team under Mr Leveson Gower went to South Africa, and played | In the match between A. E. Stoddart's team and New South Wales test matches. West Indies.-West Indian cricketers toured in England in 1900, winning 5 matches and losing 8. The best batsman was C. A. Olivierre (b. 1876), who subsequently qualified for Derbyshire. The brunt of the bowling devolved on S. Woods and T. Burton (b. 1878). In 1897 teams under Lord Hawke and A. Priestly (b. 1865) both visited West Indies, Trinidad defeating both powerful combinations. R. S. Lucas (b. 1867) had in 1895 taken out a successful side. A much weaker combination in 1902 suffered five defeats but won 13 matches. B. J. T. Bosanquet, E. R. Wilson (b. 1879) and E. M. Dowson (b. 1880) were the chief performers. In 1906 another West Indian side visited England, but were not particularly successful. America. In the United States cricket has always had to contend with the popularity of baseball, and in Canada with the rival attractions of lacrosse. Nevertheless it has grown in popularity, Philadelphia being the headquarters of the game in the New World. The Germantown, Belmont, Merion and Philadelphia Clubs play annually for the Halifax Cup, and the game is controlled by the Associated Cricket clubs of Philadelphia. In the neighbourhood of New York matches are arranged by the Metropolitan District Cricket League and the New York Cricket Association; similar organizations are the Northwestern, the California and the Massachusetts associations, while the Intercollegiate Cricket League consists of college teams representing Harvard, Pennsylvania and Haverford. R. S. Newhall (b. 1852) and D. S. Newhall (b. 1849) may almost claim to be the fathers of cricket in the United States; while D. W. Saunders (b. 1862) did much for the game in Canada. Other eminent names in American cricket are A. M. Wood; H. Livingston, of the Pittsburg Club, who scored three centuries in one week in 1997; H. V. Hordern, University of Pennsylvania, a very successful bowler; J. B. King, who in 1906 made 344 not out for Belmont v. Merion, and who as a fast bowler proved most effective during two tours in England. At San Francisco in 1894 W. Robertson and A. G. Sheath compiled a total of 340 without the loss of a wicket, the former scoring 206 not out, and the latter 118 not out. A large number of English cricket teams have visited the United States and Canada. The first county to do so was Kent in 1904, in which year the Philadelphians also made a tour in England, in the course of which J. B. King (b. 1873) took 93 wickets at an average cost of 14 runs, and proved himself the best all-round man on the side. P. H. Clark (b. 1873), a clever fast bowler, and J. A. Lester (b. 1872), the captain of the team, also showed themselves to be cricketers of merit, while N. Z. Graves (b. 1880) and F. H. Bohlen (b. 1868) were quite up to English county form. The team did not, however, include G. S. Patterson (b. 1868), one of the best batsmen in America. The Philadelphians again visited Great Britain in 1908, when they won 7 out of 14 matches, one being drawn. On this tour King surpassed his former English record by taking 115 wickets, and Wood, who played one fine innings of 132, was the most successful of the American batsmen.. Other Countries.-The English residents of Portugal support the game, but were no match for a moderate English team that visited them in 1898. In Holland, chiefly at the Hague and Haarlem, cricket is played to a limited extent on matting wickets. Dutch elevens have visited England, and English elevens have crossed to Holland, the most important visit being that of the gentlemen of the M.C.C in 1902, the Englishmen winning all the matches. Professionalism.-The remuneration of the first-class English professionals is £6 per match, out of which expenses have to be paid; a man engaged on a ground to bowl receives from £2, 10s. to £3, 10S. a week when not away playing matches. A professional player generally receives extra reward for good batting or bowling, the amount being sometimes a fixed sum of £1 for every fifty runs, more frequently a sum awarded by the committee on the recommendation of the captain. Some counties give their men winter pay, others try to provide them with suitable work when cricket is over. A few get cricket in other countries during the English winter. For international matches professional players and reserves receive £20 each, though before 1896 the fee was only £10; players (and reserves) in Gentlemen v. Players at Lord's are paid £10. A good county professional generally receives a benefit after about ten years' service; but the amount of the proceeds varies capriciously with the weather, the duration of the match, and the attendance. In