200 
FROM THE CAPITAL OF THE CRIMEA, 
chap, demand the attention of the traveller, and call 
— * * 1 for all his activity. Landing at Ahtiar, he 
arrives in the very centre of some of the most 
interesting antiquities of the Crimea. The 
country included within the isthmus formed by 
the principal harbour of Ahtiar, or Inkerman, 
that is to say, by the Ctenus of Strabo, and the 
port of Balaclava or Portus Symholorum, is the 
Heracleotic Chersonesus, so accurately de- 
scribed by that author as a portion of the 
of any consequence. No vessels are built here ; as the timber must all 
he. floated down the Bog or Dnieper. A regulation had been made, 
prohibiting merchant-vessels the entrance into the harbour, unless 
in positive distress ; a strange way of proceeding, when compared 
w ith the general policy of European Governments. Thereason assigned 
was, the embezzlement of the public stores, which were sold to the mer- 
chants bt/ the Government officers, almost without shame. The effect 
has been, to check entirely the prosperity of the town, and to raise 
every foreign commodity to a most extravagant price. Even provisions 
cannot be brought by sea without a special licence. This information 
I derived from the Port-Admiral, Bandakof, and from an English 
officer in the Russiau service. The natural advantages of the harbour 
are truly surprising ; and the largest vessels lie within a cable’s length 
of the shore. The harbour is divided into three coves, affording 
shelter in every wind, and favourable situations for repairs, building, 
&c. On a tongue of high land, between the two southern creeks, 
stands the Admiralty and store-houses, and on the opposite side is the 
town. The principal arm of the harbour runs east, and is terminated 
by the valley and little river of Inkerman. There are some formidable 
batteries, and the mouth of the harbour is very easy Of defence. The 
old and unserviceable cannon are broken into small pieces, by being 
raised to a great height, and suffered to fall on a bed of masonry ; and 
then sent, as we are told, to Lugan, to be new cast. To build a ship 
in the Black Sea costs half as much agai n as to construct it at Cronstadt, 
the wood coming from so great a distance.” Heber's MS. Journal. 
