The practice of burying the vine during winter is injurious; but this the Cossacks are obliged to do, to save it from the severe frosts of the country. A similar practice, as mentioned by Strabo, was observed from the most remote antiquity, in the country near the Bosphorus.* In 1772, the whole produce of the vineyards of the Don did not exceed from 70 to 80 hogsheads, of 40 eimers each; but the increase since that period has been considerable. A number of German vintners have been encouraged to settle on the banks of this river, which has influenced others to establish breweries in the neighbouring districts. The vineyards of Count Platoff are remarkable for their extent and excellence, as well as for the various sorts of delicious wines which they produce; some of them, when not adulterated, are equal to the light French wines. These wines are in general pleasant, and effervesce like champagne, but have more the flavour of burgundy. It is a practice among the Russians in summer to serve along with their wine a plate of ice, a piece of which is put into each glass, when the wine is about to be drunk. The best Don wine is made near Tcherkask, and it is usually manufactured from grapes not quite ripe, which some conjecture to be the cause of all wines exhibiting effervescence. Klaproth mentions a kind of champagne called Symlianskii, which is distributed over all Russia, a great favourite, and commonly bearing the name of Donsky vino. It is, however, frequently injured by the intermixture of potash, which causes it often to produce headache and disorders of the stomach.‡ The wine made on the banks of the Terek, of the Volga, near Saratov, in Ekaterinoslav, and in the Taurida, are good; and were its sale not injured by the importation of Greek and Moldavian wines, it might be turned to great advantage. The Caucasian Tartars, although they profess the Mahometan faith, drink wine publicly, which they render very inebriating, by hanging the unripe heads of poppies in the casks while fermentation is going on.§ The mountains inhabited by these people are very fertile, and the vines grow so luxuriantly, and climb to such a height about the trees, that in many places the inhabitants find great difficulty in gathering the grapes.

The wines of the Crimea rank so highly, that they are in demand even in the remote governments of the empire; and at St. Petersburgh, they are in such repute, that there is a chartered company for the management of the sales of these wines, supported by the emperor

* Geogr. Lib. viii.

† Pallas's Travels, 4to. vol. ii.

Klaproth's Travels in the Caucasus and Georgia, 1807-8, p. 85. § Tooke.

and other high characters. The valleys of Soudak and Koos are considered to yield the best. Upwards of 30,000 eimers are annually produced, nearly one-third of which is sent to Cherson. The imperial vineyards at Soudak, a name which signifies the valley of grapes, are of great extent and afford many varieties, not only of the native vine, but of others introduced at different periods. Soudak grapes are considered the best in the whole Taurida, particularly one sort of an oblong shape, and of the size and firmness of a small plum, the bunches of which are sometimes four or five pounds weight. The wines made here are distinguished by the names of the places from which the vines were brought, such as white wine of Corfu, red French wine, white Hungarian wine, and red Claret.

The whole quantity of wine produced in 1821 from these vineyards was 60,000 vedros, each equal to fifteen small-sized bottles, which was disposed of at about from 2 to 4 rubles the vedro, yielding a revenue of nearly 200,000 rubles. Since the royal vineyards have been placed under the superintendence of Baron Bode, their produce both in fruit and wine, has greatly improved, owing entirely to his great care and exertions.* Pallas attributed the inferiority of the wine in his time to the over irrigation given by the Tartars to their vineyards, which, although it increased the size of the grapes, very much injured the flavour. During the time that Mary Holderness resided in the Crimea, namely, from 1815 to 1820, she observed that vineyards were once a very profitable culture, but that since the free importation of Greek wines, the home manufacture had been seriously injured. Improvements were then beginning to take place, and the culture of the vine, formerly confined to the valleys, was ascending the sides of the hills, and likely to repay the care and toils of the planter.† The cellars at Soudak are very superior; that of Admiral Mondizinoff, excavated in the side of a mountain, is calculated to hold 100,000 vedros, which at 10 quarts the vedro, would be upwards of 2083 pipes, of 120 gallons each.

The Jews are great traffickers, not only in the fruit, but in the making and vending of wines. They are the chief purchasers of the grapes brought from the mountainous districts of the peninsula, as well as of those from the neighbouring vineyards. In Karasubarar, near the centre of the Crimea, they possess a number of very fine wine cellars, but which seldom contain any but new wine, owing to the rapidity of the sales. At this place there are upwards of two

Travels through the Crimea in 1829, 2 vols. 8vo. vol. i. p. 281, by Captain Alexander. Lon. 1830.

† Holderness's Journey, 8vo. p. 282.

hundred shops open for the sale of fruit alone; and the price of a vedro of wine, of fifteen bottles, varies from three to six rubles. When Webster visited the peninsula in 1826, the whole annual produce was reckoned to be 6,750,000 pints of wine, Paris measure, and the grapes were in such estimation that they were sent to Moscow and Petersburgh, where they procured a rapid sale.

Among the Crim Tartars, it was formerly a great trade to prepare bekmess, or marmalade, and the misseless, or sirup, from their grapes; but the sale of fruit and wine was found to be more profitable, and lest any thing should be lost in this way, brandy was distilled from the refuse of the vintage. The vats in which the fermentation was carried on were pits made in the earth, well covered and plastered with clay. The lees of 100 eimers of wine generally yielded four eimers of brandy. Besides this home distillation, large importations are made of sekis-kayavodka, or brandy prepared in the island of Scio, from fruit and the lees of the grape. Many of the farmers import fruit, wine-lees, and a poorer sort of wine from the Greek islands of the Archipelago, to supply their distilleries with materials.