the populous northern counties of England benefits are far more lucrative than in the south, but £800 to £1000 may be regarded as a good average result. County clubs generally exercise some control over the sums received. Umpires are paid £6 a match; in minor games they receive about £1 a day. Records. Records other than those already cited may be added for reference. A schoolboy named A. E. J. Collins, at Clifton College in 1899, excited some interest by scoring 628 not out in a boy's match, being about seven hours at the wicket. C. J. Eady (b. 1870) scored 566 for Break o' Day v. Wellington in eight hours in 1902, the total being 911. A. E. Stoddart made 485 for Hampstead v. Stoics in 1886. In first-class cricket the highest individual score for a batsman is A. C. MacLaren's 424 for Lancashire v. Somerset at Taunton in 1895. Melbourne University scored 1094 against Essendon in March 1898, this being the highest authenticated total on record. M.C.C. and Ground made 735 v. Wiltshire in 1888, the highest total at Lord's. at Sydney in 1898, 1739 runs were scored, an aggregate unparalleled in first-class cricket. The highest total for an innings in a first-class match is 918 for N.S.W. v. South Australia in January 1901. Yorkshire scored 887 v. Warwickshire at Birmingham in May 1896. The lowest total in a first-class match is 12 by Northamptonshire v. Gloucestershire in June 1907. The record for first wicket is 472 by S. Colman and P. Coles at Eastbourne in 1892. The longest partnership on record is 623 by Captain Oates and Fitzgerald at the Curragh in 1895. The best stand that has been made for the last wicket in a first-class match is 230 runs, which was run up by R. W. Nicholls and Roche playing for Middlesex v. Kent at Lord's in 1899. The averages of individual players for batting and bowling annually excite a good deal of interest, and there is a danger that some players may think too much of their averages and too little of the sporting side of the game. Any comparison of the highest averages during a scries of years would be misleading, owing to improvements in grounds, difference of weather, and the variations in the number of innings. 64 The following table of aggregates, compiled from the figures to the end of 1905, affords a summary of the records of a select list of historic cricketers; it will serve to supplement some details already given above about them and others. BIBLIOGRAPHY.-The chief works on cricket are, apart from wellknown annuals:-H. Bentley's Scores from 1786 to 1822 (published in 1823); John Nyren's Young Cricketer's Tutor (1833); N. Wanostrocht's Felix on the Bat (various editions, 1845-1855); F. Lillywhite's Cricket Scores and Biographies, 1746 to 1840 (1862); Rev. J. Pycroft's Cricket Field (various editions, 1862-1873); C. Box's Theory and Practice of Cricket (1868); F. Gale's Echoes from Old Cricket Fields (1871, new ed. 1896); Marylebone Cricket Club Scores and Biographies (1876), a continuation of Lillywhite's Scores and Biographies; C. Box's English Game of Cricket (1877); History of a Hundred Centuries, by W. G. Grace (1895); History of the Middlesex County Cricket Club, by W. J. Ford (1900); History of the Cambridge University Cricket Club, by W. J. Ford (1902); History of Yorkshire County Cricket, by R. S. Holmes (1904); History of Kent County Cricket, ed. by Lord Harris, (1907); Annals of Lord's, by A. D. Taylor (1903); Curiosities of Cricket, by F. S. Ashley Cooper (1901); " Cricket," by Lord Hawke, in English Sport, by A. E. T. Watson (1903); Cricket, edited by H. G. Hutchinson (1903); Cricket Form at a Glance, by Home Gordon (1903); Cricket | (Badminton Library), by A. G. Steel and Hon. R. H. Lyttleton (1904); Old English Cricketers, by Old Ebor (1900); Cricket in Many Climes, by P. F. Warner (1903); How We Recovered the Ashes, by P.F.Warner (1904); England v. Australia, by J. N. Pentelow (records from 1877 to 1904) (1904); The Jubilee Book of Cricket, by K. S. Ranjitsinhji (1897). CRICKHOWELL, a market town of Brecknockshire, Wales, | buildings are the town hall, tolbooth, public library, assembly 14 m. E. of Brecon, beautifully situated on the left bank of the Usk, which divides it from Llangattock. Pop. (1901) 1150. The nearest railway stations are Govilon (5 m.) and Gilwern (4 m.) on the London & North-Western railway, but a mail and passenger motor service running between Abergavenny and Brecon passes through the town. It is also served by the Brecon & Newport Canal, which passes through Llangattock about a mile distant. Agriculture is almost the sole industry of the district. The town derives its name from a British fortress, Crûg Hywel, commonly called Table Mountain, about 2 m. N.N.E. of the town. Crickhowell Castle, of which