island Ruselm
+formed by the Danube, the branch called Donnawitza, the lake
+Ramsim, and the sea. Even on the left bank, on the island of St.
+George, the ground is much higher than at Sulina. At the outset
+the St. George’s mouth presents a difficulty in comparison to that of
+Sulina, namely, whereas the Sulina mouth has only a single bar of
+about 150 yards broad, the St. George’s mouth has banks extending
+out fully a mile; <i>but, as the entrance into the St. George’s has never
+been carefully surveyed</i>, it is not known whether a channel may
+not extend all the way out, which only requires to be marked out
+by buoys; but in every case there can be no doubt that a channel
+could be opened up and kept open, at an expense which would fall
+very light on the number of vessels likely to enter it, in comparison
+to the heavy lighterage which they have hitherto had to pay at
+Sulina. The St. George’s branch is much finer than the Sulina;
+it discharges at least ten times more water than the Sulina does,
+and this should render it easy to make a deeper channel than at
+Sulina; it is much broader, and therefore would afford more
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_357">[357]</span>accommodation for shipping. It may be asked why, when the St.
+George presents so many advantages over the Sulina, no attempt
+has been made to render these advantages available? but when it
+is considered that Russia only held the left bank of this branch,
+while Turkey held the right bank, whereas Russia held both sides
+of the Sulina branch, it is evident that it was for the advantage of
+Russia to keep the St. George closed, and thus have the whole
+trade of the Danube under her control.</p>
+
+<p>To show precisely the disadvantage of having to ascend the
+river with sailing vessels to receive cargo, it may be stated that
+sailing vessels seldom arrive from Sulina at Galatz in less
+than fourteen days, and not unfrequently they take a month
+to come up. Again, in going down, what between putting part
+of their cargo into lighters in order to go over the shoals
+in the river, and what by grounding and getting the vessel off
+again, three weeks or a month are frequently consumed between
+Galatz and Sulina. But the best proof is in the rates of freight,
+as a vessel, obtaining 12<i>s.</i> per quarter from Galatz to England,
+would take cargo from the mouth of the Danube to England for
+8<i>s.</i> per quarter.</p>
+
+<p>No doubt a vessel might save much time by being towed up the
+river by a steamer; but there would always be danger of the vessel
+grounding, and part of the cargo would always have to be put into
+lighters. The steamer could bring down four times more grain in
+proper barges than the vessel could carry, and in less time.</p>
+
+<p>The uncertain political position of the Danube, and the difficulties
+and delays caused by quarantines, have hitherto prevented
+steam navigation from taking any considerable extension in that
+river; in fact, there have not yet been any steamers exclusively for
+the trade of the Principalities and Bulgaria. The steam navigation
+on the Lower Danube at the commencement of the present
+war with Russia was as follows:—The Imperial Royal Danube
+Steam Navigation Company of Vienna despatch a steamer weekly
+from Vienna to Galatz, and <i>vice versâ</i>. A steamer went weekly
+both up and down between Galatz and Turno Severin, on the
+Wallachian side of the river; and a steamer weekly between
+Galatz and Skella Cladova, on the Turkish side of the river.
+Besides these steamers, this Company had occasionally tugsteamers
+between this place and Calafat; and within the last four
+years it has had a number of iron barges, called <i>shlepfs</i>, on the
+Lower Danube, to be towed by steamers, for the conveyance of
+grain and other merchandise. The Austrian Lloyd’s Steam Company
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_358">[358]</span>of Trieste had steamers performing six voyages monthly
+between Galatz and Constantinople: this Company also kept a
+steamer plying between Galatz and Ibraila. The Russians had a
+steamer performing two voyages monthly between Galatz and
+Odessa.</p>
+
+<p>When, however, the trade and navigation of the Danube shall
+have been placed on a satisfactory and permanent footing, there can
+be little doubt that the companies having steamers on the Danube
+will increase their number, so as to meet the requirements of trade;
+or, should such not be the case, other companies will be established,
+as capital cannot be long wanting for an investment which
+offers at once security and good returns.</p>
+
+<p>Until the war between Russia and Turkey in 1828, grain and
+tallow from the Principalities could only be sent to Constantinople.
+Certain Turkish commissioners came yearly to the provinces and
+purchased grain, fixing their own price for it, and that price was
+so low as not to be remunerative to the cultivator. Consequently,
+very little grain was then grown in the Principalities, and it was
+harvested and brought to market in a most careless manner, having
+a great deal of earth and dirt mixed with it, and the quality was
+very bad.</p>
+
+<p>By the Treaty of Adrianople, the Russians gave free trade to the
+Principalities and the cultivation of grain was extended. So soon
+as the exportation of grain from the Principalities began to take
+a certain extension, the Russian Government perceived the double
+error it had committed, and endeavoured to correct it: this
+double error was, first, the trade of the Principalities was increased,
+and the attention of Europe was thereby called to them; secondly,
+the grain exported from the Principalities came into competition
+and lowered the price of the grain of the Russian ports on the
+Black Sea. For this end the Russians prevented the establishment
+of a general entrepôt on the Danube; they imposed vexatious
+quarantine regulations on shipping and merchandise; and they
+prevented the removing of banks and shoals and other impediments
+to the navigation of the river.</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding all these discouragements and impediments,
+the exportation of Moldavia and Wallachia by Galatz and Ibraila
+down the Danube in the year 1852 had reached the following
+quantities:—</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_359">[359]</span></p>
+
+<table class="borders">
+  <tr>
+    <th></th>
+    <th>Galatz.</th>
+    <th>Ibraila.</th>
+    <th>Total.</th>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td></td>
+    <td class="tdc smaller">Quarters.</td>
+    <td class="tdc smaller">Quarters.</td>
+    <td class="tdc smaller">Quarters.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Wheat</td>
+    <td class="tdr">187,555</td>
+    <td class="tdr">343,584</td>
+    <td class="tdr">531,139</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Indian Corn</td>
+    <td class="tdr">329,279</td>
+    <td class="tdr">725,259</td>
+    <td class="tdr">1,054,538</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Rye</td>
+    <td class="tdr">96,900</td>
+    <td class="tdr">1,296</td>
+    <td class="tdr">98,196</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Barley</td>
+    <td class="tdr">468</td>
+    <td class="tdr">80,278</td>
+    <td class="tdr">80,746</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Millet</td>
+    <td class="tdr">—</td>
+    <td class="tdr">5,180</td>
+    <td class="tdr">5,180</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdr">Total</td>
+    <td class="tdr total">614,202</td>
+    <td class="tdr total">1,155,597</td>
+    <td class="tdr total">1,769,799</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>The exportation of grain from Turkey, and consequently from
+Bulgaria, was prohibited until the year 1839, when the exportation
+was allowed by the treaty of commerce made between
+Turkey and England in that year. The exportation of grain from
+Bulgaria by the Danube has made very little progress hitherto,
+and not more than 200,000 quarters of grain of all sorts have
+been exported by the Danube in any one year.</p>
+
+<p>There are many reasons no doubt for this want of progress;
+among which are, the improper interference of the Turkish
+Government, which has already forbidden the exportation of grain
+four different times, under pretext that there was a scarcity of
+grain in Turkey; the interference of pashas and other Turks in
+authority, who are always endeavouring to have a monopoly of the
+grain trade of their districts; also the insufficient protection of
+the cultivators. But another reason, and which had great influence,
+was the want of a proper place for shipping on board of sea-going
+vessels, as there is no place on the Turkish side of the Danube
+with suitable warehouses, and Turkish grain was not allowed to be
+warehoused in Wallachia or Moldavia.</p>
+
+<p>Little doubt can be entertained, that inquiry will be made into
+the causes which prevent the extension of agriculture in Turkey
+for the purpose of removing them, and that, in consequence, the
+exportation of grain from Bulgaria will increase rapidly.</p>
+
+<p>Grain of Bessarabia is exported from Reni and Ismail on the
+Danube, but by far the larger portion of the produce of that
+province goes to Odessa for shipment, being attracted to that
+place by the lower rate of freights which prevails there than on
+the Danube. Were the freights from the Danube reduced to the
+same rates as those from Odessa, there can be little doubt that
+nearly the whole of the grain produced in Bessarabia would be
+brought to the Danube for shipment. The quantity of grain
+exported from Ismail is larger than what is exported from Reni;
+in the year 1852 the quantity exported from these two ports may
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_360">[360]</span>have amounted, to 400,000 quarters. It is proper to observe,
+that although Ismail is situate on the Kilia branch of the Danube,
+yet the vessels at present frequenting that port enter and go out
+by the Sulina branch, and would consequently go by the St. George’s
+were it rendered more commodious.</p>
+
+<p>From what has been stated it results that the quantity of grain
+exported from the Danube in 1852 was:—</p>
+
+<table>
+  <tr>
+    <th></th>
+    <th>Imperial Quarters.</th>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>From Galatz</td>
+    <td class="tdr">614,202</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td><span class="ditto">”</span> Ibraila</td>
+    <td class="tdr">1,155,597</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td><span class="ditto">”</span> Bulgaria (about)</td>
+    <td class="tdr">200,000</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td><span class="ditto">”</span> Bessarabia</td>
+    <td class="tdr">400,000</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td></td>
+    <td class="tdr total">2,369,799</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>But the production of Moldavia and Wallachia goes on increasing
+at the rate of about five per cent. yearly, and should this free port be
+obtained, a further impetus will be given to the exportation by the
+reduction of freights. For the same reason it may be expected
+that the exportation of Bessarabia by the Danube will be greatly
+increased, as produce, in place of being carried to Odessa, will be
+brought to the Danube for shipment. Then as regards Bulgaria,
+taking into account internal impediments to cultivation, which may
+be expected to be removed, and facilities to exportation and lower
+freights, it cannot be doubted that the production and exportation
+of grain from Bulgaria will increase very rapidly. For these
+reasons it may safely be reckoned, that ten years after the
+establishment of peace, and a convenient free port near the mouth
+of the Danube, the following quantities of grain will be exported
+from the Danube:—</p>
+
+<table>
+  <tr>
+    <th></th>
+    <th>Imperial Quarters.</th>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>From Wallachia</td>
+    <td class="tdr">2,000,000</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td><span class="ditto">”</span> Moldavia</td>
+    <td class="tdr">1,000,000</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td><span class="ditto">”</span> Bulgaria</td>
+    <td class="tdr">1,500,000</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td><span class="ditto">”</span> Bessarabia</td>
+    <td class="tdr">1,000,000</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td></td>
+    <td class="tdr total">5,500,000</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>Regarding the present manner of bringing forward grain for
+shipment on board of sea-going vessels, it is to be observed that
+all the grain shipped from Galatz comes forward to that place by
+land. Of that shipped from Ibraila, not over one-fifth comes
+forward by land; the rest is brought down the Danube by river
+craft, called <i>kerlatze</i>, from Calafat, Islas, Giurgevo, Calarrach,
+&amp;c. Latterly, the Vienna Danube Steam Navigation Company
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_361">[361]</span>has occasionally brought down grain from Upper Wallachia in
+shlepfs or iron barges. Of the grain shipped from Bulgaria, a portion
+is shipped from Silistria by small vessels, which go up to that
+place in spring when the water is high; the remainder is brought
+down, by kerlatze, from Widdin, Sistove, Rustchuk, &amp;c., to
+Matchin, for shipment. At Matchin some warehouses have lately
+been built. The grain shipped from Bessarabia is all brought forward
+to Reni and Ismail by land.</p>
+
+<p>The rate of freight, by kerlatze, from Calafat to Ibraila, in the
+course of the last four years, has ranged from P. 60-P. 120 of
+the G. S. per 1000 okes, equal per quarter to 2<i>s.</i> 2<i>d.</i> to 4<i>s.</i> 3<i>d.</i>;
+but P. 80 per 1000 okes may be taken as the usual freight, or
+per quarter 2<i>s.</i> 10<i>d.</i>, for conveyance the distance of 300 miles
+English. The freight charged by the Austrian Danube Steam
+Company for conveying grain in iron barges, towed by steamers
+from Calafat to Ibraila, varies according to the season and demand,
+but may be taken on an average at 30 kreutzers per 100
+funti, 4<i>s.</i> per imperial quarter. The kerlatze, or river craft, perform
+a voyage from Ibraila up to Calafat, empty and back with a
+cargo of grain, in about two months. A steamer towing shlepfs
+can perform the same voyage in ten days.</p>
+
+<p>The freight from Galatz to England may be taken as 50 per
+cent. higher than the freight from Odessa to England; thus,
+when freight from Odessa is 7<i>s.</i> per quarter, the freight from
+Galatz is 10<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i>: these are low freights. But were there a port
+at the St. George’s mouth, the freight from thence to England
+could never be more than from Odessa, but would probably be
+10 per cent. less. Thus allowing 1<i>s.</i> or 1<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> per quarter for
+freight from Galatz to St. George, there would be a saving, when
+freights were low, of at least 2<i>s.</i>, and when freights were high
+5<i>s.</i> to 6<i>s.</i> per quarter, in favour of bringing grain to the ships, in
+place of sending the ships to the grain.</p>
+
+<p>There would also be a great saving on the Insurance, and in
+the time of sending the merchandise to market.</p>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Charles Cunningham.</span></p>
+
+<p class="mt2"><i>Galatz, April 4, 1855.</i></p>
+
+<p class="titlepage smaller">LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET,<br>
+AND CHARING CROSS.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="transnote" id="illus6">
+Transcriber’s Note: The image is clickable for a larger version.
