^4 Biographical Memoir of Peter Sivwn Pallas. 



Pallas betook himself thither in the end of 1795 ; but this 

 climate^ which had appeared to him so fine during a short resi- 

 dence, proved, after more experience of it, inconstant and moist. 

 The beautiful valleys were rendered pestilential in autumn by 

 marshes ; the winter was very severe ; the inconveniences of both 

 the north and of the south were felt in it. Besides, property 

 bestowed somewhat loosely, because it was thought entirely de- 

 pendent upon the old demesne of the Khans of the Crimea, be- 

 came in part liable to be disputed, and involved the new pos- 

 sessor in endless processes. Lastly, and worst of all, Pallas 

 had not sufficiently considered what a void he would experience, 

 when, being removed from all the learned world, he would find 

 it impossible to communicate his ideas. He was quickly unde- 

 ceived, and expressed his chagrin with bitterness in the preface 

 to the second volume of his second journey. 



He passed, however, nearly fifteen years in the Crimea, oc- 

 cupied with the continuation of his great works, and with the 

 exercise toward strangers of the ancient hospitality of the coun- 

 try ; labouring especially at a project of the highest importance 

 to Russia, that of improving the culture of the vine, of which 

 he had made great plantations in the valley of Soudac, the an- 

 cient Saldaca of the Genoese. He judged the country so much 

 the better adapted for this purpose, that he thought he had 

 found the vine in a wild state in it, although what he saw was per- 

 haps nothing else than the remains of the ancient vineyards of 

 the Greeks. But no occupation could reconcile him to so melan- 

 choly a life ; and the marks of esteem which he received from 

 Europe, only served to increase his regret at having left it, and 

 made him the more sensible of what he had lost by doing so. 

 At length, resolved to tear himself from his situation, he sold his 

 lands at a very low price, badci adieu for ever to Russia, and re- 

 turned, after an absence of forty years, to close his life in his 

 native city. 



To a man wlio had lived fifteen years in Little Tartary, this 

 was like coming back from the other world. Some old friends 

 whom he found seemed to him to recal his youth ; he resumed 

 his former warmth and eloquence when he was informed of the 

 new advances of science, the rumours of which had but imper- 



