14

TRAVELS IN THE CRIMEA.

a tempeft proceeding from the Archipelago, and accompaniedwith altemate fhowers, which fwelled the hilly rills, and pre-cipitated them from the mountains with a violent noife. Themonth of December again produced many ferene days; duringwhich the horizon, towards the North where the fteppe ofPerekop prefents an open view, conftantly terminated in darkclouds of fnow, fuch as are ufually obferved here in the cleareftdays of autumn and winter.

In the firft days of January 1794, the froft recommenced,and was on the fifth fucceeded by a heavy fnow, which coveredthe piain to the depth of nine inches, and continued tili theend of the month. This remarkable phenomenon was recordedby excurfions on fledges; to which, however, the inhabitantsof the Crimea afterwards became very indifferent, in confe-quence of the fevere winters they experienced between theyears 1798 and 1800. In the beginning of February, therewas a fudden and complete thaw, and the ftarlings made theirfirft appearance on the 6th. A cold eafterly wind, with froft,followed that from the South-weft, which had hitherto pre-vailed ; and on the I2th, the change of the raoon, after a fewgentle fhowers, produced ferene weather; fo that on the 13r.l1and 141h, during mild weather and funfhine, Vegetation rapidlyadvanced on the fouthern fide of the mountains, and in thegroves. Thus we obferved varieties of the Crocus, and Viola odo-rata, prefenting their firft bloffoms ; the Adotiis verna, HyacinthusracemofuS) and Ornithogalum pilofum, fhooting forth their ftems ;and the plough coinmencing its early labours in the field.On the iöth, however, at noon, a fudden North-eaft windwas again produ&ive of froft and fnow. On the i8th there

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