FAIR OF ST. DEMETRY. 
24 
to house but in boats. The banks of the Don abound in fine 
timber, which is daily felled, and being thrown into the river, the 
stream carries it safely down to St. Demetry, where part is appro¬ 
priated to naval uses, and great quantities exported to Odessa, 
and other ports on the Black Sea. 
The road was a descent towards St. Demetry and Rostow. 
Part of it passed over a sandy tract; but all there was life. 
Droves of homed cattle, horses, hundreds of waggons, multitudes 
of people on foot, and on horseback, swarmed in every direction. 
It was the celebration of the annual fair, held under the walls of 
St. Demetry; and the whole adjoining country was filled with 
the attending throng. The tents, the moving groups, the various 
sounds, were full of gaiety and business. So animated a scene 
could not fail to impart some of its tone to a traveller who had 
been so long in lonesome desarts ; and, with no little exhilaration 
at the contemplation of so much enjoyment, I drove along, 
amongst Cossacks, Kalmuks, Turks, Tartars, Russians, &c. all in 
their genuine costumes, bargaining over every variety of portable 
merchandize, spread out upon the ground. Oxen, horses, and 
cart-wheels, seemed the great objects of sale. Wood also 
appeared in such estimation that, besides enormous piles which 
in places blocked up the road, the smallest twigs were laid ready 
in bundles for the purchaser. The cart-wheels were of every 
sort and size, and, elevated into pyramids, produced a novel and 
not inelegant effect. In short, it was one of the most bustling 
and amusing scenes I ever witnessed ; and the clouds of dust, 
raised by new comers, or the wind, by occasionally obscuring 
parts of the spectacle, made amends for its suffocating influence, 
by often increasing the picturesqueness of the landscape and 
its groups. 
