428

GENERAL REMARKS ON THE PENINSULA

other places, has hitherto been rarely obferved in that coun-try*. Crows, magpies, and other birds which are fo injuriousto the grapes in the vicinity of Aftrakhan, are here lefs frequent.On the other hand, great damage is occafioned by the greyhares, which are very numerous and bold: during the winter,they not only bite off the flioots of the young vine-layersdown to the loweft knot, as if they had been cut with a knife,and ilrip the young fruit-trees of their bark; but alfo devourand fpoil large quantities of ripe grapes. The mature fruit islikewife eaten with avidity by dogs, which, at the time of vin-tage, are not fuffered to enter the vineyards; by badgers, foxes,hedge-hogs, that are very large in the Crimea, and by par-tridges. Laftly, in dry years, extenfive mifchief arifes fromthe innumerable wafps infefting thefe regions.

The vallies of Sudagh and Koos, which afford the beftwines, yield in profperous years certainly upwards of thirtythoufand Eimers f, of which at leaft one-third is fent to Kher-fon, and into the more remote govemments, as far as Kurfk.In the year 1784, when the Crimea became fubject to Ruflia,the Eimer of Sudagh wine was fold at the low rate of be-tween fifteen and twenty kopeeks ; as the quantity at that timeexported was very inconfiderable: in the following years itrofe to forty, and even to fifty kopeeks; in 1792, during thelaft Turkifh war, to a ruble; in 1793 to a ruble and thirtykopeeks} and, at the clofe of the war, to a ruble and feventy-£ve kopeeks, nay, even to two rubles. At prefent, it is fold

• According to Sparrmann, a imall Curculio of this fpecies commits great depreda-tions, during the fpring, on the vine-buds at the Cape of Good Hope.•J- The Ruffian Eimer contain» ten qwrts, or Tartar Occas.

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