only a tower remains, probably dated from the Norman conquest of the country. The manor of Crickhowell used to be regarded as a borough by prescription, but there is no record of its ever having possessed any municipal institutions. The church is in transitional Decorated style. CRICKLADE, a market town in the Cricklade parliamentary division of Wiltshire, England, 9 m. N.W. of Swindon, on the Midland & South-Western Junction railway. Pop. (1901) 1517. It is pleasantly situated in the plain which borders the south bank of the Thames, not far from the Thames & Severn Canal. The cruciform church of St Sampson is mainly Perpendicular, with a fine ornate tower, and an old rood-stone in its churchyard. The small church of St Mary has an Early English tower, Perpendicular aisles and a Norman chancel-arch. There is some agricultural trade. Legend makes Cricklade the abode of a school of Greek philosophers before the Roman conquest, and the name is given as "Greeklade" in Drayton's Polyolbion. It owed its importance in Saxon times to its position at the passage of the Thames. During the revolt of Ethelwald the Ætheling in 905 he and his army "harried all the Mercian's land until they came to Cricklade and there they went over the Thames" (Anglo-Sax. Chron. sub anno), and in 1016 Canute came with his army over the Thames into Mercia at Cricklade (ibid.). There was a mint at Cricklade in the time of Edward the Confessor and William I., and William of Dover fortified a castle here in the reign of Stephen. In the reign of Henry III. a hospital dedicated to St John the Baptist was founded at Cricklade, and placed under the government of a warden or prior. Cricklade was a borough by prescription at least as early as the Domesday Survey, and returned two members to parliament from 1295 until disfranchised by the Redistribution Act of 1885. The borough | was never incorporated, but certain liberties, including exemption from toll and passage, were granted to the townsmen by Henry III. and confirmed by successive sovereigns. In 1257 Baldwin de Insula obtained a grant of a Thursday market, and an annual three days' fair at the feast of St Peter ad Vincula. The market was subsequently changed to Saturday, and was much frequented by dealers in corn and cattle, but is now inconsiderable. During the 14th century Cricklade formed part of the dowry of the queens of England. In the reign of Henry VI. the lordship was acquired by the Hungerford family, and in 1427 Sir Walter Hungerford granted the reversion of the manor to the dean and chapter of Salisbury cathedral to aid towards the repair of their belfry. CRIEFF, a police burgh of Perthshire, Scotland, capital of Strathearn, 17 m. W. of Perth by the Caledonian railway. Pop. (1901) 5208. Occupying the southern slopes of a hill on the left bank of the Earn, here crossed by a bridge, it practically consists of a main street, with narrower streets branching off at right angles. Its climate is the healthiest in mid-Scotland, the air being pure and dry. Its charter is said to date from 1218, and it was the seat of the courts of the earls of Strathearn till 1747, when heritable jurisdictions were abolished. A Runic sculptured stone, believed to be of the 8th century, and the old town cross stand in High Street, but the great cattle fair, for which Crieff was once famous, was removed to Falkirk in 1770. It was probably in connexion with this market that the "kind gallows of Crieff" acquired their notoriety, for they were mostly used for the execution of Highland cattle-stealers. The principal rooms, mechanics' institute, Morison's academy (founded in 1859), and Strathearn House, a hydropathic establishment built on an eminence at the back of the town, and itself sheltered by the Knock of Crieff (911 ft. high). The industries consist of manufactures of cotton, linen, woollens and worsteds, and leather. Drummond Castle, about 3 m. S., is celebrated for its gardens. They cover an area of 10 acres, are laid out in terraces, and illustrate Italian, Dutch and French styles. They were planned by the 2nd earl of Perth (d. 1662), and take rank with the most magnificent in the United Kingdom. The keep of the castle dates from 1490, and much of the original building was demolished in 1689, a few years after its siege by Cromwell. The present structure was erected subsequent to the extinction of the Jacobite rebellion. CRIME (Lat. crimen, accusation), the general term for offences. against the CRIMINAL LAW (q.v.). Crime has been defined as a failure or refusal to live up to the standard of conduct deemed binding by the rest of the community." Sir James Stephen describes it as some act or omission in respect of which legal punishment may be inflicted on the person who