ODESSA AND MISKITCHEE. 47 



Yalta itself is the Eden of Russia perhaps, 

 but it is an Eden in which most of the inhabi- 

 tants are invalids, all the hotels infamously exor- 

 bitant in their charges ; and life, unless one is 

 addicted to the process of the grape cure, exces- 

 sively monotonous. The palace of Livadia is 

 beautiful, but would, I think, scarcely please 

 ordinary English taste as much as the magnificent 

 foliage (artificially arranged) at Orianda (the 

 Grand Duke Constantino's seat), or the stately 

 beauty of Aloupka. The mountains round Yalta 

 and as far as Theodosia are extremely fine, and 

 I know of few things more beautiful than some 

 of the views to be obtained from their pine-clad 

 sides. I believe a few roe and chamois are to 

 be found on them, but these are at least partially 

 preserved. 



Arrived at Kertch I was at home again, and 

 soon in my old room at the consulate. A right 

 merry time we had of it, and, as was natural, 

 devoted a couple of days to our old friend Mis- 

 kitchee, the lake that ' best of all lakes the 

 fowler loves,' on these Crimean steppes. 



Miskitchee is the Tartar name for a village 

 some sixty versts from Kertch : the lake, which 

 adjoins the village, shares with the latter its 

 name. The lake is a piece of shallow water 

 some two miles long by half a mile broad, aud 

 nowhere deeper than up to a man's waist. It is 



