304 JOCHMUS'S PROPOSED COMMUNICATION. [Feb. 23, 1857. 



exists a natural communication between the waters of the Lake of 

 Nicaea and those of the sea. It would, then, only be necessary to 

 form into a canal this channel, by which water from the lake is 

 discharged into the sea, to secure a way for the water-transport of 

 the products of its shores, scarcely a fourth part of which are 

 cultivated. 



On the two great Lakes of Nicasa and Sabanja there does not 

 exist at present a single vessel of transport, whilst there are a 

 hundred and sixty small vessels on the Lake of ApoUonia, which 

 carry on a lucrative commerce with Constantinople by way of the 

 river of Muhalitch ; although the banks of this lake are not nearly 

 so rich or important as those of the Lake of Nicaea, or especially as 

 those of the Lake of Sabanja.* 



Constantinople, 25th May, 1846. 



The President said this was one of several communicatioHS, most of them 

 of greater length, on the comparative geography and ancient encampments in 

 Greece and Asia Minor, prepared by the General and sent to the Society. 

 These would in time be laid before the Fellows in the publications of the 

 Society. 



Mr. W. J. Hamilton, f.r.g.s., said, that although he had not visited 

 the particular district alluded to by General Jochmus, he was acquainted 

 with some of the physical features of the country almost immediately con- 

 nected with it. As far as he had been able to follow the paper, it appeared, 

 with regard to the canalisation between the lake Sabanja, the river Sakaria, 

 and the Gulf of Nicomedia, that General Jochmus proposed that the lake 

 Sabanja should be the principal source whence the water would be derived for 

 the purpose of canalizing the district and supplying the different sluices. He 

 imagined that the bed of the river Sakaria, flowing as it did between a moun- 

 tainous region and the Black Sea, must be at a higher level than the lake 

 Sabanja ; consequently the water would flow from the river into the lake. He 

 did not mean to say that that would offer any great difficulty. The district 

 was one of the best watered in Asia Minor. The Sakaria rose in the interior, 

 and had a very abundant supply of water ; and, therefore, if the river Sakaria 

 was higher than the lake Sabanja, would not offer any material obstacle. But 

 the country between that district, and extending northward to the Black Sea, 



* Constantinople, 31st May, 1847. 

 . M. Hommaire de Hell, to whom I communicated this memoir, addressed a note 

 to his Excellency the Grand Vizier, Reshid Pasha. His levels are founded merely 

 on approximative data ; and although it might be less expensive to make a railroad 

 between the Lake of Sabanja and Nicomedia, an inspection of the ground between 

 the Lake and the Black Sea, which down to the present time has not been ex- 

 amined by M. de Hell, will probably prove that the establishment, in thatpart, of a 

 canal would be more practicable and perhaps also less costly. There still remains the 

 consideration of the double or triple embarkation and shifting of goods, necessarily 

 expensive, if a railway were to form a part of the line, and the transport were to 

 be effected partly by the Lake of Sabanja, then by land, and lastly by sea. M. de 

 Hell is in error if he believes himself to be the first person who has taken the ele- 

 vation of the ground in question, as Von Hammer has indicated the exact levels, 

 twice estimated in 1503, by order of the Turkish government, between the Lake of 

 Sabanja and the Sea of Marmora, as well as between this lake and the Sakaria j 

 but there is a great difference between the results obtained in 1503 and in 1847. 



