You pass on, musing of the desert, and the Arabian Nights; of Mohammed flying on swift dromedary from the enraged Koreish; and of the camel Barak which bore him to the seventh heaven, when the ineffable mysteries of the universe were laid bare to his eyes. They seemed strangely out of place here under the walls of this new city. was a more convenient sleeping place than the | are lost from vision in the impenetrable cloud. post-stations where we obtained relays of horses. We did not even stop at Bender, famous in the old Muscovite and Ottoman wars, before the Turkish frontier had receded far to the west. Somewhere near, this town died Prince Potemkin, the favorite of the great Catherine, who added the Crimea to the dominions of his royal mistress. He had set out, as we had done, from Jassy, sick and outworn. Somewhere in the lonely steppe-the precise spot no man knowsthe conqueror felt that the hand of death was upon him. He ordered his carriage to be stopped, and alighted, for he said he would meet death, as a soldier should, on his feet. His remains were borne to Kherson, where but a year before a braver spirit than his had encountered the last great enemy. A plain obelisk was erected over the spot hallowed by the dust of Howard. The body of Potemkin was interred with solemn pomp in the Cathedral. Not long after, the son of Catherine ordered the remains of his mother's paramour to be torn from their resting-place, and flung like the carcass of a dog into the nearest ditch. As we approached Odessa every thing betokened that we were coming into the neighborhood of a great city. We dashed past long caravans of ox-wagons laden with the wheat of the Ukraine and the tallow of the steppes; with charcoal from the forests of Kisheneff a hundred miles away; with dried reeds and rushes which are used for fuel, in default of wood and coal; with water-melons from the sandy plains in fabulous quantities. The melons that grow on the steppes are the finest in the world. They seem to pump up their rich cool juice from the parched soil, as the olive-trees of Sicily extract oil from what appears to the eye like the bare rock. They supply in a measure the want of water. Instead of quaffing a glass of water to quench thirst, you eat a slice of melon. Here for the first time we saw the camel carts of the Tartars. A pair of the huge ungainly two-humped Bactrian camels, harnessed to an enormous carriage of wicker work, led by a Tartar guide, stalk solemnly along, looming large through the dust. Slowly they turn their long necks, and fix their patient eyes upon you, as they hear the rattling of the wheels, and the shouts of your driver. Before you have fairly made out their forms, they TARTAR CAMEL-CART The rapid growth of Odessa reminds us of that of our American cities. It stands on a bold bluff overlooking the Black Sea. In front sparkle the bright waves, in the rear stretch the immeasurable steppes. You can stand in one of its broad streets and look southward over the water or northward over the steppe. In either direction the horizon is alike unbroken; the plain of sand is as level as that of water. A little more than half a century ago this barren cliff was crowned by an obscure Turkish fort, bearing the name of Hadji-Bey. It guarded the harbor which gave refuge to a few miserable Moslem craft, and now and then to a Genoese brig that sought the waters once burdened with the commerce of the colonies planted by the Italian republics on the shores of the Tauric Chersonessus. Russia and Turkey were then at war, and Potemkin was slowly wresting the shores of the Black Sea from the Sultan. He ordered Ribas, an Italian who commanded the fleet to take possession of the Turkish fortress. Catherine fixed upon its site as the spot upon which to erect a fort to maintain her new dominions, and appointed Ribas its first governor. The Empress favored her new creation; and in Russia a city flourishes in the sunlight of imperial favor-for a season. She submitted to the Academy at St. Petersburg the question as to the name to be given to the rising town. The learned savans found that in the time of the old Greek colonies a city had stood in the neighborhood, called Odyssos, after the "much-enduring man" whose name is handed down to eternity in old Homer's sounding line. So they framed for the new city the name of Odessa. Odessa found little favor in the eyes of the fantastic Paul, who could ill comprehend the great designs of the Northern Semiramis. The inhabitants vainly petitioned for the grant of commercial privileges, backing their supplication by the present of three thousand choice oranges. The Czar kept the fruit, but denied the petition. Alexander, upon his accession to the throne, took Odessa into special favor. But the greatest favor of all that he bestowed upon it was sending a great man to be its governor. Among the French nobles whom the revolution drove from their country, was ArmandEmanuel, Duc de Richelieu. He entered the Russian service, won the favor of Potemkin, and for his bravery at Ismael he re ceived the cross of St. George and a sword