Our plan was to cross the Tshatir Dagh, the highest mountain in the Crimea, to Sinferopol, the present capital ; thence over Baktshiserai, the former residence of the court, to proceed to Sevastopol, the present mistress of the Black Sea, to visit the ruins of Cherson and the Cembalo of Marco Polo, and then by the western part of the south coast to return to Yalta.
You may travel in a carriage in some parts of the Crimea, the Russians liaving already constructed roads in several directions, but whoever wishes to have It in his i)ower to deviate now and then from the road must go on horseback, and on horseback you can everywhere get along tolerably well, for the
Tartar horses climb like goats. Certain villages are appointed as post-stations, where the onbashi, or chief, is bound to furnish a certain number of horses to any one who can show him a firman written in the Tartar language. You meet, of course, occasionally with a strange set of cripples, but every one picks out the best he can find, and packs on the wooden saddle as many cushions as he can muster. For provisions and baggage one must be provided beforehand with large coarse bags, such as the Tartars make, and which are really very convenient. They are usually thrown over the neck of the horse, and fastened to the front of the saddle, and whoever has more goods than they will contain must tie on a bundle behind also, so that the cavalier has the air of a miller riding to market with his sacks of corn. Even Russian ladies of rank, however, submit to this mode of travelling in the mountains of the Crimea, and as the horses climb well, and appear to be quite insensible to fatigue, one soon forgets their asinine appearance.
On the road to Alushta, one beautiful estate follows another, adorned with vineyards and orchards and handsome houses, varied by thicklywooded mountain declivities, and groups of rocks, and \aews of the sea. In the valley near Yalta the estates are comparatively insignificant, but higher up the mountain lies that of Marsanda, presented to the young Count Woronzoff by the Countess Brannicka, the richest Polish noble of her day, and beyond that the valley of Magaratsh, eight years ago a wilderness, but noAv covered with beautiful gardens and villas, it having been parcelled out and sold in small lots by the government to private individuals.
" Nikita " is a imrsery for all possible varieties of trees and plants adapted to the climate of the coast. This garden was established by the government about thirty years ago. Here are about three hmidred varieties of the vine, brought from all parts of the world, besides an immense collection of flowers, strawberry plants, capers, &c. The German gardener presented us with some magnificent pears, and showed us a kind of curiosity in a vegetable ruin, the decayed and mouldering tininks of some olive trees which had floiunshed in a garden planted by the Genoese, and over whose heads many centuries must have passed, the olive being a very long-lived tree.
In " Yursuff' " we again met with a German gardener, under whose superintendence the garden had been brought to equal in splendour the mansion of the wealthy proprietor. Although the family was at the moment absent, every thing was maintained in the style of the first hotels of the nobility in St. Petersburg, and one could hardly fancy oneself in the wilds of Tartary.