were far from animated, and when we consider the fatigue of long and forced marches, over the dreary steppe, there is every excuse for their drowsy appearance; they did not relish the news of a disease or plague, now raging amongst the army they were on the eve of joining.

From this we proceeded on our journey; at three miles from the town we passed the quarantine, which is immediately in the neighbourhood of the river; on this side it is an assemblage of low unattached houses, with a boundary of white-washed walls; close to it is the passage of the river, over a bridge of boats. I observed upwards of two hundred carts, laden with provisions for the army, in the act of passing.

'We here arrived on the ridge of a steppe, which continues for fifty versts to Teraspol. Previous to arriving, we witnessed a cloud of those destructive insects, the locusts; we had to encounter them as they flew across the steppe, by millions; some of them alighted on our carriage. I took one of them, it measured about three inches long, and was two inches broad from the points of the wings. The postillion told us they had devoured every article of vegetation that fell in their way-whole fields of corn are devastated in a few days by these destructive creatures.

I heard of a method resorted to frequently by the peasantry near the sea, when the wind is favourable; they collect with shovels, pans, fire-arms, &c., keeping up a horrible noise, advancing in a line as the locusts retreat, which are frequently driven from the land to seek an asylum in the bosom of the deep.

The quantities of windmills, forming a barrier, as it were, before entering Teraspol, have a singular effect; all appeared at work, no doubt grinding corn, for the supplies wanted in the provinces of Bessarabia and Wallachia.

'This last stage of fifteen versts performed in forty-four minutes, may convey some idea of the rapidity of travelling on the steppe; were it not for the great loss of time in changing horses, nothing could equal the Russian posting, for expedition. During the short time we remained here, I tasted some fish (a kind of sturgeon) which had been caught in the Dnieper, where abundance is found; it is an excellent food, and much in repute; they run from three to four feet long, and weigh, very frequently, fifty or eighty pounds.

Leaving the town of Mills, we journeyed with night, for it became dark almost as soon as the sun went down; the roads proved good and level for the following two stages. During the night, we passed considerable supplies going towards Odessa, for exportation.

2nd.-Morning broke in upon us calmly, when we found ourselves still on the steppe; our approach to the Black Sea became evident by the quantity of sea-fowl and curious-coloured birds. I noticed the ring-tailed dove and speckled hoppoe, having been acquainted with them before while in Egypt; our approach to Odessa had a wild and dreary aspect. Oceans of steppe appeared everywhere, without a vestige of cultivation or wood. At the last post-station I was somewhat alarmed, on descending from our carriage to pay for the horses, when I found my legs and feet completely useless and benumbed, having been in a cramped position, with the exception of three nights, during a journey of thirteen days.

'At five, A. M., we passed the barrier and free limits of Odessa, which is guarded by a party of Cossacks. We were half an hour traversing the

environs and streets of the town, before we arrived at the Hôtel du Nord, (kept by a Greek), where we alighted, and were fortunate in procuring appartments, the town being much thronged with military.'-pp. 18-25.

The Emperor Nicholas and his consort were at Odessa when our travellers arrived there. Armstrong speaks of the Emperor's equipages, when setting out en poste for the army, with the utmost superciliousness. They were very simple. The whole turn-out,' he says, 'seemed rather to belong to a second-rate commoner, than to the emperor Nicholas.' 'The shabby appearance of the carriages,' he adds, with true English fastidiousness, the clumsy manner in which they were packed, and, withal, the dirty appearance of the imperial domestics, (who would not be allowed to enter some stables in England,) was [were] what it would be difficult to meet with in any other country than Russia.' 'The Emperor,' he adds, ‘is a tall, handsome, soldier-like personage, with a fine manly countenance, possessing an air dégagé. He was dressed in the plainest manner, in a dark green double-breasted frock, with red collar and cuffs, a cap of the same cloth, with red band, and a grey military cloak thrown loosely over him. All eyes were anxiously fixed upon him, whose appearance amongst his troops was only required to give them energy, and (as it was thought) determine the fate of Varna.' At Odessa, no repose was to be found for poor Armstrong or his companions; they were three nights without sleeping, so insufferable was the familiarity with which they were treated by certain descriptions of insects. One day the weather stiffened them with cold, the next it dissolved them with heat, which was the more disagreeable, as Odessa had no trees to shelter them. Three steamboats were employed between that port, Varna and Sevastopol. The Empress was very popular. A school was established at her expense, for the education of the young Odessan ladies.

