Edmund Goodenough

“ It may be reasonable to suppose, from putting these authorities together, that the surface of the island, as I know from my own observation to be the case in the Fairn Islands, and other parts of our own coast, was, in and after the breeding season especially, the time when it was commonly seen by the ancient navigators, covered with the white dung of the countless flocks of sea-birds that resorted to it. Arrian, indeed, assigns to these birds, which he says were of various species [28] , and innumerable, a very different office in connexion with the name the island bore. ”

“ The distance from the one Cape to the other, measured by the compasses on the French chart, is one hundred and forty-four geographical miles, which Strabo calls two thousand five hundred stadia; and even supposing a ship therefore to be placed exactly midway, the distance from either promontory must be seventy-two geographical miles; so that for the land to be seen from the deck of a frigate at that distance, it must be three thousand five hundred feet high, according to strict computation, while some hundreds of feet more must be added to make it really and in practice visible. ”

“ Having had a fair wind, says the master, on the 9th, on the 10th we were taken aback with fresh winds from the northward, accompanied with rain and thick weather. It was doubtless by such a rebuff as this, that the Argo in ancient days, or the wretched craft of the modern Turks, would have been thrown upon those terrors of antiquity the Cyanean [6] rocks, or Symplegades, in spite of all the aid they might invoke from Jupiter Urius, the god of fair winds, whose temple stood upon the Asiatic Cape. ”

“ Neither the barbarians of the western or northern shores, nor the Asiatic potentates on its southern and eastern banks, could exercise dominion over the Euxine; yet they who have held Constantinople and its canal have at all times, from their geographical position, possessed the greatest influence over its navigation and commerce ”

“ Whenever, he says, an infinite cause operates upon a finite object, however small may be the action of the cause, it must at last prevail. Now, the basin of the Black Sea is finite, while the time during which the rivers flow into it, either directly or through the Sea of Azof, bringing with them their alluvial deposit, is infinite ”

“ But if we look to the southern portion of the Euxine, and the entrance into the Thracian Bosphorus or canal of Constantinople, we there find a depth of forty-eight fathoms French immediately off its opening, and an equator greater depth all around, with a bottom of sand and shells, except on the coast trending towards the north-west and the mouths of the Danube, where the bottom is indeed mud, but the soundings are from forty-five to fifty-five fathoms ”

“ Clarke, who refers to this passage, expressly translates the word ἐρωδιοὶ into pelicans—not giving, however, any authority for this opinion in ornithology. It is certain that great numbers of pelicans frequent this sea, and perhaps the mouths of the Danube, in company with both storks and cranes; but although Bishop Heber saw an immense quantity of pelicans on the Asiatic side of the Sea of Azof, upon coming into the Crimea, he remarks, 'I saw no more pelicans after landing in Europe,' though he saw plenty of bustards, cranes, and storks. ”

“ Perhaps we ought not to lay too great stress upon the fact that the aspect of the Isle of Serpents, as represented by those on board the Blonde, is not strictly such as to entitle it to the appellation of white; being a cliff of moderate height, with the land in the centre, of a somewhat conical shape, and green ”

“ In the Cimmerian Bosphorus indeed, the strait leading from the sea of Azof into the Black Sea, the water is shallow, as it was in the days of Polybius, and as it may always be expected to remain, from the crookedness and extreme intricacy of the passage, which prevents the fair rush of the stream from the northward, and thereby favours the accumulation of deposit. ”

“ It is generally considered that the modern Caffa stands on or near the site of the ancient Theodosia, which was the boundary between the possessions of the kings of Bosphorus and those of Chersonesus, and a place of vast importance to ancient commerce, as well as to the Genoese, in their occupation of these shores, by whom it was called Krim-Stamboul, or the Constantinople of the Crimea. ”

“ It is clear, from the French chart, and from our own frigate's track and soundings, that no vestige of it now remains in that sea. Polybius ascribes its existence to what we see continually taking place upon a small scale in a mill-stream ”

“ With regard to artificial defences, there are many considerable forts which guard the several points of approach, some of which are in decay, while others have been lately repaired and strengthened by the labour of the Turkish prisoners in the late war. ”

“ She there found excellent anchorage in nine fathoms water, in a gulph easy of access, and yet sheltered from every quarter but the east and south-east; from which, however, the wind is there said never to blow home. But there was no more opportunity for observation here than at other places; and on the 23d, she proceeded on her voyage, passing Cape Emineh, the extremity of the ancient range of Hæmus, which projects into the sea, evidently the same name with Hæmoni ”

“ And, to be serious, the constant recurrence of the figure of a fish on the coins of the Greek cities on this sea [5] , as well as of a fishhook on those of Byzantium, is sufficient to show us what a value was set upon this source of wealth. ”

“ The lazzaretto was then building. ↑ The chief data for the site of Olbia appear to be in Herodotus, Dio Chrysostom, and Strabo. From the former, (lib. iv. cap. 17, 18, and 53) it appears, that between the Hypanis and the Borysthenes there was a point or tongue of land, ἔμβολον τῆς χώρης, and that upon this, near to the Hypanis, lived the Olbiopolitæ, also called Borysthenitæ; the city of Olbia and Borysthenis being one and the same place. From Dio Chrysostom's Thirty-sixth Oration it also appears, that the city of Olbia was on the Hypanis, although it derived its name from the Borysthenes ”

“ Standing on from thence towards the gulph of Bourgas, she passed the town of Missembri, the ancient Μεσημβρία of Arrian and Strabo, &c., and which Herodotus [34] says was founded by the Byzantines, who, at the approach of the invading forces of Darius, fled from their native city, and took refuge in the Euxine. Arrian says, there was here a harbour, and that its distance from Cape Emineh was ninety stadia; which same space, measured upon the chart, is now about nine geographical miles. From Mesembria to Anchialus, he says, are seventy stadia more ”