is in default whether by acting or omitting to act." Such action or neglect of action may be injurious or hurtful to society. It is a wrong or tort, to be prevented and corrected by the strong arm of the law. Crimes vary in character with times and countries. Under different circumstances of place and custom, that which at one time is denounced as a crime, at another passes as a meritorious act. It was once an imperative duty for the family to avenge the death of a kinsman, and the blood feud had a sanction that made killing no murder. Again, among primitive tribes to make away with parents at an advanced age or suffering from an incurable disease was a filial duty. Polyandry was sometimes encouraged, and cannibalism practised with general approval; religious sentiment elevated into heinous crimes, blasphemy, heresy, sacrilege, sorcery and even science when it ran counter to accepted dogmas of the church. Offences multiplied when people gathered into communities and the rights of property and of personal security were understood and established. The law of the strongest might still interfere with individual ownership; the weakest went to the wall; authority, whether exercised by one master or by the combined government of the many, was resisted, and this resistance constituted crime. As civilization spread and the bulk of the population settled into orderliness, society, for its own comfort, convenience and protection, would not tolerate the infraction of its rules, and rising against all lawbreakers decreed reprisals against them as the common enemy. Then began that constant warfare between criminals and the forces of law and order which has been continuously waged through the centuries with varying degrees of bitterness. The combat with crime was long waged with great cruelty. Extreme penalties were thought to constitute the best deterrent, and the principle of vengeance chiefly inspired the penal law. The harshness of ancient codes makes a more humane age shudder. It was the custom to hang or decapitate, or otherwise take life in some more or less barbarous fashion, on the smallest excuse. The final act was preceded by hideous torture. It was performed with the utmost barbarity. Victims were put to death by breaking on the wheel, burning at the stake, by dismemberment and flaying or boiling alive. These were the aggravations of the original idea of riddance, of checking crime by the absolute removal of the offender. Only slowly and gradually milder methods came into force. Revenge and retaliation were no longer the chief aims, the law had a larger mission than to coerce the criminal and force him by severity to mend his ways. To withdraw him for a lengthened period from the sphere of his baneful activity was something; to subject him to more or less irksome processes, to solitary confinement upon short diet, deprived of all the solaces of life, with severe labour, were sharp lessons limited in effect to those actually subjected to them, but too remote to deter the outside crowd of potential wrongdoers. The higher duty of the administrator is to utilize the period of detention by labouring to reform the criminal subjects and send them out from gaol reformed characters. If no very remarkable success has been achieved in this direction, it is obviously the right aim, and it is being more and more steadfastly pursued. But it is generally accepted in principle that to eradicate criminal proclivities and cut off recruits from the permanent army of crime the work must be undertaken when the subject is of an age susceptible of reform; hence the extreme value attaching to the more enlightened treatment of crime in embryo, a principle becoming more and more largely accepted in practice among civilized nations. It may safely be asserted that the germ of crime is universally present in mankind, ever ready to show under conditions favourable to its growth. Children show criminal tendencies in their earliest years. They exhibit evil traits, anger, resentment, mendacity; they are often intensely selfish, are strongly acquisitive, greedy of gain, ready to steal and secrete things at the first opportunity. Happily the fatal consequences that would otherwise be inevitable are checked by the gradual growth of inhibitory processes, such as prudence, reflection, a sense of moral duty, and in many cases the absence of temptation. From this Dr Nicholson deduces that "in proportion as this development is prevented or stifled, either owing to an original brain defect or by lack of proper education or training, so there is the risk of the individual lapsing into criminal-mindedness or into actual crime." In the lowest strata of society this risk is largely increased from the conditions of life. The