TAURI'DA. • government of South Russia, situated on the Black See, amulet. of the Crimea or Taurio l'eninsnla and the Nogay Steppe. It is bounded N.W. by Eherson, N.E. by the country of the Don ;wake, E. by Cautiatia, S.E. by the Kuban, and S. by the Black Sea.
The Crimea is described in a separate article. t The area, exclusive of the Saiwash, or Putrid See covers 990 square miles), is 24,617 square miles, with 572,200 inhabitanta of many different nation., Tartars, Comas, Russians, Jews, Gipsies, Germans, and other foreign colonists, &c. It lira between 44' 80' and 47' 50' N. 31' 25' and 40' 25' E. long. The Nogay Steppe Includes the whole of the extensive country from the Dnieper and its limns to the Bard.. It is • dry elevated steppe, on a basis of granite. The soil is dry, poor, In part sandy, and saltish, without wood ; but there are hers and there extensive hollows with rich black mould, which pro duce the finest grass. The climate Is extremely mild, and differs little from that of the peninsula. The winter, though short, is severe. The only rivers are those which form the boundaries: the Dnieper en the north-west, the Konskaie on the north, and the herds on the east. On the south-east of the steppe is the Sea of Aeof, and on the moth-west the Gulf of Perekop and the Black Sea. (Reams.] In the Sony Steppe are numerous lakes, some of them of considerable elsc. Lake llolotechnsia, Into which the river Idolotachnsia runs, and which is separated from the Sea of Asof by a narrow sandy spit, covers an area of over 108 square mike. The southern coast of the steppe preienta a great number of those remarkable long narrow projections of sand a Weis' deposits called Kenos, or 'tongue,: The tongue west of the Gulf of I'erekop and south of the estuary off the Dnieper, was anciently called Achilleos Dromos, or Itasseaseree of Achilles, from a legend, which gave it to Achilles as a mediate ou which to exercise him celebrated swiftnem of foot. This
spit extended about 50 miles in length, including the part of the mainland to which It was attached near its centre. The western of it is now Isolated by • narrow gap, and forms the Kosa rostra. To the north of the Kora Tendm is another long but rather bread and notched projection, which separates the Bay of Kibburun from the estuary of the Dnieper, and IA also called Kil-burno, which I* • of Aebill-burun, or Cape Achilles, for the name of the old hero is connected with mveral localities in the west of the Black Sea. The name Kil-burun Is further corrupted in many snaps and books Into Kilburn and Iiiaboum. The point of Kil-burun and both sides of the bay have been meetly strongly fortified by the Russia:1a.
The country of the Tschernonionki, or Black Sea Cossaks, including the island or peninsula of Taman, is separated from the Crimea only by the Strait of Yanikale. It was formerly included in the govern ment of Tatarlda, but now forms • separate region, territorially connected with Cireassia, and under the peculiar government of the Casa districts of the empire. [CtlICASZtA ; COMMIS; Kt RAN ; TAMAN.] The only towns worth naming in the government of Taurida Sr. those of the Crimea, which are noticed either under that bead or in separate articles. [Cittura ; BAKTI.111:SATIAI; BALAFILAVA ; K•FlA; Kort,ore.]