THE SOUTH COAST OF THE BLACK SEA. 
27 
-Sketch of Headland and Foreland, west of Samsun, south 
coast of Black Sea, looking west. 
stopped for a day, the headlands to the west and east showed no elevated sea-cut 
benches, but they were both well cliffed with respect to the present shoreline ; a low 
foreland, from 300 to 600 feet wide, stretched in front of the western cliff, as in fig. 12. 
Whether the foreland was a slighth' ele\-ated wave-cut bench, or simply a broadened 
wave-built beach, I could not determine, as it was seen only from the steamer ; but 
in either case its attitude is inconsistent with any strong recent movement of 
depression or elevation. Further 
indication of modem coastal sta- 
bility in this district is seen in 
the large deltas of the Kyzil Innak 
and Yeshil Innak (the Halys and 
Iris rivers of ancient times), 20 
miles west and east of Samsun. 
Stieler's Hand- Atlas makes the radius of these deltas 12 or 15 miles, although the 
Yeshil, the smaller of the two rivers, has a drainage basin of less area than the Sakaria, 
where no delta is shown. A heavj- rain fell while we lay in the roadstead of Samsun, 
and a stream east of the city spread its yellow flood gradually farther and farther from 
the shore. When the discolored water reached the steamer, half a mile from land, 
it still formed so thin a film that the oars of passing boats disclosed the blue water 
beneath. We steamed eastward past the delta of the Yeshil about sunset. It is an 
extensive plain, hardly above sea level, in strong contrast to the bold coast that we 
had seen earlier. 
When we reached Trebizonde, near the southeastern corner of the sea, the 
profile of the sloping spur next ea.st of the harbor exhibited three well-defined 
benches, outlined in fig. 13, which we estimated to stand 20, 100, and 250 feet 
above sea level; and a small stream that 
passed through the cit)- flowed in a narrow, 
steep-sided gorge. Thus there seems to be 
indication of a modem depression of 160 
feet at the Bosporus, of no significant modem 
movement at Samsim, and of a modern 
elevation of from 100 to 250 feet at Trebi- 
zonde. But somewhat farther northeast, at Batum, there was again indication of 
stability rather than of elevation. No benches were seen there on the hillsides, but 
the Choruk-Su (river), of drainage area similar to that of the Yeshil, has a well- 
fonned gravel delta that stretches several miles forward from the end of its steep- 
sided valley through the mainland hills. The absence of elevated shorelines here 
makes it hazardous to extrapolate, towards the Manych depression and the Caspian, 
the indications of recent tilting that we found on the south coast. 
A few words may be said on the possible eastward extension of the uplifted 
peneplain in which the Bosporus trench is cut. The south coast of the Black Sea 
is submountainous. The valleys that we saw were rather sharply incLsed in 
uplands that sloped with moderate irregularity from higher hills or mountains in 
the background toward the cliffs of the shoreline. It seemed plausible to associate 
Fig. 1 3. — Profile of Elevated Shorelines east of Trebi 
zonde, south coast of Black Sea, looking east. 