growth of criminals is greatly stimulated where people are badly fed, morally and physically unhealthy, infected with any forms of disease and vice. In such circumstances, moreover, there is too often the evil influence of heredity and example. The offspring of criminals are constantly impelled to follow in their parents' footsteps by the secret springs of nature and pressure of childish imitativeness. The seed is thrown, so to speak, into a hot-bed where it finds congenial soil in which to take root and flourish. Wherever crime shows itself it follows certain well-defined lines and has its genesis in three dominant mental processes, the result of marked propensities. These are malice, acquisitiveness and lust. Malicious crimes may be amplified into offences against the person originating in hatred, resentment, violent temper, and rising from mere assaults into manslaughter and murder. Crimes of greed and acquisitiveness cover the whole range of thefts, frauds and misappropriation; of larcenies of all sorts; obtaining by false pretences; receiving stolen goods; robberies; house-breaking, burglary, forgery and coining. Crimes of lust embrace the whole range of illicit sexual relations, the result of ungovernable passion and criminal depravity. The proportions in which these three categories are manifested have been worked out in England and Wales to give the following figures. The percentage in any 100,000 of the population is: The members of these categories do not form distinct classes; their crimes are interdependent and constantly overlap. Crime in many is progressive and passes through all the stages from minor offences to the worst crimes. Murder-the culminating point of malice-is constantly preceded by petty larceny; theft by forcible entry; and robbery is associated with violence and armed resistance to capture. Criminality rising into its highest development shows itself under many forms. It is instinctive, passionate, accidental, deliberate and habitual, the outcome of abnormal appetite, of weak and disordered moral sense. The causation of crime varies, but a predominating motive is idleness, leading to the predatory instincts of gain easily acquired without the labour of continuous effort. To deprive the more industrious or more happily placed of their hard-won earnings or possessions, inspires the bulk of modern serious crime. It no doubt has produced one peculiar feature in modern crime: the extensive scale on which it is carried out. The greatest frauds are now commonly perpetrated; great robberies are planned in one capital and executed in another. The whole is worked by wide associations of cosmopolitan criminals. Other features of modern crime are especially interesting. It is extraordinarily precocious. Children of quite tender years commit murders, and boys and girls are frequently to be met. with as professional thieves. Again, the comparative proportions of crime in the two sexes may be considered. Everywhere women are less criminal than men. Naturally they have fewer facilities for committing crimes of violence, although they have offences peculiar to their sex, such as infanticide, and are more frequently guilty of poisoning than men by 70% against 30%. Statistics presented to the Prison Congress at Stockholm fix the percentage of female criminals at 3% in Japan, the East generally, South America and some parts of North America. In some states of the American Union it is 10%; in China, 20 %; in Europe generally it varies between 10% and 21%. In France the proportion of accused women is fifteen to eighty-five men. In Great Britain it is now one in four, but has been less. The total sentenced in 1905-1906 to penal servitude and imprisonment was 139,389 men and 44,294 women, the balance being made up by summary convictions. The curious fact in female crime is that one-seventh of the women committed to prison had already been convicted from eleven to twenty times. It has been well said from the above proportions that women are less criminal according to the figures, because when a woman wants a crime committed she can generally find a man to do it for her. It has often been debated whether or not prison methods react upon the criminality of the country; whether, in other words, severity of treatment deters, while milder methods encourage the wrongdoers to despise the penalties imposed by the law. Evidence for and against the verdict may be drawn from the whole civilized world. In England, as judged by the increase or decrease of the prison population, it might be supposed that the prison system was at one time effective in diminishing crime. Between 1878 and 1891 there was a steady decrease in numbers because of it. More recently there has been an appreciable