T A M 



1i<m of which is north-east, forms the isthmus between the 

 lake of Ternruk on the east, and the bay of Taman on the 

 west, and terminates before it reaches the isthmus between 

 the lake of Temruk and the Sea of Azof. The north- 

 western part of Taman, or the peninsula between the Sea 

 of A^of and the bay of Taman, is no less elevated above 

 the sea, but although it is a continuation of the mainland, 

 it is separated from the eastern hills by a flat sandy isth- 

 mus, which seems to have been covered by the sea at a 

 period not very remote from our own times. All these 

 hills are mere masses of sand and pebbles cemented with 

 clay. The higher part of them is barren, but the slopes. 

 and the low grounds between them and the sea or the 

 lakes, are covered with soil and fit for agriculture. They 

 also make rich pasture-grounds. The isthmus between 

 the Temrukskoi Liman and the bay of Taman, and princi- 

 pally that between the lake of Temruk and the Kubanskoi 

 Liman, have a very pleasant aspect, being covered with 

 the neat farmhouses of the Cossacks ; and on the meadows 

 there are numerous flocks of cattle, some of which are 

 sent thither across the strait from the neighbouring coast 

 of the Crimea. The eastern part of Taman is formed by 

 two flat and narrow isthmuses, and a somewhat broader 

 tract of lowland between the two branches of the 

 Kuban. The whole of this country is marshy, partly 

 covered with pastures and partly with a luxuriant ve- 

 getation of rushes and reeds, which, in the neighbour- 

 hood of Kalaus, as Dr. Clarke states, attain a height 

 of from sixteen to twenty feet. Everywhere there is 

 a struggle between land and water; gulfs become creeks 

 and lakes, creeks are changed into marshes, and as soon 

 as these get a continental aspect, the waters again swal- 

 low them up. In the rainy season, says Pallas, all this 

 country is overflowed by the waters of the Kuban, and the 

 higher part of Taman is separated from the continent by 

 an immense lake which extends from one sea to the 

 other ; but notwithstanding the apparently overwhelming 

 power of the waters, the solid element makes constant 

 progress. Thus M. Durtau de la Malle is correct when, 

 in his ' Ge'o'jraphie Physique de la Mer Noire,' he s:iys 

 that all the lakes on the shore of the Sea of Azof, which arc 

 separated from the sea only by flat and narrow isthmuses, 

 have once been bays and guli's, and that the barriers be- 

 tween them and the open sea are a deposit formed by 

 the astonishing masses of mud and sand carried into this 

 sea by the Don and its tributary rivers. As to the whole 

 rn part of the island of Taman, it is also a mere re- 

 cent production of the immense quantities of clay and 

 mud which the Sea of Azof and the Kuban have depo- 

 sited before the mouth of this river. The western and 

 elevated part however in its whole geognostical structure 

 belongs to the opposite continent of the Crimea, from 

 which it has apparently been separated by the current of 

 the Cimmerian Bosporus. Two characteristic peculiari- 

 ties of this latter part are the Sewernaya Kossa, a long 

 but very flat and narrow slip of land which stretches from 

 the north-west extremity of the northern peninsula in a 

 south-west direction to the middle of the mouth of the 

 bay of Taman ; and the cluster of small islands, the prin- 

 cipal one of which was known to the Byzantines by 

 the name of Atcch, which extend from Point Yunaya 

 north-west till they reach the centre of the strait. These 

 islnmN will probably become a continuous land, and 

 by joining the opposite Sewernaya Kossa, will separate 

 the whole bay of Taman from the Bosporus. Numerous 

 small craters are situated on the ridge of the hills 

 round the Bay of Taman, as well as along the lake of 

 Temnik. They present all the external appearances of 

 volcanoes; though the matter which they throw out is 

 not lava, but a thick mud of a deep black colour, which 

 they discharge at irregular periods. The largest of these 

 ^ituated on the southern extremity of the north- 

 west peninsula, and :v description of the most remarkable 

 eruption of it is given by Pallas in the work cited below. 

