If, as is probable, the ancient Greeks made use of this stone in the erection of their towns of Olbia, Cherson, Odessus, &C., it is not surprising that some of them have vanished so completely as not to leave a trace behind, and that others have left only the most insiirnlficant frajrments. lor the llussians, who are so fond of having things quickly finished, this Btone is of course quite a godsend.
From Yelisabethgrod to Nikolayeff there is nothing that deserves the name of a town — only little villages and post-stations. The fertility of the country also decreases as we approach the Black Sea, for though the soil is as rich and deep as ever, the entire nakedness of the ground is unfavourable both to the garden and the field, and adapt it only for pasturage. In the immediate vicinity of Odessa and the other large towns, indeed, large tracts are kept under the plough, but this is simply owing to the demand created by those towns ; the real granaries of Odessa are in Bessarabia, Podolia, and Little Russia.
This whole region, it cannot be denied, must be most tedious to travellers in general, but 1 cannot say that, for my own part, I experienced much of this weariness. The mere consciousness of finding myself at last veritably on the genuine steppes, those immeasurable grassy fields, where, for hundreds of miles, no break occurs in the uniforn)ity of the verdant ocean, where a calf that began to graze at the Carpathian mountains, might eat its way to the wall of China, and arrive there a full-grown ox — this mere consciousness, I say, occupied my imagination so much as to exclude all thought of ennui. The mighty movements of nations that have taken place here in past ages, the singular fives of its present inhabitants, their vast herds of cattle and horses, their countless flocks of fat-tailed sheep, the apparent boundlessness of the steppe, nay the very rapidity of our own movement, sufficed to keep off any thing like a feefing of weariness, although it must be confessed, the extreme uniformity, of the scene made us feel as if we were rolling round on a tread-mill, and were never really stirring from the spot.
Many optical illusions also take place which contribute not a fittle to the amusement of the traveller. One often sees an ox or some wandering figure of a man on the distant horizon, magnified to a gigantic size, and appearing to move on stilts or hover in the air. Sometimes a dark object like a haystack would appear to change its place, and to increase or diminish, so that we could not make out what it was The appearances of lakes and great waters were so deceptive, that we could hardly persuade ourselves not to trust to them, especially as the legs of the cattle disappeared, as if they had been wading in water. The cattle themselves, however, it is said, are never deceived in this way, but can always distingiush real water by the» smell.
At those stations where the villages were panski, i. e. the property of one landlord, we were always sure to see a quantity of fine large greyhounds. They are called barsi, and are almost the only dogs used for sporting on the steppe, where a good eye is of far more importance than a qmck scent. The rich lords of the steppe, it is true, keep other dogs, and sometimes carry on their hunting expeditions on a very large scale. One gentleman, of the name of Skarzinski, who owns a chateau near Vosnessensk, is in the habit of inviting, every season, some twenty or thirty of his friends, together with all their servants and attendants, to a grand hunting-party. When he sallies forth with his guests, twenty -five camels are put in requisition to carry tents, cooking-apparatus, wine-casks, and various other articles calculated to contribute to the comfort and enjoyment of the little sporting caravan. An orchestra of perhaps thirty performers is engaged to enchant the modish Nimrods after the fatigues of a day's pleasure, and some two or three hundred peasants, huntsmen, and servants, accompany the expedition. During the day, Skarzinski and his companions gcour the plain. Towards evening they seek their tents,
where a sumptuous banquet has been provided for them, and a portion of the night is spent in drinking champagne, and playing cards, or iu listening to the harmonious strains of the band. In this way they hunt and feast their way to a place called Beisbeirak, near Elisabethgorod, where there exists a plain of some extent covered with brushwood, that serves as a cover for vast numbers of wolves, foxes, and hares. To this point other sporting caravans are likewise wont to direct their course. On their arrival they join their forces to those of Skarzinski, and after a few weeks spent in hunting and carousing, the season is closed by a grand festival.