310 



RUSSIA IN EUROPE. 



The quality of tbls stone accounts for the disappearance of the Greek towns along 

 the coast, now traced only by heaps of rubbish. It is even too friable to serve for 

 the paving of the streets, the materials for which have to be brought from Malta 

 and Italy. There is also a lack of good water, which, however, is now supplied 

 from the Dniester by an aqueduct 21 miles long, with reservoirs containing about 

 6,000,000 gallons. 



The population is extremely mixed, consisting of Jews, Italians, Greeks, 

 Germans, French, besides Rumanians, Tatars, Turks, Bulgarians, Lases, and 

 Georgians. French influence is naturally considerable in a place founded by 

 General de Ribas, partly built by the engineer De Ribas, beautified and endowed by 

 the Duke de Richelieu, whose statue adorns a central point of the thoroughfare 



Fig. 167. — Khotin, Kamenetz, and Ravines op the Uppeu Dniestek. 

 Scale 1 : 550,000. 



5 Miles. 



facinff seawards. But the most influential foreio-n element is the Italian, and till 

 recently the names of the streets were usually in Italian and Russian. The local 

 dialect has even absorbed many Italian words. The staple export is corn, the 

 importance of which is shown by the vast palatial granaries, and by the shipments, 

 which rose from 20,000,000 bushels in 1866 to 45,000,000 in 1870. A large export 

 trade is also done in wool, tallow, flax, the chief imports being colonial produce, 

 manufactured goods, wine, fancy wares. The traffic is mostly carried on by steam- 

 ships, a considerable number of which belong to the port itself The local industries 

 are unimportant, though the place contains some steam flour-mills, soap and 

 tobacco works, distilleries, breweries, and dockj^ards. The neighbouring salines 

 yield from 4,000 to 5,000 tons of salt yearly. Since 1857 Odessa has ceased to be 

 a free port, but has instead become the seat of a University, though the smallest in 



