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rich soil of the Ukraine into an almost im- less than 2,000 inhabitants. This system of passable morass, through which it cost three concentration, originally adopted as a means vigorous horses some trouble to drag the light of security against the frequent inroads of the britshka of our travellers. It was on the same ground and about the same season of the year that the artillery of Charles XII. got imbedded in the mud, and thus prepared for that eccentric monarch a defeat, from the effects of which he never afterwards recov

ered.

Tartars, is retained, through habit, even now, though the Tartars, long so formidable to Russia, have for many years been counted among the most peaceable of her subjects.

The Russian inns have furnished matter for bitter lamentation to almost every traveller who has ventured into the country, and At the outset we are introduced to a the hostelry of Reshitilofka was not calcugenuine specimen of Russian nationality- lated to inspire any doubt of the justice of the yemtshik or postillion. common fame. Wet, cold and hungry, our travellers arrived there, comforting them

by a running commentary, these phy

"I wish," says our author, "I could give here selves with the anticipation of a warm meal; the separate portrait of each of our postillions but they had forgotten that the day was a between Poltawa and Odessa. Accompanied fast day, and their hostess was careful to presiognomies would furnish one of the most inter- vent them from infringing the ordinances of esting picture galleries in the world. And then the church. Some lukewarm water, in their peculiar voices, their original replies, their which a few slices of cabbage and cucumber soliloquies, and the ever-returning colloquies were floating about, was the first dish set

addressed to their horses, to their whips, to the reins, and to every animate and inanimate object about them! the style of eloquence is generally much the same with all, yet each has some favourite expressions of his own. The patience

breeches and a red calico shirt. Of the rim of

before the famished wayfarers. This specimen of Russian cookery was not inappropriately dignified with the title of posdnoi borsht, or fasting broth. The second course

with which they endure the severest weather is consisted of fish, rendered unendurable to really astonishing. At our second stage we had any but a native stomach by a liberal outa sharp little lad, who had nothing to protect pouring of train-oil. The next and closing him from a raging snow storm but a pair of dish professed to be pastry, but had the aphis hat only a small fragment remained, which pearance and consistency of papier mache. he always contrived to bring to the point where The hostess, seeing that her hungry guests the wind and snow came from, and this little carried their abstinence beyond what might strip an inch broad and about four inches long, have been expected even from a devotee, was all that he had to shelter his neck against began to suspect that her dainties were not the tempest. Yet so far from grumbling, his duly estimated. By way of tempting the

merry tongue was scarcely allowed a moment's rest, and for all his suffering in our service, and for all the amusement he had afforded us, he thought himself abundantly remunerated by a gratuity of thirty copecs."

a few

appetite of the travellers, she seized
lumps of sugar, and crushing them in her
delicate hand, she scattered the fragments
over the patisserie. After witnessing this
last operation, eating was out of the question,
and Mr. Kohl and his companion were driven
to seek consolation in a glass of brandy, that

The villages or mestetshkos of the Ukraine are large and populous. Reshitilofka, celebrated throughout Russia for the delicate ever ready comforter for every Russian texture of its sheepskins, contains 11,000 grievance. Yet his companion was native inhabitants, of whom 2,000 are serfs, and there, and to the manner born, and, having 9,000 Kasakki or freemen. Of these serfs traversed every part of his fatherland, even about one half are the property of a noble- beyond the confines of China, must often man of the vicinity, and the remainder are have been subjected to a similar trial. At owned by a multitude of smaller proprietors, the next stage they hoped for a supper that many of whom are masters only of two or might atone for the meagreness of their midthree of their fellow creatures. The servile day meal, but there they were even worse condition of a large portion of the rural off. Bread or meat was at once candidly population of Russia would afford a fertile admitted to be non est inventus, but eggs topic for consideration, but it is one to which and milk were promised. The fair deceiver, our author seldom alludes.

however, soon returned, to announce that

The same description will generally apply the eggs were "not fresh," and that the milk to all these mestetshkos. They extend over pot had been found empty. Fortunately an astonishingly large area of ground, are all the travellers had in their trunks some meat amply provided with churches, and are patties, of which they had prudently laid in usually surrounded by a little army of wind- a small store on leaving Poltawa, and these mills. The smallest village seldom contains secured them against that least enviable of all descriptions of fasting, namely, a compul- | Ettot tolko ot sontse, tak pokasivayet,† said our sory and entire abstinence from eating, postillion, and he went on to assure us that the

whereby the patient, be he ever so devout, cannot flatter his conscience with the belief of having performed a pious action, fully convinced as he must be, that had the appliances not been wanting, his appetite would scarcely have been restrained by the injunctions of his Church.

