The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

-12(5RUSSIA IN EUROPE.which at the time of Ptolemy was already at some distance from the coast, hasceased to exist. But the architectural remains and inscriptions discovered byLeontiyev between Siniavka and the village of Nedvigovka show that its site wasabout 6 miles from the old mouth of the Great Don, since changed to a dry bed(mortmy Donetz). The course of the main stream has been deflected southwards,and here is the town of Azov, for a time the successor of Tana'is in strategic andcommercial importance. But where the flow is most abundant, there also thealluvium encroaches most rapidly, and the delta would increase even at a stillmore accelerated rate but for the fierce east and north-east gales prevailing for agreat part of the year. The sedimentary matter brought down, in the proportionof about 1 to 1,200 of fluid, amounts altogether to 230,100,000 cubic feet, causinga mean annual advance of nearly 22 feet.The Gulf of Taganrog, about 80 miles long, and forming the north-eastextremity of the sea, may, on the whole, be regarded as a simple continuation of theBon, as regards both the character222. The Donetz Coal Measures.of its water, its current, andScale 1 : 6.150,000.the windings of its navigablechannel. This gulf, with a meandepth of from 10 to 12, andnowhere exceeding 24 feet, seemsto have diminished by nearly 2feet since the first charts, datingfrom the time of Peter the Great.But a comparison of the soundingstaken at various times issomewhat difficult, as the exactspots where they were taken andthe kind of feet employed are25 Miles. somewhat doubtful, not to mentionthe state of the weather, andespecially the direction of the winds during the operations. Under the influenceof the winds the level of the sea may be temporarily raised or lowered at variouspoints as much as 10, or even 16 or 17 feet.The mean depth of the whole sea is about 32 feet, which, for an area of 14,217square miles, woidd give an approximate volume of 13,000 billion cubic feet, orabout four times that of Lake Geneva. The bed, composed, like the surroundingsteppes, of argillaceous sands, unbroken anywhere by a single rock, is covered, at anextremely low rate of progress, with fresh strata, in which organic remains aremingled with the sandy detritus of the shores. If a portion of the sedimentarymatter brought down by the Don were not carried out to the Euxine, the inner seawould be filled up in the space of 56,500 years.Characteristic of its shores are the so-called kosl, narrow tongues of landprojecting in various directions in the form of curved horns into the sea, andcoinjjosed of shifting sands and fossil shells ground to dust. The north coast