,(j FROM THE CIRCASSIAN FRONTIER, 
chap, observed in the Russian maps. It is now nothing 
U ' , more, however, than a single hut, for the purpose 
of supplying post-horses. Near it, the very 
year before our arrival, a volcano rose from the 
sea, forming an island, which afterwards sunk 
again 1 . Temrook is mentioned in the notes to 
the Oxford edition of Strabo, in more than one 
instance, with allusion to the Travels of Motraye, 
and written Temrok 4 . In Motraye s time it was 
a place of more consideration than we found it. 
He was there in the beginning of the last 
century 5 , and describes it as “ considerable for 
its commerce, in hides, caviare, honey, Circassian 
(1) The following account of the rising of this island has been ex- 
tracted from Pallas's Travels. “ It was about sun-rise, on the fifth of 
September (1799), when a subterraneous noise, and soon after a dread- 
ful thundering, were perceived in the Sea oj Azof, opposite to old 
Temruh, about one hundred and fifty fathoms from the shore. This 
intestine convulsion was speedily followed by a report not unlike that 
of a cannon ; while the astonished spectators, who had attentively 
watched the terrific scene, observed an island, of the form of a large 
barrow, rising from a cavity of the sea about five or six fathoms deep, 
and proceeding above the surface of the water, so that it occupied a 
space of about one hundred fathoms in circumference. At first it 
appeared to swell, and separate by fissures, throwing up mire with 
stones, till an eruption of fire and smoke occupied the spot 
Outlie same day, about seven o’clock P.M. two violent shocks of an 
earthquake, after a short interval, were perceived at Ekaterinodar, which 
is two hundred versts (near 134 miles) distantfrom Temruk.” Pallas's 
Travels in the South of Russia, vol. II. p. 3 16. The same author relates, 
that the island sunk again before he could visit it. 
(2) Strab. Geogr. lib. ii. p.722. edit. Ojcon. 1807. 
(3) Motraye was at Temrook in December 1711. SecTrav.vol.il* 
p. 40.. 
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