LEVEL OF THE PRESENT CASPIAN. 
321 
been desiccated at a more recent period than the steppe of Astrakhan. To what 
extent our colour representing the period intermediate between the elevation of the 
steppe limestones on the one hand and the true historic sera on the other, may be 
correct, particularly in the eastern portions to which we have extended it, must be 
hereafter the subject of critical research. But both these divisions of the former or 
great Aralo-Caspian epoch were, we doubt not, antecedent to historic records. 
The old opinion of the eastern extension of a vast Caspian 1 of all but historical 
1 The exact and definitive results of the operations carried out by the Imperial Government to deter- 
mine the true level of the Caspian, executed by the able mathematicians Fuss, Sawitch and Sabler, have 
been recently communicated to us by M. Struve, the distinguished astronomer, under whom the observa- 
tions were compared. Four trigonometrical levellings, between the Sea of Azof and the Caspian, were 
made, independently of each other, and the results of each were as follows : 
The levelling of M. G. Fuss gave the depression of the Caspian = 85'0 English feet. 
Sawitch „ „ = 83’2 
(1st) Sabler ,, ,, = 83'9 
(2nd) Sabler „ „ = 83 - 0 
The combination, therefore, of these very closely agreeing observations, gives a mean result of 83 -6 En- 
glish feet, and reduces the possible error to 1'3 foot of more or less depression. 
The operations commenced on the shore of the Sea of Azof near the village Kagalnik (see Map), and 
the following table explains the position and height of the ground at the places where observations were 
made : — 
Approximate distance from 
the Sea of Azof. 
Height above the 
Black Sea. 
Kagalnitskaya (station) 
70 versts 
112 English feet. 
Novo Egorlich (village) 
120 
348 
Sredny Egorlich (village) 
150 
237 
Letnitskoi (village) 
200 
184 
Novo-Troitskaya (station) 
250 
495 
Stavropol(city), on the highest ground } 
> 300 
1688 
between the two seas J 
Alexandrov (borough) 
380 
1020 
Georgievslc (city) 
440 
970 
Ekaterinograd (station, formerly a city) 
520 
613 
Mosdok (city) 
560 
432 
Navur (station) 
610 
308 
steppe is cut by the level of the Black Sea at the distance of seventy versts 
from the Caspian and 
eight versts to the west of the station Sukhoborosdiask. 
Kisliar (city) fifty versts from the Caspian — 27° 
Tchernoi-Rinok (village) three versts from the Caspian — 71° 
The two last mentioned places are, therefore, 27 and 71 feet below the level of the Black Sea. 
In saying that we confidently rely upon the high authorities above-mentioned, it is right to state, that 
M. Hommaire de Hell having made a series of levellings from the mouth of the Kuma on the east to that 
of the Manitch on the west, i. e. along the low banks of these two rivers, the result of his operation is, that 
