the Chernaïa Protoka. It is a shallow passage of scar hundred fathoms in breadth; and on the capture of during the war from 1787 to 1791, the Russian horsemen from one point to the other3. On the map of the Caucas lished at St. Petersburg in 1834, the Chernaïa Protoka is among the great rivers by a blue line between its outlin as the Kuban itself. It is very probable that in the Constantine Porphyrogeneta the Chernaïa Protoka was st important. The tract through which it flows is an i swamp; extensive fields of rushes and high reeds cover th of the innumerable rivers and lakes by which it is drain while they gradually obstruct the current of the inland the mouths of the rivers are blocked up by masses of s mud, deposited there by the sea, and by which, among both the channels through which the lake of Temruk empt into the sea of Azof, have been rendered unfit for na There is a continual struggle between land and water. though in the rainy season the whole country seems to be for ever, the waters gradually sink, and the ground acqu more solidity from a thick deposit of clay and mud, of luxuriant vegetation soon takes a lasting possession. T nomenon, says Dr. Clarke, is especially to be observed very spot where the Chernaïa Protoka takes its origin, rating itself from the main branch of the Kuban. This s in which the solid element is victorious, obliges us not altogether so many maps of the 15th, the 16th, the 17 even of the 18th century, in which the Chernaïa Protok breadth quite equal to that of the main branch of the In several other maps the Kuban has but one mouth by empties itself into the Sea of Azof. Such are, the map c in the beautiful and rare edition of Ptolemy, published a in 1490; that of Ortelius of the sixteenth century; that thew Steutter of the seventeenth; and others. The identity of the Choracul and the Chernaïa Protoka still more strength from several other circumstances. A con 3 So Pallas states. The Russian Sur- | Europe, Asia, and Africa, Vol vey gives five feet to it. &c. 390, &c. 399, &c. 4 Clarke, Travels in various parts of of scarcely one Eure of Anapa, semen forded it Caucasus, pubtoka is marked Es outlines, just in the time of still more s an immense was cover the banks s drained; and empties itself igin, by sepa h by which it hed at Rome that of Mat toka acquires A comparison a, Vol. 1. p. 385, between Turkish and European maps of the country between the by many instances. In some maps the Chernaïa Protoka, or Chernoi Protok, is called Kara Kuban; in some, Chernoi Kuban ; in others, these names are given indiscriminately to a dead branch of the Kuban west of the Chernaïa Protoka; and the same double name still designates one of the greatest of the tributaries of the Kuban, as well as a broad branch of it which leaves it near Karakubanskoi, and again joins the main river near Fort Kalaus. It is also remarkable that Constantine Porphyrogeneta designates the Choracul by τὸ Χωράκουλ, and not by ὁ Χωράκουλ, scilicet ó Tотauós. This strange exception of gender appears quite natural if the article rò is explained by the omitted noun oroμóv, a designation which accurately describes the character of a river which is but one of the mouths of the great Kuban. The emperor completes his description of the Choracul by the words, "in which the fish called Berzeticon are caught.” The commentary of Bandurius gives sufficient information about this fish. It was one of the species of sturgeon, or perhaps a general name for all the different sorts of sturgeon which abounded in the Mæotis as early as the time of Pliny and Strabo, es in the two Rhombites, the mouths of the Yey and the Bey our days the mouth of the Chernaïa Protoka is one of the pal places for sturgeon-fishing. In the time of Constan Kuban generally was renowned for its abundance of fis learn from the Arabic geographer Mas'údí, who tells a sto them which is still more marvellous than what Strabo relat these fish being hewn out from the ice 5. The identity of the Choracul and the Chernaïa Protoka been proved, and this river being the southernmost of all th of the Sea of Azof, it is evident that the other rivers m by the author are to be placed between the Don and the C Protoka. It is generally believed that the Bal, or, according to nunciation of the time of Constantine, the Val, is the Bey-su. This is a mere hypothesis. Bál or Vál, J or fies in Turkish a whale, and also various other kinds. large fish. The name is therefore well fitted for a river i large fish are caught. It is this circumstance that perhaps geographers to presume that the Val is the present Bey-su, a there are some traces of this name left in the country, which refer to the Yey. In the map of Matthew Steutter th of Callballnar is given to the tract round the mouth of t while a district south of the mouth of the Bey-su is called In the map of Minor Tartary by Peter Schenk, the name ballnar is changed into Kallbarna, and designates the ri itself, which, in the map contained in the Atlas of Russia p by the Academy of St. Petersburg in 1745, as well as in other maps, is called Cabanar. But