Page:Notes upon Russia (volume 2, 1851).djvu/40

marshes which have received the name of the Palus Mœotis. The nearest city to its source is Tula; but on the shore nearly three miles above its mouth is the city of Azov, which was originally called Tanas. Four days' journey above this is the town of Achas, situated on the same river (called in Latin, Tanais), which the Russians call the Don. This place is so remarkable for its abundance of excellent fish, and also for its pleasantness, — each side of the river being laid out and cultivated with considerable industry, in the fashion of a garden, with a variety of plants and most delightful roots, and a great number of fruit-bearing trees, — that it is impossible to praise it too highly. There is also such an abundance of game there, which they kill with their arrows without much trouble, that persons travelling through the country want nothing else to support life, except fire and salt for cooking. In these parts they do not reckon by miles, but days' journeys. So far as I could form a conjecture, the Don is nearly eighty German miles from its source to its mouth, going in a straight line. Nearly twenty days' sail from Donco, where, as I said, the Don is first navigable, we come to Azov, a city which is tributary to the Turks; and, according to them, is five days' journey from the Isthmus of Taurica, otherwise called Precop. Here is a famous emporium of many nations, who come thither from different parts of the world; and as free access is permitted to all people of every country, with abundant liberty of buying and selling, so also on going out of the city are all permitted to do what they please with impunity.

As to the altars erected by Alexander and Cæsar, or their ruins, which several writers describe as being in these parts, I have not been able to learn anything for certain, either from the natives, or others, who have very frequently travelled in those places. The soldiers also, whom the prince is accustomed to have there in garrison every year to reconnoitre and repress the excursions of the Tartars, have told