in their visits to the Bosphorus, probably made use of the means afterwards practised in the interior of the country, to transport boats from one river to another, and in order to pass the dangerous falls which still close the lower part of the Dnieper; and the story of the chroniclers, who relate that this valiant seaman spread his sails, and crossed the dry land with a favourable wind, by no means, as M. Bulgarin gravely remarks, precludes the use of oxen and rollers on the occasion. By the help of such means, the navigation of the Volga was connected, by the Bulgarians, with that of the Don; and their city, Bolgary (properly Volgary), on the Volga, was for a considerable time the emporium of the trade between the Caspian and Black Seas, while the disturbed state of the countries that lay between these inland oceans was unfavourable to commercial communication.

But the rule of the house of Rurik was attended, in another quarter, with no less important consequences to Russia, than the opening of a direct communication with the far-famed Greek capital. The connexion between the Scandinavian and Germanic empires was rendered more easy and direct. The subjection of Great Russia, or the countries situated between the Western Dwina and the Upper Volga, to one ruler, enabled the inhabitants to travel securely from one stream to the other; and thus the "Wolok," or intervening space of land between the navigable points of the streams that diverged to the East and to the West from this common centre, became the key to the trade between Asia and the North of Europe, and ultimately the seat of wealth and power for its inhabitants. The trade of Europe was conducted by the Germanic, Slavonic and Scandinavian inhabitants of the Baltic coasts as far as Novgorod on the northern frontier of the Russian territory, and this emporium increased rapidly in wealth and influence in the course of the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Excited by this prosperity, the princes of the house of Rurik began to think of extending their dominions; and, following the golden line traced by the traders towards the East, the first object which they coveted was the command of the navigation of the Volga, which the Bulgarians had so long enjoyed. In the contest which ensued, the military talents of the Norman leaders had the superiority; and

the foundation of Nishnei Novgorod, in the twelfth century, at the confluence of the navigable Oka with the Volga, marks the epoch of the destruction of Bolgary, or Briachimow, the Bulgarian capital and centre of trade. The new city, however, proved no substitute for the ancient mart, and the year 1217 is marked as the period when the last Norwegian vessel visited Holmgard on the northern Dwina. The passage through the White Sea became so totally forgotten in the course of the two following centuries, that it was only discovered by dint of strenuous and fortuitous exertion on the part of the companions of Sir Hugh Willoughby in 1554, who went in search of a north-eastern passage to India. Thus the foundation of Nishnei Novgorod marks the destruction of one grand line of trade which had long continued to enrich and civilize the North.

The system of dividing nations like portions of a household inheritance, which occasioned so many misfortunes to the western countries of Europe, proved a constant source of weakness to the house of Rurik. Wladimir the Great, who died in 1015, had left a principality to each of his sons. Thus the principalities of Polotzk or Pleskow, Novgorod, Riäsan, Wladimir, Jaroslaw, Sousdal, Kiew, and finally Moskwa, or, as we call it, Moscow, appeared upon the scene, of which one occasionally asserted the supremacy over the others, but usually all consumed their strength in fruitless and incessant bickerings. Uninteresting as it would be to follow the details of these petty histories, there is one characteristic trait which pervades them too striking to be passed over. The situation of the capital town of each little state marks the spot where the navigation commenced on some one of the rivers which communicate with the great outlets to the east or to the west, with the Volga, the Baltic, or the Black Sea. Thus Pleskow lies at the southern extremity of Lake Peipus, whence the land-transport to Novgorod is short. Novgorod itself communicates with the northern portion of the continent by means of the Wolchow, and lakes Ladoga and Onega. Jaroslaw on the Volga, Riäsan on the Oka, and Kiew on the Dniepr, form a circle with the above-named cities, in the centre of which lay the heights in which are the sources of all the rivers which then served as the channels of trade.

A tendency towards the centre of this circle may be remarked in the cities subsequently founded: Smolensk on the Dniepr, Witepsk on the Duna, Kaluga on the Oka, and Twer at the confluence of the Twerza with the Volga, which lie much nearer to each other and to the centre, evince the increase of traffic, and show that the necessity or advantage of approximating the principal staples of trade was more strongly felt. Moscow, which was not founded until the end of the twelfth century, occupies the very centre of this thoroughfare between Europe and Asia. In this line of trade we have the key to the origin of the Hanseatic league, which met the eastern caravans at Novgorod, and conveyed the wares purchased at that emporium by the route of the Baltic to the nations of Western Europe. That, in the subsequent period, the internal troubles occasioned by the conquests of the Turks in Asia, which interrupted, or at least threw many impediments in the way of the transport of goods through Persia, Syria and Asia Minor, must have been all in favour of the northern trader, is self-evident; and had the experienced Bulgarians, instead of being reduced to the condition of halfuseful subjects, still subsisted as a powerful and enlightened trading nation, the line, which would thus have extended into the heart of Asia, might have been consolidated, and Europe saved from much of the misery which she was afterwards doomed to suffer.

