PREFACE. IN dismissing this volume, I desire to remark, that it has been written under circumstances unfavour able to literary exactness. It formed no part of my object to detail the events of the present war, or to criticise its conduct. I have merely sought to illustrate its scenes, and give the general annals of a peninsula, which, after being famous in by-gone times, and lapsing into obscurity, has been suddenly raised to lasting celebrity, as the site specially selected by the Western Powers on which to fight the battle with Russia. The case is unique in history, of the armies of five great sovereigns being concentrated in such a narrow space-those of a Queen, an Emperor, a King, a Sultan, and a Czar-belonging to the four leading religious professions of Europe, the Protestant, Roman Catholic, Mohammedan, and Russo-Greek communions. Some passages from contributions by the writers to the public journals have been made use of in the following pages. It is to be lamented, that the description of the Museum of Kertch must be read as an account of what it was, all its contents relics of the old Milesian Greeks-having been destroyed, apparently by the Turks and Zouaves. Brixton, June 24. 1855. CONTENTS. Geography and War.-General Notice of the Crimea.-Penin- sulas of Kertch and Arabat. - The Black Sea. Its ancient and modern Names. · Ovid and Tertullian. - Character of the Navigation.-Sea of Azof.-The Putrid Sea.- Strait of Kertch. Mud Volcanoes. Fish of the Euxine. -The Natural Division of the Surface. - The South Coast Range.. Summits of the Highlands.-Rock of Shirin.-The Tchadir- Dagh.-Cave of Foul Kouba.-Landslips.-Valley of Baidar. ---Pass of Merdven.-Pass of Osembash.-Mangoup Kalé.— The Steppes. General Characteristics. - Tumuli. Their Design. Monotony of the Plains. - Optical Illusions. Flowering Plants and Grasses.-Burian. -The Steppe Witch. -Forests and Woods.-Vineyards.-Locusts-their Ravages. Cimmerians and Tauri.-Legend of Iphigenia.- First Mile- sian Colonists.-Kingdom of Bosphorus.-Trade. - Colonists from Heraclea. Mithridates. Pharnaces. Bosphoran The Wandering of the Nations.- Alans, Goths, and Huns. — The Turk Family. The Khazars. Khazarian Empire. - The Russians in the South. —Vladimir I. at Cherson. The Pichengues and Comanes. - The Mongol Tartars. — Con- quests of Batou Khan. — Empire of Kiptshak.—Subjects of the Empire. The Tatars chiefly Turkish Tribes. Intro- - |
