OtchdkofT is a str^^ling village of fishermen and river pilots, whose habitations are scattered over the few hillocks beneath which lies buried an ancient stronghold, for Alectros, a fortress of the Sarmatians, afterwards a dependency of Olbia, is believed to have stood here. We read of the Tatars occupying Kira- Kerman, 'black castle,' in the year 141 5, when it was besi^ed by the Poles, and in 1523, the formidable fortress constructed by Mengly Ghyrey the Crimean khan, ' from which to menace their common enemy the Poles,' as he informed his ally John III., was taken from the Tatars by the hetman Dashkoff, whose followers the Cossacks of the Dnieper named the place Dassoun in his honour. The Venetians, who probably had a commercial depot here, called it Porto de Bo or Bovo (Boug).
OtchikhofiF was occupied by General Munich in 1737, and ia
1788 it was retaken by assault and completely destroyed by
Poty6mkyn, who received on the occasion a baton enriched m'th diamonds and entwined with laurel, 100,000 roubles, and a letter oi thanks from his sovereign and friend; SouvarofT, who com-
■ Glorj' to God! and glory to us all 1 Kinbourn Is taken, and I nns at its fall. — SouvarolT.
[fragment illegible in the scan of the first edition]
OTCHAKOFF. aaj manded the left wing of the attacking force, and was wounded in the neck by a musket ball, being presented by the empress with a magnificent plume in diamonds. The NicolaTeJfsky fortifications, erected by the Russians for the defence of the liman, were abandoned in 1851, restored during the war, and finally blown up by themselves on the i8th October 1855, the morning after the fall of Kinbourn; it is now in contemplation to construct a powerful fortress where the old works stood at Otchikoff point
Having secured a pereclodniya and post-horses, we left OtchikofTat i P.M., passing over a flat corn country, and stopping at two small Russian.vill^es, Koutzouroub and Yvdnovka. At the latter, I chanced to find my way to the village school* room, which was empty; the schoolmaster was dead, and no successor could be found for the salary of 60 roublcs^S/. a year!
Whilst seeking a lodging in Paroiityno, we were agreeably surprised at receiving an invitation to become the guests of a Scottish gentleman,' at whose house we passed the night and enjoyed the comforts and luxuries of an English home.
The following day was spent in rambling over the site of one of the most ancient Greek colonies on the shores of the Euxine.
At a mile from Paroiityno, where mounds, that as yet have been almost mute, are strewn with fragments of stone and marble, the ground is cut up with numerous trenches made in 1873 under the direction of the Archjeolt^ical Commission of St. Petersburg,
which have exposed portions of the walls of Olbia, the foundations of a tower, a well, and some wine-presses. During his earlier explorations. Count OuvarofT discovered the extremes of those
' Mr. 'Wallter was»gcnl on the estate of ihe CouiUess MoUssyti-Poushkyn, which indodea the coontry sround ParoHtyno. This estate of 37,000 drsyaiyui was for sale at tbc reterve price of Stx^ooo rouNes. The arable oihI pasture IiukI is excellent, but there wai a dearth of working hands.
t, Google walls near the bank of the Boug, at a distance of 7J versts apart, and was successful in tracing them to where they met at s vtnHinland from the river; he believes the acropolis of the city to have been on the high part of land that projects slightly into the river to the north and west of the little verdant valley of Shyroky, and that the wall which enclosed it was 1,300 yards in extent
The numberless tumuli to tlie west of the necropolis of OllHa, are named stp maghytl, ' one hundred tombs '; the few explored were found to contain vaults of lai^e blocks of masonry, constructed without cement; they are usually in the centre of the barrow, and slightly below the level of the ground. Among the objects recovered were golden ornaments, weapons in bronze, skeletons, and urns that contained the ashes of the dead; but the explorations in general have yielded little indeed to illustrate the history of a ci^ distinguished by Strabo as being a great emporium.