THE GRASS EIRE. 
11 
stones, and each drawn by two horses ; they are then driven in a 
regular circle over the sheaves, as 1 they lie on the ground care¬ 
fully disposed in rows. Some of the proprietors perform a similar 
operation by the trampling of horses without carts ; this used to 
be practised in the east, by the treading of oxen : but for clean¬ 
liness, and ultimate profit, nothing is comparable to the regular 
threshing of the British farmer. 
During my short stay at Koblinka, I witnessed (though for¬ 
tunately for the neighbourhood it* was at a distance) a calamity 
almost peculiar to the farmer of the Ukraine, and which too 
often spreads a temporary desolation over vast tracts of his 
country : I mean a grass fire. This terrible accident generally 
happens by the carelessness of bullock-drivers, or of persons be¬ 
longing to caravans of merchandise, who halt for the night on 
the open plain; and, on departing in the morning, neglect to 
extinguish their fires. Wind, or some other casualty, brings 
the hot embers in contact with the high and dry grass of the 
Steppe; it bursts into flame, and burns on, devouring as it goes 
with a fury almost unquenchable. That which I now beheld, 
arose from negligence of this kind, and soon extended itself 
over a space of forty wersts; continuing its ravages for many 
days, consuming all the outstanding corn, ricks, hovels, in short, 
every thing, in its devastating path: — the track it left was dread¬ 
ful! 
My next sojourn, in this retrograde motion, was NicolaiefF, 
where I had the pleasure of seeing Admiral Greig. On arriving 
at this place from St. Petersburg, we crossed a long wooden 
bridge over the river Ingul, a considerable stream which flows 
past the north-west side of the town, but soon after falling into 
c 2 
