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ITS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS.

Their colonies were besieged by the Tartars by land, and blockaded by a fleet which the Porte had sent to the assistance of the Khans, who had become tributary to the Ottoman Empire. The destruction of the Genoese colonies was tantamount to an annihilation of commerce in these seas.

For three hundred years the Cimmerian Bosphorus remained closed, and the ruins of once flourishing cities lay strewn upon its shores.

NO SOMOVAR-AN AMUSING INTERPRETERA RAILWAY TO THEODOSIA: ITS PROSPECTS —A STEPPE APPARITION-A MIDNIGHT SCENE-KARASSU BAZAARAPPROACH TO SIMPHEROPOL.

KERTCH had dwindled into a Turkish town of little importance when it was ceded to Russia by the Porte in the year 1774; but the ancient capital of the Bosphorus was destined soon to regain some of its former greatness, though at the sacrifice of those Italian colonies which had more recently engrossed the whole trade of the peninsula, and which remain to this day monuments of that adventurous spirit of commercial enterprise which called them into existence.

For some Russian reason, incomprehensible to

common sense, the tribune of commerce was transferred from Theodosia, a town advantageously situated at the head of a deep capacious harbour, which is never frozen, to the shores of these straits, which are closed for four months of the year, where the anchorage is dangerous and the water shallow. Here every ship must remain and perform a four days' quarantine. The larger ones wait until their cargoes arrive from Taganrog or Rostof, in lighters; while those drawing less water cross the bar, and proceed to load at Taganrog. On their return, it becomes necessary to transfer half their cargoes into lighters at Yeni Kalè, and drop down the shallow straits to Kertch, to re-load-a proceeding which affords a rich harvest to a rapacious crew of Greek lightermen resident at the former place.

All this may be very profitable to Kertch, but it is extremely expensive to the public. For instance, supposing the produce to be Siberian iron which has descended the Don to Rostof, it is there put into lighters, and conveyed, sixty miles, to Taganrog, where it is duly landed; and when the right vessel arrives, and anchors fifteen miles from the shore, it must be put on board by means of lighters again. In two days after she has been loaded in this expensive way at Taganrog, the ship probably reaches Yeni Kalè, where the process I have already described takes place, and thus the cargo has been subject to five transhipments before it can be fairly said to have left the Russian shores.

ITS DISADVANTAGES AS A PORT.

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Rather than continue this absurd system, it would be better to construct a railway from Rostof to Kertch, down the eastern coast of the Sea of Azov, through the level country of the Cossacks of the Black Sea, and thus effectually terminate the existence of Taganrog, which only lives a sort of excrescence upon Rostof.

It is most unfortunate that a government which so seldom does a bit of patriotism should have misplaced its affections upon two such worthless objects as Taganrog and Kertch-that it should have fostered and protected so carefully towns which had far better never have existed. Had Rostof and Theodosia been treated in a similar manner, the price of articles exported from these shores would be incalculably diminished; for Theodosia would become an emporium for the produce not only of the Don, but of all the minor ports upon the Sea of Azov; and a vast number of small Russian craft would have been employed in concentrating freight, during the fine season, at the most highly-favoured port which Russia possesses, since it is the only one available for commercial purposes throughout the year.

That the trade of this part of the world is rapidly on the increase, is apparent from the fact that no less than one thousand vessels entered the straits of Kertch in the year 1851. It is but fair to say that the port dues, and expenses attendant on passing through the straits, are very trifling, and consist chiefly in bribes to petty officials. Unfortunately,

nature has done more towards blocking up the entrance of the Sea of Azov than the government could ever have hoped to effect, even though it once established a thirty days' quarantine at Kertch, in its ardent desires to benefit that town.

During our short stay in Kertch we were much indebted to the kindness and hospitality of the English consul, Mr Catley, with whom we drove over to inspect one of the most remarkable of the tumuli which has hitherto been opened.

The stone gallery, which is thirty-six yards long and about twenty feet high, leads to a square mausoleum, surmounted by a cupola. The whole structure, which was extremely massive, reminded me forcibly of the Cyclopean remains at Tiryns and Mycena. In some of these tumuli sarcophagi have been found, and their interesting contents sent either to the museum at St Petersburg, or they are preserved in the little Temple of Theseus, which, situated on the Hill of Mithridates, is appropriated to the same purpose here.

As we crossed the steppe on our way back, it was melancholy to see thousands of acres of magnificent soil, capable of bearing the finest crops in the world, destined to remain uncultivated until the agricultural population of Russia are free to transplant themselves to those parts of the empire which offer the highest inducements, and where a new stock is wanted to replace the aboriginal Tartars, who are rapidly vanishing off the face of the earth.