is very shelving and shallow; and we had the greatest difficulty to get our boat within a reasonable distance of the land. The commandant of Kertch, a Georgian by birth, told us that many plans have been given for a harbour and quarantine at this place; but the present scheme of making Kaffa the emporium would probably prevent them. Immediately on landing, we were accosted by a Russian priest with the salutation Χριστὸς ἀνέστη. We had before observed, that the Cossacks used at this season to salute foreigners in Greek. The town of Kertch is very small and miserable; it is chiefly inhabited by Jews. There is one tolerable watchmaker, and two shops in the Bazar, where we saw some English cotton stuffs. The country around is all bare of trees, and their firewood is brought from the neighbourhood of Eski-Krim, a distance of perhaps 120 versts. There is a spacious fortress, and a garrison of a lieutenant-colonel, a major, and four companies of light-infantry. The men were distinguished by not wearing swords, which most Russian soldiers do: the non-commissioned officers carried rifles. I had made some drawings and memoranda of the antiquities, which

I have lost, but which differed in no material point from the account published by Pallas. The most interesting are in the wall of the church. It is perhaps worth mentioning, as illustrative of national character, that the Russian major, who agreed to furnish us with horses, and an open kibitka to Kaffa, insisted on such usurious terms that the other officers cried out shame, and that the same man afterwards squeezed some further presents out of Thornton's servant. A Cossack would have disdained such conduct.

"In the first stage towards Sudak, a building presents itself on the left hand, in a beautiful situation among woods, on the side of a steep hill, which our Tahtar guide said had been an Armenian convent. We conversed with the Tahtars by an interpreter whom we hired at Kaffa: he was a Polish Jew, but had resided several years at Constantinople. Nothing could be more interesting, and to us novel, than the prospect, and the appearance of every one we met. A mirza, or noble, one of the few who still remain in the country, overtook us; and I was delighted at being addressed for the first time by the Oriental salam, by which we were

afterwards saluted by all the passengers. In this part of the country I only saw one camel, a she one, and kept for her milk: the roads are too steep and rocky for them. The common cart had two wheels, and was drawn by two oxen abreast, like a curricle: it was light, but spacious. This is only seen as far as Sudak: afterwards, the hills are too steep for any wheel carriage. We passed a day with Dr. Pallas at Sudak, who asked much about Messrs. Clarke and Cripps. The beauty of this celebrated valley rather disappointed us, except as far as the vineyards are concerned, which are more extensive and finer than any we saw besides. Dr. Pallas said, that the wine made by the Tahtars was spoiled by the over irrigation of their vineyards, which increased the size of the grapes, but injured their flavour. The wine we tasted was all poor and hungry. Sudak, or, as it was explained to me, The Hill of the Fountain, is a small village, peopled by a few families of Greeks, with a very small and insecure harbour. The castle, which is ruinous, stands on a high insulated rock on the east of the town; and at the foot is a beautiful spring, preserved in a large cistern, with a

metal cup chained to it. I suppose this is the harbour mentioned by Arrian as possessed by Scythian pirates, between Theodosia and Lampat. There is a small but handsome mosque still entire in the castle. I saw nothing which could be referred to a higher antiquity than the Genoese, nor any thing which I could rely on as even so old as their erections. It is only after Sudak that the real mountaineer features and habits appear to begin. In the Vale of Oluz, or Sudak, very few of the cottages are flat-roofed, and all the better sort of farmhouses are tiled.

"At Kaya, the next stage, and from thence to Baydar, the buildings have flat roofs, except the mosques, which are tiled; generally with gable-ends, and surrounded by a wooden portico. This distinction between the roofs of private and public buildings is mentioned by Aristophanes, as existing in Athens:

—ὥσπερ ἐν ἱεροῖς οἰκήσετε Τᾶς γὰρ ὑμῶν οἰκίας ἐρέψομεν ΠΡΟΣ ΛΕΤΟΝ. Ορνιθ. 1109-10.

The houses are generally piled up one above another, half under ground, along the sides of hills; they are composed of clay, and the vil

D

Irrigation is

lages resemble rabbit-warrens. practised universally, and with apparent skill, where the vineyards are planted. Very little corn is grown; but the valleys are literally woods of fruit-trees. Water is abundant; and, near many of the best wells, seats of earth are made, and bowls left for way-faring men to drink. There are wolves and foxes, and, of course, the other game is not very plentiful; but there are hares, and a few partridges. Between Lambat and Aliuschta is the way to ascend Chatyr Dag, which we missed seeing, by the blunder of our Jewish interpreter.

"We left Kertch on the twenty-third. From thence the road winds among swampy uncultivated savannahs, having generally a range of low hills to the south, and the Sea of Asoph at some distance to the north. These plains are covered with immense multitudes of bustards, cranes, and storks. I saw no pelicans after landing in Europe. I never saw an English bustard; but those of the Crimea appeared to be a stouter bird than what is generally represented in prints. There are many ruins in this part of the country, and other vestiges of population. We passed two or three small, but