The Crimea was early distinguished for its fertility and commerce. Mithridates drew annually from this country and its dependencies twenty mine of corn, or 720,000 bushels, with 200,000 ounces of silver and Strabo* relates, that Leucon II, king of the Bosphorus, sent from Theodosia to Athens, during a great scarcity, 100,000 medini of An idea of the corn, 330 millions of pounds, making 148,660 tons. state and pomp of Mithridates, and of the extent to which the luxury of wine drinking had been carried in those days, may be formed from the circumstance recorded by Appian, that when Pompey visited the city of Talura in the Taurida, he found 2,000 cups of onyx set in massive gold along with other articles of immense value; hence the city went by the name of Mithridates' wardrobe. Such was the immensity of trade in that quarter, that at the port now called Sebastapal, the great mart and rendezvous of the merchants of the ancient kingdom of Colchis, 120 interpreters were kept by the Romans, to facilitate their commercial transactions. Yet with all this wealth, power, and intercourse with other nations, it does not appear that any knowledge of distillation existed in that peninsula; nor can I find that this art was introduced there previous to the settlement of the Genoese in the 15th century This opinion is confirmed by Storch, who believes the Crimeans first learnt it from the inhabitants of Italy or Spain, and various coincidences in terms yet remain as a further corroboration; for instance, the Genoese term for a cask or

* Book vii. p. 448.

barrel is bari, and that of the Crim-Tartars baril, bringing it. very near our English word barrel.

The arraki of the mountain Tartars, which is prepared from sloes, dog-berries, elder-berries, wild grapes, and plums, is sold in common with the strong beer, or busa, brewed from ground millet. Hops are grown in the Crimea, the best are found among the German settlers who use them in their private brewings. The ordinary drink of the people is made by triturating and dissolving cheese in water: from the boiled juice of apples, pears, and grapes, a nice description of marmalade called nardenk, or nardek, is made, which is purchased by the Tartars of the Steppes, and used by them in drinks and for other domestic purposes. The Mahometan Crimeans use sherbet, a mixture of coarse honey and water. Wine they do not drink without the consent of their priests, and that only in time of sickness, even then it is but sparingly allowed, though it might be of essential service; but many of the Mahometans here drink brandy like their brethren in other parts of the world, alleging in excuse that the Prophet forbade nothing in the way of drink, but liquors that were fermented. Under this flimsy pretext they drink beer, thinking it does not come under the law, because they are ignorant of the manner in which it is made. From Trebisond and Sinope, quantities of marmalade and bekmess are brought, and again sent in considerable amount to Taganrog, in the sea of Asoph, for the use of the distilleries. When a failure occurs in the vineyards, the deficiency in the grapes is supplied by the beckmess, from which and the marmalade a spirit is made, held in such high repute, that it is sold in many parts of the Russian empire as French brandy. In every town and village, a khan, or species of inn has been established, from time immemorial, called the odd, expressly for the reception of strangers, where they are accommodated with a couch, fire and refreshments, free of expense. It is generally the mollah, or priest, who takes upon himself the benevolent office of entertaining strangers, from whom a small remuneration is expected, but not demanded. In the Crimea, there are no inns, but travellers find no inconvenience in consequence, as they are supplied with every comfort by the hospitality of the inhabitants.

Honey is an article very plentiful in the Crimea, and it affords many delicate conserves and agreeable beverages. Bees, of course, are much nurtured, and the Tartars are most expert in their management; such is their discrimination, that some of them, on seeing bees at work on the flowers in the fields, can immediately tell to what village they belong; even many are so clever in this respect, that they know of what owner they are the property. Many of the hives

are very large; one at Karagoss was, by way of eminence, called the Espravnek. The largest, when full, yield from 60 to 80lbs. of honey and wax ; middle sized ones from 30 to 60lbs., and the least from 10 to 30lbs. For the most part, the bees hive in the hollowed trunks of trees cut for the purpose, to about six inches in diameter, and many of these trunks are carried from place to place, to suit the convenience of feeding. They are laid horizontally, piled one upon another in gardens, and when honey is to be extracted, the trees are detached merely by the smoke of burning paper held at the bottom of the hive, without the aid of sulphur, or the destruction of the insects. The cylinders are so heavy that it requires at least two stout men to carry one of them. So extensive are some villages in the honey trade, that one of them has been known to possess 50 hives at a time; and 300 hives are no uncommon stock. Large speculations are made in this way on account of the preference given to the honey of the Crimea, beyond that of Russia, its superiority arising from the nature of the flowers from which it is drawn, and the care taken in having it pure.

Among the peasantry residing between Trebisond and Dunabourg, it is a common practice to hang the hives in the woods, that the bees may have the benefit of the first flowers of the lime trees, because they yield the finest description of honey.* The honey of the Crimea is so excellent, and in such demand, that it forms a principle article of the exports to Constantinople, where it commands a rapid sale.

From the walnut, which is cultivated to great extent in the Crimea, a sweet clear liquor is extracted in the spring, at the time the sap is rising in the tree. This liquor is procured by piercing the trunk, and placing a spigot in the incision; the fluid thus obtained soon coagulates into a substance used as sugar. As yet it does not appear that this juice has been converted to any inebriating purpose; but the inventive faculty of man may, in time, render it subservient to the gratification of appetite in that way. Some of those walnut trees yield 60,000 nuts annually, valued from 80 to 100 copicks per thousand. The oil expressed from the nuts is a profitable article, and the paste, after expression, serves as food for many of the poor. Cakes made from the walnut in this manner are common for sale in the shops of Geneva and Savoy, while the ashes of the nut serve as a substitute for soap in washing. On the Dnieper and at Cherson, a good deal of spirits is distilled, and at Odessa, a town built on the Dniester since 1792, there are not less than six distilleries and as many breweries. At Odessa, which is the great commercial port of the

* M. Holderness's Journey, p. 27, also Tooke's Russia, vol. iii. p. 388.