+</div>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp100" style="max-width: 37.5em;">
+  <a href="images/illus6-full.jpg"><img class="w100" src="images/illus6.jpg" alt=""></a>
+  <figcaption>
+      <p>THE CRIMEA, WITH THE NORTHERN SHORES OF THE BLACK SEA
+      AND SEA OF AZOV.</p>
+      <p><i>Published by John Murray Albemarle Sᵗ. February 1855.</i>
+      <i>Ford &amp; West. Lithʳˢ.</i></p>
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="FOOTNOTES">FOOTNOTES</h2>
+
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1" class="label">[1]</a> Voyage autour du Caucase, par Frédéric Dubois de Montpereux. 6 vols.
+with an Atlas. Paris, 1839.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_2" href="#FNanchor_2" class="label">[2]</a> Études sur les Forces Productives de Russie, par M. L. de Tegoborski,
+Conseiller Privé et Membre du Conseil de l’Empire de Russie. 3 vols. Paris,
+1852-54.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_3" href="#FNanchor_3" class="label">[3]</a> Les Steppes de la Mer Caspienne, le Caucase, la Crimée, et la Russie
+Méridionale. 3 vols., with an Atlas. Paris, 1845.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_4" href="#FNanchor_4" class="label">[4]</a> This was the strength of the army in 1846, when I left it.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_5" href="#FNanchor_5" class="label">[5]</a> I do not reckon as a war the short period of misunderstanding with them
+in the reign of the Emperor Paul.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_6" href="#FNanchor_6" class="label">[6]</a> He was a Mussulman, but all the rest of his family are Christians.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_7" href="#FNanchor_7" class="label">[7]</a> As this is a point of some importance, I think it right to state that my
+authority for this statement is Mr. Carruthers, late Consul, and Mr. Lander,
+late a merchant, at Taganrok.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_8" href="#FNanchor_8" class="label">[8]</a> This name appears for the first
+time in Theophanes, page 316. He
+says, “Justinian remembering the
+plot against him of the Chersonites, the
+Bosphorians, and the inhabitants of
+the other Klimata.” Some authors
+supposed it to refer to the southern
+coast, but Dubois applies it to the
+northern slopes of the Tauric chain (the
+same country which was called Doru
+by the earlier writers), principally
+from the following passage in Constantine
+Porphyrogenitus:—“One part
+of the nation of the Patzinakes is found
+next to the Chersonites, of whom they
+are the carriers. They always treat
+them well, as it would be easy for
+them to ravage and destroy Cherson
+and the Klimata.” He adds, “From
+Cherson to the Bosphorus are the
+castles of the Klimata.” Dubois, Voyage
+autour du Caucase, chez les
+Tcherkess Abkhazes, en Calchide,
+en Georgie, en Arménie, en Crimée:
+ouvrage qui a remporté le prix de la
+Société de Géographie de Paris, 1838:
+vol. v. p. 5.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_9" href="#FNanchor_9" class="label">[9]</a> That is, passing through Bereslaf;
+for, by going straight from Perecop
+to Kherson by Adeski, it is
+only 332 miles, but this road is not
+always practicable, on account of the
+difficulty of crossing the Dniepr.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_10" href="#FNanchor_10" class="label">[10]</a> Its old Russian name was Belaio
+Veja, and it was called Kiz Kerman, or
+the Girl’s Castle, by the Tatars (Vsevolovski,
+Dict. Hist. Géog. de la Russie).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_11" href="#FNanchor_11" class="label">[11]</a> The following is the account
+Herodotus gives of this river:—“The
+fourth is the river Borysthenes, which
+is the largest of these after the Ister,
+and, in my opinion, the most productive,
+not only of the Scythian
+rivers, but of all others, except the
+Egyptian Nile; for to this it is impossible
+to compare any other river,
+but of the rest the Borysthenes is the
+most productive. It affords the most
+excellent and valuable pasture for
+cattle, and fish of the highest excellence
+and in great quantities;
+it is most sweet to drink; it flows
+pure in the midst of turbid rivers;
+the sown land near it is of the best
+quality; and the herbage, where the
+land is not sown, is very tall; at its
+mouth abundance of salt is crystallized
+spontaneously; and it produces large
+whales, without any spiral bones,
+which they call Antacæi, fit for salting,
+and many other things that
+deserve admiration. The Borysthenes
+continues flowing near the sea, and
+the Hypanis mingles with it, discharging
+itself into the same morass.”
+Lib. 4.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_12" href="#FNanchor_12" class="label">[12]</a> About 1801 the English, French,
+Dutch, and Prussians obtained permission
+for their mercantile navy to
+pass the Bosphorus.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_13" href="#FNanchor_13" class="label">[13]</a> 1791.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_14" href="#FNanchor_14" class="label">[14]</a> 877 miles from Moscow, and 1362
+miles from St. Petersburg.—Lyell.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_15" href="#FNanchor_15" class="label">[15]</a> Castelnau.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_16" href="#FNanchor_16" class="label">[16]</a> Strange to say, stores are always
+scanty here, perhaps because many
+kinds deteriorate by keeping. Even
+timber is wanting for ship-building,
+and is used green, and never seasoned.
+A part of the ‘Twelve Apostles’ was
+rotten when she was launched.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_17" href="#FNanchor_17" class="label">[17]</a> This fact is noticed by Herodotus.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_18" href="#FNanchor_18" class="label">[18]</a> Lyell’s Travels.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_19" href="#FNanchor_19" class="label">[19]</a> There used to be many governor-generals
+in Russia, and there is still
+one for the Ukraine, which comprehends
+the governments of Kharkow,
+Tchérnigof, and Pultava.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_20" href="#FNanchor_20" class="label">[20]</a> See Hist. of the Precopian Tatars,
+London, 1693; also Peyssonel,
+Commerce de la Mer Noire, in which
+there is a Dissertation on the Tatars,
+from information gained among them
+by the author, who was French consul
+at Baktchéserai, the capital of the
+khan in 1773. The Tatars first appeared
+in Crimea in 1226.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_21" href="#FNanchor_21" class="label">[21]</a> Fletcher’s Hist. of Poland, p. 69 and 70.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_22" href="#FNanchor_22" class="label">[22]</a> Tanquam nidulo aliquo affixi.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_23" href="#FNanchor_23" class="label">[23]</a> See Fletcher’s History of Poland,
+p. 68, from which this account is
+taken. The original authorities are
+Chevalier’s work on the Cossack war,
+published 1663, and the Relazione
+di Polonia in the Harleian Collection.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_24" href="#FNanchor_24" class="label">[24]</a> From “Tchorny,” black, and
+“Moré,” the sea, in Russian.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_25" href="#FNanchor_25" class="label">[25]</a> From about <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> 1560-1783.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_26" href="#FNanchor_26" class="label">[26]</a> The country between the Dniestr
+and the Pruth, called Bessarabia, used
+to be an integral portion of Moldavia,
+and is still inhabited by Moldavians.
+It was torn from Turkey and given
+up to Russia in 1812, by the treaty
+of Bucharest, which was concluded by
+Sir Stratford Canning, then a very
+young man, who rose into notice from
+his services on this occasion.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_27" href="#FNanchor_27" class="label">[27]</a> See ‘Études sur les Forces productives
+de la Russie,’ par M. de
+Tegoborski, Membre du Conseil de
+l’Empire de Russie. Paris, 1852.
+Vol. i. p. 33.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_28" href="#FNanchor_28" class="label">[28]</a> “Step” is a Russian word.
+The following is the account of
+the Steppes taken from Von Hammer’s
+History of the Ottoman Empire:—“These
+Steppes are called by
+Oriental geographers ‘the fields of
+Hëihat:’ they extend from east to
+west from the banks of the Aksou
+(river Bug) and the Ouron (river
+Dniepr) to those of the Ten (river
+Don) and the Tel (river Wolga);
+northward as far as Astrakhan, and
+southward as far as the banks of the
+Kuban (river Hypanis): situated between
+the Caspian and Black Seas,
+they cover a superficies of 1000 parasangs
+(one parasang is about four
+miles). These immense Steppes, which
+Timour, in marching against Tóktamish,
+traversed in 180 days, are
+covered in winter with snow as high
+as the grass in summer, and are
+inhabited by the Nogais and Kalmouks.”