of | basin, where they are permitted to unlade, and honor, beneath the smoking walls of the fortress; the passengers are suffered to pass the remainand was afterward appointed governor of Odessa. der of their forty days in the lazaretto on shore. In 1801, when he assumed the government, The Russians boast that this lazaretto is the the population of Odessa amounted to 9000, of finest in the world. It contains a pleasant little which number only forty-four were artificers. garden with a long arcade running through the Richelieu soon succeeded in attracting large centre, in which some communication may take numbers of workmen to the place, and the city place between the clean and the unclean. Due grew apace. The Emperor granted extraordi- care is taken that there shall be no actual connary privileges to the port. The great wars of tact, nor even any very close proximity. At a Napoleon had turned all the west of Europe in- distance of ten or twelve feet are two wooden to a camp; agriculture languished, and the defi- fences of trellis work, with a close grating of iron ciency of food was supplied by the rich harvests wire midway between them. Those who are of the Ukraine. Once more the Italian mer- performing quarantine are suffered to come up chants found their way into the Black Sea; and to the inner trellis, while their friends from withOdessa began to take rank among the great com- out stand by the outer barrier. They are thus mercial cities of Europe. separated by three barriers and the intervening space. The parties, each with his face flattened against the trellis-bars can shout their confidential communications to each other at a distance of three or four yards. This pleasant gossiping place goes by the Italian name of Il Parlatorio Richelieu governed Odessa eleven years, at the close of which the population numbered 25,000. It now exceeds 100,000. All Odessa is eloquent of Richelieu. His statue stands in the most public place, overlooking the harbor; the finest street, the chief public"The Place of Parley." institutions, the Exchange, the Lyceum, the Theatre, bear his name; the Hôtel Richelieu is famous throughout the Russian empire. To see his monument one needs but look around. Merchandise is even more liable to suspicion of infection than persons. Cotton in particular bears a very bad character. Before it can be admitted into the town, the bales must be opened, the contents picked to pieces, and spread over a grating, where the plague-demon is exorcised by a twelve-hours' fumigation with chlorine. Those who perform the work of purifying cotton are designated by the name mortusse or “dead men." They are all criminals under sentence of transportation to Siberia, who are in the eye of the law defunct. They are clad in black leather, and perform their functions heavily ironed. Some articles, such as fruits, corn, sugar and the like, bear a much better character, and are suffered to be landed at once. They are placed in a warehouse, one gate of which opens seaward, the other to the land. Into this the goods are brought by the sailors. When these have returned to their vessel, the sea-gate is closed; that toward the land is opened, and the goods are delivered to their owners. Odessa occupies the extremity of that immense plateau, the sides of which plunge sheer down into the Black Sea. The perpendicular cliff is eighty or a hundred feet high. Its edge is occupied by the esplanade, which forms what would be a fine promenade were it possible for it to be shaded. An avenue of trees has indeed been planted there, but the soil obstinately refuses to second the laudable efforts of the government. In the centre of the esplanade stands the bronze statue of Richelieu, from the foot of which a gigantic flight of steps a hundred feet broad sweep down to the quay. These rest upon a series of arches under which pass the streets leading to the port. Two ravines, which were once the beds of torrents, form inclined planes from the quays to the city above. The terrace which overlooks the sea, is lined with stately edifices, built of a white limestone so soft that it Odessa is hardly a Russian city in appearance. may be worked with a hatchet. This is covered Its principal streets are lined with shops with with cement to preserve it from the action of the sign-boards in every language in Europe. Each weather. The adjacent streets running parallel street and square bears a twofold name, in Ruswith the esplanade contain many showy edifices; sian and Italian. The bulk of the population is and broad streets stretch through the meaner por- of course Russian, but the commerce and trade tions of the town far into the steppe. Around are almost wholly in the hands of foreigners. the whole is thrown a wall, not for defense, but The few vessels belonging to the port which ply for the purposes of the custom-house, the priv-beyond the Black Sea, are almost without excepilege of a free port being limited to the space within the walls. tion owned by Greek traders. Austria and Sardinia take the lead in the number of vessels that The harbor is tolerably