increase in the number of crimes and proportionately of those imprisoned. The figures for 1906 showed a distinct increase in criminality for that year as compared with the years immediately preceding. The proportion of indictable offences had increased in 1906 from 59,079 as against 50,494 in 1899, or in the proportion of 171.01 per 100,000 of the population as against 158.97, a very marked increase over earlier years. Nevertheless the figures for 1906, although high, are by no means the highest, as on eight occasions during the fifty odd years for which statistics were available in 1909 the total crimes exceeded 60,000, and in the quinquennial period 1860-1864 the annual average was 280 per 100,000 as compared with 171.01 for 1906 and 175 for the quinquennial period 1902-1906. The quality of the crime varied, and while offences against property have increased, those against the person have constantly fallen. Quite half the whole number of crimes were committed by old offenders (see RECIDIVISM). Statistics have not been kept with the same care in all other countries, but some authentic figures may be quoted for France, where the number of thefts increased while offences against the person diminished. In Belgium there has been a satisfactory decrease in recent years. In Prussia the prison population has on the whole increased, but there has been a slight diminution in more serious crime. Some very noticeable figures are forthcoming from the United States, and comparison is possible of the relative amount of crime in the two countries, America and England. Here the want of statistics covering a large period is much to be regretted. On the general question serious crime in the ten years between 1880 and 1890 slightly increased, while petty crime was very considerably less during the period. Charges for homicide have been much more numerous. There were in 1880, 4608, or a ratio of 9.1 to 100,000 of the population; but in 1890 these offences rose to 7351, or a ratio of 11.7. Comparing America with England, it has been calculated in round numbers that the proportion of prisoners to the general population was in the United States as I to every 759, and in England I to every 1764 persons. As regards the more serious crimes the number in English convict prisons was as 1 to 10,000, and in the American state prisons (the corresponding institutions) the ratio was I to every 1358. In the lesser prisons, i.e. the English local prisons and the American city or county gaols, the numbers more nearly approximate, being in England I to 2143 and in America 1 to 1721. It has been argued that much of the crime in America is attributable to the preponderance of foreign immigrants, but the ratio of native born prisoners is that of 1237 to the million, of foreign born prisoners 1777 to the million. AUTHORITIES.-A. MacDonald, Criminology (New York, 1893); A. Drähms, The Criminal (New York, 1900); E. Ferri, La Sociologie criminelle, trans. Ferrier (Paris, 1905); all these contain extensive bibliographies. See also under CRIMINOLOGY. (A. G.) CRIMEA (ancient Tauris or Tauric Chersonese, called by the Russians by the Tatar name Krym or Crim), a peninsula on the north side of the Black Sea, forming part of the Russian government of Taurida, with the mainland of which it is connected by the Isthmus of Perekop (3-4 m. across). It is rudely rhomboid in shape, the angles being directed towards the cardinal points, and measures 200 m. between 44° 23′ and 46° 10' N., and 110 m. between 32° 30' and 36° 40′ E. Its area is 9700 sq. m. Its coasts are washed by the Black Sea, except on the north-east, where is the Sivash or Putrid Sea, a shallow lagoon separated from the Sea of Azov by the Arabat spit of sand. The shores are broken by several bays and harbours-on the west side of the Isthmus of Perekop by the Bay of Karkinit; on the south-west by the open Bay of Kalamita, on the shores of which the allies landed in 1854, with the ports of Eupatoria, Sevastopol and Balaklava; by the Bay of Arabat on the north side of the Isthmus of Yenikale or Kerch; and by the Bay of Kaffa or Feodosiya (Theodosia), with the port of that name, on the south side of the same. The south-east coast is flanked at a distance of 5 to 8 m. from the sea by a parallel range of mountains, the Yaila-dagh, or Alpine Meadow mountains, and these are backed, inland, by secondary parallel ranges; but 75% of the remaining area consists of high arid prairie lands, a southward continuation of the Pontic steppes, which slope gently north-westwards from the foot of the Yaila-dagh. The main range of these mountains shoots up with extraordinary abruptness from the deep floor of the Black Sea to an altitude of 2000 to 2500 ft., beginning at the south-west