THE PASS OF ALUSHTA.

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We commenced our descent with the utmost rapidity, our trot soon increasing into a gallop; and the cart hopping rather than rolling round the sharp, steep corners, it became quite a work of difficulty to keep our seats. The fantastic Dimirdji, with its huge crags grotesquely piled one above another, towered above us on the left-a worthy vis-à-vis to the Tchatir Dagh.

In an hour we had reached the bottom, and, like the mountain torrents which had dashed by our side, we glided more tranquilly on, after our stormy passage, between cypress hedges and through long avenues of poplars, casting immeasurable shadows in the morning sun, and past orchards and vineyards laden with luscious fruit. We had hardly regained our breath, when we pulled up at the door of the posthouse in Alushta.

TARTAR VILLAGE OF ALUSHTA-A RUSSO-AMERICAN IDIOSYNCRASY-A CARAVANSERAI-AN EXTORTIONATE POSTMASTER-COAST SCENERY -MARSANDA-PROSPECT OF AN ADVENTURE-LOVELY SCENERY

THE only remaining vestiges of the ancient dignity of Alushta are three picturesque towers, and a stone wall twelve feet high and seven feet thick, which formed part of a citadel erected by the Emperor Justinian about 465 A.D., to protect the country against the Goths and Huns. These towers seem to rise out of the flat roofs of the Tartar cottages, and produce a most singular effect.

TARTAR VILLAGE OF ALUSHTA.

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The Alustan Phrurion of the middle ages, this town at one time contained a considerable population, and was the seat of a bishop. Under the Turkish régime it sunk into the condition of a mere Tartar village. This it remains to the present day; and the massive walls of the old fortress enclose a collection of flimsy cottages, the quaint but barbarous construction of which strikingly contrasts with the solid erections of a civilised nation many centuries ago. The Tartars, unlike other people, generally prefer the steep side of a hill for the site of their villages, rather than those level situations vulgarly known as “eligible building lots." By excavating a space out of the hill, in proportion to the accommodation required, the architect is saved the trouble of building a back wall, while he simply fills up with mud the angles at the sides. The roof which thus, as it were, projects out of the hill, is perfectly flat, and covered with mould. It extends beyond the front walls, and, supported by posts, forms a sort of verandah. Thus, when the traveller passes below one of these cottages, the roof is not visible at all, while, if he be above them, they would have the effect of diminutive drying-grounds for grain or coffee, were it not for the smoke that issues from the conical mud chimneys. These serve not only as apertures for the smoke, but also as means of verbal communication with the interior of the houses. On a dark night an equestrian might easily mistake his way, and, riding straight over one of these roofs, make his appearance at the

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MORE POSTING EXPERIENCES.

front door in a manner too abrupt to be altogether consistent with good breeding.

The cultivation of the vine has progressed more rapidly in the valley of Alushta than in almost any other part of the Crimea. The soil is rich, and watered by two mountain streams, which divide the valley, and give additional effect to the charms of its luxuriant cultivation. Besides the extensive vineyards, a great deal of tobacco is also grown in the neighbourhood. A number of neat Russian houses are springing up on the various properties, and a gay new church, conspicuously placed, has just been completed. We found several travellers at the posthouse waiting helplessly for horses. Two gentlemen, direct from Moscow, with padaroshnas of the most urgent description, who had been eating grapes, smoking, and sleeping for twenty-four hours, told us we were not likely to obtain horses until the following day at the earliest. They had bribed the postmaster more highly than any of the other unfortunates collected under this miserable roof, and were evidently prepared to outbribe us; so, instead of entering into a useless competition, we discussed the admirable system from which we were mutually suffering, and which, I readily conceded, was unequalled in its operation by that of any other country.

It is singular that the most striking characteristic of two people so widely dissimilar as the Americans and Russians, should be identical; that,

A RUSSO-AMERICAN IDIOSYNCRASY.

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while diametrically opposed to one another in their habits and feelings, the same sentiment should predominate in the breasts of both, and find vent in a manner that soon becomes tiresome to the traveller ; and yet, perhaps, although the expressions of an indiscriminating patriotism with which he is overwhelmed in both countries may scarcely differ, it would not be fair to say that the sentiment which gives rise to them is in the two cases exactly the same. It is the personal vanity of the American which is touched; he feels that he has individually shared in the glorious work for which he claims your admiration, and, justly proud of the position of his country and the achievements of his countrymen, he is unable to repress his satisfaction, though at the expense of good breeding: it is the genuine outburst of a mind which lacks not honesty, but refinement. The highly-polished Russian, on the other hand, is disturbed by a restless consciousness of his own innate barbarism, and hopes that, by continually impressing upon you the high state of civilisation of his country and its inhabitants, you may gradually come to doubt the evidence of your own senses, and believe him instead. He is, moreover, insensibly influenced by the mode of government under which he lives; and, in a blind submission to it, deliberately deceives you with regard to the internal condition of the empire; for he feels bound to become another of the "solemn shams" which it maintains.

While experimentally testing the truth of this reflec