CHAPTER III.

FROM PERECOP TO SYMPHERÓPOL.

The isthmus of Perecop—Its defences—History—Its capture by Marshal Munich in 1736—The Crimea and Kilboroún conquered by him—His cruelty and atrocities—The Armenian Bazar—The salt lakes—General view of the sea-coast on each side of the isthmus—The Black Sea and Gulf of Karkiníte—Anchorage of Akméshed—Cape Karamroún—The Lagoon of the Dniepr and Boug defended by Kilboroún and Otchákow—The river Boug—Gloubóky—Kherson—The Shiváshe, or Putrid Sea—The Tonka, or Strelka, or Arabate—The road from Perecop to Sympherópol—Sympherópol.

The isthmus of Perecop is about five miles broad, and stretches from the Bay of Karkiníte on the side of the Black Sea to the large lake called the Shiváshe, which is connected with the Sea of Azof by the strait of Yénitchi.

The isthmus is defended by an irregular fortress erected on the south side of a deep ditch, and protected by a high wall built of freestone, stretching right across the isthmus, which rises slightly in the middle. The fosse and the wall are said to have been formed in ancient times by the inhabitants of the peninsula to defend themselves against the incursions of the nomades of the Steppes. The taphros or ditch of the more ancient geographers, and the “new wall” of Ptolemy, lie about a mile and a half south of Perecop. According to Pliny,[38] the Crimea was originally an island; and natural appearances which meet the eye seem to make this statement probable. It is related by one historian that in the tenth century the wall was razed to the ground, and a thick wood planted from sea to sea, through which ran two roads, one leading to the Cimmerian Bosphorus on the east, and the other to the ancient town of Kherson, near the south-west corner of the peninsula. The fosse was cleared out, and a stone wall, defended by towers, built by the Tatar khans of Crimea, about the end of the fifteenth century. The Russian name “Perecop” properly signifies a ditch or fosse cut across the road to prevent any further passage, and has been substituted for the Tatar name “Orkapou,” which denotes the gate of the isthmus.[39]

The fortress, together with the whole line of fortification, was first taken in 1736, when Marshal Munich appeared before the lines with 54,000 men and 8000 waggons for munitions and baggage. The ditch was then 72 feet wide and 42 feet deep, and behind it rose a galionade 70 feet high. Six towers, built in stone, flanked the line, and served as bastions to the fortress of Orkapou, which rose behind them. A thousand Janissaries and 100,000 Tatars here opposed an obstinate but vain resistance to Munich, who after two days took the lines by assault, and, forty-eight hours afterwards, the town of Orkapou. Immediately afterwards General Leontief was sent with 10,000 infantry and 300 Cossacks to take the fortress of Kilboroún (Kinborn), which, situated on the mainland, rises at the extremity of the promontory of the same name, and commands the entrance of the lagoon into which the Dniepr and the Boug discharge their waters.[40] Munich immediately pursued his march to Koslof (now Eupatoria), the second commercial town in Crimea, situated on the western coast of the peninsula, and, having taken it, its riches became a prey to the soldiers.

Exactly one month after their arrival at Perecop the Russian army appeared before the gates of Baktchéserai, which they utterly destroyed. Two thousand houses and the vast palace of the khans were burnt, and the rich library which had been collected by Selim Geray Khan, and that of the Jesuits, were reduced to ashes. The same fate awaited Akméshed (Sympherópol), where the palaces of the Kalga Sultan, and of the principal Mirzas to the number of 1800, were mercilessly given to the flames. Munich had intended also to seize Kaffa (Theodosia), the most important fortress of Crimea, when an illness obliged him to return to Perecop, where he received the news of the taking of Kilboroún. The town of Azof had been taken a short time before. The march of Munich across the beautiful plains of Crimea was marked by the burning of towns and ravages of all sorts, and the cruelties of which he was guilty have placed his name beside those of Louvois and Catinat, the devastators of the Palatinate. Before he left Crimea he razed the lines of Perecop and blew up the fortifications of the town.[41]