+Vol. ii. p. 109.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_29" href="#FNanchor_29" class="label">[29]</a> Hylè means “wood” in Greek.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_30" href="#FNanchor_30" class="label">[30]</a> Tegoborski, vol. i. pp. 34-36.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_31" href="#FNanchor_31" class="label">[31]</a> Geology of Russia in Europe, by Sir Roderick Murchison, vol. i. p. 559.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_32" href="#FNanchor_32" class="label">[32]</a> Well known in the English markets
+under the name of “the country
+of the Line.” The production has
+much decreased of late years, owing
+to so many of the Cossacks being employed
+for warlike purposes.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_33" href="#FNanchor_33" class="label">[33]</a> This account is taken from a
+paper by M. Teetzmann, steward of
+the estates of the Duke of Anhalt-Köthen,
+near Bereslaf. See Tegoborski,
+vol. i. p. 38.</p>
+
+<p>M. Teetzmann says, that on his
+domain, in the 10 years from 1832 to
+1841, rye and wheat produced on the
+average 6 times, barley 7 times, and
+millet 23 times the amount sown. In
+this time there were some years when
+the rye gave 16 times, wheat and
+barley 15 times, and millet 64 times
+the amount sown; but there was also
+one year when the crops entirely
+failed, and others when they did not
+give more than the amount sown.
+This was in a country which M. T.
+ranks among the “Eternal Steppes.”</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_34" href="#FNanchor_34" class="label">[34]</a> The post-carts are found at every
+post station throughout European
+Russia, from Archangel to the banks
+of Erasas, on the borders of Persia,
+and are called “pavosk,” or “telega,”
+or “pereclodnoi;” they are very low,
+have a seat for the driver in front, and
+will, with difficulty, hold two persons
+inside: they have no springs and no
+seat, and the traveller sits on his
+luggage. In this way, couriers and
+officers perform journeys of 1000 and
+2000 miles without stopping, except
+to change at each station. I have
+myself performed a journey of 1200
+miles from Tiflis to Odessa in this
+manner, and have frequently known
+Russians to have travelled 12,000 to
+13,000 miles within the year.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_35" href="#FNanchor_35" class="label">[35]</a> “It would be tedious to notice
+on every occasion the extraordinary
+number of tumuli which appear
+during the whole route (<i>i. e.</i> from
+Kasankaia to Tcherkask): I wish the
+reader only to keep in mind the
+curious fact of their being everywhere
+in view.”—Clarke’s Travels, part i.
+p. 254.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_36" href="#FNanchor_36" class="label">[36]</a> Mus citillus of Buffon.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_37" href="#FNanchor_37" class="label">[37]</a> See Clarke’s Travels, part i. ch. 12.
+Recently rewards have been offered
+for the destruction of the suslics on
+account of the great injury they do to
+the crops and fields. They make the
+steppe very dangerous for riding.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_38" href="#FNanchor_38" class="label">[38]</a> Nat. Hist., cap. 26.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_39" href="#FNanchor_39" class="label">[39]</a> This name is said to be derived
+either from Horus and Kapou (and it
+would then mean the gate of Horus
+or the frontier), or from the Tatar
+word “Or,” or “Ore,” meaning fire.
+Von Hammer.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_40" href="#FNanchor_40" class="label">[40]</a> In the name of Beresin is preserved
+the ancient name of the isle
+Boristhenis, which, like the island of
+Leuké, at the mouth of the Ister, was
+devoted to the races in honour of
+Achilles; and the “Kil” in Kilboroún
+probably comes from Achilles,
+the sovereign of Pontus, although the
+Tatars explain the word as meaning
+a promontory as fine as a “hair,”
+since “Kil” means hair in their language.—Page
+362.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_41" href="#FNanchor_41" class="label">[41]</a> Von Hammer, Hist. de l’Empire Ottomane, vol. xiv. p. 360-364.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_42" href="#FNanchor_42" class="label">[42]</a> The whole account of the coasts
+and soundings is taken from the
+‘Pilot of the Black Sea and the
+Azof,’ by M. Taitbout de Marigny.
+Constantinople, 1850.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_43" href="#FNanchor_43" class="label">[43]</a> P. 60.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_44" href="#FNanchor_44" class="label">[44]</a> P. 51.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_45" href="#FNanchor_45" class="label">[45]</a> P. 53, 54.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_46" href="#FNanchor_46" class="label">[46]</a> Gloubok means “deep” in Russian.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_47" href="#FNanchor_47" class="label">[47]</a> For a further account, see <a href="#CHAPTER_VI">Chap. VI.</a></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_48" href="#FNanchor_48" class="label">[48]</a> This was in about the year 1838. See H. de Hell.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_49" href="#FNanchor_49" class="label">[49]</a> Crimea was divided into 48 kadilics.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_50" href="#FNanchor_50" class="label">[50]</a> Peyssonel, de la Commerce de la Mer Noire, vol. i. p. 252.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_51" href="#FNanchor_51" class="label">[51]</a> Dubois, vol. v. p. 390.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_52" href="#FNanchor_52" class="label">[52]</a> One verst, equal to about three-quarters of an English mile; 108 Russian
+versts = 1 degree; 69 English miles = 1 degree.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_53" href="#FNanchor_53" class="label">[53]</a> De la Motraye, 3 vols. fol. illustrated
+by Hogarth: vol. ii. p. 42.
+The temperature of the water is 10°
+Réaumur, 54° Fahrenheit. See R. P.
+Koeppen, uber 130, Tauriens Quellen,
+p. 13. See Dubois, vol. vi. p. 325.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_54" href="#FNanchor_54" class="label">[54]</a> The following is the translation
+of the Tatar inscription on this
+fountain:—“Glory to God most
+High! the face of Baktchéserai is
+made glad by the beneficent care of
+glorious Prince Geray Khan. With
+a prodigal hand he has satisfied the
+thirst of his country, and he will
+spread other blessings if God lends
+him his assistance.</p>
+
+<p>“By care and trouble he has opened
+this excellent spring of water. If
+there exist such another fountain, let
+it come! We have seen the towns of
+Cham (Damascus) and Bagdad, but
+nowhere have we seen such a fountain.
+The author of this inscription is called
+Cheiki. If any man, fainting from
+thirst, reads these words across the
+water which escapes trickling from
+the slender pipe, what do they tell
+him? Come: drink this limpid water
+that flows from the purest of springs;
+it gives health!”</p>
+
+<p>The last three words, when reduced
+into figures, give the date 1176 (<span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span>
+1762).—Dubois, vol. vi. p. 328.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_55" href="#FNanchor_55" class="label">[55]</a> See Dubois, vol. vi. p. 331.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_56" href="#FNanchor_56" class="label">[56]</a> He was poisoned in <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> 1769.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_57" href="#FNanchor_57" class="label">[57]</a> Hommaire de Hell, Travels in the Steppes of the Caspian, p. 360,
+English edition.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_58" href="#FNanchor_58" class="label">[58]</a> Dubois (Voyage du), vol. vi. p. 337.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_59" href="#FNanchor_59" class="label">[59]</a> The population of Tchoufout Kaleh
+in 1830 was composed of 492
+men and 617 women, altogether 1109
+Jewish inhabitants. P. de Koeffen,
+Baktchéserai zur Zeit der Cholera,
+1830.—See Dubois, vol. vi. p. 340.
+Hommaire de Hell says, in 1842,
+they were gradually leaving, to settle
+in Baktchéserai: p. 364.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_60" href="#FNanchor_60" class="label">[60]</a> Henderson, p. 314.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_61" href="#FNanchor_61" class="label">[61]</a> Also Hothinger, Albringrus, Triglandius,
+and others. See Henderson.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_62" href="#FNanchor_62" class="label">[62]</a> The name Karaim comes from
+the Hebrew word “Kara,” Scripture.
+They are also frequently called “Bene
+Mukra,” sons of the text, and “Baala
+Mikra,” masters or possessors of the
+text. Henderson’s ‘Biblical Res. in
+Russia,’ p. 316.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_63" href="#FNanchor_63" class="label">[63]</a> She died <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> 1437-38—year of the Hedgra, 841.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_64" href="#FNanchor_64" class="label">[64]</a> The name “Tchoufout” applied
+to the Jews, is said by Pallas to be
+derived from “Cifutti,” which was a
+term of reproach applied to them at
+Genoa. There are many Genoese
+words in the Tatar language.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_65" href="#FNanchor_65" class="label">[65]</a> Kirkor is first mentioned by
+Abulfeda (1341), under the name of
+Kerkri, and he says it was then
+inhabited by the As. Kerkor was
+probably the capital of the Khans of
+Crimea from about 1400 to 1480
+<span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span>—Dubois’ Voyage, &amp;c., vol. vi. p.
+343.</p>
+
+<p>In 1396 “the Khan of Kirkel” is
+found fighting on the banks of the
+Don, against Vitort, Grand Duke of
+Lithuania. Pallas and Clarke think
+the Genoese possessed this place, as
+well as Mangoup and Eski Crim, but
+Dubois doubts this fact.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_66" href="#FNanchor_66" class="label">[66]</a> The question as to who built the
+crypts is fully discussed in Dubois,
+vol. vi.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_67" href="#FNanchor_67" class="label">[67]</a> Dubois, vol. vi. p. 347.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_68" href="#FNanchor_68" class="label">[68]</a> Whenever the Russians say Tatars
+and Kalmucks, the ethnologists
+I have chiefly followed say Turks
+and Mongols.</p>
+
+<p>“Ethnologically viewed, the ‘Tatars’
+or ‘Tartars’ were a tribe nearly
+allied to the Mongols in race, who
+dwelt near the lake Bougir, to the
+eastward of Mongoliei. They were
+among the first of the Mongol conquests,
+and they took afterwards so
+conspicuous a place in the army of
+Zingis Khan that their name became
+synonymous with that of the Mongols.
+Their proper name was Tatars. It
+was said to have been changed into
+Tartars in consequence of an expression
+of St. Louis, who, when the
+devastations of Zingis Khan were
+heard of with horror in Western
+Europe, is reported to have exclaimed,
+‘Let this heavenly consolation, O
+Virgin Mother, sustain us if they
+come, that either we will drive the
+Tartars, as we call them, back to their
+Tartarean (infernal) seats, whence
+they have sprung, or they shall raise
+us all to heaven.’”—<i>Dr. Smith’s Note,
+Gibbon</i>, vol. iii., p. 294.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_69" href="#FNanchor_69" class="label">[69]</a> Or the Great Khan.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_70" href="#FNanchor_70" class="label">[70]</a> Karamsin, vol. v. p. 83.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_71" href="#FNanchor_71" class="label">[71]</a> Tóktamish was descended from
+Touschi, son of Zingis Khan, the
+Mongol hero. Tamerlane was a Turk,
+but claimed to be descended by the
+females from Zingis Khan. He was
+born 1335; d. 1405.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_72" href="#FNanchor_72" class="label">[72]</a> After being four times khan, he died in 1704.—<i>Von Hammer’s Genealogical
+Tables.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_73" href="#FNanchor_73" class="label">[73]</a> Discourse on the Precopian Tatars. London, 1693, <i>passim</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_74" href="#FNanchor_74" class="label">[74]</a> Travels in the Steppes of the Caspian: see p. 369, English edition.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_75" href="#FNanchor_75" class="label">[75]</a> Douvankoi means the Valley of
+Prayer (see ‘Pallas’s Travels’).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_76" href="#FNanchor_76" class="label">[76]</a> This is the name of the fort
+and suburb on the north side of the
+bay of Sevastopol. “Sievarna”
+means northern in Russian.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_77" href="#FNanchor_77" class="label">[77]</a> ‘Pallas’s Voyage,’ ii. 46, in Dubois.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_78" href="#FNanchor_78" class="label">[78]</a> ‘Pallas’s Voyage:’ see Dubois,
+vol. vi. p. 26.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_79" href="#FNanchor_79" class="label">[79]</a> Sevastopol, or Sebastopolis, is
+composed of two Greek words, “Sebastos”
+meaning Augustus, and
+“polis” a city; and it was the
+name of a Greek city of the Lower
+Empire on the eastern coast of the
+Black Sea in Abkhazia.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_80" href="#FNanchor_80" class="label">[80]</a> The ancient Greek city of Kherson
+was close to Sevastopol, but in
+the time of the Empress Catherine it
+was supposed to have stood near the
+mouth of the Dniepr, and the new
+city she founded there was therefore
+called by that name.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_81" href="#FNanchor_81" class="label">[81]</a> Clarke, in 1800, ii., page 98;
+Reuilly in 1803; Castelnau in 1817;
+Montandon in 1833.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_82" href="#FNanchor_82" class="label">[82]</a> The wooden telegraph thus carries messages from Sevastopol to Odessa,
+whence there is the electric telegraph to Petersburg.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_83" href="#FNanchor_83" class="label">[83]</a> In 1834 there were 1500 working with the chain, without counting the
+other prisoners.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_84" href="#FNanchor_84" class="label">[84]</a> “Black rivulet” in English.
