BLACK SEA

with the ancients known by the name of Pontus Euxinvs (which see); a sea whid i the is situated between Europe and Afda, bounded on the w. by Turkey, N.w. and K. by the Ru ian dominions, on the E. by Mingrelia and Grnriel, on the 8. by NatoUa, being connected with the Meditersturanean by the Bosporus, and by the Cimmerian Bos> poms with the S^ of Azoph (which see), which is, he in fact, only a bay of the Black Sea. The area of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azoph amounts to about 180,000 square miles. The water is not ao clear as that of Uie Mediterranean, and, on aooount of the many large riven which fall into it, — ^tfae Danube, Dniester, Dnieper, Don, akid Cuban,~bein^ le salt, freezes more readily. The tempests on thta and of sea are tremendous, as the land which confines its he agitated waters gives to them a kind of whirliii<; had motion. In the winter it is so boisterous, part i cube larly near the coast from the Danube to the Crimea. that it is scarcely navigable, even by the most experienced sailors. In 1854 one of its tremendous storms occasioned a very serious lo to the shipping of the allied British and French. The Black Sea oontaioB by no islands; there is one, however, in the Cimmerian Bosporus. The fisheries in the Sea of Asoph and the Black Sea are not unimportant, various kinds of vainable fish both laige and small, being taken; among others, several species of sturgeon. Seines are tDsed, prin- Tory in which 60,000 fishes are sometimes cau^t within and six hours; but there are never many large o of among thenL Caviare (which see) is also made on the coast, as well as fish-glue, fish-oil, and, from the spawn of the sea mullet, botargo; the latter, however, only in small quantity. The salt and ainolced for mackerel form an important article of the commeree be of the Crimea. Raoul-Rochette published in Paris^ two 1822, a work on the remarkable Grecian antiquities on the northern shore of the Pontns, which was corrected and completed by the Bnasian councillor Peter von Koppen, Vienna, 1823. For further information on this subject, see also Voyage autour du Gaucase, par M. Dubois de Montpereux, Paris, 1839, and Antiquities of Kertch, by D. MTherson, M.D., London, 1857. 228