Armstrong's patrons seemed, in fact, to care little where they went; getting tired of their inactivity, in a few days they galloped off to Tifflis. On their way over the Scythian steppe, they lighted upon the village of Troitskoye, the inhabitants of which, about three hundred in number, are slaves, and the property of an English gentleman, who has been forty years in the service of the Emperor, and has attained the rank of a general; he is now a rich sheep-owner, and is like a governor in his village, with a troop of Cossacks at his command.' This fine fellow rejoices in the name of General Copley. We suppose he is some relative of the Lord Lyndhurst. At the pretty town of Nicholaef, called by the author the Plymouth of Russia, his masters and he were entertained for two days by another Englishman, who was employed as an engineer in the Emperor's service. At Kherson, on the Dnieper, they were equally fortunate in meeting with a countryman named Crisp, who was the principal conductor of the extensive rope-works in that nursery for the navy of the Black Sea. A pretty large nursery that navy must want, by the way, if it be true, as the

author states, that the ships of Russia are destroyed in a very few years, by an insect, the extermination of which has hitherto been found impossible. In crossing the Dnieper, the travellers passed some boats full of Turkish prisoners, on their way from the fortress of Anapa, which had been taken by Admiral Greig. The poor wretches were amusing themselves by playing on a reed, such as that used by the Arabs of the Nile.

At Simpheropole, the capital of the Crimea, Armstrong enjoyed the luxury of a sleep. Our apartments,' he says, though rather dirty, were not infested with vermin, as was the case at Odessa.' The pride of Simpheropole is its weekly fair, at which, variety of costume, and odd equipages, to which our courier pays marked attention, may be seen in abundance. Here,' he exclaims with astonishment, you will meet the German driving a pair of oxen, with a horse as a leader; Tartar carts, drawn by dromedaries; and horsemen, covered with Circassian bourkas. I actually saw a French doctor, in ill health, leave this place for Theodosia, in a light phaeton drawn by a pair of immense camels'! The nerves of Mr. Armstrong must indeed have been shocked at such a spectacle!

Nothing but wonders now awaited him. At Kertch, after crossing a small arm of the Bosphorus, his eyes were gladdened by the sight of several English prints, representing the Sorrows of Werter; at four versts from this place he saw a mud volcano!and at Taman, he beheld grass growing upon the roofs of the houses, and calves feeding upon them!! Hastening along the banks of the Kouban for some days, the party crossed the Terek, and, by way of protection against Circassian depredators, joined a caravan of Georgian, Armenian, and Russian merchants, with whom they crossed the Caucasus. The winter was already setting in.

6 31st. The morning was cold, the mountains frightfully high on each side of us, with the rapid Terek running at one side; little or no verdure was visible, and every object wore a winterly and wild appearance. As we proceeded, the valley became narrow, and, at one place, there was scarcely room for the river and the road. The pass of Dariel is grand, picturesque, and dangerous in the extreme: one of the carriages, having the hood up, had it broken to pieces passing under a projecting rock. An Ossetinian cart, we were in the act of passing, upset on the brink of a frightful and narrow descent, hanging over the river; this circumstance placed the whole line of carriages in eminent danger-we all rendered our assistance to set the cart upright, and were fortunate enough to succeed, and arrived safe at the bottom.

We made a short halt at a military station, where our guards were relieved by others; it is opposite the ruins of the Castle of Dariel. From this we had some steep and narrow ascents to pass, before we arrived at the village of Kasbek, where begins the country of Georgia; this is considered the finest position for a view of Kasbek, with the monastery on the summit of another mountain immediately underneath it. One of the neatest

churches I ever remember seeing is in this village, built by the order of a Georgian princess; it is entirely of stone, walls, roof, and steeple. After refreshment we descended into a beautiful, fertile, and well-populated valley, inhabited by Caucasian tribes, intermixed with Georgians. Many villages are to be met with on each side of the Terek, and at the entrance of every branching valley; each village has a square-built tower, of stone; the same material is used for houses, they are even roofed with it, on account of the scarcity of wood.

'The road from Kasbek to Kobi (sixteen and a half versts) gave us some hilly work; towards the latter part of it, the high mountains, covered with eternal snow, had a wild effect, as we descended into a marshy plain, about two versts before arriving at our destination.

In this wretched and unhealthy spot is a military station, placed immediately at the entrance of three valleys, under a very lofty mountain. There we got into another government house, and found wood so very dear, that it was difficult to procure sufficient to boil our kettle for three rubles (2s. 6d.) The stove in which we made a fire had not been lighted for a length of time; the consequence was, that it gave us all, more or less, the head-ache; two of the party were very ill; I was a little inclined that way, till I took a dram, and a pipe, which had the desired effect, although unpleasant in the morning.

