RUSSIAN FORTRESSES.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XX, Issue 3902, 10 May 1877, Page 2

RUSSIAN FORTRESSES.

The following information concerning the fortified towns in Russian territory adjoining the Black Sea comes in very aj)ruj)os now that the cablegrams are daily filled with unknown and uncouth names : — In a German paper some information is published about the Russian fortifications on the shores of the Black Sea. The first of the naval fortresses in Southern Russia is NicolaieiF, and no pains have been spared to make it as strong as possible. The extensive arsenals and shipbuilding yards are incessantly employed in producing the requirements of naval warfare, and Kicolaieff now possesses depots of ammunition and a park of artillery winch will enable the director of the coast defences to strengthen any required point at very short notice. The entrance into the Bay of Kherson, from which one passes into the Bug Liman, and then to Nocolaieff, is defended bj r two naval forts. The first of these, Otchakoff, is on the Bessarabian coast, and is tolerably protected on the west by swamps ; the other is Kinburn, lying opposite on the Noga'i steppe, and surrounded by creek and canals. From Otchakoff to Odessa along the coast is about 80 versts. Odessa is surrounded by a series of fortifications which extend to Akermanii, on the Dniester. This chain of works, armed with guns of heavy calibre, and supplemented by submarine torpedoes, would make an attack from the sea very difficult. But the line of defence extending from Odessa to Nicola'ieff ha 3 one weak point, at Perekop, where the Crimean peninsula is connected Avith the Nogai" steppe. The whole of the northern and western coast of the Crimea is almost unprotected, though Russia has little to fear on that side, as any invading army which wished to circumvent the line of fortifications between Odessa and Nicolaieff would bo obliged to cross the Isthmus of Perekop. When the Tartars ruled over the Taurian peninsula they blocked this isthmus with a huge wall, similar to that of Trajan in the Dobrudscha, and fortified the adjoining hills of Kara - Djanai, Kullah,i Utch-Djilga, and Urmomskoibazar. This wall has now been repaired, armed with guns, and protected by entrenchments. The southern coast of the Crimea has also been strongly fortified. Large sums have been expended in strengtheningtho works round Sebastopol. Torpedoes have been laid down in the bay of the Tahernays. and also at Cape Khorsonoso and Balaklava, which harbor is protected by a fort. There are other fortifications at Sudak, in the Bay of Takkich, near Feodosia, and on the hill of St. Elias. near the latter town, which is also protected by torpedoes in the bay above mentioned. Kertch is fortified by works on the western extremity of the peninsula of Tainan, on the hill of Takil, at Kertch itself, and at Yenikaleh. Cape Fanar, on the other side of the Kimmerian Bosphorus, is also to be fortified. On the Caucasian coast the following are the principal forts : D jemiter, Novorossiskaya, Gelendtchik, Tenpinsk, Lazarevsk, Golovinsk, Doucha, Soukhoum, Kaleh, Ilori Redout Kaleh, Poti, and Nikolaya.