+Large reservoirs were formed at a
+distance in the mountains to supply
+the canal, but they gave way. The
+river was insufficient, and a steam
+engine was lately erected to pump
+sea water into the docks.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_85" href="#FNanchor_85" class="label">[85]</a> This is taking the paper rouble
+at the same value as the franc, but
+it is really rather more.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_86" href="#FNanchor_86" class="label">[86]</a> It is but justice to Col. Upton,
+who is now no more, to observe,
+notwithstanding the reports lately
+circulated about certain faults in the
+early part of his life, that he enjoyed
+a good reputation among his own
+countrymen in Russia, and was considered
+a honest and faithful servant
+of his employer, while he has left
+monuments of his talents of which
+we may be proud.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_87" href="#FNanchor_87" class="label">[87]</a> Naval Gunnery, 4th ed., p. 619.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_88" href="#FNanchor_88" class="label">[88]</a> Toola, besides the Government,
+has many private establishments, and
+is considered as the Birmingham of
+Russia.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_89" href="#FNanchor_89" class="label">[89]</a> For all these details see Tanski,
+Tableau du Système Militaire de la
+Russie. Paris, 1833, p. 295-7.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_90" href="#FNanchor_90" class="label">[90]</a> For many years all the harbours of the Crimea were shut to commerce
+on the plea of there being no quarantines.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_91" href="#FNanchor_91" class="label">[91]</a> He writes in 1852.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_92" href="#FNanchor_92" class="label">[92]</a> Haxthausen, Études sur la Russie, vol. iii. p. 477-479.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_93" href="#FNanchor_93" class="label">[93]</a> ‘Histoire de la Russie,’ tom. ii.
+p. 624, par Mons. Chopin, Paris,
+1838. This gentleman was for many
+years an employé in Russia.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_94" href="#FNanchor_94" class="label">[94]</a> The first part of this chapter is
+based upon Haxthausen, vol. iii.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_95" href="#FNanchor_95" class="label">[95]</a> Will of Peter the Great, transmitted
+by the Chevalier d’Eon, French
+Ambassador at Petersburg, to his court
+in 1757, and soon after made public.
+See ‘Geschichte Peters des Grossen,’
+by Peters, published at Leipsic.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_96" href="#FNanchor_96" class="label">[96]</a> <i>Equipage</i> is the French for “crew.”</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_97" href="#FNanchor_97" class="label">[97]</a> See <a href="#APPENDIX_C">Appendix C.</a>, on the Timber Trade.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_98" href="#FNanchor_98" class="label">[98]</a> Hommaire de Hell, vol. ii. p. 383, French edition.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_99" href="#FNanchor_99" class="label">[99]</a> See <a href="#APPENDIX_A">App. (A)</a>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_100" href="#FNanchor_100" class="label">[100]</a> See Sir H. Douglas’s ‘Naval
+Gunnery,’ from which I have borrowed
+all this account of the Paixhans system,
+p. 289-291.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_101" href="#FNanchor_101" class="label">[101]</a> This chapter is based upon the
+account of the Russian army by M.
+Haxthausen, and a great portion of it
+is borrowed from him. He had access
+to Russian official records.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_102" href="#FNanchor_102" class="label">[102]</a> M. Tegoborski, the mouthpiece
+of the Government of St. Petersburg,
+states that the estimate of the regular
+army alone in 1854 was from 800,000
+to 900,000 men, and that it may be
+raised to 1,250,000 men in 1855.
+‘Revue des Deux Mondes,’ Nov. 15,
+1854, p. 802.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_103" href="#FNanchor_103" class="label">[103]</a> Haxthausen, vol. iii. p. 335.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_104" href="#FNanchor_104" class="label">[104]</a> See his will, which has been often published.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_105" href="#FNanchor_105" class="label">[105]</a> Haxthausen, vol. iii. p. 331.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_106" href="#FNanchor_106" class="label">[106]</a> Nestor was a monk of Kieff, and ceased to write about <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span>
+    1016.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_107" href="#FNanchor_107" class="label">[107]</a> Chroniques de Nestor, French translation, c. 3, p. 54.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_108" href="#FNanchor_108" class="label">[108]</a> Haxthausen, vol. iii. p. 348.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_109" href="#FNanchor_109" class="label">[109]</a> Haxthausen, vol. iii. p. 340.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_110" href="#FNanchor_110" class="label">[110]</a> “The bankers of Berlin in 1853
+refused the 5 per cent. Russian loan
+at 83, with a bonus of 17 per 100 on
+the nominal capital. For the last
+twenty years Russia has been borrowing,
+to cover the deficit left in her
+budget by her enormous military
+preparations.”—Léon Faucher, ‘Revue
+des Deux Mondes,’ Nov. 15, 1854,
+p. 809.</p>
+
+<p>The position of Russia is well described
+by M. Léon Faucher:—“How
+can the riches of a country be spoken
+of, which is still on so many sides a
+desert to clear and people? There
+are scarcely 11 inhabitants to the
+square kilomètre (⅔rds of a mile).
+The average of life is only 20 years
+(less than half that of the inhabitants
+of London, which is 43), and this
+presents very precarious resources for
+recruiting immense armies. The
+middle classes in Russia are scarcely
+born; the nobles are in debt; the
+peasants are reduced to a state of
+serfdom, or live in a kind of communism
+which is the actual practice
+of the most immoral and barbarous
+theories; manufacturing industry is
+an artificial creation by high protective
+tariffs; agriculture, with the exception
+of the kingdom of Poland, is
+in a rude and patriarchal state. The
+forests, the steppes, and the marshes
+occupy ⅚ths of the empire; and
+can it be supposed that a soil thus
+badly prepared can furnish the means
+of successfully resisting the powers
+of the West, who have in abundance
+what Russia has a dearth of, or will
+soon have a dearth of, namely, men
+and money.”—Id. p. 318. These are
+home truths, and we have only to
+thank our late rulers that Russia is
+not already so far reduced as to be
+obliged to accept any terms that we
+chose to impose upon her.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_111" href="#FNanchor_111" class="label">[111]</a> I believe Count Radetski has also received this decoration since his
+Italian campaigns.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_112" href="#FNanchor_112" class="label">[112]</a> Perhaps the light division of
+cavalry of reserve and its light artillery
+(24 light pieces) should be
+considered quite independent of this
+second corps.—Haxthausen, vol. iii.
+p. 287.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_113" href="#FNanchor_113" class="label">[113]</a> I have already mentioned the
+diminution in the quantity of linseed
+and wheat brought into the English
+market from “the Line country,” in
+consequence of the demands upon the
+Cossacks for men.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_114" href="#FNanchor_114" class="label">[114]</a> “Sotni” comes from the Russian
+word sto—a hundred; “sot nic”
+means a captain.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_115" href="#FNanchor_115" class="label">[115]</a> If M. Haxthausen estimates so
+highly these Caucasian auxiliaries, if
+they could be brought to aid the
+Russians, why have we not long ago
+arrayed them against their natural
+enemies?</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_116" href="#FNanchor_116" class="label">[116]</a> See Haxthausen, vol. iii. p. 458.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_117" href="#FNanchor_117" class="label">[117]</a> Haxth. vol. iii. p. 460.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_118" href="#FNanchor_118" class="label">[118]</a> Napoleon’s opinion of the Cossacks
+was not high. In the celebrated
+29th bulletin of the Grand Army, he
+says of these gentry, “Even the Cossacks
+became formidable—that contemptible
+cavalry that, under ordinary
+circumstances, could not have penetrated
+a company of Voltigeurs.” I
+quote from memory.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_119" href="#FNanchor_119" class="label">[119]</a> Haxth. vol. iii. p. 301.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_120" href="#FNanchor_120" class="label">[120]</a> <i>First Levy.</i>—9 battalions of
+grenadiers, 3 battalions of carbineers,
+86 battalions of infantry of the line,
+36 battalions of chasseurs of the line,
+and 134 battalions of infantry; 52
+squadrons, and 24 batteries of infantry;
+representing a total of 98,000
+men, and 192 cannons.</p>
+
+<p><i>Second Levy.</i>—12 battalions of the
+guard, 12 battalions of the grenadiers
+and the carbineers; 72 battalions of
+infantry of the line, and the chasseurs;
+<i>in toto</i>, 96 battalions of infantry, 62
+squadrons, 24 batteries of infantry,
+11 batteries of cavalry, and 2½ battalions
+of sappers: presenting in round
+numbers 115,000 men and 280 cannons.—See
+Haxthausen, vol. iii. ch.
+on the Russian army.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_121" href="#FNanchor_121" class="label">[121]</a> See ‘Kreutz Zeitung,’ Feb. 1,
+1855, a Prussian newspaper, generally
+considered to have good information
+on Russian subjects. This paper
+also states, that, exclusive of the corps
+of the Caucasus and two divisions of
+the fifth and sixth corps detached in
+Asia, the Russian active forces now
+amount to 607 battalions, 562 squadrons,
+and 1712 field-pieces, which on
+paper represents 637,000 infantry,
+95,000 cavalry, and 42,000 artillery;
+and that no more than 10 per cent.
+is to be deducted for non-effectives.
+This would give a total of nearly
+700,000 men.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_122" href="#FNanchor_122" class="label">[122]</a> For this Chapter see Dubois, vol. vi.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_123" href="#FNanchor_123" class="label">[123]</a> This name is derived from <i>In</i> and <i>kerman</i>, a castle.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_124" href="#FNanchor_124" class="label">[124]</a> Dubois, vol. vi. p. 264.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_125" href="#FNanchor_125" class="label">[125]</a> Dubois, vol. vi. p. 266. Some
+say Keffe Kil means “froth earth.”