The badness of their inns, however, is a matter of which the Russians are rather proud than otherwise; and they have reason to be so, if the cause usually assigned be the right The spirit of hospitality, they say, that

one.

cattle were never led astray by the appearance of a mirage, which, by the scent alone, they were able to distinguish from real water,"

Wherever the relays happened to be at panski (villages belonging to one landowner), a number of fine large greyhounds were always to be seen. No other sporting dog is so well adapted for the steppe, where a fine scent is of less importance than a quick eye. There are but few covers to beat, except along the banks of the rivers, mostly fringed with broad belts of reeds, among which num

pervades all classes, makes the existence of bers of wolves find a shelter. To hunt these good inns all but impossible.

is a favourite amusement of some of the

his friends to a

On crossing the Dnieper, our travellers wealthier lords of the steppe. One of these first entered upon the genuine steppes of gentlemen, a Mr. Skarzinski, who owns a Tartary. The Ukraine is generally pic- chateau near Wosnessensk, is in the habit, tured to us as a flat and unwooded country; every season, of inviting twenty or thirty of but though trees do not abound there, they hunting excursion, on a somedo occasionally occur. In proportion, however, as we approach the steppe, the trees dwindle into bushes, and at last disappear altogether, leaving nothing but one vast naked plain to the wearied eye.

what larger scale than we have any notion of in our puny part of the world. When he sallies forth with his guests, twenty-five camels are put in requisition to carry tents, cooking apparatus, wine casks, and various other articles calculated to contribute to the comfort and enjoyment of the little sporting caravan. An orchestra of about thirty performers is engaged to enchant the modish

"The uniformity of the landscape is well calculated to weary the traveller, more particularly such a traveller as my companion, who had explored nearly all the steppes of the vast Nimrods after the fatigues of a day's pleasure, Russian empire; but, for my part, I found the and some two or three hundred peasants, journey anything but tedious. The consciousness that I had at length reached the genuine huntsmen, and servants, accompany the exsteppe, the scene of so many yet unexplained pedition. During the day Skarzinski and movements of the human race, was alone suffi- his companions scour the plain. Towards cient to keep my mind in an agreeable state of evening they seek their tents, where a sumpexcitement. These boundless grassy plains, on tuous banquet has been prepared for them, which blade succeeds to blade for hundreds of and a portion of the night is spent in drinkleagues, and on which a calf may eat his way from the base of the Carpathian mountains, till ing Champagne and playing cards, or in listhe arrive a well-fattened ox at the foot of the ening to the harmonious strains of the band. great Chinese wall, afforded a never ending In this manner they drink and hunt their theme for my imagination. I was never tired way to a place called Beisbeirak, near Elizaof contemplating the countless herds of oxen bethgorod, where there exists a plain of some

extent covered with brushwood, that serves as a cover for great numbers of wolves, foxes and hares. To this point other sporting caravans are wont to direct their course. On

and wild horses, and the flocks of fat-tailed sheep. Even the vast extent, the apparent endlessness of the steppes, was to me a source of pleasurable fancy. The horses gallop away, and the carriage rolls lightly over the ground, yet we seem never to stir from the spot. On their arrival they join their forces to those of we fly, yet all around remains unchanged. Skarzinski, and after a few weeks spent in The optical illusions also that frequently pre

hunting and carousing, the season is closed by a grand festival.

sent themselves, contribute not a little to the traveller's amusement. Sometimes a solitary figure, a man or an ox, will present itself on the edge of the horizon, as a huge spectral form, as though it were raised on stilts of enormous dimensions, or floated unsupported through the air. The appearance of lakes and large masses of water presented at times so complete an illusion, we could scarcely persuade ourselves that the spring, the roads are rendered impassable

we did not behold some wide-spreading inunda

Travelling the steppe is at no season more agreeable than in May and June, when the roads are firm, and not yet incommoded by the summer dust. Mr. Kohl had therefore chosen his time well, and appears to have made a most agreeable journey. Earlier in

by the melting snow, that converts the rich

tion before us; more particularly when there happened to be herds of cattle near, for the legs of the cows seemed to disappear in the water. It is the sun makes it look so; it is no real water."

