252 
FROM TULA 
chap, improperly Ieremow, in the Berlin edition of the 
great Map of Russia. It is a small insignificant 
town, upon a high hill; at the foot of which 
flows a river falling into the Don, written Metscha, 
and Mecza, but pronounced Mecka ; or Mdia, to 
mark the aspirate more strongly. In a country 
so uniform as that we were now traversing, much 
interesting information cannot be expected. 
The nature of the soil, its produce, the manners 
and the dresses of the people, afford but few 
remarks, and these are unimportant. Sterne 
has humorously observed, that nothing puts a 
writer of Travels to so much difficulty as the 
sending him over an extensive plain. To 
journey many leagues and say nothing, might 
seem like inattention; but to write observations 
of no moment, is less pardonable than any 
omission. 
Nicolai- We came to a place which it would be difficult 
to express by any rule of orthography that 
might convey an idea of the Russian mode of 
pronunciation'. Afterwards, leaving the govern- 
ment of Tula, we entered that of Orlof, as we 
were informed ; but in the Berlin Map it is laid 
(I) It may be written Nicolaijewka: then, if the ij be pronounced as 
our y, and the w as an /, it becomes Nicolayefha, and this is perhaps 
near the mark. 
