C R I 



SS5 



C R I 



Qrichten, ?. new generation cherishes the memory only of those 

 v ^ mei - who have enriched literature and science with their 

 """» '~ ' genius, or who have enlarged the comfort and happi- 

 ness of their species. The reputation of the Admirable 

 Crichton is, we fear, of this perishable kind. The 

 works which he has left behind him, and which have 

 been long forgotten, exhibit no marks either of taste or 

 genius. His accomplishments as a scholar have already 

 received their full reward, and impartial justice has no 

 demands upon posterity for a prolongation of his fame. 

 The following is a list of his works : 1. Odos ad Lanren- 

 tium Massam plures. 2. Laudcs Patavinw, Carmen ex- 

 tempore cffusum, cum in Jacobi Aloysii Cornelii domo ex- 

 perimentum ingenii coram tola Academics frequcntia, non 

 sine multorum stupore, jacerel. 3. Ignoraiionis Lauda- 

 tio, extemporale Thema ibidem redditum, post sex hora- 

 rum disputationes. 4. De Anpulsu suo Venetiis. 5. Odaz 

 ad Aldum Mhnutium. 6. Epiatola ad Diversos. 7. 

 Prmfationes solemnes in omnes Scientias sacras ct pro- 

 Janas. 8. Judicium de Philosophis. Q. Errores Arislo- 

 tclis. 10. Arma an Literal Prajstanl, Conlraversia ora- 

 torio. 11. Refutatio Mathernaticorum. And, 12. A 

 Comedy in the Italian language. Several of these 

 poems are published in the Biographia Britannica, to 

 which we must refer our readers for farther information 

 respecting the subject of this article, (w) 

 CRIEFF. See Perthshire. 



CRIMEA, anci-ntly Taurica Chersonesus, a penin- 

 • sular province of European Russia of recent acquisition, 

 in the new government of Taurida, formerly called 

 •. Crun Tartan/. The name of Crim, or the Crimea, has 



been by some derived from the ancient Cimmerii, but is 

 supposed by John Reinhold Forster to have originated 

 from the city of Krim, now called Stara-crim, or Eski- 

 kyrim, signifying the old citadel, denominated Cimme- 

 rhim by the ancients. In some middle age travels, the 

 Crimea is denominated the island of Caffa. 

 ion This peninsula is situated between the latitudes of 



id extent. 44° 40' and 46° 5', both N. and the longitudes of 32° 

 45' and 36° SO', both E. reckoning from Greenwich. 

 It is of an irregular rhomboid or lozenge shape, length- 

 ened out to the west, and more especially to the east, 

 every where surrounded by the waters of the Black Sea 

 and sea of Azof, except at its northern angle, where it 

 joins the continent of Europe by the isthmus of Precop, 

 otherwise Perecop, and Or-Capi, only four miles wide. 

 From this isthmus in the north to its most southern cape 

 or promontory, denominated Krin Metopon by the an- 

 cient Greeks, the extent is 124 English miles; and 

 measuring from the western cape to the eastern pro- 

 montory of Yenikale, it extends 208 miles from W. by 

 N T . to E. by S. The entire area, therefore, making 

 every allowance for the irregularity of its shores, can- 

 not be less than 5600 square miles, or 3,584,000 sta- 

 tute English acres ; but the far greater proportion of 

 the surface consists of extensive steppes, or compara- 

 tively desert plains. 

 la- Beginning on the north at the isthmus, the north- 



western side of the Crimea is bounded by the gulf of 

 Perecop, a large bay of the Black Sea or Euxine. The 

 north-east side, from the isthmus eastwards to opposite 

 Yenitche in the continental desert of the Nogays, is 

 bounded by the Sivash, or Mud Sea, an extremely ir- 

 regular and shallow gulf of the Palus Mceutis, or sea 

 of Azof, called also Ischaback-Denghissi, and sea of 

 Tabachi, or of Zabachi. This gulf of Sivash was de- 

 nominated Pulris Pa'us, or Putrid Gulf, by the art- 

 eiente. It also covers most of the eastern side of the 



Crimea, cutting deep into its shores by many irregular Crimea, 

 shallow bays and salt marshes; and is itself singularly 1s ~*~y— -^ 

 bounded and divided from the sea of Azof on the east, 

 by the peninsula, or long narrow stripe of Arabat, 

 which projects from the Crimea in the S. E. not exceed- 

 ing a mile or a mile and a half in breadth, but extend- 

 ing north, or rather north-by-west, for seventy miles, 

 and is only separated from the continent at Yenitche 

 by a strait of a mile and a half broad. 



Below, or to the south of this singular spit of land, 

 a considerable projection of the Crimea, called the pro- 

 montory or peninsula of Kertsch, anciently the king- 

 dom of Bosphorus, extends to the east, having the sea 

 of Azof on the north, the Black Sea on the south, and 

 the Straits of Yenikale or Taman, anciently the Cim- 

 merian Bosphorus, on the east, which divides it from 

 the Isle of Taman, beyond which is Kuban Tartary. 

 The whole southern and western coasts of the Crimea 

 are washed by the Euxine or Black Sea. 



This province may be divided into the Crimea Pro- Division? 

 per, the eastern subordinate peninsula of Kertsch, and 

 the Island of Taman. The climate is subject to consi- 

 derable variation, the winters being sometimes extreme- 

 ly severe, with intense and long-continued frost, espe- 

 cially in the extensive steppes or northern plain, which 

 is much exposed to the north-east winds, while the 

 season of spring is pleasant and moderate, with cool 

 nights and serene weather. The summer is often ex- 

 cessively hot, and droughts of considerable endurance 

 frequently prevail. The autumnal season is sultry, 

 moist, and unhealthy. 



More than three-fourths of the Crimea Proper, to the 

 north, are occupied by a vast undulated plain, called 

 the Steppes, of varying soil, without trees, being most- 

 ly composed of sand, more or less mixed with clay, 

 and affording pasture to numerous flocks belonging to 

 the Nomadic Tartars. This large plain or steppe Salt, 

 abounds with salines, or salt lakes and marshes, from 

 which abundance of salt is procured in the dry season, 

 for supplying the inhabitants of the peninsula, and the 

 Nogays, who wander through the steppes on the con- 

 tinent between the Nieper and the Don ; as also for 

 the neighbouring governments of Russia, and for Ana- 

 tolia, Bessarabia, and other countries around the Eux- 

 ine. So great is the abundance of this salt, which is 

 procured without the trouble of any process, except 

 gathering it from the dried up ponds, that two hun- 

 dred vessels load with it yearly from the single port of 

 Caffa, besides immense quantities carried inland in wag- 

 gons. This salt is easily obtained, as the conductors of 

 the immense numbers of Kibiikas, that resort to Pere- 

 cop for this indispensible necessary, have only to drive 

 axle deep into the shallow water, and load as fast as 

 they please, the salt lying in heaps like sand. They 

 are to be seen at this work to the number of hundreds 

 at a time, the driver of each waggon, or kibitka, pay- 

 ing a tax of ten roubles to the crown for his load of 

 salt. It is sent by the Black Sea to Constantinople and 

 the Archipelago, and by land to Poland and all Russia, 

 even as far as Petersburg and Riga. Even in the ear- 

 liest periods of history, Taurica was, as now, the em- 

 porium of this commodity to all the surrounding coun- 

 tries. 



The soil of this extensive flat consists partly of a $$ . 

 white sandy clay, and partly of a black vegetable loam, 

 and near the southern hills is mixed with chalk and 

 limestone. It had formerly a great number of Tartar 

 villages, wherever 'water could be procured for irriga* 



