Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/619

Rh their legislation to be successful. Crime, as defined at any period, may be considered a recognized disease of the body social. But as well might the physician concentrate his whole attention upon each individual pustule of an eruptive fever, one after the other, as the criminal legislator upon actual criminals alone. The symptoms of a malady are of course not to be neglected, and it is necessary to be careful in the treatment of persons who have already fallen into crime. Prison management and every form of punish ment are important subjects ; but the preservation from guilt of the great majority who are as yet guiltless is of an importance infinitely higher. There is one golden rule taught by history with respect to punishments let them not afford an evil example of cruelty to the spectators. There is one great preventive of crime, one great antidote to instincts inherited from the past, and that is education. But the education which is effectual is not simply that of the schoolroom; it is the sum of the external circumstances which can in any way affect the character of any individual in the state. So far, therefore, as legislation has the power of diminishing crime, it can exercise its power by indirect means quite as much as by direct indeed far more. If the crimes of the English in the 10th century are different both in quantity and in kind from those of the 14th, the difference, we may be quite sure, is not wholly nor even principally caused by changes in the criminal law.

1em 1em  CRIMEA, the ancient Tauric Chersonese, called by the Russians by the Tatar name Krym, or Crim, a peninsula in the Black Sea forming part of the Russian government of Taurida, with the mainland of which it is connected by the Isthmus of Perecop, about six milss wide. It is situated between 44 22 and 46 10 N&quot;. lat. and 32 30 and 36 40 E. long. ; is rhomboid in form, the angles being directed to the cardinal points ; measures 125 miles from N. to S. and 200 miles from W. to the E. extremity of the peninsula of Kertch, at the east angle of the quadrilateral ; and con tains an area of between 9000 and 10,000 English square miles. Its coasts are washed by the Black Sea, except to the north-east, where is the Sivash, &quot; Putrid Sea,&quot; a shallow lagoon connected with the Sea of Azoff by a very narrow opening, and separated from it by a low sandy tongue of land called the Tonga or Arabat Spit.

Three parts of the Crimea are a continuation of the steppe of South Russia, the remainder on the south and soutlveast coast consisting of hills and mountains of calcare ous rocks that have been disturbed by volcanic agency, and exhibit in various parts diorite, melaphyre, aphrite, diabase, amygdaloid, and diorite porphyry. The volcanic eruptions are more manifest near Cape St George, and at Cape Laspy, Kastropolo, Aloupka, Yalta, and Byouk Lambat, and have formed the eminences at Ayou-dagh, Kastel, Ouragou, and Kara-dagh, and to the south of Sympheropol and Kara-sou- bazar. The mountains rise almost abruptly from the sea to an altitude in some parts of fully 4000 feet, the highest, called by the ancients Trapezus, &quot; the Table Mountain &quot; from the flatness of its summit, and now called by the Tatars Tchadyr-dagh, &quot; Tent Mountain,&quot; being 4800 feet above the level of the sea. Stalactite and stalagmite caverns are numerous, two of the most remarkable being oa the Tchadyr-dagh. Criumetopon, the &quot; ram s head &quot; of Strabo, was at the south part of the range, and may have been Cape Aia to the east of Balaclava, or the range of cliffs that extends from that promontory to Aitodor. The coast of the mountainous region is exceedingly picturesque, and numerous vineyards have been formed along its sunny slopes; the soil consists of decomposed rock, the chief com ponent part being slate clay. The mud baths on the -sea shore at Saky are celebrated for the relief they afford in cases of rheumatism, paralysis, skin diseases, &c. ; there is a hospital for naval and military patients, and a private bathing establishment. In the peninsula of Kertch are clusters of mud volcanoes near the town of Kertch and village of Yeny-Kaleh, where the. mud, quite cold and black, bubbles actively but silently out of the earth ; it is not utilized. The principal rivers are the Salghyr, its tributary the Kara-sou, the Belbeck, Katcha, Alma, and Boulganack. They all rise on the northern slopes of the mountain range ; their beds are almost dry in autumn, but they become rapid and dangerous torrents in spring.

The general climate from the end of March, to December is most salubrious and delightful, the heat being moderate and the nights cool and serene ; but the summers are irregular, the thermometer sometimes rising to 90 and 100 Fahr. in the shade the mean annual temperature at Sympheropol being 50, at Sevastopol 55, and at Yalta 58. The weather in the steppe and mountainous parts differ, the former being subject to high winds, hailstorms (sometimes destructive), snowstorms, and frost. In summer long droughts prevail, completely parching up the verdure, which in July and August is quite burnt up. In some winters the mountain tops are covered with snow, which continues on the higher summits until May, yet their tem perature is moderate. Ice is rarely seen on the south slopes, and snow seldom falls, the winters throughout being mild, though rains are heavy and winds variable. The greater heats, which last from May to September, are en durable owing to sea and land breezes, the prevalent winds being S.E and E., when the weather is clear and dry ; S. and S.W. winds are invariably accompanied with rain. The autumn, particularly in August and September, is unhealthy on the sea-shore of the south coast, fever and ague being prevalent but not dangerous ; an altitude, however, of 40 feet or 50 feet is security against attack. Dense fogs occur in March, April, and May, sometimes lasting many hours, but they seldom overspread the land.

In ancient times the Crimea, the Tauric Chersonese, Vegetable produced a great quantity of corn, which was exported tc products, various parts of Greece; we read that 2,100,000 medimni (a medimnus=12 gallons) were sent in one year from Theodosia to Athens by Leucon, king of the Bosphorus (393-353 B.C.). The population is now in some measure supplied with corn from Russia, the drought that has prevailed for many years preventing the district from being a grain-producing country ; but where the land is capable of irrigation it is grown, and there is rich pasturage ; much good land, however, remains uncultivated from a dearth of manual labour. The grains sown are wheat, barley, oats, rye, maize, millet, and peas; flax and tobacco are also planted. The vine overspreads the declivities of the south coast, from the valley of the Boulganack to Aloushta, and again at 