May 9, 1859.J STOKES ON THE LOWER DANUBE. 207 



spreads into many channels whose banks and beds change yearly 

 and even monthly, — a cause that renders charts of little value to its 

 navigators. The vessels used in the river seldom draw more than 

 4 feet, and even that is too much for the Iron Gates in autumn. 

 Sea-going vessels rarely, if ever, pass Oltenitza. 



The final subdivisions of the Danube are as follows : 1st, the 

 Kilia branch, which contains |^f ths of the whole river. It forms a delta 

 of its own, and enters the sea in five principal channels ; 2nd, the 

 St. George's branch, which contains aV^hs ; and, thirdly, the Sulina 

 branch, which contains the remaining ^2_,ths. The Sulina is the 

 only navigable outlet; but the St. George would be a far better 

 one if the bar that obstructs its mouth were removed or turned by 

 a canal. For the St. George is broad and deep up to its very- 

 mouth, while the Sulina is narrow and obstructed by shoals. 



The land between Galatz and the head of the delta is marshy 

 and reed-grown, and decidedly lower than the banks of the river, 

 except at those points where spurs of the Dobrudscha mountains or 

 portions of the steppe extend to them. Inundations occur every 

 five or six years. The Delta itself is rarely, if ever, flooded ; it is 

 covered with a dense mass of reeds, and on its higher parts with 

 forests of ash and stunted oak. There are data by which the rate of 

 increase of the Delta may be measured, for a map is in existence, of 

 the date 1769, in which the Kilia branch is made to enter the sea at 

 the point where we now find the Wilkowi Basin — that is to say, at 

 five miles from its present mouths. Again, there is another Eussian 

 plan, without date, but giving the city of Odessa, which was founded 

 in 1796, and which represents the mouth of the Kilia at the same 

 place, but indicates the commencement of a formation of islands in 

 front of it, which seem to be the ground-work of the present Kilia 

 delta. There was an actual survey made in 1829-30 by the Eussian 

 Government, and another by H.M.S. Medina, under Captain Spratt, 

 in 1857. The delta had increased 4000 feet in that interval of time, 

 and the line of 4-feet sounding had advanced in a still greater pro- 

 portion. Many statistical details are appended to the paper, and 

 arguments in favour of the various plans proposed for improving 

 the navigability of the river are discussed. 



Mr. Hamilton, f.r.g.s., said : In rising to address a few words to you, Sir, 

 upon this subject, 1 do so with the view of recommending those who have 

 heard the paper read not to place too much confidence in that brown dotted 

 line which has been stretched across that map as the limit of the sea-shore in 

 the year 1769 ; because it is absolutely impossible, when we look at the 

 amount of matter brought down by other rivers, and which has tended to the 

 formation of the deltas of other rivers, that we can look upon this movement — 

 this new matter which has been added to the coast during the period in ques- 



