333 So7ne Pariiculars respecting the Gtographijy 

 remittent and intermittent fevers. There is no nation what- 

 ever, which has not its method of dividing the seasons : the 

 following is the one in use among the Tartars. The spring, 

 Bahaar, commences on the 23d of Fobmary, and lasts 60 

 <}avs, to the 22d of June. The summer, Tochilla, is 40 

 days, which finishes on the 1st of August. This month does 

 not form part of any season, and is called down to the 25th 

 Agostos. The 26th of August begins their autumn, Gkous, 

 composed of 61 days, and which ends on the 26th of 

 October. It is at this period that the Tartars conclude their 

 bargains and renew their leases. The 36 following days are 

 the precursors of their grand winter, Kychlchilla, which 

 begins on the 1st of December, lasts 66 days, and finishes 

 only on the 4th of February. They give the name of 

 Goud Chouk-ai to the 24 remaining days of this month, 

 The 53 following days, from the 1st of March to the 23d of 

 April, they call Mars, and they form no part of any season. 

 We remark in this last period, according to the meteorolo- 

 o-ical observation? of the Tartars, three distinct cold epochs, 

 which they name, the winter of old ivomen ; the winter of 

 the blackbirds {herdal asher), which lasts seven or eight 

 days ; and lastly, the winter of the lapwings [apoffo) . 



We now come to the second part of these Travels, which 

 is dedicated to the political state, or rather to the history of 

 the Crimea, or the Antient Tauridis. In this country, like 

 all others, it is difficult, not to say impossible, to tell vyho 

 were the first inhabitants. Some maintain that they were 

 the Taurians, aborigines of the mountainous part ; others 

 have found Amazons there 170O years before our asra ; 

 lastly others, and these are tlie most numerous, mention the 

 Cimmerians, or Cimbri, as the old masters of this immense 

 peninsula. The latter, driven out by the Scythians, who 

 came from the north of Persia, retired to the mountains. 

 Six centuries before the Christian jera the Greeks cstablirihed 

 themselves there, at least on the shores of it, and built 

 PanticapcBum or Bosphorus, now called Kertch; Theodosia, 

 now called Paffa ; and Cherson, which became a powerful 

 republic, and upon which the author has given some parti- 

 cular details. There are others who. regard the invasion of 



Darius 



