ASCENT TO A DESERTED FORTRESS-MANGOUP KALE: ITS HISTORYTHE CAPE OF THE WINDS PICTURESQUE RUINS-AN AGREEABLE ROAD TARTAR TRAVELLING-SHOEING A BULLOCK-PROSPECTS OF CRIM TARTARY-THE OESEMBASH PASS-VIEW FROM THE SUMMIT -DESCENT TO YALTA.

It was no easy matter to get away from Bagtchè Serai. We had been in treaty with sundry Tartars for horses to take us over the mountains to Yalta; but, like true Easterns, they were most unflinching in

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driving a bargain; and it was not until a wholesome competition was established that we came to terms with a man who showed us some wiry-looking nags, and promised to come to the khan sufficiently early to enable us to accomplish the long day's work in prospect.

As we were going back to Yalta, we thought we could dispense with the services of Richter for the future, and he accordingly took his departure for Simpheropol, when we rode out of the town on our way to Mangoup. We had been most fortunate in stumbling upon so useful an ally: he was thoroughly good-natured and honest, though a Russian subject. As he came from the German provinces on the Baltic, he was distinguished by none of the national characteristics, except that of never changing his clothes while travelling; a circumstance which, while it reconciled me to the separation, was, it is fair to say, almost unavoidable in his case.

It was a beautiful morning as we jogged, for the last time, down the main street, seated on uncomfortable saddles, behind which our bags were strapped. Our road lay to the eastward of that by which we had come from Sevastopol, and in a few hours we re-entered the lonely vale of Balbeck, just where it emerged from the mountains; and following the bed of the stream, wound through rich gardens, between lofty precipices, until we reached the base of the noble hill that terminates the glen, and looking up at the ruined walls that crown it, perceived that this was

indeed the celebrated fortress of Mangoup Kalè. There is a deliciously cold spring at the romantic little village of Karolez, at which we refreshed ourselves before commencing the sharp ascent. We found it was impossible to ride up the short cuts which we preferred taking, and were soon all scrambling along the steep face of the hill, despising the winding paths, and caring only for the glorious old ruins above. When we reached the walls, we were for some time at a loss to find a gap by which to enter the fortress. At last we stormed a breach, where the huge stones which had composed the massive walls were heaped together, and found ourselves surrounded on all sides by ruin and desolation.

The uncertainty which hangs over the history of these fragments of former greatness, tends to invest them with a mysterious interest peculiar to themselves. They are strewn so extensively over the surface of the rock, as to leave no doubt of the magnitude and importance which once distinguished the city that crowned this mountain top. They bear the traces of almost every race which has inhabited the Crimea, are pervaded by the very essence of antiquity, and regarded by the Tartars with the profoundest veneration. And they are worthy of it, for they are their own historians; and an account of their former owners, and the vicissitudes these stones have undergone since they were first hewn from the solid rock, may at a future time

be extracted from them by some antiquarian who has made it the study of his lifetime to worm himself into the confidence of such impenetrable records. Meantime, authorities differ very widely upon this matter. The name is frequently pronounced Mangoute. The latter syllable, signifying Goths, may perhaps lead us to suppose that it was derived from the possessors of that principality, of which this was at one time the capital. The Goths were expelled from the low lands by the Huns in the fourth century, and still continued to live in an independent condition, defending themselves in their fastnesses from the attacks of those barbarians who successively possessed themselves of the remainder of the Tauric peninsula. According to some authorities, Mangoup remained the capital of the Gothic principality until it was taken by the Turks in the sixteenth century; while others suppose that, after the conquest of the Crimea by the Khazars, it became a Greek fortress, and so remained until it fell into the hands of the Genoese, at the same time with the Greek colonies on the coast. This is probably the correct view, as the greater part of the remains are Grecian. Professor Pallas calls Mangoup "an ancient Genoese city, which appears to have been the last resort of the Ligurians after they were driven from the coast." Still the chapel, which is here excavated from the rock, and the images of saints, which he describes as painted on the walls, but which I did not observe, may be traces of the Christian Goths no less

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than of the Genoese; but it is extremely improbable that such is the case.

In 1745 Mangoup was occupied by a Turkish garrison for twenty years, after which it was taken possession of by the Khan of the Crimea. It had been for many years inhabited almost exclusively by Karaïte Jews. These gradually dwindled away, until they totally disappeared about sixty years ago, and have left nothing behind them but the ruins of their synagogue and a large cemetery, containing tombs similar to those amid which we had wandered in the valley of Jehoshaphat.

There is very little left of the massive buildings which once adorned this famous town, except the foundations. It was quite a work of difficulty to pick our way through the maze of ruins which were scattered around us. The lofty calcareous promontory upon which the fortress is perched, is about a mile long, and a quarter of a mile broad. Upon three sides it is surrounded by frightful precipices, while that by which alone it is accessible is defended by castellated towers, placed at intervals in the massive wall through which we had entered. At right angles with it, and intersecting the narrow promontory, are the remains of another wall; and the most perfect building now existing is a square fort built into it, two storeys high, and pierced with loopholes for musketry. Passing through another opening, we reached the most eastern point, and discovered for the first time that the whole length of the upper edge of the