322 VOYAGE OF THE AltMADA CHAPTER XXI. ciiAP. Concerning the country which they were going -1 — ^ to invade, the Allies were poorly informed. Of rance^ouhe Scbastopol, the goal of the enterprise, they knew of the '^^'*"^ little, except that it was a great military port sirc'n'gth. and arsenal, and was deemed impregnable to- wards the sea. Respecting the province generally, it was known, by means of books and maps, that Crim Tartary, or 'the Crimea,' as people now called it, was a peninsula situate between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azof; and thei'c was a theory — not perfectly coinciding with the truth — that the only dry communication with the main- land was by the Isthmus of Perekop. It was understood that the north of the peninsula had the character of an elevated steppe — that towards the south it was rocky and mountainous — and that the undulating downs which connected the steppe with the mountainous region of the south were seamed with small rivers flowing westward from the summits of the highland district.* It
- A great body of most valuable information respecting the
Oriiiica had been imparted to the English public by General
