ODESSA. 
389 
we visited Odessa, by the storms preceding and chap. 
following the Equinox. The hulk of a vessel 1 — n - — * 
driven on shore at Varna was all the intelli- 
gence received of the fate of a merchant ship 
that sailed out of Odessa when we were there : 
not a soul on board escaped. Another was 
wrecked attempting to enter the Canal of 
Constantinople : eight sailors, with two officers, 
were drowned ; the rest of the crew were saved 
by remaining a whole day upon the ship’s yards, 
until the storm abated, when they swam to the 
shore. These storms were so great, that an 
alarm prevailed on shore for the safety of the 
houses : during one day and night, the stoutest 
stone walls seemed unequal to resist the violence 
of the gale. The vineyards at Sudak, as Professor 
Pallas by a letter informed us, and along the south 
coast of the Crimea, were destroyed; houses were 
unroofed; and all those with casements had 
their windows forced in by the tempest. 
Odessa will ever be a port of great import- 
ance to Russia, while she is prevented from 
laying her hands upon the Turkish empire • 
because, from its proximity to the Porte, a 
constant eye is kept upon the operations of the 
Turks. It has also the advantage of being so 
rarely obstructed by ice, that a vessel may 
generally escape; whereas, in other ports of 
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