The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-06-07
ycx IN THE MEDITERRANEAN.
The Folks Of salonica wake Up Ast0nisned
TO Find Their Nay Frozen.

The northern coast OF the biacR oeA
Ia usually blocked with ioe In winter the
Bosphorus IL also often covered with ice'
and cakes of II even drift down into the
Hellespont; the formation Of Ice In the eS-
IRENE northern part Of the Adriatic IA &C.
casionally recorded, and ones, In the year
lsO3, ice was observed In the harbor OF
TRghorr. Italy.
With these exceptions the people living
along thu waters that wash the southern
coasts of Europe have probably never s,en
Ice along their costs. Much surpris, war
caus d therefore by telegram from Sa-
onica. the s,cond most important port OF
Turkey about the end Of January last to
the feet that lea had formed In the bay
Of that city.
In a h tier written by DR. Mordtmann
OF Salonica lie d scribts the impr ssion
made by the remarkable phenomenon:
This morning IJan. 2sl the people Of
Salonica wer, surprised by a spectacle
that within tn, memory Of man had never
heen witW ss d h'rc' before. Ths bay
az far as tho eye could r, ach was frozen
over
"The appearance OF tn. CLASSY. feless
surface msde an unpleasant imprs sson
upon them which they will not soon forget.
Only the boys seemed 10 enjoy It. They
provided thcms Ives with stones of me
dunn siz, and s,nt them SKI mining far out
into thu bay on the freq IN surface. to their
great delight.
| About o'clock in the morning steam
launch from Turkish frigat, which was
lying at anchor nearly half a mile from
the shore broke its way through the lea
20 the landing stage. For hours the path
1t made through the ica was visible.
| Il estimate the thickness OF tn" ica at
only quarter Of an inch or 40. BY mid
day this thin ice covering began TO break
I up, and in the evening 1t finally disapp 'arrd
| entirely
The phenomenon was repeated on the
following night. nut tho fringe of ice
| around Lho shor, on this occasion was only
about $50 feet wide. while the first formation
had been double that width. On the sec-
This narrow bay is al, outrunner from
the Gulf OF Salonica. in the northern part
OF the Egean Sea, The, city OF Salonica
stands at the head, OF the bay. purin &
the first night of ice the frozen surface
| OF the bay.
| II Is important to notice the Warder River.
whose waters empty into the entrance OF
the hay on Its southwest side. because these
important in the formation OF the ice. The
| river reaches salt water through delta ef-
tending far toward Cape Karaburun, on the
other side OF the entrance, and the amount Of
Diet ritus the river brings down and spreads
over the bottom threatens in time. unless
the evil ia obviated to close up the entrance
entirely. Just as Ephesus and other sea
ports Of the Egean have been separated
from the sea: and Smyrna also would have
been cut Of il the course OF the Hermus
i hAl NJ cd
channel it had made.
| The meteorological conditions which
helped to produce this unusual event are
interesting. From about the middle OF
january heavy frosts occurred nearly every
| night They were brought to the coast
by the keen north winds. In the daytime,
however. the thermometer did not fall 20
low as the freezing point, On the night
that the bay was frozen there was no WIND
the surface OF the bay was CLASSY and the
temperature fell to 70 Celsius, which is
| equivalent to 1919 Fair.
thrown so much light upon the physical
geography OF Greece. collected all the
| evidence he could obtain with regard to
this event and has published his conclusions
| In Petermann's Mif,eifNngen. He says that
! In spite OF the still cold II IL most unlikely
! that ice would have formed in this part OF
, tho Egean Sea II IL had not been for the
stratum of fresh water from the Wardef
| river. which ovespreads the surface Of
| the bay.
! To tie hard and long FROST covering a
| period OF several days. the final stiffness
/ Of the air and the covering Of the bay with
a superficial stratum Of fresh water, was
due the unusual phenomenon that as
| tonished the people OF Salonica.