STAVERPOOL, NORTHERN CIRCASSIA, _June 22, 1858_.
In my last from Piatigorsk I stated my intention of visiting the other
mineral sources. Of these Gelesnovodski furnishes hot iron water, and
is one of the few in the world of the hot ferruginous kind. It is
romantically situated some twenty wersts from the place above named. It
is a village of Cossack peasants, who were whitewashing and brushing
up their rude cabins, built of branches of trees trellised or woven
together, with a mud coating on both sides, and a coat of white for
appearance. The roofs are entirely of straw, and of the most primitive
style. A few decent houses have been erected, and the government has
built some ordinary baths, and the woods and grounds have some walks
and drives cut through. I went out in company with the Director of the
Baths at Piatigorsk, which was fortunate, as the season had fairly
commenced and no hotels were open, but being introduced to a certain
baroness just established in her own house, we had a very respectable
dinner.
Some thirty wersts in another direction is the most remarkable soda
fountain I have ever seen in any country, called Kissnovodski. Here
the crown has expended considerable sums in the erection of bathing
buildings of massive masonry. The promenades through the woods are in
good order for visitors. The source is about ten feet in diameter and
throws out four hundred gallons per minute, bubbling up like soda water
or sparkling champagne, being highly charged with carbonic acid gas. It
is slightly charged with iron, and is delicious either with or without
wine. It is used at the close of the season for bathing and drinking,
giving extraordinary strength to the muscles of the body. Such a spring
in a civilized and settled country, where there were facilities to get
to it, would be a mine of wealth. Salt springs are also found about
midway in going out.
A Tartar village lies to the right on the way to the springs first
named, and also a village of German colonists about midway, which I
visited a few days since in company with a party of Russian officers
and their wives. I learned from an old German that the government gave
them the use of lands in common, with certain immunities. I also found
here an old Scotchman who had nearly forgotten English, having come
out with the first missionaries, of whom none now exist. Both these old
people had friends in the United States, and you can well imagine their
joy and surprise at seeing an American for the first time.
I have had occasion to pass nights in Cossack houses, when horses were
wanting at the stations, or it was unsafe travelling after dark, and
when the only room in the post station was occupied, and I found the
contrast between the tidy, comfortable cottages of the German settlers,
and the filthy dwellings and habits of the Cossacks, Tartars, and
Kalmucks, most striking.
Their villages are generally from twenty to twenty-six wersts apart,
and are about a mile square, with a mud wall or brush fence and
embankment all round, and sentinels at the gates. The houses, barns,
and sheds are thatched with straw, and sufficiently remote from each
other to guard against fire. The streets or roads are one hundred feet
in width, and many are planted with trees.
The plains are used for pasture and tillage, and at nightfall the
oxen, sheep, goats, and hogs are driven in by the shepherds, when all
the boys and girls of the village turn out to drive their respective
animals into the fold. They cultivate the ground, and harvest their
crops at great distances from the villages, and always go armed.
They are the pioneers of Russian civilization, accustomed to border
warfare like our squatters with the Indians. The government sends down
villages of them from the river Don, granting them certain privileges,
for which they are obliged to keep the Circassians at bay and furnish
certain numbers of guards or sentinels, who change about, and are ever
ready to pursue the enemy. As fast as portions of Circassian territory
are acquired, fortresses and troops advance, and the Cossacks follow up
and settle upon the lands. It is a sort of semi-barbarous civilization.
For a distance of some two hundred wersts we have seen no wood of any
consequence, the whole country consisting of immense steppes or plains.
The small water courses furnish brush for making wicker fences and
frames of houses. Artificial turf is made from the straw, hay, and
deposit of the barnyards, dried in the sun, and cut in brick form in
summer for winter fuel. The ox-carts and wagons are entirely of wood,
not a nail being used in their construction. I have counted from fifty
to eighty loaded carts at a time, and not a particle of iron could I
discover. The wood must be brought long distances from the mountains.
The timber for building at this place is brought some six hundred
wersts, or four hundred and fifty miles, by land. This is one of the
best countries in the world for railroads, and if occupied by Americans
the enemy would be conquered by the locomotive.
I passed a couple of days with a Russian nobleman at his village,
making a detour of some thirty wersts, on a side route upon the banks
of a little river where was quite a forest. As the question of the
emancipation of the serfs in Russia is now the absorbing topic, I
availed myself of the invitation. In many particulars it reminded me
of the plantations in our southern country. Two years ago the village
of cottages was burned down, when the proprietor immediately built
brick kilns, having materials and wood on the spot, and reconstructed
the houses better than before. He is one of the few Russian nobles
who attends personally to his estate, and has much of the American in
his composition for contrivance. He has three hundred and eighty-four
serfs. They work three days in the week for their lord, and three for
themselves. He had erected a flouring mill of very rude construction,
with several run of stones. Little iron was made use of, as such
supplies come from Moscow, and are very expensive. He also had an
undershot wheel in the little creek or river for supplying his large
garden and fruit trees with water by irrigation, as the steppes or
plains suffer much at times from drought. The little girls of the
village were busying themselves with gathering mulberry leaves for
feeding silkworms, as he had erected a building for the purpose. The
women and men were employed in all kinds of agricultural work. He has
his overseers, but is quite practical himself. His family was absent,
but his home was comfortable, and I was treated most hospitably.
He was willing to join in the manumission of the serfs, now the
commands of the government fall upon him. If the serfs are liberated,
he can rent his land to them, also sell or rent horses, oxen, &c., and
if he employs them, pay wages. His domain is about ten miles square.
Staverpool is the seat of government for northern Circassia. It is a
town of fourteen thousand inhabitants, built upon a pretty site in the
midst of a picturesque country, and surrounded by hills, and valleys,
and groups of forest trees. It is pretty well built, and contains a
cathedral, and churches, with domes, spires, and roofs painted green,
as usual, presenting a fine appearance. In all Russian towns the
churches are the most striking ornaments.
I was presented to the governor, dined with generals and colonels in
the service, and passed an evening at a re-union of the citizens in
a beautiful woody grove, with a building for dancing and supper, at
which figured the glittering uniforms of officers in all the different
branches of government employ, and some pretty ladies, handsomely
dressed. Paris modes and fineries find their way to the most remote
parts. Two Circassian princes, in full costume, were among the number
for their first time in civilized society; but like our Indians, did
not express surprise at the giddy waltz, or the music of the military
band.