32o JOURNEY THROUGH THE INTERIOR OF THE CRIMEA,

fire and mud, imagine it to be one of the infernal chimnies)diftinguifh it by the name of Prekla*. It lies in the middle ofthe broad angular ifthmus, which partly forms the inner bayof Taman, nearly North-eaft from the city, and almoft in a linewith Yenikale to the South-fouth-eaft. Its figure (as appearsfrom the profile taken from Yenikale, and given at the footof the twelfth Vignette) refembles a large heap of com, gra-dually floping northward; its perpendicular height above thelevel of the fea being about thirty-eight fathoms. The cir-cumference of this eminence, at its bafe, is three verfts andthree hundred fathoms; its diftance from the bay of Taman isnearly two verfts and one hundred and eighty fathoms; but fromYenikale', in a ftraight line, about fourteen verfts. Accordingto the report of a fhepherd, who had often vifited it prior to theeruption, there was in the centre of its fummit a pit upwards offeven feet wide, and twenty-eight inches deep; in which, duringthe wet feafon, potable water was collected to the depth ofnine inches : the whole upper part was covered with tall grafsinterfperfed with a few rufhes ; and, as their Vegetation wasnot checked by the mud overflowing the furface, it is evidentthat this mire was not in a hot ftate, when difcharged from theinterior of the mountain. The pit, here defcribed, and theargillaceous foil mingled with fragments of ftone, which com-pofe the ancient fuperftratum of the Hill, render it probable,that fimilar eruptions have taken place in very remote ages, andthus contributed to its prefent fize.

In the year 1794, during my firft vifit in the Crimea^ aremarkable phenomenon happened on this hill; and as it tends

* This is the tcrm ufed to exprefs Hell, among the inhabitants of Little Ruffia.

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