46 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 



Sebastopol we laaded for a few hours, and 

 heard great accounts of its increasing im- 

 portance as a trading port, the consular fees 

 for the year being double those of preceding 

 years. 



At Yalta much of the old bustle and life 

 seemed extinct. Most of its popularity and 

 prosperity passed away with the life of the late 

 Emperor, and the big hotels were more than 

 half empty and the gaily attired Tartar horse- 

 boys, beloved of Russian ladies, lounged about 

 in picturesque idleness, there being none to 

 hire them or their ambling steeds. Yalta, 

 too, had suffered from the destruction of 

 Orianda, the Grand Duke Constantine's 

 country seat, the blackened skeleton of which 

 we caught a glimpse of in passing, half hidden 

 amongst its groves of beautiful trees. 



Kertch was as picturesque and more 

 prosperous than ever, while Novo Rossisk, 

 four years ago a lifeless, unimportant village, 



