The Jasper news., 1917-06-07

"a "a Senger steamers ply be-
tween New York and the
ports of the Black sea, 1t
may well be hoped that Americans, for
their own sake, will discover and ap-
preciate the wonderful Crimea. Prob
ably most Americans, having forgot
ten the ancient history they once
learned at school, have but few definite
ideas connected with the name Crimea.
There once was war in the Crimea,
for instance, involving town which
English-printing newspapers and 9TH
ers carefully mlsspell "Sebastopol."
Also, it Is remembered, there was
Baluklava, and the charge that was
"magnificent but not war" And also,
there was Florence Nightingale. All
Of these We're, and some still are,
notable.
But there is much more than all
these to the Crimea, says a writer In
the magazine Russia, and indeed they
suggest nothing whatever Of the beau
tiful and extraordinary south coast
stretch of the peninsula; nothing of
its luXuriant and scmi-troplcal vegeta-
tion rising upon the steep heights
which fringe the shore; nothing Of the
summer pastures in the high valleys
pastures ms notable as the much bet
ter known almen of the Swiss Alps,
which these grazing places for sheep
closely resemble. Nor do our few
American modern memories suggest
the fact that the Crimea was one of
the meltng-pots of classical antiquity
not in the center of the ancient
foundry, it Is true-but the scene Of
colonizntions by Greeks, venetians,
Genocsc. invading Goths Turks, Tar
tars until in 1888 Russia established
peace and control. Americans by the
thousand visit the Riviera: by the
thousands they may well repay them
selves little later, by visiting what
is often called "thc Russian Riviera
! the south coast of the Crimea.
Why the "Black" Sea.
From the moment his ship enters the
Black sea, the American explorer will
| find himself in region of waters Of
kind new to him. The Black sea
is not actually black; but 1t Is of n
much darker blue than the Medterra-
mean. 1t is practically without tides,
also--a great deep bowl with steep
sides. with water some 1900 feet deep
close to the sides, and over 1000 In
the middle. The black mud of
its bottom contains no animal life (;
on warm summer evenings its waters
show phosphorcScence.
Into the northern side of this huge
basin of the Black sea projects the
peninsula of the Crimea, sloping up
wards from the mainland towards the
south until 1t reaches the summit of
the Yaila range (Yaila Is the Tartar
word for Summer pasture") just be-
hind the southern shore line; from
there 1t plunges abruptly into the
Black sea.
1t Is this strip of steep. verdure'
smothered coast land (fve to eighi
miles wide) between the SUBMITS OF
the Yaila range and the sea that is the
paradise of the Crlmea. From the
southernmost point Of the peninsula, al
Cape Sarytch, to Fayodosla English
Theodosia) towards the northeast, the
Yaila range bordering the coast Il
pierced by passes, through which car
rlage roads lead northward in genera
direction, across the high mountain
pastures, and down the northwart
slope to the railroad lines from Sc
vastopol on the west shore, and Kertcf
and Fayodosia on the east, which joir
IN the line to the mainland. This Yailt
range sometimes called the "Moun
: tnin Meadows mountainsO is con
tinuation of the Caucasus, and has 1T
western end at Cape FioleDte (the an
clent Parthenium) which is the south
westernmost point Of the Crimea. Th
ancient name of the cape Is due 4
the legend that on that promontor,
stood the temple of Artemis (Diana
in which Iphigenela served as priest
ess. The general elevation of tn
Yalla is from 1900 to $500 feet.
1t is q creditable element in the Rus
sian attitude towards the finer pleas
ure places that the generally ubiqui