extremity of the peninsula, Cape Fiolente (anc. Parthenium), supposed to have been crowned by the temple of Artemis in which Iphigeneia officiated as priestess. .On the higher parts of this range are numerous flat mountain pastures (Turk. yailas), which, except for their scantier vegetation, are analogous to the almen of the Swiss Alps, and are crossed by various passes (bogaz), of which only six are available as carriage roads. The most conspicuous summits in this range are the Demir-kapu or Kemal-egherek (5040 ft.), Roman-kosh (5060 ft.), Chatyr-dagh (5000 ft.), and Karabi-yaila (3975 ft.). The second parallel range, which reaches altitudes of 1500 to 1900 ft., likewise presents steep crags to the south-east and a gentle slope towards the north-west., In the former slope are thousands of small caverns, probably inhabited in prehistoric times; and several rivers pierce the range in picturesque gorges. A valley, 10 to 12 m. wide, separates this range from the main range, while another valley 2 to 3 m. across separates it from the third parallel range, which reaches altitudes of only 500 to 850 ft. Evidences of a fourth and still lower ridge can be traced towards the south-west. A number of short streams, none of them anywhere navigable, leap down the flanks of the mountains by cascades in spring, e.g. the Chernaya, Belbek, Kacha and Alma, to the Black Sea, and the Salghir, with its affluent, the Kara-su, to the Sivash lagoon. In point of climate and vegetation there exist marked differences between the open steppes and the south-eastern littoral, with the slopes of the Yaila-dagh behind it. The former, although grasses and Liliaceae grow on them in great variety and luxuriance in the early spring, become completely parched up by July and August, while the air is then filled with clouds of dust. There also high winds prevail, and snowstorms, hailstorms and frost are of common occurrence. Nevertheless this region produces wheat and barley, rye and oats, and supports numbers of cattle, sheep and horses. Parts of the steppes are, however, impregnated with salt, or studded with saline lakes; there nothing grows except the usual species of Artemisia and Salsola. As a rule water can only be obtained from wells sunk 200 to 300 ft. deep, and artesian wells are now being bored in considerable numbers. All over the steppes are scattered numerous kurgans or burial-mounds of the ancient Scythians, The picture which lies behind the sheltering screen of the Yailadagh is of an altogether different character. Here the narrow strip of coast and the slopes of the mountains are smothered with greenery. This Russian Riviera stretches all along the south-east coast from Cape Sarych (extreme S.) to Feodosiya (Theodosia), and is studded with summer sea-bathing resortsAlupka, Yalta, Gursuv, Alushta, Sudak, Theodosia. Numerous Tatar villages, mosques, monasteries, palaces of the Russian imperial family and Russian nobles, and picturesque ruins of ancient Greek and medieval fortresses and other buildings cling to the acclivities and nestle amongst the underwoods of hazel and other nuts, the groves of bays, cypresses, mulberries, figs, olives and pomegranates, amongst the vineyards, the tobacco plantations, and gardens gay with all sorts of flowers; while the higher slopes of the mountains are thickly clothed with forests of oak, beech, elm, pines, firs and other Coniferae. Here have become acclimatized, and grow in the open air, such plants as magnolias, oleanders, tulip trees, bignonias, myrtles, camellias, mimosas and many tender fruit-trees. Vineyards cover over 19,000 acres, and the wine they yield (31 million gallons annually) enjoys a high reputation. Fruits of all kinds are produced in abundance. In some winters the tops of the mountains are covered with snow, but snow seldom falls to the south of them, and ice, too, is rarely seen in the same districts. The heat of summer is moderated by breezes off the sea, and the nights are cool and serene; the winters are mild and healthy. Fever and ague prevail in the lower-lying districts for a few weeks in autumn. Dense fogs occur sometimes in March, April and May, but seldom penetrate inland. The difference of climate between the different parts of the Crimea is illustrated by the following data: annual mean, at Melitopol, on the steppe N. of Perekop, 48° Fahr.; at Simferopol, just within the mountains, 50°; at Yalta, on the south-east coast, 56.5°; the respective January means being 20°, 31° and 39′5°, and the July means 74°, 70° and 75.5°. The rainfall is small all over the peninsula, the annual average on the steppes being 13.8 in., at Simferopol 17.5, and at Yalta 18 in. It varies greatly, however, from year to year; thus at Simferopol it ranges between