hedral which was not destined to be completed on
the imposing scale she had projected, and which has been reduced
to one-sixth in the edifice that was consecrated only in 1835.
The town consists of only one row of buildings, almost concealed
in gardens and running for nearly three miles parallel with the
Dnieper. Catherine's Palace, a bronze statue which represents her
clad in Roman armour and crowned, and the garden of her magnificent
favourite, Prince Potemkin, constitute the "sights" of Ekaterinoslaf,
the more striking feature of which, however, is its Jewish population,
huddled together in a special quarter between the river and the
bazaar. A considerable number of them pursue the favourite Jewish
occupation of money-changing, and the Ekaterinoslaf Prospekt is
dotted with their stands and their money-chests, painted blue and
red.

A drive over forty miles of Steppe, somewhat relieved in its monotony
by numerous ancient tumuli, bring those who do not proceed by steamer
to the great naval station and commercial port of Nicolaief, at the
junction of the Ingul with the Bug. It was the site until 1775 of
a Cossack _setch_, or fortified settlement, and in 1789 it received
its present appellation in commemoration of the capture of Otchakof
from the Turks on the feast-day of St. Nicholas. Destined from
the first by Potemkin to be the harbour of a Russian fleet in the
Black Sea, temporarily neglected by the naval authorities, Nicolaief
reasserted its claim to that proud position after the fall of
Sebastopol. It owes much of its present affluence to the sound
administration of Admiral Samuel Greig, son of the admiral of Scotch
parentage who, with the aid of some equally gallant countrymen,
won for the Russians the naval battle of Chesme in 1769. Next to
Odessa, Nicolaief is the handsomest town in New Russia, as this
part of the country was called after its conquest from the Turks
and Tartars. Its large trade, mostly in grain, has been greatly
promoted by the railway, which now connects this important harbour
with Kharkof and other rich agricultural centres.

Of the six ports on the neighbouring Sea of Azof, Taganrog, where
Alexander I. died in 1825, is the most considerable, although steamers
have to anchor at a considerable distance from it, owing to the
shallowness of the roadstead. The annual value of its exports of
corn, wool, tallow, etc., is about five millions sterling, and, as
at Nicolaief, British shipping is chie