OF THE CRIMEAN PENINSULA.

43

have been planted near Duvankoi, by Colonel Totovitfli, aServian, who lives in a ftate of retirement. On both fidesof the valley, the mountains, confifting of marl and lime, aremuch corroded, being apparently undermined by fprings andrills formed by rain water; while their bafe is, in everydire&ion, covered with large rocky mafles precipitated frora thehigher parts. Thus, a cloud, which burft in the fummer of1796, near Duvankoi, occafioned fuch a flood, that numerousfragments of ftone and rubbifh were carried into the dale, andfcattered over a confiderable traft of garden ground, renderingthe poft-road for a long time utterly impafTable.—The limeftoneis, in feveral of thefe places, much decayed and foftened fromthe corroüve effects of nitre, not unlike that appearing aboutthe harbour of Sevaftopol. In other parts it is folid, andcontains a few evident petrifadtions. Some of the feparatedmafles include numerous fmall beücites.

The Belbek, Katlha, Alma, and Salgir, are reputed to be theprincipal rivers of the Crimean Peninfula; though, in othermountainous countries, they would be confidered only as largebrooks. The torrents, which, in confequence of heavy fhowers,are fuddenly precipitated from the declivities of the highervallies into thefe rivulets, have greatly enlarged and excavatedtheir beds, fo as fometimes to give thein, efpecially in theautumnal and winter feafons, for feveral hours or days, everyappearance of powerful ftreams; but, in the fummer, theygenerally dwindle into infignificant brooks. The fource ofthe Belbek is in the lofty mountains of the great Taila, orweftern alp; and its current unites with many rivulets andfprings rifing in the mountainous vallies of Oufenbakb. In the

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