or CRIM TARTARY, anciently the Chersonesus Tauricus, a peninsula situated directly to the south of St Petersburg, between the 51st and 55th degrees of latitude, and in 46 longitude. Its southern and western coasts lie on the Euxine, its northern and eastern on the Rotten sea and the Palus Maeotis. It is joined, however, to the continent on the north by a small neck of land not more than six miles broad. This peninsula has been known more than 3000 years since the first naval expedition of the Argonauts; a story, though mixed with fable, yet well founded in its principal facts. The mountainous parts were inhabited by the Tauri, probably a colony of Scythians; and its coasts on the west, the east, and the south, by Greeks. The Scythians were driven out by Mithridates; the Greeks by the Sarmatians; and these again by the Alanis and Goths, a northern horde of Scythians. The Hungarians, the Cossacks, and Tartars, succeeded in their turn; while the Genoese in the 12th century, held a temporary and precarious possession of the ports, which they were obliged to yield to the Turks in 1475. At the peace of 1774, the Tartars of the Crimea were declared independent; and in 1783, this peninsula was united to the Russian empire.

From the above-mentioned isthmus, on which is built the fortress of Or-kapi or Perekop, to the first rising of the hill at Karasubazar, the country is continued flat; elevating itself, by an easy gradation, to the summit of the hill, which forms the south side of the peninsula and the shore of the Euxine sea. The surface of the soil is almost all of one kind, a red-dish-gray loam; on digging, you find it more or less mixed. mixed with a black earth, and the hills abound with marle. The whole flat from Perekop to the river Salgir, which may be an extent of 80 miles, is full of salt marshes and lakes; from whence the neighbouring Russian governments, as well as the Crime itself, Anatolia, and Bessarabia, are supplied with salt. The most remarkable of these lakes are five in number; Kolof and Kefia, so called after the towns near which they lie, are very large; the Tulla, about 15 versts from Perekop, on the road from Kefia; the Red lake, not far from the last mentioned; and the Black lake. Besides these, there are many other swamps and lakes, from whence the inhabitants get salt for their own consumption.

The greatest part of the peninsula is so level that a man may travel over the half of it without meeting with a river, or even the smallest brook. The inhabitants of the villages, therefore, make a pit in the yard of every house for receiving the rain or the water that runs from the hills. The whole tract is bare of every kind of tree. Not a bush or a bramble is to be seen, and the herbage is extremely scanty. This, however, does not proceed too much from the unfruitfulness of the place, as from the vast herds of cattle which rove the whole year long from place to place; by which means all the grass in spring, summer, or autumn, no sooner appears through the long drought which succeeds the rainy season, but it is immediately devoured or trodden down. The universal prevalence of this custom of keeping cattle to wander up and down, joined to the slothfulness of the Tartars, with their inaptitude and aversion to agriculture, is the reason of the total neglect of that science here. Otherwise, were the land divided into portions and properly managed, there would be a sufficiency for the cattle, and the rest would be fruitful in corn and grain. By this means alone the Crime would become a fertile country, and no natural defect would be found in opposition to the welfare of its inhabitants. The truth of this is well known by their neighbours; where, of a hundred Tartars, one perhaps follows husbandry, who finds it to answer to so much profit, that he has not only enough for his own use, but wherewith to sell to the ninety-nine.

This peninsula, which is indeed but a little district, yet, from the many advantages conferred upon it by nature, may be esteemed peculiarly rich, is divided into the hilly country and the flat. The latter, which extends from Perekop to Kolof, and the river Bulganak, to Karatubalar, Kefia, and Yenicali, is thrown there and there with little Tartar villages, maintained by cattle and the produce of the salt lakes. The highlands, or hilly country, form the southern part of the Crime, along the straight coast of the Black sea, and stretching westward in a right line from Kefia to the vicinity of Belbek. These hills are composed of layers of chalk; which, in the headlands and promontories, is soft, but more inland quite hard. The strata of the high hills are like those of the promontories, and take a direction from north to south. These qualities of the strata prevail not throughout the whole hills, but only in the large and lofty ones; such as the two that rise near Karatubalar, and one very high by Achmetchek, which bears the name of Aktau. The other smaller hills lie scattered and dispersed, but take the names of the greater ones, to which they seem to belong; as the great ridge of Caucasus does, which extends beyond the Donau, through Bulgaria, and are named Palkons.

All accounts agree in this, that nature has favoured these highland countries with great advantages, and blest them with abundance of all things. A number of springs that flow from the mountains form the two considerable rivers Salgir and Karasu, which run into the Rotten sea. The former, which takes its rise from a cavern in a high hill near Achmetchek, falls straight into the plain below, and waters a great part of the Crime; the other commencing behind Karatubalar, falls likewise into the plain, and mingles with the Salgir. There are many other little rivers and streams, which run eastward, and either join the two fore-mentioned or fall immediately into the Rotten sea. All the streams, for the whole length of the hills, which begin at Kefia, and proceed in a chain of the same height, flow to the north or the north-east, excepting the one behind Achmetchek, where the great mountain Aktau is, which falls on the other side; this river, rising on the northern side of this mountain, flows, as was before observed, towards the north-east, to the Salgir and the Rotten sea; as likewise those which spring on the western side, take their course westward to the Bulganak, and thence straight to the Black sea; which also receives all the other little rivers that arise from these hills, as the Amma, the Katseba, the Belbek, the Kafulkioi, &c.