+Clarke says that it is from this earth
+that the famous meerschaum (froth
+of the sea) pipes are made.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_126" href="#FNanchor_126" class="label">[126]</a> The date of the earliest tomb of
+the Karaim Jews at Mangoup is the
+year of the world 5034 (<span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> 1274).
+P. de Koeppen Sbornik, p. 29.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_127" href="#FNanchor_127" class="label">[127]</a> Dubois, vol. v. p. 19.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_128" href="#FNanchor_128" class="label">[128]</a> Hommaire de Hell.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_129" href="#FNanchor_129" class="label">[129]</a> As measured by Clarke. See Travels.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_130" href="#FNanchor_130" class="label">[130]</a> A French guard is now placed to protect it.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_131" href="#FNanchor_131" class="label">[131]</a> After <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> 30.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_132" href="#FNanchor_132" class="label">[132]</a> Sauromates V., <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> 282.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_133" href="#FNanchor_133" class="label">[133]</a> Rurik is a common name of Scandinavian
+heroes.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_134" href="#FNanchor_134" class="label">[134]</a> The title of Tzar, says Karamsin,
+was used in Russia as early as the
+reign of Ysiaslaf II. and Dmétri Donskoi
+(1363-1389). This word is not
+an abridgment of the Latin Cæsar, as
+some learned men have supposed.
+It is an ancient Eastern name, which
+became known to the Russians through
+the Slavonic translation of the Bible,
+and was given by them first to the
+Emperor of the East and then to the
+khans of the Tatars. It signifies in
+Persian “a throne,” “the supreme
+authority,” and is observed in the
+names of the kings of Assyria and
+Babylonia, as in Phala<i>ssar</i>, Nabona<i>ssar</i>.
+John III. (1462-1472), was
+the first grand prince who took the
+title of Tzar in writing to foreign
+powers, and in his public acts he gave
+to his empire the name of “White
+Russia,” that is to say, great or ancient,
+according to the acceptation of
+this word in Oriental languages.—<i>Karamsin</i>,
+vi. 438.</p>
+
+<p>In one of the chronicles of Novgorod
+it is said that Vladimir assumed the title
+of Tzar, 978. “Sic unus (Vladimir)
+serum Russiæ politus, auxit se titulo
+Tzaris et magni ducis atque autocratoris
+Russorum, sedemque ducatus
+Novogordiensis Kioviam transtulit.”—M.S.
+quoted in the notes to French
+translation of Nestor.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_135" href="#FNanchor_135" class="label">[135]</a> Nestor.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_136" href="#FNanchor_136" class="label">[136]</a> Clarke says that he obtained
+some copper coins of Vladimir in the
+Chersonese with a V upon them, probably
+marking the era of his baptism.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_137" href="#FNanchor_137" class="label">[137]</a> Nestor, French translation, viii.
+133.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_138" href="#FNanchor_138" class="label">[138]</a> Dubois, vol. vi. p. 147. M. F.
+Adelung, die Korsüncher Thüren in
+der Cathedral Kirche zur heilg.
+Sophia in Novgorod. Berlin, 1823.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_139" href="#FNanchor_139" class="label">[139]</a> Karamsin, Histoire de Russie,
+vol. v. p. 16.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_140" href="#FNanchor_140" class="label">[140]</a> Bronovius, Desc. Tartariæ, pp. 258-261.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_141" href="#FNanchor_141" class="label">[141]</a> A plan of these is given by Clarke in a vignette.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_142" href="#FNanchor_142" class="label">[142]</a> B. iv.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_143" href="#FNanchor_143" class="label">[143]</a> St. George is the principal patron
+saint of Russia, and the ancient arms
+of Moskow, when it was an independent
+principality, were this saint
+mounted on a white horse on a red
+field. When Moscow became the
+capital of the Grand Princes of Russia
+they adopted these arms. The vanquished
+dragon was added in 1380,
+after the victory of Koulikof, gained
+by Dmétri Donskoi over the Tatars.
+Ivan IV. in adopting in 1580 the
+double-headed eagle of the Greeks did
+not on that account renounce the
+horseman and the dragon, and the
+Russian eagle is charged in the heart
+with the scutcheon of Koulikof.</p>
+
+<p>The ancient sovereigns of Russia,
+after embracing Christianity, took for
+their arms three circles in a triangle.
+In one of the circles was an inscription
+about the Trinity, in another the
+name of the prince to whom the letter
+was addressed, and in the third the
+titles of the Grand Prince.—Notes to
+French translation of Nestor, p. 71;
+Strahlemberg, Description de l’Empire
+Russe, vol. i. p. 240. Amst. 1757.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_144" href="#FNanchor_144" class="label">[144]</a> Dubois, vol. vi. p. 194.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_145" href="#FNanchor_145" class="label">[145]</a> Dubois, vol. vi. p. 201.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_146" href="#FNanchor_146" class="label">[146]</a> See St. Simon, Mémoires de l’Arménie.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_147" href="#FNanchor_147" class="label">[147]</a> For all this account of the crypts see Dubois, vol. vi. p. 314-319.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_148" href="#FNanchor_148" class="label">[148]</a> Toira in Assyrian means a mountain,
+a chain of mountains; <i>Tyrou</i>
+in Chaldean; <i>Tourou</i> in Syrian.
+With the Turk races <i>Tau</i> means a
+mountain, a round or high building, a
+rampart; and <i>or</i> a façade. In Greek
+<i>oros</i> means a mountain. See Dubois,
+vol. vi. p. 12.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_149" href="#FNanchor_149" class="label">[149]</a> The remainder of this chapter is abstracted from Hommaire de Hell, vol.
+ii. ch. 19.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_150" href="#FNanchor_150" class="label">[150]</a> See Dubois, vol. vi. p. 222.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_151" href="#FNanchor_151" class="label">[151]</a> The history of the Goths in the
+Crimea, an obscure but interesting subject,
+has been investigated in a recent
+German work, which I have not seen.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_152" href="#FNanchor_152" class="label">[152]</a> Clarke’s Travels, vol. i. App. 3.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_153" href="#FNanchor_153" class="label">[153]</a> Dubois, vol. vi. p. 110. A great part of the following account of Balaclava
+is translated from this author.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_154" href="#FNanchor_154" class="label">[154]</a> K. Ritter, die Vorhalle Europäischer Völkergeschichten vor Herodotus,
+um den Kaucasus und an den Gestaden des Pontus. Berlin, 1820, p. 8. A
+very curious and interesting work, although considered too speculative by some
+scholars.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_155" href="#FNanchor_155" class="label">[155]</a> Pallas, vol. ii. p. 131.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_156" href="#FNanchor_156" class="label">[156]</a> Ibid., vol. ii. p. 130; see also
+Strabo.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_157" href="#FNanchor_157" class="label">[157]</a> MS. Travels of Nicholas Barti,
+of Lucca, into Tatary, Circassia, and
+Mingrelia, from 1632-1639.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_158" href="#FNanchor_158" class="label">[158]</a> Clarke’s Travels, vol. i. p. 507.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_159" href="#FNanchor_159" class="label">[159]</a> Pallas, vol. ii. p. 132-3.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_160" href="#FNanchor_160" class="label">[160]</a> Pallas, vol. ii. p. 89-99.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_161" href="#FNanchor_161" class="label">[161]</a> This account of the valley of Baidar
+and the Tatars and their dwellings
+is borrowed from Clarke, vol. ii. p.
+514-520. The manners of the Tatars
+are the same as those of other nations
+of Western Asia; and this account has
+been inserted, because, although written
+a long time ago, it is still believed
+to give a faithful picture of them.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_162" href="#FNanchor_162" class="label">[162]</a> Dubois, vol. vi. p. 92.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_163" href="#FNanchor_163" class="label">[163]</a> Dubois, vol. vi. p. 93.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_164" href="#FNanchor_164" class="label">[164]</a> P. de Koeppen, Krimskii Sbornik, p. 23, quoted in Dubois.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_165" href="#FNanchor_165" class="label">[165]</a> As, for instance, Mangoup, Biassala, Katchikalene, Mangouche, and Lec.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_166" href="#FNanchor_166" class="label">[166]</a> Cape Saritch is the name of the
+sailors for Mount Aia.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_167" href="#FNanchor_167" class="label">[167]</a> General Potier was one of, I think,
+eight engineer officers lent by Napoleon
+after the peace of Tilsit, to form
+the Russian engineers on the French
+model, and to establish an École Polytechnique.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_168" href="#FNanchor_168" class="label">[168]</a> Dubois, vol. vi. p. 97.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_169" href="#FNanchor_169" class="label">[169]</a> The village of Kutchuk Koi, four
+versts from Kíkineis, was buried in
+February, 1786. The following is the
+account of this catastrophe from Professor
+Pallas’s work, written shortly
+after the event:—“On the 10th of
+February, 1786, the surface of the
+earth about the deep glens before
+mentioned, and in another still further
+to the eastward, began to burst,
+and to exhibit rocks or clefts; so that,
+on the same day, the brook which
+had hitherto turned two small mills,
+constructed by the native Tatars, entirely
+disappeared. Two days afterwards,
+the soil having become entirely
+disengaged, and the frightened inhabitants
+of the adjacent village
+having removed their cattle, carried
+off their effects, and abandoned their
+habitations, the whole tract between
+the hollows above described, from the
+lofty bank of rocks by the sea-shore,
+fell in about midnight with a dreadful
+noise; and this sinking continued till
+the 28th of February, so as to occasion
+a terrific abyss from ten to twenty
+fathoms deep, in which only a large
+parallel ridge of hard rock and two
+smaller crests remained projecting
+at the bottom. The ground thus
+fallen extends about a mile and a half
+in length, and six hundred yards in
+breadth. In proportion as one part
+of the steep declivity was detached
+from the rock, the whole mass pressed
+downwards, and the strand was removed
+further into the sea to a distance
+of from one hundred to two
+hundred yards.”—Pallas’s Travels,
+vol. ii. p. 142.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_170" href="#FNanchor_170" class="label">[170]</a> Pallas’s Travels, vol. ii. p. 150.
+It is a pity Professor Pallas has given
+no specimen of the language of these
+people. By the original inhabitants
+of the Crimea, I suppose he means the
+Tatar population, who arrived in the
+Crimea with Batou Khan.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_171" href="#FNanchor_171" class="label">[171]</a> Dubois, vol. vi. p. 85.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_172" href="#FNanchor_172" class="label">[172]</a> Dubois, vol. vi. p. 82.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_173" href="#FNanchor_173" class="label">[173]</a> It was measured trigonometrically by Mr. Chatillon, and found to be
+3798 pieds de roi.—Dubois, vol. vi. p. 77.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_174" href="#FNanchor_174" class="label">[174]</a> Castelnau, Hist. de la Nouvelle Russie, quoted by Dubois, vol. vi. p. 81.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_175" href="#FNanchor_175" class="label">[175]</a> The Russian loss at Borodino in
+killed and wounded was—generals, 30;
+officers, 1,600; men, 42,000.—<i>MS.