As it was, Novgorod, having shaken off the yoke of the degenerate Russian dukes, became a kind of northern Babylon, the mistress of the communication between two quarters of the globe. But the course of events had prepared a separation of the destinies of the northern and southern states, into which we must enter somewhat at large.

From the experience of the present day, we can explain the cause of one constantly repeated phenomenon of the history of the states on the Mediterranean-their anxiety to colonize Tauris, and to acquire the mastery of the Black Sea. The object of attraction in this quarter is neither the fur trade nor the amber of the North, nor does it lie in the spices or gold of the East, which may all be had by other and more agreeable routes. The merchants of antiquity, of the middle ages, and of our own times, sought the most important of all

freights, which are there to be found on terms of almost unrivalled facility-supplies of grain.

The district of Europe which, with one exception, produces the greatest amount of grain at the least expense to the cultivator, is the flat extent of country stretching along the rivers Bog and Dniester, from near Nikolaiew to the fall of the Carpathians in the eastern circles of Galicia. This tract of country, in length about 250, and varying in breadth from 60 to 150 miles, lies thus between the rivers Dniester and Dniepr, being cut off from contact with the Black Sea by the girdle of sandy land which, as is well known, surrounds the coast. Where this girdle terminates, and probably at no great distance from Nikolaiew, lay the Greek colony Albia, which name having the same signification with the Slavonic root" Bóg," it seems not unlikely that one of the two was derived from the other. The exception to which we have alluded is the district of Lower Hungary, to which we have called our readers' attention on several occasions in preceding numbers. Like the level of the Theiss in Hungary, the soil of Podolia is composed of the sediment of a recent ocean, in which a large proportion of vegetable substance predominates, and which being saturated with salt, needs no artificial manure to enable it to produce a succession of the richest crops. Interesting details concerning the management of the land and its capability of production, have been communicated by Mr. Jacobs in his "Tracts on the Corn Trade,' but nothing is there said respecting the extent of the country which possesses such unusual fertility. The surrounding countries, Wolhynia, Ukraine and Moldavia, are fine lands, the quality of which is far beyond the average of the soils of the western parts of Europe; but the immense superiority of Podolia, in this respect, has at all times given it a pre-eminence, which, like the common lot of beauty, was seldom a desirable one.

An acquaintance with these countries gives the solution to many a difficult problem in history. We find all the nations which enter Europe as conquerors, first settled upon the northern shores of the Black Sea. To acquire the lordship of this golden fleece, they must have proved themselves the most valiant; and they yield the prize, when enfeebled by en

joyment, to hardier and more enduring competitors. The Goths, who according to Swedish historians entered the continent from Scandinavia, made this point the goal of their expedition. They gave way before other nations, which pass in rapid succession until the consolidated civilization of Christian Europe formed a bulwark which could not be oversprung, and the tradition of the value of these districts seems to have been lost after the expedition of the Moguls in the thirteenth century.

Had the Turks early directed the force of their conquering armies against this portion of Europe, it is impossible to say what would have been the result for the other nations of the West. Fortunately, the productive soils of Moldavia and Wallachia sufficed to enable them to attain their grand end, the destruction of the Greek empire; and when, at a later period, they aspired to subjugate these fertile tracts, they encountered a no less warlike enemy, the Poles, to whom Europe has since badly repaid the obligation. It will be remembered by our readers, that the same Poles who defeated these attempts of the Turks towards the north, likewise prevented them from fixing their dominion in the heart of Europe by coming to the relief of Vienna, when the conquest of Hungary had nearly secured them supremacy in Germany. From this we may learn that the fate of a great portion of Europe then depended upon the use to which the produce of these wonderfully fertile districts was applied. It was fortunate that each had a rival.

The trade in corn, although so bulky an article, is subject to such subtle variations, that the causes which induce cities and even nations to draw their supplies from great distances, are often difficult to trace. From time immemorial, however, numerous states were dependent on the produce of the land round the Euxine. We have the authority of Demosthenes for the fact, that in his time the Athenians drew more than half their consumption of grain from that quarter: In the time of the Romans the trade was still in the hands of the Greeks, who had more talent for commerce than their hardy masters. In the middle ages, the struggle for superiority between Genoa and Venice had, for its main object, the traffic with the Black Sea; and the chief inducement for the