Page:Notes upon Russia (volume 2, 1851).djvu/41

me when I have made inquiries upon the subject, that they have neither seen nor heard anything of the sort. They confessed, however, that about the mouth of the Lesser Don, four days' journey from Azov, near the site of Velikiprevos, in the holy mountains, they have seen some statues of marble and stone. The Lesser Don, moreover, rises in the principality of Sewerski, whence the Donetz is called Sewerski, and falls into the Don three days' journey above Azov. Those who travel by land from Moscow to Azov, cross the Don near the old and ruined city of Donco, and turn southwards and a little by east, where, if a straight line be drawn from the mouth of the Don to its source, you will find that Moscow is in Asia, and not in Europe.—[See note, page 11.]

Misceveck is a marshy place, in which there was formerly a fort, the remams of which yet exist. There are still some people who dwell in huts near this place, who in times of danger take refuge among those marshes, or flee into the fortress. Misceveck lies nearly sixty German miles south of Moscow, and nearly thirty from Tula. The river Occa rises nearly eighteen miles to the left of Misceveck. It first flows eastward, then northward, and lastly, towards the summer east (as they themselves call it); and thus the Occa shuts in Misceveck with a figure of nearly a semicircle, and then flows by many towns, namely, Worotin, Cologa, Cirpach, Corsir, Columna, Rezan, Casimovgorod, and Murom, and finally enters the Volga below Lower Novogorod, and is enclosed on both sides with woods, which are extremely abundant in honey. All the lands which it waters are most fertile. The river is very celebrated, especially for its abundance of fish; and its fish is preferred to those of the other rivers of Russia, particularly those which are taken near Murom. It has, moreover, some kinds of fish peculiar to itself, which are called in their language Beluga,—a fish of a wonderful size without fins, with a large head and mouth,—