safe, being sheltered enter the port, followed at a considerable distance from the southern gales, though exposed to those by Russia and England. The languages spoken from the east. Three moles stretch far out into are as various as the nationalities of the populathe bay, dividing it into as many basins. One tion. The Russian is the language of the great of these is the quarantine harbor, into which all mass of the inhabitants; Italian that of comvessels which have passed the Bosphorus must merce; and French that of polite society. enter. Before, however, entering even this, they The intense heat of summer, the constant are compelled to lie fourteen days in the road-stifling dust, the utter absence of shade render stead. If, in the meanwhile, the plague does not Odessa a very unpleasant place of residence. make its appearance, they may then enter the The wealthy inhabitants have used very laudable efforts to create for themselves rural retreats in bear me company. We decided that the pleas presence of a servant, who could act as interpre- the neighborhood. But nature has been too pow-ure of the trip would be much enhanced by the erful for them. For leagues upon leagues there is not probably a single tree of native growth; and the strenuous efforts made to form plantations have proved almost total failures. The only trees which have been tolerably successful are a species of acacia. Apart from these it would be difficult to find, nearer than the Crimea, a single specimen which a man might not clasp with four fingers. It has been said that Southern Russia is one vast plain, destitute of mountains. To this there is a single notable exception. Midway between the western and eastern extremities of the Black Sea, a peninsula shoots boldly out into the waters, reaching almost half way from the northern to the southern shore. It is connected with the mainland by a narrow isthmus, scarcely five miles in width. Across the southern end of this peninsula, at a few miles' distance from the shore, runs a bold range of mountains, the highest peak of which reaches an altitude of 5,600 feet. This peninsula is the Crimea, the Tauric Chersonessus of classic times; in later years the seat of the Khans of Crim Tartary, the terrors of whose arms spread as far as Moscow. Subsequently, it fell under the nominal sway of the Sublime Porte; and is now the most valuable of the dominions wrested by Potemkin from Turkey. He was a German by birth, and rejoiced in the name of Gottlob Werner, which the Russians had transformed into something ending in "itch," which I never ventured to attempt to pronounce. He was born in the goodly town of Nürnbergthe "treue fleissige Stadt" of the old song he was always singing when his mouth was at liberty from his meerschaum. "If you would know the German land, how fair and lovely it is, you must go to Nürnberg"-thus ran the song"That ancient, leal, and busy town, Forever fair and young, Where Albert Dürer plied his art, Where Hans Sachs pegged and sung." Gottlob's father, a stout burgher and disciple of St. Crispin, as was Hans Sachs before him, wished his son to follow in his steps. So at the conclusion of his apprenticeship, he sent him forth on the "Wanderjahr," necessary to be accomplished before he could be admitted a member of the ancient guild of cordwainers. Gottlob having received his father's blessing, a little money, and a stout walking-stick, exchanged a kiss with Gretchen, his betrothed, and set out on his travcls. This was nearly a score of years ago, and they are not yet concluded. His whole story came out at intervals during our tour, and is worth the telling-but not here. When we were sitting in some post-house, a group of Tartar postillions smoking around us, and himself rendered a little sentimental by the good wine of the Crimea, Gottlob would burst out into a snatch of his favorite song-declare that he would go back to Nürnberg, marry Gretchen, and become a good citizen and cordwainer. It never seemed to occur to him that the years which had transformed him from a lithe bursch into a heavy, middle-aged beer-drinker, with a huge meerschaum always sticking into his grizzled mustache, had wrought a corresponding change in her. She was still "little Gretchen." Then he would kiss her parting gift, which he had retain The intervention of this range of mountains has a magical effect upon the climate of the Crimea. Their southern slope, sheltered from the keen blasts from the steppe, and open only to the warm breezes from the south, rivals the glories of the most favored portions of Italy. The Russians in general are thoroughly apathetic to the beauties of nature. Their tame country has nothing to develop the taste for natural beauty, and they can travel abroad only by special permission of the Czar. But they become almost eloquent in descanting upon the beauties of the Crimea. Perpetual streams gush from the hillsides, and pour through every valley; the vine and the fig, the olive and the orange flourish; old trees, the growth of centuries, fling abroad their gnarled branches, shading the picturesque