NOTICE OF A SKULL BROUGHT FROM THE CRIMEA. 327 
follows: Dr. Michael Turner was present in the Crimea, and in 
active service on the medical staff, during the Anglo-French Invasion 
of 1855, and witnessed the capture of Kertch. At that period, its 
population was estimated at between seven and eight thousand ; and 
was composed of Tartars, Cossacks, Greeks, Russians, and a 
sprinkling from the tribes bordering on the shores of the Black Sea. 
More than two-thirds of the whole population of the Crimea are a 
mixture of the pure Asiatic Mongol Tartar with the modified 
European Turk ; and except among the nobles, or murses, and par- 
tially among the population of the northern valleys, they abundantly 
Indicate their Tartar origin in their features. 
The antipathies which the mutual wrongs of Russian and Turk 
have created, have obliterated in the minds of the latter any idea of 
kindred with the Tartar, or semi-Turkish population of the Crimea ; 
and after the sack and pillage of the town of Kertch, the Turkish 
troops carried their violence so far, as to open and spoil the graves 
in the Christian cemeteries ; and on finding trinkets and relics in 
some of the first they opened, a general desecration ensued. The 
articles found consisted of rings, beads, and amulets, and also of 
crucifixes, and images of the saints; and these were sought for, and 
appropriated by the Turkish soldiers, with the utmost indifference to 
the condition in which they left the ravished occupants of the dese- 
erated graves. Whilst strolling in the neighbourhood of the city 
where such shameful spoliation had been carried on, Dr. Turner 
passed through a large cemetery, which he was led to believe had 
been confined exclusively to members of the Greek Church, from the 
number of large marble crosses heading the graves. Most of the 
latter were opened, and rifled of such of their contents as could tempt 
the cupidity of the spoilers; and the skeletons and partially desicca- 
ted remains of their former occupants lay strewed about the ground. 
On looking into one of the open graves which had been thus de- 
spoiled, he was tempted to examine the nature of the sepulture, as 
the body still remained in its original position ; and also to ascertain 
whether the marauders had left anything of value behind. He ac- 
cordingly jumped into the grave, and turning over the loose soil with 
his hands, he was struck, on uncovering the head, by its long black 
hair and beautiful teeth. The body was not yet returned to the dust, 
_ so that the interment was one of no very remote date from that of the 
disturbance of what cannot properly under such circumstances be 
