"Here stood that Temple, dedicated to Diana, in which the lovely daughter of Agamemnon, the fair Iphigenia, officiated as priestess; herself a victim offered up for immolation to the Goddess, but spared to exercise on others the cruel rites which she had fortunately escaped. Hence then were thrown the remains of those Greeks, sacrificed upon the marble altar of the Virgin, whose worship required, and whose wrath could alone be appeased by, streams of human blood. Perhaps the very spot on which we rested had oft been stained with the gore of the mangled corpses of the wretched shipwrecked mariners. We descended by a narrow zigzag path cut in the face of the mountain, on every nook or ledge of which the monks have planted trees and flowers, making little terraced gardens in the midst of the black, charred cliffs. From the shore we looked up and perceived the Monastery, some hundreds of feet above us, and fifty feet beneath the summit of the precipice. Near to us on the right, as we faced the sea, was a great isolated basaltic rock, rising above its neighbours.
" The Monastery of St. George hangs, as it were, to the face of the cliff, and the only entrance to it is by a door and flight of steps cut in the rock at its summit.
" From a little terrace in front a magnificent view over the Black Sea is obtained."
PLATE XL.
THE LIGHTHOUSE AT CAPE CHERSONESE, Looking South.
Cape Chersonese is situated at the extreme western point of the Chersonesus Heracleotica, and as this point forms also the south-western extremity of the Crimea, from which the coast trends constantly to the northward, it naturally presented a most suitable spot for the erection of the handsome stone lighthouse which is the subject of this drawing. The terrific storms which sweep over the surface of the Euxine at certain periods of the year, as well as the thick and foggy weather for which it is proverbial in winter, joined to the stern and precipitous character of a great portion of the coast, render such beacons as this an indispensable necessity. Soon after the flank march from Balaklava, the lighthouse fell into the hands of a party of our sailors, who, finding it in darkness, to their great glee compelled the lighthousekeeper to illuminate it.
THE EAST.
After this it came, of course, into the possession of the French, who established their base of operations in the several bays which indent the Chersonese towards the west; and has no doubt since been of inestimable service as a guide to the innumerable fleet of transports ever departing and returning on their ceaseless errand to supply the gigantic cravings of an army two thousand miles away from home. In the foreground of the drawing, one of these vessels, whose eccentric build and rig proclaim her at once as a Turkish craft, is being towed out by three boats' crews, so as to obtain an offing, and make a fair start.
PLATE XLI.
DISEMBAEKATION OF THE EXPEDITION TO KERTCH
AT KAMISH BUEUN,
And the Blowing up of St. Paxil's Battery.
A detailed description of the expedition into the Sea of Azoff will be found in the preceding portion of this work, and we shall therefore confine ourselves in this place to recalling such of its earlier incidents as have an immediate connection with the drawing under considei'ation.