Lower down the hill, to the left of the tomb of Stamkoffsky, is the illfated Museum, a handsome building of the Doric order; which has six pillars in front and nine on each side, and is approached from below by a splendid flight of stone steps.
This building formerly contained a valuable collection of specimens of ancient sculpture and architecture, sarcophagi, vases in the Etruscan style, vessels of glass remarkable for their lightness and beauty, ancient inscriptions, and fibulae, rings, and chains, principally obtained from the surrounding tumuli. When Mr. Simpson passed through the town the whole of these precious objects had been either carried off or smashed to atoms, with the exception of a few blocks of ancient sculpture, which had been found too heavy to remove.
" The town itself," writes that gentleman, " has been compared by many to Malta, from the fine architectural appearance of nearly every house; pillars and balustrades are very common, and few houses but have got a cornice and friezes to the windows, in the Greek taste. Here and there you find something that has an Eastern appearance about it; the arches in these cases have a Moorish turn.
" The gateway at the old church of Yenikale is arabesque, and very handsome, although it is not new."
The foreground of the drawing is occupied by a fatigue party of tho 93rd Highlanders and a few marines, some of whom are leaning against one of the now celebrated arabas, or baggage-carts, common to the country, which is conducted by a Tartar, utterly unconscious that he is standing for his portrait. In the distance are the heights between Kertch and Kamish-burun, over which the English troops passed on their march: they are thickly dotted with the tumuli which form the distinguishing feature of the country.
An extract from Dr. Clarke, describing the most remarkable of these mounds, the so-caUed " Tomb of Mithridates," will not we trust be unacceptable at the close of this somewhat extended notice.
" It is," he writes, " perhaps a Milesian work; but its height and size are so remarkable, that it is scarcely possible to believe it to be the result of human labour. * Xhe Tahtars call it Altyn Obo: they have a tradition that it contains a treasure, guarded by a virgin, who here spends her nights in lamentations. It stands upon the most elevated spot in this part of the Crimea, and is visible for many miles round. One thing concerning this tumulus is very remarkable, and may confirm the notion entertained of its artificial origin. It is placed exactly upon the vallum, or inner barrier, of the Bosphorian empire. * Another circumstance is also worthy of notice; beyond the vallum, to the west, there are no tumuli, although they are so numerous upon its eastern side.
" The shape of the Altyn Obo is not so conical as usual in ancient tumuli: it is rather hemispherical. Its sides exhibit that stupendous masonry seen in the walls of Tirins, near Argos, in the Morea; where immense unshapen masses of stone are placed together without cement, according to their accidental forms. The western part is entire, although the others have fallen. Looking through the interstices and chasms of the tumulus, and examining the excavations made upon its summit, we found it, like the cairns of Scotland, to consist only of stones confusedly heaped together; its exterior betrayed a more artificial construction, and exhibited materials of greater magnitude. It seems to have been the custom of the age in which these heaps were raised to bring stones, or parcels of earth, from all parts of the country, to the tomb of a deceased sovereign or of a near relation. To cast a stone upon a grave was an act of loyalty or of piety; and an expression of friendship or of affection still remains in the North of Scotland to this effect — '/ will cast a stone upon thy cairn* The heap so raised consisted of heterogeneous substances; granite and limestone, fragments of volcanic rocks, pebbles from the sea-shore or from the beds of rivers, promiscuously mixed, and frequently covered by superincumbent earth. Stones were generally used in preference to earth, perhaps because they were more readily conveyed, and were likely to render the heap more durable. * Near to the eastern side (of the Altyn Obo) is a pit, probably formed by some person wishing to penetrate to the interior of this immense pile. The Tahtars have in vain attempted to effect a passage: the stones fall in as they proceed. Yet they entertain a notion, that an entrance was once accomplished: and they describe the interior as a magnificently vaulted stone chamber, formed by enormous slabs, seeming as if they would crush the spectator."