THE CEIMEA. 445 



and according to the Tatars of the neighbourhood the violence of the gas explosions 

 is in inverse ratio with that of the sea. The rougher the water, the calmer tlie 

 volcanoes. 



Flora and Fauna. — Ci-tmate. 



But the Crimean highlands differ in their vegetation even more than in other 

 respects from the rest of Russia. The argillaceous soil of the steppes bordering 

 on the Sivash produces nothing but tufts of coarse grass, which in two or three 

 months crumbles to dust. But even the northern slopes of the hills facing the 

 bare steppe are already covered with pasture, clumps of poplars, orchards, thickets 

 of divers species of trees, while every valley is watered with purling streams, 

 which are diverted into the gardens to irrigate a magnificent flora. The upland 

 forests have not all yet been destroyed, and here and there are still met groves of 

 glorious beech-trees, recalling the forests of Central Europe and Normandy. 

 Here are intermingled all the large trees of temperate Europe — the oak, beech, 

 hornbeam, linden, elm, ash, sorb, aspen, willow, hawthorn, wild cherry, plum, 

 crab apple. On the southern slopes the most common tree is the sea pine, but 

 lower down the vegetation is quite Italian. Here flourish the laurel, fig, pome- 

 granate, olive, arbutus, while the wild vine everywhere twines round the stems of 

 the larger trees. Altogether the number of species growing in this highland 

 region exceeds those of all the rest of Russia. 



Too limited to shelter a numerous fauna, the Crimea is much less rich in 

 animal than in vegetable species. Except the hare, fox, and small rodents, wild 

 quadrupeds are rai'e, and many found elsewhere in Russia are wanting altogether. 

 But all the domestic animals of the Russian steppes have been introduced, together 

 with the two-humped camel of Central Asia. The quail appears in spring, and 

 migrates southwards in autumn, as on the coast of Provence. Aquatic birds, 

 reptiles, insects, and marine molluscs are rare, though there is a highly prized 

 species of oyster. The proportion of salt contained iu the water of the Black Sea, 

 17 or 18 parts to 1,000, is the smallest compatible with the presence of this 

 mollusc. The abundance of other marine species may be judged from the fact that 

 in December, 1869, Balaklava Bay was completely choked with a sho:il of anchovy 

 pursued by dolphins to this retreat, where they soon formed a solid mass, rising in 

 many places above the surface. 



The mild climate of the Crimea, where the glass seldom falls below freezing 

 point, even in the towns on the northern slopes, could not fail to attract immigrants 

 to the peninsula, whose geographical position secured to them special advantages. 

 Lying beyond the mainland, while keeping open its communications with the 

 interior, it meets commerce, so to say, half-way, opening its ports to all the great 

 trade routes. For aggressive and defensive purposes it also occupies an exceptional 

 position in the centre of the Euxine. By closing the isthmus connecting it with 

 the continent, it may even be constituted a veritable fortress, and such is said to 

 be the meaning of the name of Krim, bestowed on it by the Tatars towards the 

 end of the thirteenth centurv. 



