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 Tchernomorè, 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 culti vated 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

"The biroke is a grey animal, something like a wolf, very ferocious, and daring enough to attack a man. 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, 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 cham

*Mus citillus of Buffon.

ber, 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 hindfeet, 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."m

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.

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.

CHAPTER III

FROM PERECOP TO SYMPHEROPOL.

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 Karkinite-Anchorage of Akméshed - Cape Karamroún - The Lagoon of the Dniepr and Boug defended by Kilboroún and Otchákow - The river Boug - Gloubóky - Khersón - 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," 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 Khersón, near the southwest 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."

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. 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.

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.

C

In the name of Beresin is preserved the ancient name of the isle Boristhenis, which, like the island of

Lenké, 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.