OF THE CRIMEA.

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twenty-five verfts diftant from Soltan-AIi; each being aboutfive hundred fathoms in circumference. All thefe lakes areparted from the fea, merely by narrow fand-banks, which haveformerly been thrown up by the force of the waves: theydepofit abundance of falt, which, however, is partly renderedufelefs, on account of its diftance from the roads of Koflof.

In the diftrift of Perekop are the moft important and pro-duktive lakes j from which the Governments of New Ruffia,Little Ruffia, Kharkof, and White Ruffia, are chiefly fuppliedwith falt. The two principal of thefe lakes are fituated at afmall diftance from each other, and are known by the names ofStaröe-Oferoy or the Old Lake, and of Kra/hb'e-O/ero, or the RedLake. The former lies eighteen verfts from Perekop ; is of anoblong form, and about fifteen verfts in circumference; thelatter is only two verfts diftant from it; likewife prefents anoblong form, with many creeks at the fouthern extremity; andhas a circumference of about twenty-four verfts. Both arefituated at a confiderable diftance from the coaft, in the centreof the neck of land that disjoins the Sivafh from the Black Sea;and both have in part elevated and clayey fhores : it is evidentfrom their fite and the diredtion of the hollows or low grounds,that fuch lakes had once communication with the fea; and thatthe Crimea was formerly an ifland. From thefe two lakes, up-wards of two hundred thoufand, nay, even eight hundred thou-fand, poods of falt, have frequently been obtained in profperousyears; but, in many feafons, little falt is occafionally depofltedin the Old Lake, or not tili a late period of the fummer; be->caufe many frefh ftreams fall into it; and, in the Red Lake, ithappens in fome feafons that none is formed, as was the cafe

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