+Memoir.</i></p>
+
+<p>The French loss was—generals, 40;
+officers, 1,800; men, 52,000, as shown
+by the papers of Marshal Berthier,
+subsequently taken at Wilna.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_176" href="#FNanchor_176" class="label">[176]</a> “Namesnik” in Russian—a very high office, seldom conferred. The holder
+of it corresponds directly with the Emperor, and not through the Ministry.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_177" href="#FNanchor_177" class="label">[177]</a> The army of the Caucasus in 1847 was about 170,000 men.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_178" href="#FNanchor_178" class="label">[178]</a> The history of these three ladies
+is admirably told by the graceful and
+vigorous pen of Madame de Hell, in
+the chapter entitled ‘Trois femmes
+célèbres.’ It is worth reading in the
+original French, as all the charm of
+the writing is lost in the published
+English translation.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_179" href="#FNanchor_179" class="label">[179]</a> Dubois, vol. vi. p. 73.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_180" href="#FNanchor_180" class="label">[180]</a> Dubois, vol. vi. p. 59.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_181" href="#FNanchor_181" class="label">[181]</a> The E. India Company have a similar
+establishment on the Neilgherry
+Mountains in the South of India.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_182" href="#FNanchor_182" class="label">[182]</a> Dubois, vol. vi. p. 55.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_183" href="#FNanchor_183" class="label">[183]</a> Dubois, vol. vi. p. 24.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_184" href="#FNanchor_184" class="label">[184]</a> Dubois, vol. vi. p. 26.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_185" href="#FNanchor_185" class="label">[185]</a> The early writers on the coast
+of the Crimea are Herodotus, <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span> 469;
+Scymnus of Chio, <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span> 100; Strabo,
+<span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> 29; Arrian, <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> 110; Ptolemy,
+<i>A.D.</i> 211; Procopius, <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> 550. The
+anonymous Periplus translates into
+prose the verses of Scymnus.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_186" href="#FNanchor_186" class="label">[186]</a> Dubois, vol. vi. p. 9.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_187" href="#FNanchor_187" class="label">[187]</a> Scymnus of Chio, <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span> 100. See Hudson, Geo. Min.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_188" href="#FNanchor_188" class="label">[188]</a> Dubois, vol. vi. p. 7.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_189" href="#FNanchor_189" class="label">[189]</a> Dubois, vol. v. p. 450.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_190" href="#FNanchor_190" class="label">[190]</a> Dubois, vol. v. p. 451.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_191" href="#FNanchor_191" class="label">[191]</a> Ai for “agio,” holy, in Greek; and “thodor,” corruption of “Theodoro.”
+Thus, “Ai Petri” for St. Peter.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_192" href="#FNanchor_192" class="label">[192]</a> Dubois, vol. v. p. 455.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_193" href="#FNanchor_193" class="label">[193]</a> Dubois, vol. v. p. 446.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_194" href="#FNanchor_194" class="label">[194]</a> Dubois, vol. v. p. 429.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_195" href="#FNanchor_195" class="label">[195]</a> See H. de Hell, vol. ii. p. 484.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_196" href="#FNanchor_196" class="label">[196]</a> Dubois, vol. v. p. 350-360.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_197" href="#FNanchor_197" class="label">[197]</a> Maharab is a kind of pulpit, generally
+in stone-work, on which the
+“imam” or “mollah” stands in every
+mosque, and it is always turned in the
+direction of Mecca: thus in Africa it
+would look towards the east, in India
+towards the west, and in the Crimea
+nearly due south.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_198" href="#FNanchor_198" class="label">[198]</a> See Dubois, vol. v. p. 355-358.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_199" href="#FNanchor_199" class="label">[199]</a> The following account of the vines of the Crimea and the prices of land
+is translated from Dubois, vol. v. p. 330-350.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_200" href="#FNanchor_200" class="label">[200]</a> Bronovius, Desc. Tartariæ.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_201" href="#FNanchor_201" class="label">[201]</a> ‘Recueil de quelques antiquités trouvées sur les bords de la Mer Noire, par
+L. D. Waxel,’ No. 4, Clarke, Voyage, p. 117. It is now in the Museum of
+Nikolaief.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_202" href="#FNanchor_202" class="label">[202]</a> Mount Simeonkaia and Mount Kisilkaia.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_203" href="#FNanchor_203" class="label">[203]</a> Dubois, vol. v. p. 413.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_204" href="#FNanchor_204" class="label">[204]</a> Aian is a contraction for Agio Joannes, or St. John. Dubois, vol. v. p. 417.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_205" href="#FNanchor_205" class="label">[205]</a> Dubois, vol. v. p. 418.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_206" href="#FNanchor_206" class="label">[206]</a> Dubois, vol. v. p. 407.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_207" href="#FNanchor_207" class="label">[207]</a> Dubois, vol. v. p. 411.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_208" href="#FNanchor_208" class="label">[208]</a> Ibid., vol. v. p. 412.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_209" href="#FNanchor_209" class="label">[209]</a> Dubois, vol. v. p. 412.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_210" href="#FNanchor_210" class="label">[210]</a> Id. p. 375.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_211" href="#FNanchor_211" class="label">[211]</a> Pallas, vol. ii. p. 271, 387; Peyssonel, Commerce de la Mer Noire, vol. ii.
+p. 269; Dubois, vol. i. p. 271.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_212" href="#FNanchor_212" class="label">[212]</a> Dubois, vol. v. p. 280.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_213" href="#FNanchor_213" class="label">[213]</a> From this point the greater part of the rest of this chapter is translated
+from H. de Hell’s work. Vol. ii. ch. 18.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_214" href="#FNanchor_214" class="label">[214]</a> Dubois, vol. v. p. 284.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_215" href="#FNanchor_215" class="label">[215]</a> See Dubois, vol. v. p. 293.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_216" href="#FNanchor_216" class="label">[216]</a> Dubois, vol. v. p. 287.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_217" href="#FNanchor_217" class="label">[217]</a> A celebrated Armenian city in the Pashalic of Kars.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_218" href="#FNanchor_218" class="label">[218]</a> Dubois, vol. v. p. 296.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_219" href="#FNanchor_219" class="label">[219]</a> One ancient Armenian church
+exists at Zvainiets, near the Dneistr,
+in Podolia; the interior walls are
+hewn stone, covered with carving of
+very fine execution. This little church
+dates from the end of the 15th century.
+At Jaslovitz in Gallicia, the
+seat of the famous Polish family of
+Konietzpolski, is the residence of
+the Armenian bishop of that place.
+The indignities heaped upon them
+afterwards obliged the Armenians to
+quit that town, and they retired to
+Leopol or Lemberg, whose riches and
+importance date from that time. Dubois,
+vol. v. p. 297, note.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_220" href="#FNanchor_220" class="label">[220]</a> He gives a picture of it in his work.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_221" href="#FNanchor_221" class="label">[221]</a> Clarke’s Travels, vol. i. p. 446.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_222" href="#FNanchor_222" class="label">[222]</a> The Russians took this town in
+1771, and restored it at the peace of
+Kainardji, in 1774. Chahin Geray,
+the reigning Khan, then transferred
+here the seat of government, till he was
+forced to yield up his country to Catherine
+in 1784; he then passed into
+Russia, and at last was strangled at
+Rhodes in 1787. He lived like an
+European, had a European cook, ate
+all kinds of meat, and his servants wore
+a livery. He drove in his carriage instead
+of riding, and hid his beard under
+a black silk cravat—a daring thing for
+a Mussulman at that epoch. He had a
+corps of 200 Cossacks, dressed in a red
+and black uniform, under the command
+of an English officer.—See ‘Essai
+Hist. sur la Mer Noire,’ by a very intelligent
+French merchant of Kherson.
