According to the Journal d' Odessa, the coasting trade occasions the arrival there, on an average, of 500 small vessels yearly ; and of these, 350 to 400 are from the mouth of the Dnieper, from ten to fifteen from the Dniester, and from eight to twelve from the Danube. In 1836 the coasting vessels that arrived at Odessa were as follow : — From the Dnieper, 382 ; from the Dniester, 6 ; from the Darmbe, 6 ; from the Crimea, 66 ; from the Don and the Sea of Azoff, 23 ; from the Caucasus, 4 ; — total, 487. The great bulk, however, of the goods sent from the interior to Odessa, for export, arrive not by sea, but by land carriage. In the same year (1837), 797 vessels cleared out from Odessa for foreign ports; and as these vessels were, on an average, eight or ten times as large as the coasters, that circumstance alone is sufficient to show how much more merchandise nmst have arrived by land-carriage . In point of foreign trade Odessa ranks now as the tWrd port in Russia. The five principal llussian maritime cities are — St. Petersburg, at the mouth of the Neva ; Riga, at the mouth of the Dwina (more properly Diina) ; Odessa, near the mouth of the Dnieper ; Taganrog, at the mouth of the Don ; and Arkhangel, at the mouth of the Dwina. The exports and imports of St, Petersburg double in amount tliose of the other foiu ports put together. Odessa and Riga are nearly equal in this respect. The following table will show this more clearly :
St. Petersburg. Riga. Odessa. Taganrog. Arkhangel.
and departing for 1500—2000 1000—1500 600—800 300 — 400 350—500
Millions. Millions. Millions. Millions. Millions.
port ance of each port 25 6 .5 Ij 1
houses and warehouses in Odessa, and the produce of their lands passes immediately out of their hands into those of the captains of vessels, without any intervention of the merchant.
In any city where there existed a skilful, experienced, and cultivated body of merchants, who must necessai'ily stand in much closer connexion with the mercantile world in general, and to whom it would be, consequently, much easier judiciously to combine their speculations, than to the mere agi'Iculturist, this could hardly be the case.
The rapidity of correspondence fi'om Odessa was estimated for me by a great merchant thus : — A letter takes from two to three days to go to Constantinople, eight to nine to St. Petersburg, ten to Vienna, eleven or twelve to Hamburg, and from London an answer may be received over Warsaw or St. Petersburg in from twenty-five to tAA eiity-seven days.
The ground on which Odessa stands is of considerable extent, and perfectly flat. The streets are, like all new Russian streets, immensely broad, and so completely open that one can often see the sea at one end and the steppe at the other, and look from the middle of the city at once into the waste of waters and the waste of grass. This great breadth of the streets, which is sometimes considered as an advantage, is very far from being such at Odessa, for it only leaves the passenger more pitilessly exposed to sun, wind, and dust, and increases the difficulty of paving. There is probably no city in the world Avhere the expense of paving is greater than in Odessa, the stones for this purpose having to be brought from Italy and Malta ; of course the principal streets only are paved. The state of the rest serves to explain many current stories of the good old times when the whole city was in the same condition. A caricature I saw, under which was written, " How to establish oneself in Odessa," represented a Frenchman, just arrived from Marseilles, sticking up to his knees in the mud, and exclaiming, " Je me fixe id .'" Another, called " The use of the Odessa street-police," showed a Avoman sinking deeper and deeper into the mire, till at length she puts her foot on something hard, and thanks Heaven that she is saved. The hard thing proves to be the head of a mounted policeman, who has sunk in along with his horse.
The names of the streets of Odessa are written up at the comers, both in the Russian and Italian languages, as '•'•Piazza Alessandra,'^ and immediately over it, '''• Alcxandrinoffskaya Ploshtshad,'' these two languages being the most generally understood.
Russian is the language of the common people, of servants and coachmen, of the market and the harbour, as well as the official language of the authorities. Italian is spoken by the numerous Italian residents, and by the Greeks, who are the principal merchants in the city ; it is, therefore, the language of the Exchange and of commerce, and the daily Price Current is printed in it. French is, of course, the language of conversation in the elegant circles, and the /oMnm/ c?' Oc??55« appears in the French language.