TO THE CIMMERIAN BOSPORUS. 
way to the town, distant about two versts 3 . 
Workmen were then employed upon the build- 
ing. It is an absurd and useless undertaking, 
calculated to become the sepulchre of the few 
remaining inscribed marbles and Grecian has- 
reliefs, daily buried in its foundation. As a 
military work, the most able engineers view it 
with ridicule. An army may approach close to 
its walls, protected from its artillery by a 
natural fosse, and even unperceived by the 
garrison. The Russians begin to be convinced 
of the bad policy which induced them to extend 
their frontier into this part of Asia. The defence 
of the line from Ekaterinedara to Taman, not 
half its extent between the Caspian and the 
Black Sea, required, at the time we passed, an 
army of fifty thousand men 4 , whose troops, 
from unwholesome climate and bad water, con- 
sidered the station little better than a grave. 
The country itself yields no profit; for it consists, 
principally, of swampy or barren land, and 
serves only to drain Russia of soldiers, who 
(3) There is a fortress with a Russian garrison, of whom the Cossacks 
complain heavily, as infamous thieves. Oar carriage was guarded 
every night by a Cossack sentinel with his lance.” Hebcr’s MS. 
Journal. 
(4) That is to say, during a period of war. In ordinary times, the 
number is by no means so considerable. Mr. Heber makes the whole 
guard of the cordon only equal to 5000 men. 