+Paris, 1805.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_223" href="#FNanchor_223" class="label">[223]</a> See Clarke, vol. i. p. 451, note, for authorities in support of this opinion.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_224" href="#FNanchor_224" class="label">[224]</a> Dubois, vol. v. p. 218.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_225" href="#FNanchor_225" class="label">[225]</a> Dubois, vol. v. p. 242.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_226" href="#FNanchor_226" class="label">[226]</a> Hommaire de Hell, Vol. ii. p. 505.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_227" href="#FNanchor_227" class="label">[227]</a> Dubois, vol. v. p. 104.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_228" href="#FNanchor_228" class="label">[228]</a> Id. p. 108.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_229" href="#FNanchor_229" class="label">[229]</a> Pallas. Voyages dans les Gouvernements Méridionaux, vol. ii. p. 298.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_230" href="#FNanchor_230" class="label">[230]</a> The quarantine here is probably only a political measure to keep away
+foreigners.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_231" href="#FNanchor_231" class="label">[231]</a> The last “t” is pronounced like a “tz,” and the word as if written
+“Constitutzia.”</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_232" href="#FNanchor_232" class="label">[232]</a> Dubois, Voyage, vol. v. p. 113-117.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_233" href="#FNanchor_233" class="label">[233]</a> The remainder of this chapter is abstracted from Dubois’ detailed account,
+vol. v. p. 113-239.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_234" href="#FNanchor_234" class="label">[234]</a> Smith’s Geog. Dict., Art. ‘Bosphorus.’</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_235" href="#FNanchor_235" class="label">[235]</a> Reskóuporis I., Mithridates III. and his wife Ghepaipyris, and T. J. Reskóuporis.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_236" href="#FNanchor_236" class="label">[236]</a> Dubois, vol. v. p. 137.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_237" href="#FNanchor_237" class="label">[237]</a> Dubois, vol. v. p. 151-184.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_238" href="#FNanchor_238" class="label">[238]</a> See Genesis, chap. 24.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_239" href="#FNanchor_239" class="label">[239]</a> See Sir W. Hamilton’s collection of Etruscan Vases, Naples, about 1766.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_240" href="#FNanchor_240" class="label">[240]</a> A roof in which the stores go on projecting in layers till they nearly meet
+at the top.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_241" href="#FNanchor_241" class="label">[241]</a> The peacock is supposed to have been brought from India by the companions
+of Alexander the Great, and in the wild state is not known west of
+India.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_242" href="#FNanchor_242" class="label">[242]</a> I found, curious to say, a somewhat
+similar tradition prevailing near
+Chingleput, in Southern India. There
+the entrance was said to be guarded
+by two gigantic wasps.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_243" href="#FNanchor_243" class="label">[243]</a> Dubois, vol. v. p. 89.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_244" href="#FNanchor_244" class="label">[244]</a> Dubois, vol. v. p. 194-288.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_245" href="#FNanchor_245" class="label">[245]</a> Electrum is a mixture of gold and silver.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_246" href="#FNanchor_246" class="label">[246]</a> For bows and arrows together, called oistiodoche.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_247" href="#FNanchor_247" class="label">[247]</a> Boiled mutton is a common dish
+in Persia. An immense cauldron of
+it is made about midday in the villages
+in some parts of Persia, and persons
+sending may buy a portion. I have
+sometimes bought some in travelling,
+but found it indigestible on account of
+the fat sheep’s tails boiled up with it.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_248" href="#FNanchor_248" class="label">[248]</a> The <i>toura</i> is an animal in the
+Caucasus like a wild bull, with enormous
+horns, and a very thick skull,
+as it throws itself down precipices on
+its head. It is the favourite game of
+the Mingrelian and Ossete princes.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_249" href="#FNanchor_249" class="label">[249]</a> Strabo, lib. xi. p. 486.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_250" href="#FNanchor_250" class="label">[250]</a> Dubois, vol. v. p. 223.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_251" href="#FNanchor_251" class="label">[251]</a> This medal is among those published by Sestini.—Musée Chaudoir, tab. i.,
+figs. 5 and 6. Consult Dubois, vol. v. p. 225.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_252" href="#FNanchor_252" class="label">[252]</a> Hagemeister, Com., see p. 147.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_253" href="#FNanchor_253" class="label">[253]</a> See Scymnus of Chio, <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span> 100.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_254" href="#FNanchor_254" class="label">[254]</a> Meleti and Sanson, geographers
+of the 17th century, say that Caffa was
+built of material from Tousla, which
+is now the name of a village near
+Opouk, and, according to Chardin,
+means salt-works. Krimskii Sbornik,
+p. 106; Carte du Voyage de Chardin,
+en 1672; Dubois, vol. v. p. 263.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_255" href="#FNanchor_255" class="label">[255]</a> Nearly the whole of this chapter
+is taken from the Pilot of the Black
+Sea and the Sea of Azof, by the late
+M. Taitbout de Marigny, who for many
+years employed his time in exploring
+these seas in his yacht. A 3rd edition
+of his little work was printed in
+English with Maps, at Constantinople,
+1850.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_256" href="#FNanchor_256" class="label">[256]</a> Tonka means “narrow.”</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_257" href="#FNanchor_257" class="label">[257]</a> <i>Kamish</i> means “a reed” in Russian.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_258" href="#FNanchor_258" class="label">[258]</a> <i>Bielo</i> means “white” in Russian, and <i>serái</i> “a palace” in Tatar.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_259" href="#FNanchor_259" class="label">[259]</a> <i>Obriv</i> means “a cliff” in Russian.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_260" href="#FNanchor_260" class="label">[260]</a> <i>Dolgoi</i> means “long” in Russian.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_261" href="#FNanchor_261" class="label">[261]</a> <i>Staroi</i> means old in Russia.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_262" href="#FNanchor_262" class="label">[262]</a> It is sometimes called “Mertvoi Donetse.” Mertvoi means “dead”
+in Russian.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_263" href="#FNanchor_263" class="label">[263]</a> All the coals used are Russian coals, which come down the river.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_264" href="#FNanchor_264" class="label">[264]</a> No masts are, however, shipped from Taganrok.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_265" href="#FNanchor_265" class="label">[265]</a> Dictionnaire Géograph. Historique de l’Empire Russe. 1823. Art. Taganrok.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_266" href="#FNanchor_266" class="label">[266]</a> Cape Bielo-Serái is called Cape Bilestav by the Greeks and Italians.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_267" href="#FNanchor_267" class="label">[267]</a> See Blue Book, p. 73. The exact numbers are, 1853, Imports, S. R. 48,110;
+Exports, S. R. 6,243,774.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_268" href="#FNanchor_268" class="label">[268]</a> See <a href="#APPENDIX">Appendix</a>, on the country between Yénitchi and Perecop.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_269" href="#FNanchor_269" class="label">[269]</a> Rostof is not mentioned as one
+of the principal towns of Russia in the
+Russian Government Tables of Population,
+&amp;c., translated and published this
+year by the Board of Trade (Statistical
+Tables relating to Foreign Countries,
+Part I., 1855); I believe, however,
+that I am correct in the importance
+which I attribute to it.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_270" href="#FNanchor_270" class="label">[270]</a> See Blue Book, Stat. Tables of Foreign Countries, 1855, Part I., p. 70-72.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_271" href="#FNanchor_271" class="label">[271]</a> Blue Book, p. 29.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_272" href="#FNanchor_272" class="label">[272]</a> Id. id.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_273" href="#FNanchor_273" class="label">[273]</a></p>
+
+<table>
+  <tr>
+    <td><i>Wheat.</i>—Quarters</td>
+    <td class="tdr">72</td>
+    <td class="tdc">=</td>
+    <td>Tchetwerts</td>
+    <td class="tdr">100</td>
+    <td>of ten poods weight each.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td><i>Linseed.</i>—Quarters</td>
+    <td class="tdr">83</td>
+    <td class="tdc">=</td>
+    <td>Tchetwerts</td>
+    <td class="tdr">100</td>
+    <td class="tdc">ditto</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<table>
+  <tr>
+    <td>1 pood</td>
+    <td class="tdc">=</td>
+    <td>40 lbs. Russian</td>
+    <td class="tdc">=</td>
+    <td>36 lbs. English.</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_274" href="#FNanchor_274" class="label">[274]</a> There is a small portion grown in the Danubian Principalities and in
+Italy, but of an inferior quality.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_275" href="#FNanchor_275" class="label">[275]</a> This is also the case with Indian
+linseed.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_276" href="#FNanchor_276" class="label">[276]</a> That is when manufactured, but
+not when it is sold to the public, after
+having passed through the excise. The
+excise is farmed in Russia according to
+governments, and is let by auction for
+short terms of years. Mr. Tegoborski
+states, that last autumn (1854) the
+farms were relet, and that there was no
+diminution in the biddings, on account
+of the war. It has been for some time
+in contemplation to do away with the
+farming of the excise, and to introduce
+a system somewhat similar to our
+own.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_277" href="#FNanchor_277" class="label">[277]</a> This word has the same meaning
+in Russian, as “quarter” in English,
+<i>Tchetwert</i> being derived from <i>Tchetíri</i>,
+four.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_278" href="#FNanchor_278" class="label">[278]</a> Dr. Clarke makes also the following
+observations on the name of this
+river, which, being of considerable
+size, runs through the Government of
+Kharkof, and meets the Don at some
+distance above Tcherkask, and from
+which the Greeks, he thinks, took the
+name of Tanais, which they applied
+to the Don. He says, “I must request
+the reader to suppose himself
+entering the mouth of the Don, and
+proceeding up the river to the distance
+of about 99 miles, above its embouchures,
+and rather more than 46 above
+the town of Tcherkask. He would here
+find the Danaetz falling into the Don,
+by two mouths, separated from each
+other by a distance of 10 or 12 miles.
+But the people here have, from
+time immemorial, entertained a notion
+that it leaves the Don again before it
+reaches the sea, and, taking a north-westerly
+direction, falls into the
+Palus Mæotis, to the north of all the
+other mouths of the Don, of which it
+is, in fact, one. This northernmost
+mouth of the Don, on account of the
+river whose waters its channel is supposed
+peculiarly to contain, is called
+Danaetz, and to express either its
+sluggish current, or its exit into the
+sea, <i>Dead Danaetz</i>. The Greeks,
+steering from the Crimea towards the
+mouth of the Don, and, as their custom
+was, keeping close to the shore, entered
+first this northernmost mouth of the
+river. It bore then, as it does now,
+the name of <i>Danaetz</i>, <i>Idanaetz</i>, or
+<i>Tanaetz</i>, whence the word <i>Tanais</i>
+would be easily derived.”—Clarke, i.
+257. It must be remarked, however,
+that a gentleman from Taganrok informs
+me that the word is distinctly
+pronounced <i>Donetz</i>, as the Germans
+write it.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_279" href="#FNanchor_279" class="label">[279]</a> The importation of Russian woollens
+into China must be very large to
+supply the extensive demand which
+exists for them in the north and centre
+of China. The thick heavy kinds,
+which the Chinese call “hala,” after
+the Russian name for wrappers or outside
+coverings, which are often made
+from cloths of this description, are
+chiefly in request, and are much used
+for cloaks and travelling dresses: those
+of red and green hues are much esteemed,
+on account of the superior
+depth and brightness of the Russian
+colours. These cloths are from 20 to
+30 yards long, and from 62 to 64
+inches broad. Belgian and Saxon
+cloths are also received through Russia.
+Small parcels of Russian woollens
+are brought to Canton, where they
+enter into competition with English
+goods, to the disadvantage of the latter.
+Russian blue cloth may be bought at
+2½ dollars per yard, and in the interior
+it is a dollar cheaper: other kinds,
+except scarlet, are cheaper. The
+Chinese could not sell at these prices,
+unless they obtained them at rates
+even lower than the cost of production;
+and there is little doubt that the Russians
+part with them at a loss, but are
+eventually remunerated by the high
+profits they are able to realise on teas.
+Kiachta and Mae-mae-Chin are the
+well known towns on the Russian and
+Chinese borders respectively, where
+the trade between the two countries
+is carried on. It is purely a barter
+trade; no money is allowed by the
+Chinese to pass. The measure of
+value is bricks of tea, averaging about
+3 lbs. in weight; and the chief staple
+of exchange on the side of the Russians
+is cloth. Tea is the principal article
+given by the Chinese, of which it is
+calculated that 18,000,000 lbs., of
+the value of 5,300,000 dollars, are
+taken by the Russians. The Russians
+have of late begun to ship teas from
+the eastern part of China, and taking
+in the tea sent through Europe, they
+receive about 2,000,000 lbs. by water;
+so that their total consumption may
+be put at about 20 millions of lbs.,
+and is rapidly increasing. It is a disputed
+point whether the Russian
+caravan tea is the same kind as that
+we drink, or whether its undoubtedly
+superior quality arises from the land
+journey. Mr. Parkes thinks that the
+tea is the same, but Mr. Hill was told
+at Kiachta that it came from different
+provinces. (Hill’s ‘Siberia,’ vol. i.
+1854.) Kiachta is 4000 miles from
+Moscow, and 1000 from Pekin. The
+cost of transport of tea from Kiachta
+to Moscow is computed at 40<i>l.</i> a ton,
+or 4¼<i>d.</i> per lb.; Chinese transport is
+3¼<i>d.</i> per lb.; total cost of transport
+per lb., 7½<i>d.</i>; cost of water transport
+from China to Russia, 2½<i>d.</i> Price of
+best tea in Russia, 2<i>l.</i> 2<i>s.</i> per lb., which
+appears enormous to us in England.—(See
+Parkes’ Rep., Journal of R. Geog.
+Soc., vol. xxiv. p. 306.) The Russian
+estimate of the value of the cloth exported
+to China is about 400,000<i>l.</i>, and
+total exports to China, 850,177<i>l.</i>—See
+Blue Book, p. 57.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_280" href="#FNanchor_280" class="label">[280]</a> The time of year for advancing the
+money varies considerably, according
+to the nature of the goods, the place
+of production, and the class of people
+from whom they are bought. For the
+goods, consisting principally of linseed
+and wheat, purchased on the Volga,
+the Don, and its tributaries, most of
+the money is advanced as early as
+September on produce to arrive the
+next year in June. On tallow to be
+delivered in April the advances are
+generally made in the winter, and on
+that to be delivered in October the advances
+are made in April and May.
