10 
ODESSA. 
temple of Minerva, at Athens. Italian opera, and Russian co¬ 
medy, form the dramatic amusements of the place. Thirty 
thousand inhabitants, it is said, compose the present population 
of Odessa. 
Having bidden farewell to my hospitable entertainers, both 
British and Russian, and being obliged, on my changed route, to 
pass again through Nicolaieff, my good friend, General Kobly, 
brought me on my way as far as Koblinka. His property in that 
neighbourhood is of considerable extent, and greater value. The 
soil produces abundance of corn, besides feeding multitudes of 
sheep, bred from the original Merinos. This latter speculation 
has been found highly profitable to the landholders in general, 
whose pastures every where around, rivalled those of Koblinka; 
some having from twenty to thirty thousand sheep in their flocks, 
equal in form and wool to any of the species I ever saw in Spain. 
The breed is crossed by Moldavian ewes, but the fleece does 
not degenerate. — General Kobly draws a considerable revenue 
also from the sale of salt, produced by the evaporation of the 
waters of a small lyman, part of his property immediately bor¬ 
dering on the Black sea. A fishery near the spot returns a pro¬ 
portional profit in a species of herring, mackarels, turbots, soles, 
and sterlits; which are salted as soon as caught, and afterwards 
advantageously disposed of in the markets of Odessa. 
Personal labour at Odessa and its dependencies is excessively 
high. A soldier may gain three rubles per day for manual 
work, a regular carpenter seven; consequently, all articles of 
living are dear ; and to lessen the expense of labour, every ex¬ 
pedient is adopted, to effect its purposes by the fewest hands. 
One attempt is, to divide the corn from the ear, without flail or 
threshing machine. — Several four-wheeled carts are filled with 
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