soil into a sea of mire, into which the horses | of one of their townsmen of the name of Prosink to their bellies, and through which even togenos. This man was probably a wealthy the oxen find it difficult to force their way. merchant, who expended a part of his honWhen the summer dust rises, travelling be- ourably-acquired opulence in public undercomes exceedingly troublesome, for this dust takings. Among other things, we are inis so light that it remains suspended in the formed by the inscription, that he assisted in air in large clouds, even when there appears the construction of the harbour; that on the not to be a breath of wind stirring, and being occasion of a famine he advanced large sums quite black, it soon casts a sable mantle over of money to buy corn for the poor; that he every object within its reach, adorning the built the fish-market; that he contributed tofaces of travellers with the complexion of wards the erection of one of the city gates; Othello. that he repaired several of the public build

Art has attempted but little for the forma-ings; erected places for the building of tion of roads in this part of the Russian em- ships, &c.

pire. The only thing that has been done is Shortly after passing Oczakof, our travelto mark off a track for the caravans by cut- lers were for the first time saluted by the ting small ditches at the side. These, of breeze of the Black Sea, and their next stage course, are concealed by the snow in winter, brought them to Troitzkoye at the mouth of when some pyramids of loose stones, erected the Liman of Teligul. The Limans of the here and there along the roadside, are the Black Sea compose a natural phenomenon only landmarks that break the uniformity of peculiar to the Euxine. They occur at the the great level shroud in which all Nature mouth of every river between the Dnieper lies enveloped. Such were the roads in the and the Danube, and seem to be inlets of the days of Darius, and such they are likely to sea, hollowed out by the contending waters remain for centuries to come, for throughout of the Euxine and its tributaries; but we will the whole country there exist no materials let Mr. Kohl state his own theory of the orifor roadmaking. The only stone dug from gin of the Limans.

under the soil is so soft that the builders are "The steppe originally formed a continued able to cut it with a knife into the desired unbroken plain, terminating at the seashore in form, and it hardens but little, if at all, after the form of a terrace rising above the level of long exposure to the atmosphere. The stones the water. The rivers, which, originally, no with which the streets of Odessa doubt, precipitated themselves as cataracts into are paved, the sea, gradually wore deep furrows into the are chiefly brought from Malta and Italy. plain, till at length the bed of the river became, Mr. Kohl thinks that an iron railroad would at its mouth, nearly level with the surface of be as easy of construction in the steppe as the sea. When the work had proceeded so far, any other, and perhaps not more expensive. the sea had acquired the power, in case of a "In the small towns," he says, "the favour- strong south or south-west wind, of forcing its ite material for mending roads is dung, and a way into the mouth of the river. The two wapedestrian, wading through the bottomless ters meeting, a struggle naturally arose, the

mire of one of these roads, is always delighted when he comes to a heap of dung, where, at all events, for the time being, he may consider his life in safety."

Our travellers passed through Nikolayeff, and visited the spot, about two leagues down the river, on which two thousand years ago flourished Olbia, the celebrated emporium of the trade of the Pontus. The site is now oc

consequence of which was to undermine the
steppe on both sides, and gradually to enlarge
the entrance to the stream. When the wind
subsided, the sea water retired, but being hea-
vily charged with the soil which it had washed
away, a deposit was formed at the entrance,
till the frequent repetition of the same operation
bar."
led to the construction of a long narrow dyke or

The enlargements at the mouth of the cupied by a small village called Stomogil, rivers are called by the Russians "Limans," and is the property of a Russian nobleman, and the bars which separate the Limans from one Count Kusheleff-Besborodko. There re- the sea are called "Perissips." The Pemain but few ruins to mark the spot on which rissip is seldom more than a hundred yards stood once a Greek city quite as important as broad, and consists of a narrow, low, grassy Odessa is now. The most valuable inscrip- slip of land, sometimes of sufficient elevation tions and antiquities that could be collected, to act as a barrier to exclude the sea, except have been removed to enrich a private muse- in the case of severe hurricanes, such as um belonging to Count Besborodko. Others occur only once or twice in the course of are preserved in the city library at Odessa. twenty years. A complete Perissip, howOne highly interesting monument remains. It ever, can only be formed where the river was erected, as we learn from the inscription, itself furnishes no larger supply of fresh by the senate and citizens of Olbia, in honour water than can be carried away from the

VOL, XXVIII,

9

Liman by mere evaporation; where the, The master of police directs the whole, grants

river brings down a larger volume of water, as is generally the case, there must of course be some break in the Perissip, through which the fresh water may find its way into the sea, or through which, during a gale from the south or south-west, the waters of the Black Sea may enter the Liman. The Russian name for such a break is "Gheerl," and at most of these Gheerls, either a ferry-boat has been established, or a bridge has been built. Something analogous takes place along the southern shore of the Baltic, where, among others, the Niemen, the Vistula, and the Oder, have likewise formed for themselves Limans, Perissips, and Gheerls.

