38 
A RAMBLE AMONG THE CRIM TARTARS. 
[Nature and Art, July 1, 1866. 
A RAMBLE AMONG THE CRIM TARTARS BEYOND THE 
SEAT OF WAR. 
By W. B. Lobd, Royal Artillery. 
A ND what a bridge it was ! A rickety, creak- 
ing mass of poles, tree-trunks, and brushwood, 
lashed together with thongs and ropes. The caution 
and wonderful instinct exhibited by the mules at 
the passage of this insecure structure (notwith- 
standing that the horses had led the way) has since 
been often recalled to my memory by similar traits 
displayed by the knowing old trained elephants 
which served us so faithfully in Central India. 
The clever long-eared companions of travel I 
now describe, investigated doubtful crossing-places 
most carefully, and never trusted to uncertainty. 
It was most curious to observe the way in which 
they first gave a couple of hearty sniffs at the bridge. 
Then they put their two fore-feet upon it, with 
roaclied back and protruding snout. Next, another 
sniff, and one hind-foot on ; then a shrill hinny of 
satisfaction. The other and last leg followed, and 
over we went, cheerily ! We now wend our way 
through scenery of marvellous beauty. The olive, 
the fig, and the walnut here grow in vast luxuriance, 
and reach a colossal size rarely approached in less 
favoured regions. The “bee-eater” and golden 
oriole dart from tree to tree, or vanish like harle- 
quins through the holes and crevices of the huge 
hollow trunks; whilst the “roller jays” flit from 
shrub to shrub like living gems. Here we are 
literally getting into “boulder land.” Stupendous 
blocks of riven rock lie scattered pell-mell, one on 
the other, in fantastic groupings ; and, as we near 
Limene, we pass an erratic block of huge dimensions, 
“the rock of Panea.” On this is perched one of 
the curious and picturesque old castles which the 
Genoese left behind them, built, like eagles’ nests, 
on the summits of the most inaccessible rocks, and 
crags they could find ; and its shattered walls stand 
forth in sharp outline and bold relief, amongst the 
wreck of ages strewn around. The whole imme- 
diate locality presents every evidence of having, in 
some bygone age, passed through a period of the 
most violent volcanic disturbance. Stupendous 
masses of rock have been here hurled in broken and 
scattered fragments even into the sea below. Vast 
jets of porphyry have penetrated through the 
deposits of schists underlying the J urassic limestone 
of which the towering cliffs are composed. In a 
small valley running up towards the high and 
broken crags, the disturbed schists are to be seen, 
fused with the fragments of upthrown porphyry, 
showing the violence and intensity of the igneous 
action to which this formation has been subjected. 
A short distance onward, the schist stratification 
curves up in one vast arch towards the mountain, 
rising to about thirteen hundred feet above the sea- 
level; whilst, beyond, Mount “Ai Petri,” or the 
mount of St. Peter, rears his crown in solemn 
majesty to a height of nearly four thousand feet.'"' 
Yet, with all these stern surroundings, it would be 
hard to imagine anything more fertile than the 
fairy spots nestling among the rugged blocks of 
scattered rock. The velvet turf and countless 
flowering plants grow as though tended most care- 
fully ; whilst, here and there, from some cleft or 
ledge, hang down matted creepers, charming by 
their very wild luxuriance. Clear, rippling brooks 
How on between the grey rocks, and through the 
rich green natural meadows dotted about amongst 
them ; and where, in glassy pool, the rivulet finds 
rest, the silvery fish may be seen, shooting off in 
shoals to tlieir hiding-places as our shadows fall on 
the transparent water. Above the path on which 
we are journeying stretches a broad, hat terrace of 
the greenest and most velvety sward, overshadowed 
by three or four perfect forest monarchs, and backed 
by an impenetrable thicket of thorns and under- 
growth, whilst amongst the broad green leaves 
tinkles a tiny rill, that hastes to join the rivulet 
below. Here we resolve to pitch our camp for 
the night, and a spot more enchanting, or better 
adapted to the purpose, it would be next to impos- 
sible to discover, even in this land of flowers. 
Camping operations are commenced by damming 
back the rill with turf, through which is thrust a 
tube, composed of bark stripped for the purpose 
from a young tree ; and then we scoop out a deep 
basin beneath it by shovelling out the sand and 
pebbles. An abundant and convenient water-supply 
being thus secured, a fire is kindled in the hollow 
of one of the trees, the tent is unpacked and 
pitched, the animals are picketed, and a home is 
established in less time than it would take to in- 
spect furnished apartments at home. 
The nights on this coast are charming to a 
degree — still, clear, and starlit ; and while I was 
keeping the first watch, the “wheetle-wheetling” of 
insects and the champing of the mules and horses 
were the only sounds that served to break its stillness. 
Towards morning some marauding Tartars endea- 
voured to creep in among the pack-mules — no doubt, 
for the purpose of first “stampeding” and then 
stealing them ; but the appearance of my man, 
armed with a double-barrelled gun, on the scene of 
action, sent the woolly-coatecl prowlers crashing 
through the underwood below as though a legion of 
fiends were at their heels, and we saw no more of 
them. As the morning was breaking, I took my 
gun and wandered away up a neighbouring ravine, 
* By trigonometrical survey, conducted by M. Chatillon, 
it was found to be 3,798 pieds de roi in height. 
