The Sun.
London, England, 1856-07-31 00:00:00

AZIYE
2s. 64.

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TILE SEA OF AZOF.

Captain Sherard Osborn;eß.N., in writing to a con-
,emporary, says :---
"It appears to me so important that the Russians
,hould not succeed in misleadingeeeebeemeeli•
r*reeteerectiereerfAttlritTeaTt—nfethe-Voird we may
.perhaps havrivain to visit as belligerents, that at the.
tisk of it being thought highly improper I beg to correct
rine part of your correspondent's news from the Crimea.
' • "He eayie quoting from Major Hamtnersley, Captain
Brooke, or Mr. Sinclair, that there are no•wells on Ara.
rat Spit, simply because they are not wanted, the Sea
of Azef in its neighbourhood being perfectly drinkable.
Now I assert that there are wells on Arabat Spit, that
they exist on about the spots marked in the large Rus-
Sian maps, and that the water in them is drinkable,
whereas that of the Sea of Azof, from Genitchi along
the Spit as far as , Point Kayantiss, is ealt, and
unfit for man or beast. The only part of the Sea
Azof where fresh water is procurable from the
iurfaee of the sea, after the sea breaks up, is in the
Gulf of Aeof, and that above the Krivaia or Crooked
Spit, in the upper part of the Ouk.liout Liman, and,
lastly, at the edge of the Delta of the river Kuban, and
that only in places. These are facts which all the offi-
eere, French as well as English, can attest who served
in the Sea of Azot. Evidently •from hearsay, the Eng.
;ish officers aro impressed with the idea that there is a
tine 9.feet channel from Tchougar•bridge to Genitchi,
e.nd a constant 'current running from Genitchi to Pe're-
.kep.
ee." With respect to the former my doubts are based
open two facts :
" 1. If such a channel exists, why did not the Russians
convey the provision, corn, and store lighters, which we
found them unloading at Genitchi., up to the bridge,
instead of disembarking the stores, and using waggons
and arabas to convey them by land over that very bridge
oy a road which nearly doubled the distance ? To get
those lighters and small craft into Genitchi harbour they
had to pass a bar, whereon was never found mere than
63 feet, and often as little as 4ft. 6in. When that dif-
ficulty was surmounted, surely ascending a 9ft. channel
would have been easy work.
" 2. I, with two intelligent officers and eight seamen,
spent two days and nights trying to find a channel out
of the wide marshes, improperly marked Putrid Sea,
into the narrow part over which the bridge of Tchongar
is thrown. We landed on the Tchongar peninsula, and
stood within a few feet of their road ; yet the deepest
water we ever found in any part of that sea-was 4ft. 6in.,
and for miles it was quite as much as we could do to
liget our light boats through seaweed and slime. I be-
eve there is 7ft. or 9ft. of water under the centre of the
bridge, but there is either a bar or a most tortuous
channel between it and Genitchi. That there is a space
of water between the peninsula of Tchongar (at its
northern part), and a point three miles west of Genitchi,
few who have Poked at it• from a ship's masthead can
doubt; and, indeed, we often. saw Russian boats tra-
versing it. With respect to the current always setting
into the Sivash or Putrid Sea, we found it vary very
much, and depend mainly upon the direction of. the
wind. An east wind would cause the water to flow into
it from the Sea of Azoff, and raise the depth about two
feet upon the bar ; whereas, with the lightest air from
the weetweed, the current immediately turned and the
waters fell.
"Li thee, :bent portion of Vivit.L, 11.0 vw lud, blow-
ing from eastward, heaped the water up as it were on
the western shore, and vice versa, the difference of depth
at such times between the two casts being, according to
Tartar accounts, nearly two feet ; a point difficult to de-
termine, for the bottom of the Sivash slopes very gradu-
ally towards the centre; although, as your correspondent
observes, the Crimean coast is everywhere abrupt, being,
indeed, the vertical edge of a steppe.
"I will trespass no further upon your space than to ex-
press my regret that your correspondent, much more
British officers, should have lent themselves to further
the propagation of Russian fictions, by asserting that the
squadron under the late Captain Lyons did little or no
damage to Arabat Fort. It was, as fir as my memory
serves me, silenced, the magazine blown up, and had not
the allied squadron more important work to do at Ge-
nitchi or Taganrog, the place would have been sum-
moned ; and I believe it had but to be summoned to
surrender. Although having no men to spare, General
Wrangel's 13,000 men would have forced us to be rapid
in our movements, and perhaps given the enemy a better
victory than that of Arabat, all we can pray is that they
may never win a better one.