"The deep valleys of the Limans exercise no trifling influence over the climate of their vicinity. This influence is sometimes beneficial inasmuch as the cool and moist sea air thereby penetrates far into the interior; at other times the influence is of a more noxious kind, for where a large Liman is cut off by its Perissip from all communication with the sea, the stagnant mass putrifies during the summer heats, and throws off the most poisonous and offensive exhalations. It has sometimes happened, that the whole population of a village has fallen sick, during the course of a single night, after the wind, laden with a stinking miasma, has been blowing from one of these Limans."

From these Limans is derived the chief supply of salt for the whole of Southern Russia.

"It is not from every Liman on the northwestern coast of the Black Sea that salt is to be obtained. Some never furnish any, others only in very hot summers, while from a few, salt may every year be collected in large masses. The Limans of the Dnieper, the Dniester, and other large rivers, receive constantly so great a mass of fresh water that not a trace of salt remains there. Indeed, few of the Limans eastward from Odessa produce salt; the most productive are the three Bessarabian Limans, and of these the most celebrated is the Dusle Li

mau, where, as early as in the month of June, the water begins to recede, and to deposit small crystals of salt along the edge. This deposit increases throughout the whole of July, at the end of which month it is mostly worth while to commence the salt harvest. About this Liman several buildings are erected for the convenience

of the government officers, appointed to superintend the work, for the crown lays claim to all the salt deposited under the influence of the sun. Some is collected by workmen in the pay of government, some by private speculators, to whom, on payment of a fixed sum, certain por

tions of the Liman are assigned. The imperial functionaries take possession of their dwellings towards the end of July, and at about the same time the Podolian and Bessarabian nobles send

their servants and waggons to collect from the lake the necessary supply for their estates.

licenses to private speculators, and fixes the time when the salt is said to be ripe. If the harvest begins too soon, the deposit is less conthere is danger that the autumnal rains may siderable than it would otherwise be; if too late, set in, and put a sudden stop to the whole operation for that year.

"The whole Liman is marked out by iron bars into a number of sections, and each section may be worked as far into the lake as the workmen can reach. On the margin the salt three or four inches; and still farther on, the crystals lie about an inch deep; farther on, stratum is often more than a foot in thickness. Great interest is often made, and large bribes paid, to secure good places; the best are always reserved for the crown.

"The salt is merely shovelled up from the surface of the mud, and conveyed to the shore in wooden troughs. Simple, however, as the work seems, it is in reality both toilsome and dangerous. Where the sun has completely dried the mud, there is but little difficulty, but as the men advance into the lake, the salt is sure to be damp and the ground marshy, and in some places the water stands one or two feet deep. To avoid sinking into the mud, the men fasten wooden boards under their feet, with which they move about with great difficulty, and which do not always secure them against accidents. The stratum of salt supports them in some measure, but at times it gives way, and many lives are thus constantly lost, for if a man begins to sink into the mud it is often scarcely possible to afford him assistance.

"The salt in which the men work soon covers them, their clothes and their tools, with so thick a crust, as materially to interfere with their labours. The skin often bursts, and the wounds festering disable the men from continuing their work. They are ordered to bathe every day in fresh water, but this is not always within reach. They work with gloves on their hands, but it is not always easy to obtain the right sort, for woollen gloves let the brine through, and leathern become in a short time stiff and useless. The most difficult of all is to protect the poor horses, who are constantly obliged to wade into the water, or at least into the damp salt. Cloths, it is true, are carefully wrapped round their legs and hoofs, but even this precaution is insufficient, and many horses are ruined every year at the salt-lake, where they contract maladies from which they never wages have to be paid, each man receiving from For these reasons high 50 to 60 rubles a month. The harvest gene

afterwards recover.

rally lasts through August and September, and terminates only in October, when the autumnal rains set in.