Tartar villages, giving grace and beauty to the Alpine scenery. For miles along the southern coast the peninsula is thickly sown with the vil-ed through all his wanderings. It was a stout las of the Russian nobles, some of whom lavish upon their summer residences sums attainable by those only whose coffers are filled by the forced toils of thousands of serfs. This custom was introduced by Count Woronzow, one of the wealthiest men of the empire. It has been imitated by the Empress and by large numbers of the nobles. Having endured the stifling heat of Odessa for three weeks, and being in excellent humor with myself on account of the flattering prospect of the transactions in wheat which had brought me to the South, I resolved to treat myself to an excursion in the Crimea. My traveling companion had been equally lucky in his tallow speculation, and needed little persuasion to induce him to leathern tobacco-pouch, elaborately stitched by her own hands-a little the worse for wear, it is true, but still capable of supplying the owner's Rauchtabak for another score of years. I fear that honest Gottlob is not the first man who thinks that he is fondly remembered long after he has quite forgotten others. However, he made a capital conductor for us; he was as true as steel, and would doubtless have been as brave as a lion had there been any occasion for the exercise of his valor. The chief drawback to the pleasure of his society was that he had imbibed the Russian idea that a change of garments and a bath was a needless superfluity. This, with his perpetual fumigation, rendered the windward side of him much the pleasanter to ride upon. After landing our naval heroes, who seemed vastly relieved by the touch of solid ground, the steamer put off for Yalta, on the southern coast, where we were to disembark. A bold headland juts out into the sea. That is Cape Parthenium, of old renown. Here stood the temple of the Tauric Diana, where were sacrificed all strangers cast upon these inhospitable shores. Here was enacted the drama of Iphigenia, and Orestes the The necessary police arrangements were speed- | nor the wiser for it. The attempt was successily made. A few roubles, judiciously insinuated fully made a couple of weeks later, as I shall reinto the hands of the functionaries, secured a late in the sequel. For the present we were promise that our passports should be attended to forced to content ourselves with a sea view of sichass "forthwith;" and a repetition of the Sevastopol, with its huge forts mounting three process procured the fulfillment of the promise tiers of cannon. One point, which every vessel in time for us all just to avoid missing the tub of must pass, is said to be commanded by twelve a steamer, which plies twice a month between hundred guns. We did not count them, though Odessa and the principal ports of the Crimea. we could almost look into their black muzzles; We were glad to find that among the passengers but there seemed to be enough of them to blow were two or three officers of rank to be landed at out of the water all the fleets that ever floated. Sevastopol, so that we should be able to catch a seaward view, at all events, of that famous naval dépôt. These were all naval officers, and among them was an admiral, who wore jack-boots, with an immense pair of spurs-an article of equipment which struck me as not absolutely indispensable on the quarter-deck. These naval heroes gave us no very exalted opinion of their professional efficiency. The Black Sea, as if to show that it had a rightful claim to its old appel-Fury-haunted matricide. As we pored, long lation of the "Inhospitable," got up a very tolerable imitation of a storm. Our vessel pitched and tumbled in a somewhat uncomfortable manner; the faces of the officers began to wax dolorous; the admiral kept his ground for a while, but it was of no use. We caught sight of him leaning in a very suspicious attitude over the railing; at last he made for his cabin with a woebegone visage, and we saw him no more till next morning, when he was put ashore at Sevastopol. But his whole appearance indicated that he had passed a bad night. Indeed, it is a common jest at Odessa-as much so as men dare to jest on so perilous a theme-that every one on board a Rus- Yalta presented nothing to detain us. Its sitsian man-of-war, from the captain to cabin-boy, uation is indeed beautiful, but it has a pert wateris sea-sick whenever there is a cap-full of winding-place aspect. It was full of visitors from a circumstance that might sadly impair the efficiency of the fleet in case it should be fallen in with by the French and English squadrons. All Russians speak of Sevastopol with a kind of mysterious awe. They seem to look upon it as the workshop where the Czar forges the thunderbolts which are to sweep England and France from the seas. This seemed quite natural to us after we had seen the enormous three-deckers of the fleet performing their evolutions, and remembered that the inhabitants had no other opportunity of seeing any vessels, except these, larger than the very moderate-sized