bility, something of value was removed from the sepulchre; as will appear by the description hereafter given of a similar tomb, opened upon the Asiatic side of the Cimmerian Bosporus. Such vaulted sepulchres seem to render trivial the notions recently entertained and published respecting the antiquity of arches. The tumuli in which such appearances have been discovered cannot be considered as of later date than the age of Alexander; and perhaps they are much more antient. News arrived before we left Taganrog, that the Cossacks of the Black Sea, or, as they are called, TCHERNOMORSKI, inhabiting Kuban Tahtary, had crossed the river Kuban with a considerable reinforcement under General Draskovitz, a Sclavonian officer in the Russian service, and had made war upon the Circassians, in order to be revenged for the injuries they had sustained in consequence of the continual incursions of that people in their territory. We had long been desirous to traverse the Deserts of the Kuban, with a view to reach the districts at the foot of CAUCASUS, and, if possible, to gratify our curiosity by a sight of the Circassians in their own country. A favourable opportunity seemed now to present itself; but even the Don Cossacks had cautioned us against their CHAP. brethren of the Kuban, whom they described as XV. Voyage across the Sea of Azof. a lawless set of banditti; and our friends in Taganrog considered the undertaking to be hazardous in the extreme. Yet the experience which had so often taught us that rumoured perils vanish when they are approached, and, above all, the desire of exploring an unknown tract of land, encouraged us to make the undertaking. In the evening of the third of July, having placed our carriage on board a wretched flat-bottomed vessel, more shaped like a saucer than a boat, we ventured among the waves and the shallows of the Sea of Azof. The first part of our voyage was as pleasant and as tranquil as we could wish it to be; but having sailed through all the Turkish fleet of merchant ships in quarantine, as night came on, a gale commenced with considerable violence. Our little boat, heavily laden, with an enormous sail which was very ill managed, seemed to be all at once at the mercy of the sea. The direction given to us had been, to steer south-east by east. The only person on board with the slightest knowledge of navigation, was a French refugee at the helm, who pretended that he had been a sailor: this man held the guidance of our vessel. By mere accident we noticed the Polar Star; and its bearing proved that we were out of our course. Upon this our helmsman was asked, if he had not a compass. "Oh yes, a very good one," he replied: but, instead of using it, he had kept it safe locked in the chest upon which he sat. The compass being produced, it appeared that we were going due south; and to prove the ignorance of mariners in these waters, who are all of them coasters, it may only be mentioned, that our pilot, alarmed by his mistake, continued to turn the box containing the compass, in the hope of making the needle correspond with his wishes. Finding that all was wrong, an instantaneous and fearful confusion ensued. We let go the mainsail, and made an endeavour to lower it; but the rigging became hampered, and the gale, fast increasing, bore the gunnel down; at the same time, the carriage rolling nearly over the lee side, we shipped as much water as we could barely sustain without sinking. Our first efforts were to secure the carriage from another roll. With all our force exerted, we held the wheels, while our terrified boatmen, half out of their senses, were running over and against each other. Veteran officers in the British navy have often declared, that they encounter more real danger in what is called boating, than in doubling the Cape of Good Hope during the heaviest gales of wind: perhaps not one of them in such a situation would have deemed it possible to CHAP. XV. CHAP. Chumbur skaia. save our lives. We at last, however, succeeded in getting out a couple of anchors; and having lowered and lashed the carriage, so as to secure it from any violent motion, passed the night in a state of extreme anxiety and terror. As the morning broke, we discerned the Asiatic coast towards the south; but the gale continuing, we could not raise our anchors before noon; when, again getting under weigh, we sailed with more moderate weather to the promontory of Chumburskaia, in ASIA, where we landed our carriage. The village of Chumburskaia consists of a few miserable sheds, whose tenants were busied hauling their nets, when we arrived. So prodigious was the draught of fishes made at every haul, that the waggons stationed with oxen to carry off the produce of the fishery were inadequate to its removal. A single haul was sometimes sufficient to fill two or three of those waggons. The fishes thus taken were conveyed to a place for preparing them, belonging to the owners of the land: here, being first salted, they were exposed for drying in the sun. The variety caught was very great. We saw them draw out Prussian carp, pike, sturgeon, sterlet, a sort of large bream, fish resembling perch, but of very considerable size, and those immense crawfish before mentioned. The shore at this place was covered with fine gravel, composed of shells and sand. Swarms of toads and small serpents were crawling or running towards the sea; the water, although unwholesome, being so little impregnated with salt, that these animals live in it, and the inhabitants use it for drinking as well as for culinary purposes. Proceeding towards the interior, the view is bounded by steppes, as upon the European side, covered with tall luxuriant plants. "No language," says Humbolt', "can express the emotion which a naturalist feels, when he touches for the first time a land that is not European, The attention is fixed on so great a number of objects, that he can scarcely define the impression he receives. At every step he thinks he discovers some new production; and in this tumultuous state of mind he does not recollect those which are most common in our collections of Natural History." These remarks are so strictly applicable to our first feelings and observations upon landing in Asia, that we cannot avoid this insertion. A variety of new objects seemed immediately to present themselves to our notice; beetles of a gigantic (1) "Humball's Personal Narrative," Vol. I. p. 88. Lond. 1814. CHAP. XV. |