the extremes of 7.5 and 26.4 in. Other products of the Crimea, besides those already mentioned, are salt, porphyry and limestone, and ironstone has recently been brought to light at Kerch. Fish abound all round the coast, such as red and grey mullet, herring, mackerel, turbot, soles, plaice, whiting, bream, haddock, pilchard, a species of pike, whitebait, eels, salmon and sturgeon. Manufacturing industries are represented by shipbuilding, flour-mills, ironworks, jam and pickle factories, soap-works and tanneries. The Tatars excel in a great variety of domestic industries, especially in the working of leather, wool and metal. A railway, coming from Kharkov, crosses the peninsula from north to south, terminating at Sevastopol and sending off branch lines to Theodosia and Kerch. The bulk of the population consist of Tatars, who, however, are racially modified by intermarriage with Greeks and other ethnic elements. The remainder of the population is made up of Russians, Germans, Karaite Jews, Greeks and a few Albanians. The total in 1897 was 853,900, of whom only 150,000 lived in the towns. Simferopol is the chief town; others of note, in addition to those already named, are Eupatoria and Bakhchisarai, the old Tatar capital. History. The earliest inhabitants of whom we have any authentic traces were the Celtic Cimmerians, who were expelled VII. 15 (Nov. 4th) may be particularly mentioned, and a little later by the Scythians during the 7th century B.C. A remnant, who See Antiquités du Bosphore cimmérien (3 vols., St Petersburg, 1854); C. Bossoll, The Beautiful Scenery of the Crimea (52 large drawings, London, 1855-1856); P. Brunn, Notices hist. et topogr. concernant les colonies italiennes en Gazarie (St Petersburg, 1866); J. B. Telfer, The Crimea and Transcaucasia (2 vols., London, 2nd ed., 1877); F. Remy, Die Krim in ethnographischer, landschaftlicher und hygienischer Beziehung (Leipzig, 1872); Joseph, Baron von HammerPurgstall, Geschichte der Chane der Krim unter osmanischer Herrschaft (Vienna, 1856); M. G. Canale, Della Crimea e dei suoi dominatori dalle sue origini fino al trattato di Parigi (3 vols., Genoa, 18551856); and Sir Evelyn Wood, The Crimea in 1854 and 1894 (London, 1895). (See also BOSPORUS CIMMERIUS.) (P.A. K.; J. T. BE.) Seat of com bas 7 1 army hastily fell back, and on the 2nd of August 1854 the last CRIMEAN WAR. The war of 1853-56, usually known by this name, arose from causes the discussion of which will be found under the heading TURKEY: History. When Turkey, after a period of irregular fighting, declared war on Russia in October 1853, Great Britain and France (subsequently assisted by Sardinia) intervened in the quarrel. At first this intervention was represented merely by the presence of an allied squadron | in the Bosporus, but the storm of indignation aroused in Great Britain and France by the destruction of the Turkish fleet at Sinope (30th November) soon impelled these powers to more active measures. On the 27th of January 1854 they declared war on the tsar, and prepared to carry their armaments to the Danube. In this, the main, theatre of war, the Turks had hitherto proved quite capable of holding their own. The Russian commander, Prince Michael Gorchakov, had crossed the Pruth with two corps early in July 1853, and had overrun Moldavia and Wallachia without difficulty. Omar Pasha, however, disposing of superior forces, was able to check any further advance. During October, November and December the Turks won a succession of actions, of which that at Oltenitza The Invasion of the Crimea.-The primary object of the war had thus easily been obtained. But Great Britain and France were by no means content with a triumph that left untouched the vast resources of an enemy who was certain to employ them at the next opportunity. The two nations felt that Sevastopol, the home of the Black Sea fleet, the port whence Admiral Nachimov had sailed for Sinope, must be crippled for some years at least, and as early as June 29th Lord Raglan and Marshal Saint Arnaud, the allied commanders of England and France, had received instructions to "concert measures for the siege of Sevastopol." Dynastic considerations reinforced the arguments of policy and popular opinion in the case of France; in Great Britain soldier and civilian alike saw the menace of a Russian Mediterranean fleet in the unfinished forts and busy dockyards. The popular strategy for once coincided with the views of the responsible leaders. Yet there is no sign that either the commanders on the spot or their governments realized the magnitude of the undertaking. Few but the most urgently necessary preparations were made, and cholera, breaking out virulently amongst the French at this time, reduced the army |