29 2 JOURNEY THROUGH THE INTERIOR OF THE CRIMEA,

Among the ruins of Old Taman, many ftones with infcrip-tions, and pieces of fculptured marble have been found; andothers are probably concealed. Befide the intrenchment, thereis, in a fouth-weftern direöion, a large bafon of antique work-manfhip, built and paved with ftone; and, on the fame fide,are veftiges of gardens, in which the vine grows with luxuri-ance. Many of the infcriptions were modern Greek andArmenian epitaphs of no importance; and fome had beenbrought from other parts of the ifland : the raoft remarkableare reprefented in the feventeenth plate, Fig. 2, 3, 4, and 5.On other occafions, I obferved, among fome remains of ancientfculpture, part of the trunk of a figure armed and dreffed, ap-parently executed by a rüde hand; fome cornices; and acurious triangulär capital of white marble.

The foil in the vicinity of Taman is fandy; but, on theeminences in the interior, it is combined with loam. Thisearth lies in fome places on a level with the fea. On the fhore,and in the rain-water trenches, ftrata of a different kind arevifible on the furface. Immediately without the old intrench-ment, towards the Youfhnaya-Kofla, we obferved a layer ofiron-ftone in a deep hollow near the (höre, and beneath a bedof vegetable earth, loam, and blue clay, being from two tothree arfhines in thicknefs: it contains many beautiful bivalvefhells, moftly of a large fize, and which are filled up, and in acalcined ftate. Between two ftrata of folid iron-ore, there isa layer of light friable earth, of a greenifh-brown colour,in which we noticed loofe fhells with their natural coat;and, though whitened by calcination, they ftill retain theirhardnefs. Some of them are internally cryftallized, or even

filled

I