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LEFT CRIMEA 197 CRIMEAN WAR nate ends by different bowlers until the whole 11 players have tried their hand at the bat and been disposed of. Runs are made by the batsman driving the ball far enough away to give him time to change places with the other batter before the ball returns. Each change constitutes a run, and in matches in England it has sometimes happened that one batsman has made over 400 runs in this way. Six is the largest number of runs that can be made from a single hit, that being what ' is allowed when the ball is driven clear out of the grounds. The business of the bowler is to try in every possible way to knock down the wickets in front of which the batsman stands, or else to tempt him into hitting the ball up into the air so that it may be caught on the fly by one of the fielders. Besides being bowled or caught out, a batter may be "run out," i. e., have his wicket knocked down by the ball while he is busy making a run, or he may be "stumped out," which is to have the same thing happen when he in- cautiously steps out of his ground to hit at an unusually tempting ball. The ball comes to the batter on the first bounce, and the bowler's skill is shown in varying the nitch, speed, and direction of the ball so that the batter may become bewildered and fail to defend his wickets. The best kind of bowling is what is known as^ a "bowling with a break," the peculiarity of which consists in thnt the ball after striking the ground does not continne straight on. bnt swerves sharT>1v to the right or left like a "cut" ten-m's hall, a kind of bowling, therefore, which hears much the same relation to the ordinary that "curve pitching" does to the old- fashioned style. It is not easy to acquire, and few have the art in perfection. In the United States the two chief homes of cricket are in Philadelnhia and Boston, although there are good clubs in New York, Detroit, and elsewhere, and also at some of the larger colleges. CRIMEA, THE (anciently, Cherso- nesus Taurica), a peninsula of southern Ru<:sia, government of Taurida, to the mainland of which it is attached by the Isthmus of Perekop; area, 10.000 square miles. On the W. and S. it is washed by the Black Sea. and on the E. by the Sea of Azof, a portion of which, shut off from the res* by a long and narrow strip of land, forms the Sivash or Putrid Sea. Three-fourths of the Crimea belongs to the region of steppes, but the other part, confined entirely to the S., and stretcning along the coast from W. to E., abounds in beautiful mountain scenery. Here the valleys looking S. are luxuriant with vines and olive and mulberry planta- tions, while the N. slope gives a large yield in cereals and fruits. The climate, however, is unequal, and in winter is severe. The chief stream is the Salghir. Others of celebrity are the Tchernaya and tha Alma. The most important of the productions, besides those already mentioned, are tobacco, of which a large quantity of excellent quality is produced, flax and hemp. The forests are of limited extent. There are large numbers of fine- wooled sheep and horned cattle and horses are reared in large numbers. Pop. about 500,000. The chief town and port is Sebastopol. The country was anciently associated with the Cimmerians, and in later times with various Greek settlements and minor kingdoms. After being for some time a dependency of Rome, it was over- run by successive bodies of barbarians, and in 1237 fell into the hands of the Mongols under Genghis Khan. About 1261 the Genoese were permitted to oc- cupy and fortify Kaffa, and they rapidly extended their power in the formation of other settlements. They were expelled, however, in 1475 by Mahomet II., who made it a dependent khanate. In 1783 the Russians took possession of the country; and with the view of overaw- ing the Turks the great naval arsenal of Sebastopol, occupying the most command- ing position on the Black Sea, was begun by Catharine II. in 1786. Its military re- sources were steadily developed up to the time of the Anglo-French campaign of 1854, when it fell into the hands of the allies. Here, in November, 1920, the Anti-Bolshevist leader. General Bar- on Wrangel, and his forces suffered a great defeat from the red army. CRIMEAN WAR, the struggle be- tween England, France, and Turkey on the one hand, and Russia on the other, to prevent the undue preponderance of Russia in the E. of Europe, which oc- curred in 1854 to 1856. The old plans for the extension of Russian power conceived by Catharine II. and Potemkin were re- suscitated by Nicholas I., who, believing that he had secured himself from inter- ference on the part of Austria and Prussia, and that an Anglo-French al- liance was impossible, prepared to carry them into acfrion. Servia, Bosnia, Bul- garia, and the principalities of the Danube were to become Russian protec- torates, and Constantinople was to be provisionally occupied by Russian troops. The first markedly aggressive step — the demand by Russia for a protectorate over the Greek Church throughout the Turk- ish empire — brought matters to a crisis. An ultimatum presented by Menschi- koff in May, 1853, was rejected by the Porte; the Russians occupied the Danu-