4 
THE STEPPE. 
the common acceptation of its name, by the culture of corn, 
and the animation of innumerable windmills. The peasants 
were busily employed, gathering in the harvest. 
On different parts of this vast plain, and not far distant from 
the road, I was struck with the successive appearance of some 
thousands of the tumuli, those mansions of the dead of ages 
past, which overspread the face of this country, even to the 
shores of the Black Sea, and nearly to the banks of the Kuban. 
My meditations on their design and origin were interrupted 
by our arriving at the town of Kremanchuck. It is situated on 
low and swampy ground, but surrounded by dry and deep sands. 
A few withering trees peer through the ungenial soil, yielding 
a scanty shade to the miserable garden of what is called the 
palace of this wretched place. On quitting Kremanchuck, we 
passed the Dneiper again, (the river winding about in many 
contrary directions,) over another wooden bridge.* This was 
nearly a mile in length, and so constructed as to rise and fall 
with the action of the water. For many wersts onward, the 
road was of deep and loose sand; consequently our progress 
was slow and encumbered, till we regained the Steppe. There, 
our wheels moved faster, but it was long before they brought 
us in sight of any thing new or interesting. Nothing interrupted 
the monotonous line of country, except here and there a steep 
ravine ; within which, though only to be discovered by arriving 
on its brink, might be found a few earth-built huts, and perhaps 
as many stunted trees, like the inhabitants, hardly nourished 
by so rough a bosom. 
The next post is Elizabethgrad, one thousand and eighty 
wersts from Moscow. The site of this post bears a more cheer¬ 
ful aspect. It is situated on each side of a ravine, which, being 
more capacious in breadth than any I had yet seen, admitted 
