230 Some Particulars respecting the Geography, 



The city of the same name, formerly occupied by Greeks, 

 is at present inhabited by a small number of Tartars ; it has 

 a safe roadstead. Near Aoutka, inhabited by Greeks who 

 live chiefly by the oyster fishery, the cascades of Akar-sou 

 are seen, the fall of which is 60 toises. Soon after quitting 

 Goshra, Charis and Mouskor, and a little before coming to 

 Aloupka, the scene changes, and presents a very savage 

 aspect. But the traveller is sometimes astonished by meet- 

 ing with a village, gardens, and even cultivated grounds in 

 the middle of enormous masses of rocks heaped upon each 

 other. The winter of 1 802 produced the most frightful 

 ravages in this district; only one laurel-tree escaped. Upon 

 this occasion, as M. Reuilly informs us, the Tartars derived 

 from the Greeks and appropriated to their own language the 

 word Daph?ie, in order to express the laurel. This valley, 

 one of the warmest of all the southern part, is every wher6 

 surrounded by the famous Kriou-Metopon, the Ram's 

 Head, a mountain well known to the navigators of antient 

 Greece. 



After having passed successively Cape Crotis Bourofi, the 

 valley of Simcus, extremely rich in fruit-trees, and the pro- 

 montory of Limanes, the village of Koutchoukoy presents 

 itself in view, near which lies tlie scene of the revolution of 

 178-1, described by M. Pallas. He af(er'»'ards traversed 

 Pchatka and Foros, which lead to the smiling valley of 

 Baidair, separated by a very high rock from that of Var- 

 moutka. After some hours journey he reached Balaclava, 

 where ends the chain of the high mountains of the Southern 

 Crimea. 



In spite of the assertion of some writers, the Crimea con- 

 tains no volcanic fires; an opinion so much the more pro- 

 bable because earthquakes are very infrequent. There are 

 much more frequently falling of rocks and watery eruptions 

 between Kertch and Yenikale; but pirticularly in the island 

 of Taman. 



Several rivers water the Crimea; some of them flow to- 

 wards the north-east into the sea of Sivach, and others run 

 westward to the Black Sea. Among the former are the 

 Salghir, into v/hich the great and little Cara-sou and 



Bouroultz 