At the present time there is a bridge across the fosse, and a stone gateway, which presents rather an interesting appearance as seen from the north. On either side are a few straggling houses, inhabited by Tatars, Jews, and Russians, most of whom derive their support from the salt-lakes in the vicinity. The principal part of the town is at a distance of about two miles further south, and goes by the name of the Armenian Bazar, from the country of its most numerous population. It contains a custom-house, and comptoirs for the brandy distilleries, and salt magazines, within it, a number of shops, and about 900 inhabitants. Here is a mosque with two minarets, and a Russian and an Armenian church. The quantity of salt exported by this route to Russia is immense. According to Vsevolovski more than 20,000 waggons are annually employed in the trade. They are drawn by oxen, and generally form large caravans, the sight of which affords an agreeable relief to the eye of the traveller when wearied by the continuous monotony of the Steppe. The salt is produced by evaporation on the surface of the lakes, some of which have a circumference of upwards of 20 versts, and are in general shallow, and have formerly had a communication with the sea. The soil is also strongly impregnated with saline properties, which it necessarily communicates to the vegetation; the Tatar cattle are, however, fond of it, and the sheep fatten equally with those fed on the produce of common earth.

Now, standing on the isthmus of Perecop, let us look first to the right, and follow the indentures of the coasts and the channel of the shallow sea that leads to it from Odessa; and then turn to the left, where equally shallow lagoons are interposed between the isthmus and the little strait of Yénitchi. The want of water on each side of the isthmus forms its strength, as it makes it equally difficult of approach for a land or a naval force. On the left side no vessels can approach it within a long distance, but on the side of the Black Sea there is deep water and good anchoring ground at a distance of about 20 miles. The gulf which runs up from the Black Sea to Perecop is called the Gulf of Karkiníte. It separates Crimea from the mainland, is open to the west and south-west, and 42 miles in width at its entrance. Its length, from Cape Karamroún, the most westerly point of Crimea, to the isthmus of Djaril Agátch, at the head of which there is 30 feet of water, is 60 miles. Up to this point, which is two-thirds of its total length to Perecop, it is navigable, and beyond it and the opposite promontory of Saribouláte, 40 miles from Cape Karamroún, vessels cannot pass. The depth round the promontory of Saribouláte is three fathoms, and beyond it only a few feet. The south coast of the Gulf of Karkiníte is formed of elevated plains, which are distinguished at a great distance, and its shore is bold and steep. The port of Akméshed in this gulf, at 12 miles from Cape Karamroún, is a great resort for navigators who run between Odessa and the Crimea. This anchorage is distinguished by a white tower erected on a cape to starboard on entering, and again by several buildings situated in the interior of the port, which is three-quarters of a mile in length, and its entrance between the capes is two-thirds of a mile broad.[42] This anchorage offers four, three, and two fathoms, sandy bottom, and good holding-ground. A quarantine establishment is situated here; and to the east of this anchorage, along the beach which lines the south of the port, there is a picturesque village. On entering the port you can at once make the village, and the anchorage is at an equal distance from the two shores, at two and a half cables’ length from the beach, in five or six fathoms depth, and sandy bottom, exposed to the north and north-west. The creek described above is quite safe, and to the west of the village vessels are secure.

Cape Karamroún, the westernmost point of the Crimea, lies 12 miles south-west of Akméshed, and all along this interval the coast is safe, bold, and bordered by steep white rocks. At 3½ miles before arriving at Cape Karamroún is Cape Eskíforos, and in the interval the fertile little valley of Karadja. It is remarkable on account of its beach, its trees, and a little village, immediately opposite to which there is an anchorage in five and a half fathoms, sandy and muddy bottom. Here there is a lighthouse, 117½ feet above the level of the sea. The light is fixed, and can be seen at sea at a distance of 17 miles. A strong current runs here with the wind; and the sea at Eskíforos changes from a bright blue to a dirty and dark green colour, which increases in depth as Odessa is approached.[43]

A long low spit of land runs along the northern side of the Gulf of Karkiníte, and terminates in a point, on which is placed the fortress of Kilboroún at the entrance of another gulf running parallel with that of Karkiníte. The promontory on which the fortress is placed is very low, almost on a level with the sea, and subject to inundations. The fortress of Otchákow commands the entrance of the lagoon of the Dniepr on the opposite side, and the distance between it and Kilboroún is only about 2¼ miles. This passage is very important, as into this gulf flow the great rivers of the Boug and Dniepr, and on the latter is situated the important town of Kherson, and on the former the great naval arsenal of Nicolaief, and the safety of both depends upon the passage of Kilboroún. The country between the Gulf of the Dniepr and the Gulf of Karkiníte was called Hylæa by the ancients, because of the woods by which it was then covered; these have entirely disappeared, and the whole country is now a bare and almost uninhabited Steppe.