 This traveller attributes these phenomena to the burning 

 ' layer of coals, upon which indeed the 

 whole island of Tnman seems to repose. The apparition 

 of an inland, which, on the 5th of September, 17'J3, sud- 

 denly rn* from tin; Sea of Azof, near the coast of Temnik, 

 a pip vinr-h was preceded and accompanied by 



;i kind of ciirth'iu:ik", and all the other symptoms of a 

 'lie eruption, was undoubtedly the effect of the garni 

 subterraneous cause. The new island however soon dis- 

 appeared in the sea. 



23 



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The Greeks knew this remarkable island under the name 

 of Eion (Hi'wv), and founded several colonies in it. The 

 most considerable of them were Phanagoria, a famous 

 commercial town, which contained a beautiful temple of 

 Aphroditeof Apaturon (Strabo, p. 405. Casaub.) ; Kepos, 

 or Kepi, a colony of the Milesians ; Hermonassa, founded by 

 the lonians; and Achilleion : some ruins and marbles are 

 the only traces that remain of their antient splendour. The 

 island belonged for a long period to the kingdom of Bos- 

 porus, and was afterwards conquered by Pharnaces, the 

 son of Mithridates. At the beginning of the middle 

 ages it belonged to the dominions of the Goths, and 

 afterwards of the Khazars, a Turkish people, renowned 

 for their industry and commerce. It was then known 

 under the name of Tamatarkha. In the tenth century a 

 Russian prince founded there the petty kingdom of Tmu- 

 tarakan ; the greater part of the inhabitants however were 

 Tsherkessians and Turks, and, from the time of the in- 

 vasion of the Mongols, the Tartars remained the only mas- 

 ters of it. Numerous old tombs still attest their long 

 residence on the island. They were at last driven out by 

 the Russians, who repeopled the country with Cossacks in 

 order to defend it against the invasions of the Tsherkessians 

 beyond the Kuban. There are now only two towns : Tmu- 

 tarakan, the Tamatarkha of the middle ages and the Pha- 

 nagoria of the Greeks ; and the present town of Phanagoria, 

 which was built by the Russians on the shore of the bay 

 of Taman, three miles east from Tmutarakin, on account 

 of its harbour being deeper than that of the latter town. 



(Pallas, Bemerkit/iypn aitf einer Reise in den Siidlichcn 

 Prnrinzrn des Russischen Seiches; Dr. Clarke, Travels in 

 Russia. The best map of the island of Taman is contained 

 in the great Atlas of Russia published at St. Petersburg ; 

 the map in Pallas's Bemcrkungcn is also good ; that of 

 Dr. Clarke has some interest for lovers of antiquities, but 

 is far from being geographically exact.") 

 TAMA'NDUA. [ANT-EATER, vol. ii., p. G5.] 

 TAMARICA'CE^E, a small natural order, belonging 

 to the syncarpous group of polypetalous Exogens. The 

 species are either shrubs or herbs, having straight rod- 

 like branches, with alternate entire leaves, resembling 

 scales ; the flowers are in dense spikes or racemes. 

 The calyx is 4-5-parted, persistent ; the petals inserted 

 into the calyx, both with imbricate aestivation ; stamens 

 hypogynous, distinct or united, equal in number with the 

 petals or twice as many ; ovary superior, with a short style 

 and 3 stigmas ; fruit a capsule, 3-valved, 1-celled, with 

 numerous seeds, which are comose ; embryo'sbaight with 

 an inferior radicle. 



Timarix gernwnica. a, cutting, showing tlio straight branches anil ncale-lil'.e 

 Iravei; b, single flower; r, flower wilh calyx ami corolla removal thawing 

 monndelphom stamens ; d. capsule with mmosr. secils escaping. 



This order is placed by De Candolle wiih those which 

 have perigynous stamens, but there is no doubt now that 



