We had scarcely doubled the point of the Chersonesus, when our pleasure was interrupted by an ominous order from the captain to lower topmasts and take in sail. A powerful wind arose, which soon became a violent gale, and the sea ran tremendously high, Avliile the sun continued to shine, and the sky remained free from clouds. It was what is called a " white storm" — to me as distasteful as a white negro. A storm should be black as night, and come riding on thunder clouds, so that one may see why there is a storm ; but this sour smiling tempest destroys all comfort, without affording the enjoyment of the subUme to the imagination. The white storm upset us all, including the heroic knitter of stockings and myself, and I remained during the whole day that we were contending with it hanging over the bulwark, whilst a German fellow -passenger, a gardener on one of the emperor's estates, pointed out the several points as we passed them.
The southern coast of the Chersonesus Taurica, both with respect to climate and population, is to be considered as a separate country-. The mountains of the Crimea rise gradually from north to south, and from their highest points fall abruptly and precipitously towards the sea. The tract, therefore, lying between them and the low sandy shore is peculiarly circumstanced. It is entirely protected from all the rough winds of the north, whilst it lies entirely open to the warm breezes that blow across the southern sea. It enjoys consequently an exceedingly mild climate, which allows the vine, the ohve, the laurel, the jjomegranate, and in short all the fruits of an Italian sky, to come to perfec-tion. The greatest care has,
naturally, been bestowed on the cultivation of tliis favoured region, and its attractions have, of course, drawn towards it many foreigners — Greeks, Genoese, and Russians especially. A precipitous moimtain wall with rocky peaks, 4000 feet high, separates this region from the interior, where the tribes of Goths, Tartars, and others, formerly drove their flocks over the grassy ridges to the very brink of the natural barrier, and yet remained entirely separate from and independent of the southern region.
The southern shore of the Crimea is always spoken of, even now, as a distinct country, and in the interior of Russia and in Moscow it is common enough to hear it spoken of simply as the " south-coast." " These wines are from the south coast," people will say, without mentioning that they allude to the south coast of the Crimea. It is not however to the whole south coast that the peculiar advantages I have described belong, but only to a small part from Balaklava to the defile of Khatir Dagh.