The two great rivers of the Boug and the Dniepr, falling into the Gulf of the Dniepr, by their united currents flowing to the west, make a channel, the maximum depth of which is seventy-three feet.[44] At sixteen miles to the east of Otchákow, and nine miles north-west of Cape Stanislas, the Boug discharges its water into the lagoon, which it shares with the Dniepr. This river, as far as Nicolaief, is from twenty to sixty feet in depth, and its width varies from one to three miles. The city of Nicolaief, which is the Russian arsenal for the Black Sea, is twenty miles from the mouth of the Boug, and at the junction of that river with the Ingoul.[45] The delta of the Dniepr is composed of a number of small islands, covered with reeds and mostly uninhabited, and it runs into its lagoon by nine mouths, three of which are much more important than the others. The course now followed by coasters who wish to approach the mouths of the Dniepr is to keep close in to the shore, along the north side of the bay, passing the town of Gloubóky,[46] which may be called the port of Kherson. Gloubóky is four miles from the Kizim mouth of the Dniepr, which was not navigable thirty years ago, but is now the one which is principally used. It is at Gloubóky that vessels of a large draught of water load and discharge their cargoes, and there is here a depth of nineteen feet at a good cable’s length from the shore. This port has greatly increased of late years, and is now the place where most of the linseed grown in the countries watered by the Dniepr is shipped for exportation. The entrance to it is marked out by buoys, and in the channel there is from twenty-five to thirty-seven feet of water.

The city of Kherson is situated on the right bank of the Dniepr, which is there half a mile broad and fifty feet deep. Looking westward from the promontory of Kilboroún, we find Odessa lying at a distance of thirty miles, and a channel for ships the whole way to it, of from twenty to sixty feet in depth. A long sandbank, called in the Russian maps the sandbank of Odessa, stretches out in the direction of that town from Kilboroún for twenty-four miles. Following the line of the shore of the mainland, we find Cape Berezane jutting out eight miles from Cape Otchákow, and between them is the island of Berezane, with steep bold reddish cliffs. At twenty-two miles further on is Cape Dembrowski, very near the town of Odessa, with some rocks near it, which render it unsafe. The greatest depth of the bay of Odessa is eight fathoms.

Having thus traced the line of the coast to the west of Perecop, and shown what important places lie there, and how far it may be navigated by vessels of very considerable size, a point of great importance in the present state of the war, let us return to Perecop, and see whether it is equally approachable on the eastern side, on which it is bounded by the Shiváshe, or, as it is called, the Putrid Sea. This is simply a shallow fresh-water lake, into which are discharged the principal rivers of the eastern side of Crimea, the Salghír, the Karasou, the Bulganak, the two Yandols, and the Sóubachi. The Shiváshe discharges these accumulated waters, at its northern extremity, into the Sea of Azof, by the canal of Yénitchi. There seems no good reason for calling it the Putrid Sea, as there is neither an unpleasant smell issuing from it, nor are its banks unhealthy. The Shiváshe is separated from the Sea of Azof by a narrow tongue of land, fifty-two miles long and about half a mile wide, covered with reeds and coarse grass, on which a few flocks of sheep are seen to graze. There are three post stations upon it, and it is used as the high road for persons coming from the towns on the north shores of the Sea of Azof to Kertch and the eastern parts of the Crimea.