all this may refer as the river Chalbash-su, or Chelbá-su (l, or perhaps. , the muddy river), the next neighbour of the Bey mouth of which is entirely blocked up by the sand which has deposited there. I have been enabled to compare a c able number of English, Russian, French, German, and maps, of the best geographers, and several others in MS. of ages; but they exhibit so many contradictions with regard 5 Strabo, p. 307, Cas.; Mas'údí, translated by Dr. Sprenger, Vol. 1. I trabo, especially ne of the princi Protoka having of all the rivers ivers mentioned d the Chernaia ding to the pro- signi وال or بال kinds of very erhaps induced which rather tter the name ath of the Yer called Callver. name of Call the river Yer issia published as in several efer as well to haps Jiláb-su e Bey-su, the which the sea re a consider. and Turkish IS. of different egard to the Vol. I. p. 438. rivers, that it is impossible to come to any satisfactory conclusion. Bayer also is far from deciding the question. As to the river Burlic, I suppose that it is the Kazatchei Yerik, or the second northern branch of the Kuban, the course of which is parallel to the Chernaïa Protoka, which it accompanies at but a small distance from its origin near Fort Kopil on the Kuban, to its mouth, which is only at a few miles east of the mouth of the Chernaïa Protoka. We shall see below that the signification of the word Burlic gives some probability to this hypothesis. There are no facts which allow us to fix the position of the Khader; it is one of the larger rivers between the Don and the Chernaïa Protoka. I shall now examine the passage in which Constantine mentions the channel Burlic, which must not be confounded with the river Burlic. 66 This passage is of great importance, and of equal interest to philologers and geographers. It presents great difficulties. "Subobscura hæc sunt"-says Bayer with regard to it. His endeavours to remove the difficulties are a specimen of that kind of witty sagacity of which I have spoken above. Supposing that there is a certain connexion between the river Burlic and the channel Burlic, he says: Videtur Burlic esse ille fluvius quem in charta turcica Kubán, vocari video. Potest fieri ut hic fluvius devectus in Mæotin super ejus undis natet coloremque servet usque ad Bosporum, unde ipsius Bospori nomen Burlic ei quoque tributum sit." Thus the Burlic, that is, a branch of the Kuban, crosses the Sea of Azof, a distance of more than fifty miles, and preserving its primitive yellowish colour amidst the equally yellow waves of this sea, arrives as a separate stream in the Bosporus, and gives it its name! If this be true, the Straits of Yenikale must be of a curious aspect. For the Don, the Yey, the Bey-su, and all the other rivers of the Sea of Azof, are all yellow enough to retain their peculiarity unimpaired, as well as the Burlic. With regard to the channel Burlic, Bayer says: " Apparet eum Burlic vocare Mæotidis ostium ubi se Ponto miscet, seu ipsum Bosporum Cimmerium. Nam ista, “ ἐν ᾧ ἐστὶν ὁ Βόσπορος,” sive sic interpretari possis : “ ἐν ᾧ δηλονότι τῷ τόπῳ ἐστὶν ὁ Βόσπορος,” sive “ ἐν ᾧ tậ ó δηλονότι τῷ στομίῳ τῷ Βουρλὶκ καλουμένῳ ἐστὶν ὁ Βόσπορος,” ut Bosporum 66 dicat trajectum, Burlic ipsum alveum e Mæotide se exon in Pontum." This explanation is inadmissible. If such were the op Constantine, he would have expressed himself in an eas more intelligible way. Besides, Strabo tells us that the Bosporus designated the whole extent of the straits, fro origin to their mouth; and there is not the slightest gro believing that during the time between Strabo and Con Porphyrogeneta that name was given to only a part of the In another passage (p. 309), Strabo says that Bosporus de the northern, narrow part of the straits; but this must be stood in a narrower sense of the word, and does not exclu he states in p. 394.. However obscure the text is, we have the choice betw hypotheses: either the Bosporus and the channel called B identical, or the Burlic was a second channel which existe time of Constantine Porphyrogeneta, but has entirely disa in the present time. If they were identical, Burlic was und the barbarous name of the Bosporus, which was likewise Tanais, according to Procopius7, Arrian, and Evagrius Patares or Pataris, according to Ammianus Marcellinus 10. must suppose, that if the emperor's intention was to tell his the barbarians used to call the Bosporus Burlic, he wou done so in as many words. I shall therefore proceed to the hypothesis, that the Burlic and the Bosporus were two channels, the latter of which was so universally known author could refer to it in order to fix the position of the which of course must have been less known and of less imp If I call this alleged meaning of the passage an hypothe merely on the ground that at present there is but one For as to the words of the text, they clearly mention two cl and neither Bayer nor any other commentator would have l to admit the fact, had they not been prepossessed by the Pag. 494. Cas. 7 IV. 4. 8 Periplus. 9 IV. 23. Pag. 365 ed. Vales grius refers to Procopius. 10 xxii. 8. |