18 FROM THE CIMMERIAN BOSPORUS, 
chap, for a few copeelcs, the antient coins which they 
Hi ' have discovered in the soil. The walls of the 
town are full of broken and of some entire 
marbles, with bas-reliefs and inscriptions neg- 
lected or ruined. Some of the latter are used 
as steps before the doors of the houses ; or they 
serve, as at YenikalS, among other materials for 
building. Many of the inhabitants have placed 
antient Greek marbles over their doors, by way 
was erected in honour of Mithradates, or some of his family. The 
shore is very shelving and shallow ; and we had the greatest difficulty 
to get our boat within a reasonable distance of the land. The Com- 
mandant of Kertch, a Georgian by birth, told us that many plans had 
been given for a harbour and quarantine at this place ; but the present 
scheme of making Kaffa the emporium would probably prevent them. 
Immediately on landing, we were accosted by a Russian priest with 
the salutation Avicrn. We had before observed, that the 
Cossacks used at this season to salute foreigners in Greek. 1 he town 
of Kertch is very small and miserable ; it is chiefly inhabited by 
Jews. There is one tolerable watchmaker, and two shops in the 
Bazar, where we saw some English cotton stuffs. The country 
around is all bare of trees, and their fire-wood is brought from the 
neighliourhood of Eski-Kriin, a distance of perhaps 120 versts. There 
is a spacious fortress, and a garrison of a Lieutenant-colonel, a Major, 
and four companies of light-infantry. The men were distinguished 
by not wearing swords, which most Russian soldiers do : the non- 
commissioned officers carried rifles. I had made some drawings and 
memoranda of the antiquities, which I have lost, but which differed 
in no material point from the account published by Pallas. The 
most interesting are in the wall of the church. It is perhaps worth 
mentioning, as illustrative of national character, that the Russian 
Major, who agreed to furnish us with horses, and an open kibitka to 
Kaffa, insisted on such usurious terms that the other officers cried 
out shame, and that the same man afterwards squeezed some further 
presents out of Thornton’s servant. A Cossack would have disdained 
such conduct.’* Ucber’s MS. Journal. 