This curious tongue of land is called by the Tatars the Arabate, and by the Russians Strelka (or Arrow), or the Tonka. Where the Strelka detaches itself from the mainland, in the direction of Kertch, are the remains of an old ruined fort of an octagon shape, and surrounded by a deep moat, which is called the fortress of Arabat. There is about twenty-four feet water near the shore of the Strelka, on the side of the Sea of Azof, and here its beach is high and precipitous, while it slopes off on the side of the Shiváshe.[47]

From Perecop the first stage is Terekli Tchousoun, and near it a road strikes off to the right leading to Kozlof or Eupatoria, a place of considerable trade, and containing 5000 inhabitants, principally Tatars and Jews. The latter are of the sect of the Karaites, and number 700 souls. Many of them are rich, and carry on an extensive commerce with Odessa, Constantinople, and other parts of the Levant.

The first view the traveller obtains of Crimea but ill accords with the ideas which are generally formed of its romantic beauty, the country being simply a Steppe, without either tree, streamlet, or hill to diversify the prospect. After passing the next stage, where there is a large well for watering the flocks of the Tatars, a gentle rise is perceptible in the surface of the ground, and the soil loses its saline and sandy character, and assumes the appearance of a fine mould, with here and there considerable quantities of marl. On reaching the summit of the elevation, which here stretches across the peninsula, there is a delightful view of the Tchatirdagh and the range of mountains on the southern coast.

Hence there is a gradual descent over the undulating surface into the plains to the north of Sympherópol, and after passing through a beautiful Tatar village, with a mosque and minaret, situated on the left bank of the Salghír, and beautifully adorned with poplars and fruit-trees, the traveller arrives at the capital of the Crimea, since its occupation by the Russians.

At Sympherópol the Steppes have disappeared, the climate is milder, and the scene changes. The mountains now are near, gardens appear on every side, and the slopes around are clothed with trees. Sympherópol has quite the aspect of a Russian town. The streets are enormously wide; the greater number of the houses are no better than white-washed cottages, and those of the rich part of the population are built in a bad kind of bastard Italian style.

Here reside the principal Russian authorities of the Crimea, and the town has a population of 8000 souls—5000 Tatars, 1700 Russians, 900 gipsies, and 400 strangers.[48] Before the time of the Russians, Sympherópol, under the name of Akméshed, which means, in Turkish, the White Mosque, was the residence of the Kalga Sultan, or Viceroy of the Khan of the Tatars, who himself resided at Baktchéserai. This personage filled the second place in the Khanate, and, when the Khan died, he held the reins of government until the arrival of the new Khan, who was named by the Sultan of Constantinople. He had a court like the Khan himself, and had his Vizir, his Defterdar, his Divan Effendi, and also the female dignitaries of Anabei and Ouloukháni, which were conferred on his nearest female relations, and to which were attached important privileges. The Kalga also held a court of justice, to which there was an appeal from all the courts of the Kadis, or judges, in Crimea;[49] he was vested with all powers, except those of life and death, and from him there was no appeal except to the Great Divan of the Khan himself. His authority extended as far as the limits of the town of Kaffa, and, in the absence of the Khan, he led the armies of Little Tartary to battle.[50]

The most delightful sites in the environs of Sympherópol are the banks of the river Salghír, and here, opposite to the old Tartar capital, was the palace of the Kalga. The ruins show that it was a vast irregular mass of buildings, and we can judge of its style by the still existing palace at Baktchéserai. It had, doubtless, numberless halls and corridors, ornamented with rich woodwork, and fountains, and looking-glasses, and its gardens were celebrated for their beauty, and for the pieces of water within their precincts, on which were several boats for the amusement of the Kalga. No trace now remains of its former glories. A brewery and a brandy manufactory now use the pure stream that once fed the fountains, and a public garden, for smoking and drinking, desecrates the spot which was once set apart for the use of the hareem.[51] There are no mosques of any beauty, but there is a large Greek church, built, in 1832, in the Grecian style of architecture, with a portico in front. There is also here a large market-place and an important market, which supplies the southern coast of Crimea, by way of Alouchta, and to this town there is an excellent road, leading through a pretty valley, with villa residences of Russian nobles by the side of it, some of which are situated in richly wooded parks, and form an agreeable contrast to the vast Steppes that lie on the north of Sympherópol. In the environs are to be seen the ruins of very ancient times, for Sympherópol was a capital before the time of the Tatars, and Kermentchíck is the name of the fortress cut in the rocks, which was the residence of Skilouros, the king of the Tauro-Scythians, and the enemy of the great Mithridates, when he reigned at Kertch.