The Caldwell tribune., 1920-12-14
CR|MEA IS ONCE
MORE SCENEOF
WORLD EVENTS
Interesting Facts Pre-
sented Relative to Land
Where Wrangel Lost
Against Red Russia.

"The Crimea, in which newspaper
dispatches say General Wrangle's anti
Bolshevik forces have met disaster, is
a land which has aspects known to
every school child" says bulletin is
sued by the National Geographic So
ciety.
1T is the land of the Cimmerians
about whom Homer sang in the 'Odys-
sey' and from whom the peninsula
takes it name; the land of the Crimean
War, the siege of Sevastopol and the
Charge of the Light Brigade the
land in which Florence Nightingale
first caused efficient, ordered mercy
to have part in war.
"The Crimea is known as The Lit
tie Paradise to the Tatars, last of the
many races to overrun the peninsula
before the land fell under the sway
of the Muscovite.S "A traveller jour
neying from the north is likely to ac-
cept this appelation, if at all, with a
strong mental reservation as he eros
es the almost desertlike plains of
northern Crimea; but once over the
mountains that rim the southern
shore he will approve the description
with enthusiasm There Nature has
made a wonderful garden spot, the
Rivera of Russia, a combination of
sea, mountains and riotous verdure
that really We'd with its famed Italian
counterpart in the days when Gar
hood was in flower.
Though part of what has come
to be looked upon as cold Russia
the eastern shore of the Crimea
brought to the old empire touch of
the tropics. On the mountain slopes
and in the sheltered valleys grow
grapes, figs, olives and all the tender
fruits, magnolias, bays, and myrtles;
and a profusion of wild flowers and
grasses That the delights of its mild
climate were discovered early is testi-
fled by the tuins of Greek, Byzantine,
and Italian architecture which are to
be found among the mosques of the
later Tatars the palaces of the Rus
sian imperial family and nobility, and
the magnificent modern hotels of the
pleasure towns to which the prosper
Gus classes of Russia flocked before
the World War. Yalta, in those care
free days, was Russia's Nice, Newport
and Miami rolled into one; its gay,
and expensive as that to be found in
any of the worlds pre-war play
grounds.
The Crimea is a peninsula that bare
ly escaped being an island. 1t hangs
from the mainland of South Russia
down into the Black Sea, lige a gig
antic watch fob shaped like founder.
1t is attached by the narrow ribbon
OF the lsthmus of Perckop: a strip of
land only 3-4 of a mile wide and only
few feet above sea level. On one
side is the Black Sea and on the other
the stagnant, shallow malodorous wa
ters of the Swatch, or Putrid Sea, a
lagoon OF the Sea of Azov. This is
the only unbroken natural land con-
ton between the mainland and the
Srimea, but few miles to the east
narrow part of the Putrid Sea has
been bridged by the railroad which
enters the peninsula. Still further east
wFd peculiar natural formation, a
mere thread-like causeway of sand
known as the Tongue of Arabat, street
ches for more than 50 miles from the
mainland to the base of the founder
tail that forms the easternmost exten-
sion of the .Crimea. A canal has been
cut through this spit of sand mar its
northern end to connect the waters oi
the Sea of Azov and those of the Pu.
trld Sea. The intrenching or mining
o. these three narrow land entrances to
the Crimea are relatively simple mat
ters from the point Of view of militar,
engineering.
:The greatest width of the Crimes
north and south is lis miles, and Il.