The Press.
London, England, 1854-09-30 00:00:00

THE CRIMEA.

AT the meeting of the British Association on Tues-
day last Mr. Danby Seymour, M.Y., read a paper
upon " The Caucasus and Parts of the Crimea,"
which excited a great amount of interest. He com-
menced by stating

that he had passed through the Crimea nine years ago,
and spent one summer there. In Circassia he had spent
three years, and visited it upon two different occasions,
before and after a long journey in Persia and India. As
regarded the Crimea, it contained four races of people,
amongst whom were the Tartars, being the great bulk of
the population ; the Greeks, many remaining of the old Greek
colonies established there ; also an ancient colony of Jews,
near Simferopol; and lastly, the Russians, who bad gone
there in great numbers since the country came into their
possession, about the year 1786. He referred to Perekop,
which he said was a cold climate, little cultivated, and con-
taining hardly any Russian population. The steppes at a
plains were similar to the downs in lA'iltshite. Thence
there were slopes all along the country until approachit g
Simferopol, near the centre of the island, and scarcely a
tree or landmark to intercept the view. The plains then
rise gradually on approaching Simferopol, where the moun-
tains are visible, and there are little undulating hills atter
passing that town. Simferopol is a pretty Russian town,
with good houses, surrounded by woods, and is principally
inhabited by Russians. To the south-west, about forty
miles, is Balaklava, where there is a beautiful rem-
nant of old Moorish architecture, the palace of the old
khan of the Crimea. Near that, in the mountains, is the
colony of the Jews before alluded to. They are that sec-
tion of the Jews who rejected the interpolation of the
Talmud. Leaving Balaklava, he visited Sebastopol,where
he was shown over the place by Colonel Upton, who had
been sent there to construct the large ducks for the
Government. He went out to see the ship Twelve Apostle,
of which the Russians are now so proud, and among many
things told him by Colonel Upton and others was the bad
wood of which the ships were made. He said that a can-
non ball which would lodge in the side of an English ship
would go through one of the Russian ships, as the timbers
had been " jobbed." Going over the clusemated batteries,
the engineers communicated to him the information that
the batteries had been uniformly " jobbed." The engineer
had witnessed the building of the walls, and he said that if
ever a time came to require them to be used they would
be found hardly to stand the shock of their own fire.
Whether that be true or not would soon he ascertained, as
they would shortly be put to the test. He remembered
an anecdote illustrative of the genius of the Russians,
told him by Colonel Upton. He said that when he came
there the Russians did not know the use of wheelbarro
or any other contrivance for economising labour.
large works wish which they were occupied before the
colonel came amongst them the men used no sort of appa-
ratus, but carried on their backs, in bags, the earth which
had to be removed; the consequence was that a large num-
In the
bar of them received injuries, and were always in the hos-
pitals. The colonel had to introduce amongst them the
common mechanical contrivances so well known and
generally adopted in Europe. They worked well, but it
was difficult to make them understand the value of seen-
racy. The Russians consits.er that if they work at a thing
ffig
it is enough ; and in the Russian army the word
im•
possible " was not allowed a place. Whenever a ltusian
soldier was told to do a thing, it was considered sufficient
if he did something. In illustration of that,
heColonel
Upton told him that when building the dock gates
found his calculations completely out, and the woodwork
would not fit the space in which it was to be placed.
On inquiry, he ascertained that the workman who pre-
pared the stone cut it too short, and, in order that lf?
mistake might not be found out, he cut the gauge witn
which the stone was measured. It was near Balheklavo!
where it had been intended that the allied troop; sould
land, but which lie thought had been very wisely ebar
dor!!
for there existed in that locality a narrow gorge, /roc"
might be easily defended.

W

_.J