"Private speculators convey their produce immediately away, but the crown removes only as much as it requires to complete its magazines the banks of the Liman into large ricks called on the Dnieper. The remainder is piled up on skirti, which remain there during the winter. One of these ricks contains from 8,000 to 10,000 poods of salt. To protect this against wind

• A Russian pood is equal to 36 lbs. avoirdupois.

and rain, several layers of straw and reeds are the Russian empire, and will probably in a burnt upon the surface. The salt is partially few years more stand second only to St. melted by the heat, and, mingling with the Petersburg.

ashes, forms a black impermeable crust. In a little time the salt in these skirti becomes so compact, that it can be loosened only with iron crowbars. In the year 1826, when the harvest was unusually productive, it is said that 6,000,000 poods of salt were obtained from the three Bessarabian Limans."

That the commerce of Odessa is still in its infancy may be inferred from the fact, that large quantities of tallow, prepared on the steppes about the Don and the Dnieper, are still sent, partly by land carriage, to St. Petersburg and Riga, and there shipped for England. Nothing but the most inveterate

Our travellers had no sooner reached the force of habit could have prolonged such a seashore, than they became aware of the ex- state of things to the present day, but it is treme strictness with which the Russian quar- impossible that Odessa should not eventually antine regulations are enforced along the absorb the whole, or nearly the whole, of the margin of the Black Sea. The road ran foreign trade of the Russian provinces, waterclose to the sea-side, and every now and ed by the rivers that fall into the Black Sea. then they came to little reed-covered huts, Hitherto but little has been done to promote in each of which a party of Cossacks was the inland navigation of those rivers. More posted, to guard the empire against the intro- than eleven-twelfths of the goods exported duction of the plague and smuggled goods. from Odessa are brought from the interior by Not a boat is allowed to land on any part of waggons, and the upward navigation is so

the coast, without the express permission of the Health office at Odessa. Nothing that is cast on shore is allowed to be touched, not even the drift wood, and the fishermen, according to the letter of the law, must not go farther out to sea than one verst.

tedious and inconvenient as to be of scarcely any use at all to the merchant. This can be remedied only by the introduction of steam, which will be certain to accompany the development of commercial activity. In 1837,

there cleared out at Odessa 796 vessels for

Travelling along the several Perissips of foreign ports. In the same year the number the Limans, a fine firm road, formed by the of coasting vessels that entered the port was hand of nature, our author reached Odessa, only 487. This fact shows the great extenwhere his stay appears to have been of some sion that may and must at no distant period duration, a large portion of the work being be given to the coasting trade of Odessa. Of devoted to a description of the city and the the abovenamed 487 coasters, 382 arrived surrounding country.

from the Dnieper, 6 from the Dniester, 6

Mr. Kohl has furnished us an admirable from the Danube, 66 from the Crimea, 23 picture of Odessa, as it now is, but we are in- from the Don and Sea of Azoff, and 4 from clined to believe that many of his readers the Caucasian coast.

would have felt indebted for a brief history One serious impediment in the way of the of the rapid rise of this commercial capital of coasting trade of the Black Sea appears to southern Russia. A few statistical tables, be the total want of nautical skill among the such as those respecting Trieste, which Mr. mariners engaged in it. So notorious are the von Raumer has embodied with his interest- Chersonese sailors for their lubberly seamaning work on Italy (see Foreign Quarterly ship, that in the autumnal months, the rates Review, No. 50), would have enabled the of insurance from Cherson to Odessa, a disgeneral reader to trace the gradual progress tance of between seventy and eighty miles, of Odessa's maritime prosperity, and would rise as high as 6 or 7 per cent. Their reguat the same time have afforded some criterion lar practice, it seems, on the first appearance by which to estimate the commercial great- of bad weather, is to throw their cargo overness to which the city may yet attain. The board; and should the gale continue, the total want of good building materials, neither whole crew go to prayers, throw themselves timber nor stone being obtainable from any down before the images of their saints, and part of the steppe, will always act as an im- commit the vessel and themselves to the care pediment to the growth of Odessa; but the of Providence. Some extraordinary tales experience of the last thirty years proves that on this subject are current in Odessa :-An such impediments are but trifling difficulties English captain is said one day to have fallen in the way of commercial enterprise, and in with a Chersonese vessel off the coast of Odessa, which scarcely existed, even by Troy; the Chersonese hailed our countryname, forty years ago, and which has not man, and inquired where they were, when, been in the possession of its present commer- after a mutual explanation, it turned out that cial privileges for quite a quarter of a cen- they had lost their reckoning in a gale of tury, ranks alřeady as the third seaport of wind, had left their ship to take care of her

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