The promontory on which the fortress is placed is very
low, almost on a level with the sea, and subject to inunda-
tions. The fortress of Otchakow commands the entrance
of the lagoon of the Dniepr on the opposite side, and the
distance between it and Kilboroun is only about 2i miles.
This passage is very important, as into this gulf flow the
great rivers of the Boug and Dniepr, and on the latter
is situated the important town of Khersdn, and on the
former the great naval arsenal of Nicolaief, and the
safety of both depends upon the passage of Kilboroun.
The country between the Gulf of the Dniepr and the
Gulf of £[arkinite was called Hylaea by the ancients,
because of the woods by which it was then covered;
these have entirely disappeared, and the whole country
is now a bare and almost uninhabited Steppe.
The two great rivers of the Boug and the Dniepr,
falling into the Gulf of the Dniepr, by their united
currents flowing to the west, make a channel, the
maximum depth of which is seventy-three feet.* At
sixteen miles to the east of Otchakow, and nine nules
north-west of Cape Stanislas, the Boug discharges its
water into the lagoon, which it shares with the Dniepr.
This river, as far as Nicolaief, is from twenty to sixty
feet in depth, and its width varies from one to three
miles. The city of Nicolaief, which is the Bussian
arsenal for the Black Sea, is twenty miles from the
mouth of the Boug, and at the junction of that river
with the Ingoul.** The delta of the Dniepr is composed

r p. 60. * P. 61. ■» P. 63, 54.
32 • ^ GENERAL VIEW OF THE COAST. Chap. III.
