ODESSA. 
s;2 
chap. Black Sea, endeavour to account for its present 
v— v — > level, either by imagining a subterraneous chan- 
nel 1 , or an effect of evaporation*. The Russians 
entertain notions of a subterraneous channel, in 
order to account for the loss of water in the 
Caspian ; the Volga being as considerable a river 
as any other falling into the Black Sea. The truth 
perhaps is, that the rivers which fall into the Black 
Sea and into the Sea of Azof do not contribute 
a greater body of water than that which escapes 
by the Canal of Constantinople; and therefore, 
admitting an effect of evaporation, the level of 
the Black Sea insensibly falls. The Don, the 
Kuban, the Phase, the Dnieper, the Dniester, the 
Danube, and many other rivers making a great 
figure in geography, have a less important 
appearance when surveyed at their embouchures. 
The greatest of them all, the Danube, is very 
shallow at its mouth ; its waters, extended over 
an immense surface, lie stagnating in shallow 
marshes, among an infinity of reeds and other 
aquatic plants, subject to very considerable 
evaporation, besides the loss sustained during 
its passage to the sea. 
So'eui- ° f The building of the present town of Odessa, 
peror re- .and the construction of the pier for its port, 
specting 1 1 
Odessa. — 1 — ’ 
(1) Voynge ti'Anucharsc, tom. I. c. 1. 
(2) Ibid. 
