430 



RUSSIA IN EUROPE. 



from the Sivach or the Saa of Azov. In 1860 this channel was only 450 

 feet wide, although Strabo speaks of a broad passage, so that the formation must 

 have been modified since his time. 



The Strait of Yeni-Kaleh, connecting the Sea of Azov with the Euxine, has a 

 mean depth of only 14 feet, and as the water deepens rapidly on the south side, it 

 may be regarded as a sort of bar at the mouth of the Don. The bed of the Euxine 



sinks very uniformly as far as the 

 Fig. 226.-STRAIT OF Gemchesk. trough, 1,020 fathoms deep. 



Scale 1 : 250,000. , . -, , . t . . 



which was discovered between 

 Ivertch and Sukhum-Kaleh during 

 the explorations preparatory to 

 the laying of the submarine cable 

 to the Caucasus. The current 

 from the Sea of Azov is soon lost 

 in the general movement which 

 sets regularly along the shores 

 of the Black Sea. West of the 

 Strait of Yeni-Kaleh and of the 

 Crimea this current is increased 

 by the contributions of the 

 Dnieper, Bug, Dniester, and 

 Danube, and again reduced by 

 the stream escaping through 

 the Bosphorus, beyond which it 

 continues to follow the Anatolian 

 seaboard, and so on round the 

 Caucasian shores to the Strait of 

 Yeni-Kaleh, thus completing the 

 entire circuit of the Euxine. It 

 varies in rapidity from 3,000 to 

 9,000 feet per hour, increasing 

 or diminishing according to the 

 direction of the winds. 



A comparison of the faunas 

 of the Caspian and Euxine proves 

 very conclusively that at some 



__^_____ .5 :.iiic_. remote epoch these two seas 



were joined together. It is 

 probable that they became severed long after the formation of the strait which 

 now connects the Black Sea with the Mediterranean, and through which the fish 

 of the latter found their way to the shores of Southern Russia. At the present 

 time the species of fish found in the open Euxine belong almost without excep- 

 tion to Mediterranean types, whilst those in the less saline water near the mouths 

 of the Danube and of other large rivers are met with also in the Caspian. 