+For such of the fine wools as are purchased
+on the estates of the producers,
+the advances are made about
+January or February, and sometimes
+the greatest portion of them is purchased
+for ready money at the fairs.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_281" href="#FNanchor_281" class="label">[281]</a> The rate of interest in South
+Russia varies from 8 to 14 per cent.
+At Galatz and Ibrail money may be
+safely laid out at from 15 to 18 per cent.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_282" href="#FNanchor_282" class="label">[282]</a> The Greek consul-general in
+London, M. Ralli, is the head and
+founder of this house of Ralli Brothers,
+who have branch establishments in
+all the great towns in Europe and
+Asia as far as the eastern limits of
+the Persian empire. They have recently
+opened a branch house in
+Calcutta, where other Greeks have now
+established themselves.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_283" href="#FNanchor_283" class="label">[283]</a> “Limné Mœoticé” in Greek, “Palus Mæotis” in Latin.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_284" href="#FNanchor_284" class="label">[284]</a> The total tonnage was 393,096 tons.—Blue Book, p. 27.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_285" href="#FNanchor_285" class="label">[285]</a></p>
+
+<table>
+  <tr>
+    <th></th>
+    <th>Assign. Robles.</th>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Per Tchetwert, for wheat</td>
+    <td>1  0c. to 1 50c., or 10<i>d.</i> to 15<i>d.</i></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Rostof to Taganrok</td>
+    <td>0 50c. to 1 50c., or  5<i>d.</i> to 15<i>d.</i></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>Taganrok to Kertch</td>
+    <td>1  0c. to 5  0c., or 10<i>d.</i> to  4<i>s.</i> 2<i>d.</i></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td>From Katchálin to Rostof</td>
+    <td>1, or 10<i>d.</i></td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_286" href="#FNanchor_286" class="label">[286]</a> I am not certain of the exact place at which the Don becomes navigable.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_287" href="#FNanchor_287" class="label">[287]</a> The Volga was called Rhao by
+the ancients; the Tatars called it
+<i>Idél</i>, <i>Adel</i>, or <i>Edel</i>, which signified
+<i>abundance</i>, <i>generosity</i>, <i>riches</i>. The
+name of Volga, or Wolga, has the
+same origin as Boulgar or Bulgarian,
+and this name was given to the river
+because the early seats of the Bulgarians
+were situated on its banks before
+they moved to their present country
+on the south bank of the Danube. It
+rises in the district of Ostachof, in the
+government of Tver. Its course to
+the mouth of the Kama is from west
+to east, and thence it runs to the
+south into the Caspian Sea. It passes
+through the governments of Tver,
+Jaroslav, Kostroma, Nijni Novgorod,
+Kazan, Simbirsk, Saratof, and Astrakhan,
+and throws itself into the
+sea by 70 mouths, forming a multitude
+of islands. Its course is about
+2500 miles (4000 versts) long. It
+passes several important towns, such
+as Tver, Ouglitch, Romanof, Jaroslav,
+Kostroma, Balakhna, Nijni Novgorod,
+Kousmodemiansk, Tcheboksar, Kazan,
+Simbirsk, Syzran, Saratof, Tsaritzine,
+and Astrakhan. It waters fertile
+regions, and is ornamented on its
+lower course with fine forests. Its
+principal navigation begins at Tver.
+The Volga has the advantage of
+having no cataracts, or any dangerous
+passage; but its depth gradually
+diminishes from time to time, so as
+to give reason to fear that it may become
+unnavigable even for vessels of
+a moderate size. At the beginning
+of the eighteenth century the salt
+vessels of Siberia could carry from
+130,000 to 150,000 poods&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_288" href="#Footnote_288" class="fnanchor">[288]</a> of salt;
+now they cannot carry more than
+90,000 poods. Fish is most abundant
+in it; the principal kinds are the
+beluga, sturgeon, biella ryba, sterlet,
+&amp;c.—Vsevolovski, <i>Dict. Géog.
+Hist. de l’Empire Russe</i>, art. ‘Volga.’</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_288" href="#FNanchor_288" class="label">[288]</a> One pood = about 40 lbs. English.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_289" href="#FNanchor_289" class="label">[289]</a> The project of uniting the Volga
+and the Don, so as to complete the
+communication between the Baltic,
+Black, and Caspian Seas, is very
+ancient. Seleucus Nicanor, then Selim
+II., and afterwards Peter the
+Great, undertook the execution of it,
+and, if it has not yet been effected,
+the delay must be attributed to other
+circumstances than to the difficulty
+of the enterprise. If the Tlavlia,
+which falls into the Don, and the
+Kamitchiaka, which falls into the
+Volga, were rendered navigable, the
+distance necessary to unite these two
+mighty streams would only be 3 miles.
+The difficulty which Peter the Great
+encountered was, that the level of the
+Don was higher than that of the Volga
+by a distance which the academician
+Lovitz found to be 300 feet. The
+celebrated Pallas then suggested a
+junction below the Tlavlia, where the
+Don, making an angle, approaches
+the Volga within 50 versts (about 35
+miles), and the ground is a bed of
+sandstone easy to work. They might
+also be joined by a canal from the
+Karpovka, on the left bank of the
+Don, and the Sarpa, a tributary of
+the Volga; and this would be easy,
+because of deep ravines and valleys
+near a convenient point of junction.</p>
+
+<p>Peter the Great, however, united
+the Voroneje, which falls into the
+Don, with the Niaza, by a canal;
+and as the last river flows into the
+Racovna, the Racovna into the Oka,
+and the Oka into the Volga, it is
+possible to navigate from Moscow
+into the Oka, and thence into the
+Don.—Vsevolovski, <i>Dict. Hist. de
+l’Empire Russe</i>, art. ‘Don.’</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_290" href="#FNanchor_290" class="label">[290]</a> In spite of the protection afforded
+by all but prohibitory duties, and the
+great expense incurred by the nation to
+support a fictitious system, the manufacturers
+of Russia are always in a
+depressed state, and do not gain by
+this state of things, although their
+countrymen lose.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_291" href="#FNanchor_291" class="label">[291]</a> This is confirmed by Tegoborski.
+“The thing,” he says, “which struck
+me the most during my short stay at
+Nijni Novgorod in 1852 was the simplicity,
+and I might almost say the
+apparent carelessness, with which commercial
+affairs were ordinarily carried
+on without the agency of brokers
+(courtiers). Considering that there
+were sales to the amount of 10,000,000<i>l.</i>
+in the short space of three or four
+weeks, I was surprised to see the Exchange
+almost always deserted. Many
+important affairs were concluded without
+any formality, on the simple word
+of the parties, in the cafés and restaurants.
+This method of conducting
+business is generally in use in Russia,
+and constitutes a characteristic trait
+of our commerce. Few persons are
+aware that at Moscow there is much
+more business done at the restaurant
+of the Troitsk (troitski troetir) than
+at the Exchange. Sometimes, no
+doubt, a merchant becomes embarrassed
+and unable to fulfil his engagements,
+but it is rare that any
+man of tolerable credit frees himself
+in regular bad faith from a bargain
+concluded without the formalities
+which would render it legally binding.”—<i>Études</i>,
+vol. iii., p. 287.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_292" href="#FNanchor_292" class="label">[292]</a> This was the number of the
+corps of the Caucasus when I left the
+country in 1846, and it was afterwards,
+I believe, increased.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_293" href="#FNanchor_293" class="label">[293]</a> Sunk on the 24th of September, 1854, at the entrance of the port of Sevastopol.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_294" href="#FNanchor_294" class="label">[294]</a> Published in the Appendices to
+Dr. Clarke’s Travels.—A discourse
+under the trigger is the harangue
+made by a general to his troops when
+the line is drawn out and the soldiers
+rest their pieces.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_295" href="#FNanchor_295" class="label">[295]</a> The Russian archine is 28 inches.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_296" href="#FNanchor_296" class="label">[296]</a> The Russian soldiers buy their
+own lead.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_297" href="#FNanchor_297" class="label">[297]</a> The treasury of the mess.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_298" href="#FNanchor_298" class="label">[298]</a> The name given by the Russians to the empress.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_299" href="#FNanchor_299" class="label">[299]</a> It is impossible in this translation,
+consistently with fidelity, to
+preserve the brevity and energy of
+the original Russian.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_300" href="#FNanchor_300" class="label">[300]</a> This is a Russian mode of expression.
+To proceed ten versts, they
+say, To break off ten.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_301" href="#FNanchor_301" class="label">[301]</a> Children and brothers: appellations
+given by Suvórof to his troops.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_302" href="#FNanchor_302" class="label">[302]</a> Whatever arrives. Suvórof began
+the attack as soon as the colours
+arrived, even if he had but half a
+regiment advanced.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_303" href="#FNanchor_303" class="label">[303]</a> Strength and a half. A common
+mode of expression in Russia. Suvórof
+aimed at the style and language
+of the common soldiers, which rendered
+his composition often obscure.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_304" href="#FNanchor_304" class="label">[304]</a> Lashes: the literal translation
+is sticks.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_305" href="#FNanchor_305" class="label">[305]</a> Professor Pallas supposed this to
+have been a manual of medicine, published
+for the use of the army.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_306" href="#FNanchor_306" class="label">[306]</a> Here he endeavours to counteract
+a Russian prejudice, that is favourable
+to immoderate eating during
+fevers.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_307" href="#FNanchor_307" class="label">[307]</a> A sour beverage, made of fermented
+flour and water.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_308" href="#FNanchor_308" class="label">[308]</a> Suvórof had so great an aversion
+to any person saying “I don’t know,”
+in answer to his questions, that he
+became almost mad with passion.
+His officers and soldiers were so well
+aware of this singularity, that they
+would hazard any answer instantly,
+accurate or not, rather than venture
+to incur his displeasure by professing
+ignorance.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_309" href="#FNanchor_309" class="label">[309]</a> The words here are some of them
+not to be translated, and seem to be
+the coinage of his own fancy. The
+Russians themselves cannot affix an
+explication to them.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_310" href="#FNanchor_310" class="label">[310]</a> A Russian proverb.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_311" href="#FNanchor_311" class="label">[311]</a> Here Suvórof is a little in his
+favourite character of the buffoon.
+He generally closed his harangues by
+endeavouring to excite laughter among
+his troops; and this mode of forming
+a climax is a peculiar characteristic
+of the conversation of the Russian
+boors. In this manner:—“And not
+only of the boors, but of the gentry;
+and not only of the gentry, but the
+nobles; and not only of the nobles,
+but the emperors.”</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_312" href="#FNanchor_312" class="label">[312]</a> A slight exaggeration of Suvórof’s.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_313" href="#FNanchor_313" class="label">[313]</a> From Hagemeister’s Report on the Commerce of New Russia. London,
+1836, p. 120.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_314" href="#FNanchor_314" class="label">[314]</a> Trade and Navigation of the Crimea for 1852, from the ‘Journal de St.
+Pétersbourg.’</p></div>
+
+</div>
+
+<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77506 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>
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+
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for eBook #77506
+(https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77506)