Dec. 16. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



491 



White Rock. Sympheropol, or City collected to- 

 gether, is the ancient name, according to Pallas, 

 of Ak-metchet, Tartar for Whitechurch. Bak- 

 tcheserai is Tartar for a Palace in a Garden. The 

 Tartar Yeni-kale is New Castle, and Karasu-bazar 

 means Blackwater Market. Baluklava is probably 

 the Turkish corruption of Strabo's naKKd-Kiov, the 

 antithesis of Parthenit, the Virgin. The name 

 has also been attributed to the Genoese Bella- 

 dava, or Beautiful Quay. According to Strabo 

 (vii. p. 446.), Parthenium is traditionally said to 

 contain a treasure guarded by a virgin, who 

 spends her nights in lamentations. This is the 

 scene of the Iphigenia in Tauris of Euripides. 

 East of Balaklava, there is a place set down in 

 the Useful Knowledge Society's map as lalma, by 

 mistake for lalta, the Russian letter for t (= m) 

 having been evidently taken for the English m. 

 Kertsli (derivation unknown) is also called Vos- 

 por, a corruption of ^oavSpos, Perekop, consist- 

 ing of three houses, is the Russian equivalent of 

 the Tartar Or-kapy, or Gate of Entrenchment. 

 The Tartar Dag (mountain) has had the Russian 

 Tchetyr, or tent, added to it. The name Feo- 

 dosia (Theodosia) has been given to Kaffa since 

 the time (fourth century) of Dionysius Periegetes, 

 who, speaking of the Bosporus (v. 164.), says, — 



Kaffa is probably Shemitic, and reaches beyond 

 the period of Tartar occupation. It may be the 

 Kipho (stone or rock) of the Syriac, or the Kuff 

 (elevated land) of the Arabic. Keff is Tartar for 

 mineral. T. J. Buckton. 



Lichfield. 



Traces of Scandinavian Dialects in the Crimea 

 (Vol. X., p. 421.). — Your correspondent R. A. is 

 not mistaken in supposing that the terminations of 

 the names of the rivers Alra-a and Bel-bee are 

 signs of Teutonic origin. About the end of the 

 fourth century the Crimea was occupied by a 

 tribe of the Ostrogoths, called the Tetraxits, who 

 attained their maximum of prosperity about the 

 middle of the sixth century ; but after that period 

 shared in the general suffering inflicted by the 

 ravages of the Mongolian invaders of Europe, but 

 did not disappear, according to Gibbon and others, 

 until after the fifteenth century. So long an oc- 

 cupation as this is quite sufficient to account for 

 the existence, even at the present day, of traces 

 like those pointed out by your correspondent. It 

 would be interesting to inquire. What other traces 

 can be discovered of that lengthened possession of 

 the Tauric Chersonese by our kinsmen the Goths ? 

 Perhaps some of the officers, or " correspondents," 

 in the army now before Sebastopol, will be able to 

 furnish us with some facts. B. JB. Woodward. 

 Bungay, Suflfolk. 



PHOTOGKAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE, 



Plwtography in Germany ("Vol. x., p. 331.). — As one of 

 the German photographers, rewarded by the jury of the 

 Great Exhibition in 1851 with the prize medal, permit 

 me to remark that photography has been actively culti- 

 vated in Germany since 1847 ; and that A. Martin, of the 

 Polytechnic Institute in Vienna, though little known in 

 his practical efforts, was one of the earliest, and is one of the 

 most meritorious of photographers. His Handbook, which 

 first appeared at that early period, has attained its fourth 

 edition, — a circumstance of rare occurrence in Germany. 

 Besides some other pamphlets about photography, pub- 

 lished in Germany, Loecherer of Munich has given us a 

 valuable treatise ; and Halleur's Die Kunst der Photogra- 

 phie is justly esteemed. The Photographisches Journal, to 

 which you allude, although a creditable production, is not 

 regarded as a first-rate authority, and has but just made 

 its appearance. 



Germany, indeed, cannot boast of a Photographic So- 

 ciety, and which may result from the fact of there existing 

 so few amateurs in this most beautiful and promising art. 



Nevertheless, we can produce fine specimens, which I 

 trust are by no means unworthy the good opinion of the 

 photographic world. 



Besides a great number of photographers who devote 

 themselves exclusively to portraits, there are others in 

 Munich, Dresden, Berlin, Frankfort a. M., Cologne, and 

 Vienna, who have produced some beautiful specimens ; for 

 instance, Loecherer's groups of human figures, copies of 

 Kaulbach's cartoons, some standard works of the picture 

 gallerj"- at Dresden, Mylius' old buildings of Nuremberg, 

 Michiel's painted windows of the Cologne Cathedral, &c. 

 I may also especially allude to the photographic branch of 

 the Imperial and Government printing-office at Vienna, 

 which uses photography, in union with all the other graphic 

 branches, to a considerable extent ; and at the Exhibition 

 in Munich during the past summer photography has 

 formed a leading subject from this establishment. It 

 has exhibited objects taken from nature, copies of busts, 

 statues, suits of polished armour, bas-reliefs, medals, 

 copies of oil pictures, water-colour paintings, drawings 

 with the pencil, with pen and ink, with Indian ink, with 

 chalk, &c. ; some imitations of etchings by Rembrandt, 

 Van Dyck, in the same size as the original ; furthermore, 

 maps copied froift drawings in the same size as their 

 original ; maps twenty-five times diminished, and a 

 magnified positive proof of one of them ; many entomolo- 

 gical objects magnified by the sua microscope, an opaque 

 shell magnified by the camera, &c. Some of the men- 

 tioned pictures are taken at once in a size of seventeen 

 and twenty-two inches, and the named establishment has 

 been the first having energy enough to work in such a 

 size. 



One of my friends in London, Mr. Triibner, 12. Pater- 

 noster Row, as well as myself, possesses copies of some of 

 the aforenamed, as well as others ; and I shall feel great 

 pleasure in availing myself of any opportunity that pre- 

 sents of producing them at any photographic exhibition 

 in this country. Paul Pretsch. 



8. Royal Exchange. 



Mr. How's Wax-paper Process. — With reference to 

 your answer in Vol. x., p. 172., I find that on adding the 

 chemicals to whey, as recommended by Mr. How, the 

 liquid, which was at first of a bright lemon-yellow colour, 

 becomes thick, and a precipitate settles an inch deep in 

 the bottle : this takes place after adding the fluoride. As 

 my results are not very satisfactory, I have taken the 

 liberty of troubling you again : I think something is 

 somehow precipitated that ought to be in the solution. 



