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 152 THE DECLINE AND FALL vaded the sea and land from the Baltic to the Euxine, fi-om the mouth of the Oder to the port of Constantinople. In the days of idolatry and barbarism, the Sclavonic city of Julin was fre- quented and enriched by the Normans, who had prudently secured a free mart of purchase and exchange.*^" From this harbour, at the entrance of the Oder, the corsair, or merchant, sailed in forty-three days to the eastern shores of the Baltic, the most distant nations were intermingled, and the holy groves of Curland are said to have been decorated with Grecian and Spanish gold.'^* Between the sea and Novogorod an easy inter- course was discovered : in the summer, through a gulf, a lake, and a navigable river ; in the winter season, over the hard and level surface of boundless snows. From the neighbourhood of that city, the Russians descended the streams that fall into the Boiysthenes ; their canoes, of a single tree, were laden with slaves of every age, furs of every species, the spoil of their bee- hives, and the hides of their cattle ; and the whole produce of the North was collected and discharged in the magazines of Kiow. The month of June was the ordinary season of the departure of the fleet ; the timber of the canoes was framed into the oars and benches of more solid and capacious boats ; and they proceeded without obstacle down the Borysthenes, as far as the seven or thirteen ridges of rocks, which traverse the bed, and precipitate the waters, of the river. At the more shallow falls it was sufficient to lighten the vessels ; but the deeper cataracts were impassable ; and the mariners, who draffffed their vessels and their slaves six miles over land, were exposed in this toilsome journey to the robbers of the desert.*'^ ^' In Odorag ostio qua Scythicas alluit paludes, nobilissima civitas Julinum [/<?f. Jumne], celeberrimam Barbaris et Graecis qui sunt in circuitu praestans stationem ; est sane maxin:ia omnium quas Europa claudit ciNitatum (Adam Bremensis, Hist. Eccles. p. 19 [ii. 19]). A strange exaggeration even in the xith century. The trade of the BaUic, and the Kanseatic league, are carefully treated in Anderson's Historical Deduction of Commerce ; at least in our language,'! am not acquainted with any book so satisfactory. [Junme lies near WoUin.] ^ According to Adam of Bremen (de Situ Danite, p. 58), the old Curland ex- tended eight days' journey along the coast ; and by Peter Teutoburgicus (p. 68, a.d. 1326) Memel is defined as the common frontier of Russia, Curland, and Prussia. Aurum ibi plurimum (says Adam) [. . . ] divinis auguribus atque necromanticis omnes domus sunt plense ... a toto orbe ibi responsa petuntur maxime ab Hispanis (forsan Zupanis, id est regulis Lettoviee [other conjectures are : Cispanis and his paganis]) et Groecis [c. 16]. The name of Greeks was applied to the Russians even before their conversion : an imperfect conversion, if they still con- sulted the wizards of Curland (Bayer, torn. x. p. 378, 402, &c. ; Grotius, Prolegomen. ad Hist. Goth. p. 99). ^ Constantine [de adm. Imp. c. 9] only reckons seven cataracts, of which he