The mountains are well covered with woods fit for the purpose of ship-building, and contain plenty of wild beasts. The valleys consist of fine arable land; on the sides of the hills grow corn and vines in great abundance, and the earth is rich in mines. But these mountaineers are as careless and negligent as the inhabitants of the deserts; slighting all these advantages; and, like their brethren of the lowlands, are sufficiently happy if they are in possession of a fat sheep and as much bread as serves them to eat.

About 20 years ago this peninsula was uncommonly full of inhabitants and wealth. They reckoned at that time at least 1200 villages; but, from the late troubles in the Crime, it has lost more than a third part of its inhabitants, and now, wherever we turn, we meet with the ruins of large villages and dwellings. The people were composed of various nations, who lived together under the Tartars in the most unbounded freedom; but in the late Turkish war they either put themselves under the Russian government, and were transferred to that empire, or fled to Abcasia and the Tchirkassian hills.

The houses in the towns, as well as the villages, are for the most part of square timbers, having the interstices filled with brick work, if the possessor can afford it, and those of the poorer sort with turf. The chimneys and crannies are made tight with clay, and then plastered within and without. The covering is commonly either of bricks or of turtledoves. Only the medjeheds, minarets, and baths, are of stone, and a few extremely handsome of marble. They have chimneys in the chambers, at which they likewise dress their viands; but stoves in the Russian manner none. In extreme frosts a great iron pan of charcoal is brought into the room, for making it comfortable. Their custom is, Crimea. to fit upon low sofas, with Turkish coverings and cushions, or upon a clay seat, somewhat raised above the earth, and spread with a carpet. In these rooms are cupboards and chests, often covered with cushions, to serve as seats; in which they keep their gold, silver, and valuables. Such are the inner apartments or harams, in which the women generally live; the others are not so fine. These contain only a sofa, or a bank of clay covered with a carpet, as in the chimney rooms.

The rich Tartars, and their nobility or murzas (excepting only such as are about the person of the khan), commonly dwell all the year round in the country, coming only to town when they have business there. There are but few towns in the Crim, at least in comparison of its former population. The Krimkoi Tartars have no tribunal of justice, controversies and quarrels being seldom heard of among them; and if a dispute should arise, it is immediately settled by an appeal to the Koran. Little differences in the villages inevitably happening about property, or other matters, not taken notice of in that code, are amicably adjusted by the elderman or abes; but in the towns all weighty concerns, excepting the single case of murder or homicide, are brought before the kaimakan, or commandant, who settles them absolutely without appeal.

The residence of the khans of the Crimea was formerly Bachtchisarai, in which city they held their seat for upwards of 200 years. They went thither from Eski-Crim, or Old Crim, the capital city of the Genoese, upon Bengli Ghirei Khan's plundering the seaports, and driving all the Genoese from their stations. Before Eski-Crim, and indeed upon the first coming of the Tartars into this peninsula, the sovereign residence was at Kolof; but here they remained not long. Under the late Khan Shagin Ghirei it was held at Kefla, the ancient Theodofia; which is ten miles distant from Eski-Crim, said to be the Cimmerium of the ancients.

The principal cities or towns of the Crimea are:

1. Bachtchisarai, an extensive and wealthy city, lying in a vale between two high mountains, and surrounded by a number of gardens. From this circumstance it has its name; bachtchis, signifying in the Tartarian language "a garden," and sarai, "a palace." It formerly contained 3000 houses, and many sumptuous medicheds. The palace of the khans, with its gardens and ponds, was much improved under the government of Khan Kerim Ghirei, under whose government the last Turkish war took its rise. In this palace is the burial-place of all the khans of Crimea, wherein all the khans that have reigned here lie interred. The fine Krimkoi vines, with their large clusters of grapes, grow in great plenty all about this town, and a profusion of other delicious fruits, from whence the neighbouring parts of Russia are supplied.

2. Kefla, the present residence of the khans, stands on the shore of a large harbour in the Black Sea. Its site is on the declivity of a long ridge of mountains; and is mantled by a stone wall, fortified by several towers, and encompassed by a deep ditch. On both sides of the city formerly stood castles, and in the middle of them a lofty turret for the purpose of giving signals by fire. Before the wall were wide extended suburbs; containing among other considerable buildings, medicheds, churches for the Greek and Armenian worship; of all which now only the vestiges remain. The castles and towers lie also in ruins; and not one-third part of the houses of the city itself are now remaining, and those chiefly built of materials taken from the aforesaid ruins. They formerly reckoned Kefla to contain 4000 houses, including the suburbs, with a number of medicheds and Christian churches; but this number has been much diminished by the last Turkish war. The present inhabitants consist mostly of Tartars; who carry on a trade by no means inconsiderable, in commodities brought from Turkey. The late khan, an intelligent and enlightened personage, made this city the place of his residence, and brought hither the mint from Bachtchisarai, built himself a palace, and erected a divan, which assembled three times a week, and the fourth time was held in the palace of the khan, in which he always personally assisted. Here is also a customhouse, the management of which is farmed out.

