ITS NAME AND PORT.

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rocks above them, a colony of Karaite Jews; at Balaclava, a horde of Greeks; an army of Russians at Akmetchet; in other towns, Anatolians and Armenians; in the steppes, Nogays, Gipsies and Calmuks; so that in a very small district of territory, as in a ménagerie, very opposite specimens of living curiosities are singularly contrasted."

The fertile valley in which the town of Balaclava stands is rendered extremely picturesque by its bay, which, constituting a magnificent harbour, was once called Kaλos Av, The beautiful port; a name which the Italian conquerors of this coast translated by Bella chiave, since corrupted into Balaclava. The water, entering by a narrow strait scarcely thirty yards across, expands itself behind the mountains into a commodious basin, twelve or fourteen hundred feet in width and three hundred fathoms deep, in which large vessels may ride in safety during the severest storms. Between the town and the sea, overlooking both and standing at a fearful height on the summit of a mountain, supposed to be the Пaλániov of the ancients, is a fortress which the Genoese repaired and strengthened in the fourteenth century: one of the towers, of which there are now three, contains a large reservoir of water, supplied by

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VALLEY OF BAIDAH.

means of a covered aqueduct from a mountain some miles distant. The port abounds with fish, particularly a small delicate one known by the name of sea-servant; as also with mackerel and mullet; and with a marine production resembling tallow.

The town of Balaclava is paved with the red and white marble of which the surrounding rocks are composed. It contains nothing of interest but its inhabitants; so that, after dining with a Greek family and examining the localities above described, we remounted our horses and, crossing a precipitous hill, reached the beautiful valley of Baidah, distant fifteen versts, just as the sun sank beneath the horizon. The village is occupied entirely by Tartars; to which kind, hospitable, and honest race our host belonged. We were shown into a room twelve feet by eight, carpeted, and surrounded by a divan, or sofa, two feet wide and six inches high, likewise carpeted and covered with soft cushions. The arched rafters of the ceiling were painted of a black color, relieved by patches of white lime; and two holes in the wall were furnished with shutters and a grating, but no glass. Opposite one of these was the fireplace, or open chimney, into one of whose corners the side-seat of the room ex

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tended, constituting the post of honor for a guest, who is compelled to sit, like the Tartars, with his legs crossed under him;-no easy position for a Christian. Round the walls several shining tin plates were ranged, and under them, in double rows, hung white cloths, of the size and shape of towels, worked and bordered with gold: these are the riches of the bride, prepared by her own hands before marriage and varying in costliness and number with the wealth of the party. On one side was suspended a large broad band of leather, ornamented with brass twist; at each end of which was a silver circle four inches in diameter, furnished with hooks that fastened it round the waist: this is the bridegroom's gift to his bride, and it is often an article of great expense.

On a table, a foot square and a foot high, our kind host himself served our meal, placing on it a large tin tray containing some hardboiled eggs, black rye bread, and a dish called begmes, made of the juice of pears. Three men waited on us; but no females made their appearance; for the Tartars are as careful to screen their women from the eye of man as Moslims in all other parts of the world. The ladies of the house, however, peeped at us occa

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MOUNTAINS OF AYILA.

sionally, and we caught a glimpse of one of the peepers. Before and after eating, we were presented with a basin and a fringed towel, to wash our hands; and this ablution is considered necessary after sleep, though it be but a siesta of ten minutes.

At the hour of repose, a number of mattresses and carpets were brought out from behind a curtain and laid on the floor to form our beds, together with cushions adorned with worked pillow-cases. They entirely filled the room, and it was with great difficulty that we avoided soiling them as we moved; a difficulty which the natives obviate by leaving their shoes at the door when they enter a house.

The following morning we bade adieu to the hospitable Mussulmans who would accept no recompense, and proceeded to climb the chain of mountains called Ayila, which stretches across the Crimea from west to east, abounding, in the interior, with picturesque valleys of the richest luxuriance, while to the sea it presents only rugged acclivities, and to the clouds wild gigantic outlines. From the valley of Baidah, in which Tartar villages and mountain streams unite with the tints of the foliage to form a lovely landscape, we ascended for some miles by a narrow and difficult path through forests

of oak, beech, elm, walnut, filbert, and hophorn-beam, varied by the clematis and blackberry growing in great profusion; and after descending for five versts on the opposite side, we reached a spot known by the name of the "Devil's Stairs," whence the view is such that no words can convey a just idea of it. The traveller stands on the top of a rock two thou sand feet above the sea. Before him the Euxine expands itself over the horizon, washing the shores of Asia Minor and the foot of the mighty Caucasus, whose snow-clad summits may occasionally be discerned in a line stretching from the sea of Azof to the Caspian. On three sides he is surrounded by the weatherbeaten heights of Ayila, rising in peaks and bluff forms of every possible variety, and frowning in terrible majesty over the abyss. Here, projecting fragments of rock, like vast inverted stalactites, almost disjoined from the parent mass, stand out in stately solitude, as if commissioned to go forth to explore the mighty deep; while there, the mountain itself, assuming a concave form, recedes, as it were, from terrors of its own creation.

The roots of Ayila are connected with the sea by a narrow strip of sloping land covered with gardens and vineyards. To reach this,