OF THE CRIMEA.

493

Here is an old Ruflian fortification; and the diftance is com-puted at eighteen verfts from Ufhum. The fubfequent partof the road to that town is, during the fummer, an arid,barren, and dufty level traft.

On the 27dl I departed from Perekop. The poft-road leadsat firft towards the Weft along the line, and then to a con-fiderable diftance along the fhore of the gulf. Its banks andpoints of land are diftinclly vifible, and fomewhat raifed abovethe furface of the fea. On the fteppe above alluded to, weobferved the Polycnemum arvenfe and dicbotomum, the SalfolaKali, and fometimes the S. Soda and fedoides^ growing in pro-fufion. After travelling thirty-two verfts, we arrived at Ka-lantftiak, where Prince Potemkin has erected a refpe&ablepalace, which was embellifhed with fix adjacent buildings, butis now in a ruinous ftate. In this place are feveral deep andexcellent wellsj it is furrounded with a regulär fortification,defended by baftions of earth, and there are two buttreffesfor a wooden bridge: on the oppofite fide is a ftone bridgeover the rivulet Kalandftiak. The next ftage is Kopanki(thirty verfts); ten verfts farther, after pafling a village ofcolonifts bearing the fame name, we reached Kaftagrifova,another village occupied by new colonifts (twelve verfts), andfituated near the vale of Karavaika, which is encompafled bya fandy glen. Next, we travelled through a diftrict, contain-ing accumulations of drifted fand, and extending to the villageof Olelhki (eighteen verfts): here flourifhes the Salix incubacea,a fpecies of procumbent willow with red twigs, growing infmall bufhes not unlike thofe of the birch; and which is pro-bably a remnant of the Lucns Achillis mentioned by Strabq.

The