merchantmen that alone frequent the ports of the Black Sea. The most that we could learn was that it would be quite out of the question for us to attempt to visit the town, since no foreigner was allowed to pass its walls without an express order from the governor, which was always obtained with the utmost difficulty, and never without far higher influence than we could bring to bear. Any attempt at a clandestine entrance, we were assured, would be most severely punished. Siberia-if we should chance to survive the knout and a season of cotton-picking among the mortussi in the lazaretto was the lightest penalty we could expect. A private conversation with honest Gottlob convinced me that the matter might be managed by a little finesse, and the Czar be never the worse years ago, at Old Dartmouth over that immortal tragedy of Euripides, little did Brown and myself dream that, bent on trade, we should together look upon its scene. We had parted at the gates of our Alma Mater, and never met again till we encountered on the Nevski Prospekt at St. Petersburg. I doubt if either of us has proved a worse trader on account of our early tincture in the Humanities; I know that we have been happier men for it. A monastery dedicated to Saint George stands upon the site once occupied by the temple of the inhospitable goddess. Odessa, who gathered about the little quay, watching the passengers as they disembarked. The street was full of ponies, whose drivers pestered us with elaborate pictures of the beauties of the country seats and villas of the nobles scattered along the winding shore, and were anxious to afford us an opportunity of visiting them - for a consideration. By the intervention of our serviceable Gottlob, we hired horses and a home in the intermediate | unfrequently erected neat stone fountains for the stage between long-clothes refreshment of the tired wayfarers. Frequently and the full-blown dignity of our small caravan would be increased by the adjacket and trowsers. His dition of a mounted traveler, for the Tartars never head was surmounted by the think of walking. These would fall into our Tartar cap, made of shumski, ranks with a "Salaam aleikoum-Peace be with a grayish sort of lambskin; you ;" and they would leave us with the same this was drawn tightly over Oriental salutation. his head, inside the ears, A Tartar village is very picturesque. They which seemed to protrude always prefer to build on the slope of a hill. from his head like those seen Three low walls form the sides of their dwellings on the images of the South--the fourth being cut into the hill itself. Over Sea idols. His badge of these walls is built a flat roof, with projecting office was a whip with a flat eaves, forming a sort of veranda. The roof is piece of leather at the end the Tartar's home. Here he breathes the cool of the lash. This made a evening air, solacing the hours by friendly chat, great rattling when applied smoking, and watching what goes on around. to the flanks of our baggage- Regular street there is none, and the unwary horse; but did not seem to traveler is likely, without notice, to find himself do execution proportioned to on the roof of one of the dwellings. Thickthe noise it made. How-branched walnuts shadow the vacant spaces, with ever, our shaggy ponies did fountains beneath, around which stand chattering not need much urging groups of women, in long white vails. The apThough small, they were proach of our cavalcade was always the signal wonderfully stout and hardy, for a general break-up, and we could see their getting over ground at a fa- white forms flitting among the trees, or turning mous rate; they were, more- their backs upon the infidel strangers. Lively, over, as sure-footed as goats. bright-eyed boys, clad in narrow sacks, with red The handle of the whip formed a convenient caps on their heads, peered cautiously out at us sheath for the long blade of a knife, which looked from behind the trees. The whole spirit of the like a very efficient weapon in case of need. scene was one of luxurious indolence and ease. The Tartar, in fact, is naturally an idle fellow, and can see no reason why men should fatigue themselves by over-work. KNIFE-WHIP. For a few miles we followed the road along the shore; then struck northward among the mountains. Before many hours all traces of Russian dominion had disappeared, and for aught| We were not a little amused by the odd method that appeared to the contrary, we might still be of shoeing their oxen, which we saw more than within the sway of the old Tartar Khans, whose once. The unconscious beast is flung upon his picturesque little fortresses crowned the summit back, where he is firmly held by the smith's asof every precipice. The valleys were richly sistant, who sits upon his head. His four feet wooded, and capable of the highest cultivation. are then drawn closely together by a cord. As Abundant springs gushed out at brief intervals, they thus lie, with their feet pointing directly upover which the pious care, of the Moslem had not ward, the operator has a fair field for his opera |