MUDANIA BAY.

Globe, Volume IX, Issue 1294, 13 May 1878, Page 3

MUDANIA BAY.

Mudaniaßay (says the" Pall Mall Budget") into which the ships of the Mediterranean squadron under the immediate command of Admiral Hornby retired from Prince's Islands, is situated on the Asiatic shore of the Sea of Marmora, thirty-fire miles due south of Constantinople. The bay or gulf is about twenty miles long from west to east, and has an average width of from six to eight miles from north to south. But although capacious, the bay affords very little shelter and bad anchorage for ships. The depth of water along its shores is very great, there being from twenty to thirty fathoms close to the land. Westerly winds throw in a heavy swell, while northerly winds raise a short breaking sea. The mountains on the promontory which, jutting out into the Sea of Marmora, forms the northern coast, of the bay, rise to a height of over 3000 ft.; and when the wind is from the northward furious puffs or gusts pour down the valleys of the range, rendering an anchorage along the north coast dangerous. The town of Mudania stands on the south shore of the bay, and is about fifteen miles to the north-west of Bruesa; of which, during the finer part of the year, it may be considered the port. It is built close to the water, and consists of about a thousand houses, inhabited principally by Turks and Greeks. The town is surrounded on the land side by high hills, the slopes of which are well cultivated, and planted for the most part with vines and olive trees. G-einlik, or G-uinehlek, off which is the only good anchorage in the bay, lies at tho head of the gulf in a fertile and well-cultivated valey, which produces large quantities of good wine and wheat. The town contains about 900 houses, and the population is almost entirely G-reek. More than a hundred years ago tho Turkish Government proposed to establish a shipbuilding yard at Gemlik ; and it is stated by Laurie that, frigates of eighty guns were actually constructed there for the Turkish navy, with timber obtained from the oak forests in the neighborhood of Brussa; but the project failed, and at the present time no traces of any dockyard or building-slips remain.