3. Karafulafar, likewise a very rich city in former times, stands at the beginning of the mountains, about half-way between Kefla and Bachtchisarai. It is a large trading town; contains a considerable number of dwelling-houses and medicheds, but the greatest part of them in decay, and many fine gardens. This place is the most famous in all the Crim for its trade in horses, and has a market once a week for that article of traffic; to which are likewise brought great numbers of buffaloes, oxen, cows, camels, and sheep for sale. Near this city flows one of the principal rivers of the Crim, called the Karafula, that is, the Black Water. Of this river they have an opinion in Russia, that one part of it flows upwards for several versts together. But this is in some fort true, not only of the Karafula, but of all the rivers of the Crim that have a strong current. The Tartars, who dwell either in the valleys or on the sides of the mountains (frequently without considering whether the place is supplied with water or not), dig canals either from the source of the next river, or from that part of it which lies nearest to their particular habitation, about an arshin in breadth, for their gardens and domestic use. From these they cut smaller ones through the villages, to supply them with water, and not unfrequently to drive a mill. These canals appear, to the imagination of the common people, to run in a contrary direction to the current of the river; and in fact these canals do lie, in many places for a verst in length, some fathoms higher than the level of the stream from whence they are supplied.

4. Akhtifled, a pretty large city not far from Bachtchisarai; now made the capital of all the Crimea by the regulations of Prince Potemkin in the summer of 1785.

5. Kolof, formerly a very considerable trading town, lies on the western side of the peninsula, in a bay of the Black Sea; which, as well as the sound at Kefla, might rather be called a road than a haven. This was the first town the Tartars possessed themselves of on their first entrance into the Crim, and established a customhouse therein, after the example of the Genoese, which is now farmed out.

The other remarkable places are, Sudak, which is built on the hills upon the shore of the Black Sea, at the south side of the peninsula, and is famous for its excellent wine, resembling Champagne both in colour and strength; Alusht, on the same side, among the hills. Crimea hills on the sea shore; Balaklava, where there is a fine harbour, and perhaps the only one on the Black Sea, containing ample room for a very good fleet; Inkerman may be noticed for its commodious though not very large haven, called Achtiar; and Mangup, the old Chersonesus: which were all formerly very flourishing towns; but are now either in ruins, or dwindled into small villages.

All these places, so long as the Genoese remained masters of the Crim, were well fortified; but the Tartars, in taking them, demolished all the works. While they were under the Turks, they left the fortresses of Kaffa, Kerch, and Kaffa, and built the fort Arabat on the neck of land between the sea of Azof (or Palus Maeotis) and the Rotten sea, where Perekop also is.

In Arabat are but few houses; but here the warlike stores of the khans were kept.—Perekop, called by the Turks Or-kapi, is a fortress of moderate strength; standing about the middle of the neck of land that joins the peninsula with the continent. This isthmus, which is at least five miles broad, is cut through with a wide and deep ditch lined with stone, and reaches from the Black to the Rotten sea. This was formerly kept without water, but now is filled from both seas. On the Crimean side a high wall of earth runs the whole length of it, straight from one sea to the other. The people pass over the ditch by means of a drawbridge, and through the wall by a gateway. The walls of the fortresses are some fathoms from the road side; of which the ruins are only now discernible, namely, large brick houses, with a number of bomb-shells and cannon-balls about them, which were formerly kept in the fortresses. At least two miles from this is a pretty populous but miserable place, which was probably the town to which this fort belonged. Near the gate is a customhouse, where all imports and exports pay duty.

This peninsula was formerly extremely populous; the number of its inhabitants, in Tartars, Turks, Greeks, Armenians, Jews, and others, amounted to above 200,000 men. Since that, however, the greatest part of the Christians have betaken themselves to the other parts of the Russian empire, particularly the government of Azof; and many other inhabitants, particularly Tartars, have gone to Taman and Abchasia; so that the present population of the Crim cannot now be reckoned at more than 70,000 men at most.

The Crim was heretofore divided into 24 kadiukis or districts; namely, Yenikali, Kerch, Arabat, Eski-krim, Kaffa, Karabukhara, Sudak, Achmetchek, Yalof, Bachtchisarai, Balaklava, Mangup, Inkerman, Kaffa, Or, Manfur, Tarkan, Sivach, Tichongar, Sarubulat, Barun, Argun, Sidchugut, and Schirin. Several of these districts are named after the town or village wherein the murza, their governor, dwells; and many of them are at present in a state of total decay.