November 1st.-Left here this morning, by seven o'clock; it was very cold, with piercing winds from the mountains. We purchased three horses from a Russian officer whom we met with here, on his way from the war.

'We had to encounter some rapid and narrow ascents and descents: it was a sharp frost, and the mountain streams, crossing the roads, being frozen, we had great difficulty in getting on at any reasonable pace, the roads being so very indifferent.

The mountains become very grand and imposing, as we proceed; we passed several minerals, on both sides of the road; I filled some bottles, and found the waters very pleasant, and not unlike those of Ems or Wiesbaden. The cold winds, contrasted with the extreme heat of the sun at mid-day, told us we were approaching to a great height, which proved true, for we soon arrived at the highest point of the pass. There is a stone cross erected here, to commemorate the completion of the road, by the Russians, in 1809. The descent is very steep and dangerous. Having arrived in the valley, half an hour brought us to another high ascent; the road is cut on the side of the mountain, round which it winds, with a narrow valley at the bottom. This point of view is scarcely to be equalled; we could clearly distinguish villages, houses, flocks, and almost the source of the river Aragua, beneath us. We continued descending, and at three, P. M., made the pretty and romantic military station of Kashaur, sixteen versts having occupied us eight hours. After refreshing our wearied cattle, we proceeded for Passananoor, (twenty versts), where we began to meet with the inhabitants of Georgia. Four versts from whence we started, brought us to a most frightful descent, winding in a zig-zag direction, from the summit of the mountain, to the river, which flows through the valley at the bottom. I was on horseback, but dismounted, and had great difficulty in keeping my horse from stumbling over me.

In the valley of Passananoor we observed various kinds of merchandize, from Moscow, strewed over some acres of ground; and Georgian

carts, drawn by buffaloes, exchanging their loads with the Russian conveyances. From this we proceeded through a delightful valley, by the side of the Aragua, the mountains on each side covered with fine trees; we still continued the descent, though it was very gentle.

Being anxious to reach Passananoor before it became dark, I passed the carriage, and rode on; it soon, however, became so. Numerous fires are kept up by the Georgian carters, who bivouac in the forest, by the roadside; and Passananoor being a little off the road, I mistook one of those fires for it; and, riding towards it, passed the village. On discovering my mistake, I thought the village must be still farther, and continued trotting on. It was now so dark that I could not see my horse's head: ten o'clock came, and yet no signs of a village; I passed several Ossetinians, and now and then a Georgian, who called out heartily before I came close upon them. I had now got out of the road, when one of those strangers called to me and even put me right. I proceeded, and soon arrived at a bridge, which I dismounted to examine, my suspicions that all was not right being raised by the snorting of my horse. I found it broken in several places. Here I was at a loss how to act; I still thought I could not have passed the station, when I heard the voice of some one calling; I heeded not, and was proceeding to cross the best part of the bridge, when I again heard the same voice, and the noise of horses' feet. I began to feel about, for something to defend myself, when I found that it was a Cossack, who had been sent after me. I was nine versts beyond the station! and most cheerfully returned with the veteran. We turned off the road to a Georgian hut, where a fire was blazing outside the door, surrounded by ten or fifteen natives, some sleeping, covered with their bourkas; we got some refreshment, and proceeded back; on arriving, I found the gentlemen were obliged to occupy an out-house-as wretched an accommodation as we had met with since leaving the Isle of Taman; I was tired, and threw myself down on some hay, and slept soundly till morning.'-pp. 76-81.

Having escaped from the rats and the other various horrors of the Caucasus, the author and his friends at length reached Tifflis, pretty well tired of their journey. That city has a busy, cheerful, showy appearance, which reminded Armstrong of Naples. The houses are partly in the European, partly in the Asiatic style; the streets are narrow, and the Russian authorities have of late made such considerable improvements in them, that Tifflis is likely soon to take rank with the second class of cities. The population consists of about forty thousand, chiefly Georgians, but numbering also many Armenians, Russians, Germans, Tartars, Persians, Jews and Turks. The principal productions of the country are wine and silk; the worm, which manufactures the latter, is found in great abundance in the subject provinces of Mingrelia, Gouria, and Immeritia, where there are extensive forests of mulberry-trees. There is a German colony in the neighbourhood, which supplies the market with vegetables, milk, butter, cheese, and beer. Like the Spaniards, the Georgians keep their wine in skins, retaining so much of the form of the animal to which they had previously belonged, that, as the author truly remarks, their cellars look more