FROM THE CIRCASSIAN FRONTIER, 
stone lead to this place from Taman ; and that 
they were works as much of luxury as of neces- 
sity, is evident, from the circumstance of their 
being erected over places containing little or no 
water at any time. A shallow stream, it is true, 
flows under one of them ; but this the people ot 
the country pass at pleasure, disregarding the 
bridges, as being high, and dangerous on account 
of their antiquity. They consist each of a single 
arch, formed with great skill, according to that 
massive solidity which characterizes works of 
remoter ages. The usual bridges of the country 
are nothing more than loose pieces of timber 
covered with bulrushes. 
Near to this spot, upon a neck of land 
between the great marsh or lake of Temrook and 
a long bay formed by the Euxine, at the di- 
stance of eighteen versts from the Ruins of 
Phanagoria, stood a monument, composed of two 
statues and a pedestal, with a most interesting 
inscription, which has been preserved by the 
ingenious Koehler. The monument was raised 
by Comosartja, a queen of the Bosporus, in con- 
sequence of a vow she had made to the deities 
Axerges and Astara 1 . The inscription has 
(0 “ And to Astarte the Phcnieiau God, alludes Aestar, or Easier, 
that Saxon Goddess to whom they sacrificed in the moneth of April ; 
which Bede, in his book lie Temporibus, style3 Easter moneth.” 
Bochart Can. l.i. c. 42. fod. 751. See Gale’s Court of the Gentiles, 
