RUSSIAN FORTRESSES.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 322, 4 May 1877, Page 2

RUSSIAN FORTRESSES.

The following information concern the fortified towns in Russian torrit adjoining the Black Sex (says an change) comes in very apropos now t the cablegrams are daily filled with known and uncouth names :—" In a( man paper some information is publis about the Russian fortifications on shores of the Black Sea. The first of naval fortresses in Southern Russia Nicola'ieff, and no pains have been spa to make it as -strong as possible. ■ extensive arsenals and shipbuilding yi are incessantly employed in producing requirements of naval warfare, and K lai'eff now possesses depots of ammunil and a park of artillery which will on the director of the coast defences strengthen any required point at a i short notice. The entrance into the of Kherson, from which one passes the Bug Liman, and then to Nicolaiel defended by two naval forts. The fir! these, OtchakofF, is on the Bessaral coast, and is tolerably protected on west by swamps ; the other is JCitib lying opposite on the Nogai steppe, surrounded by creeks and canals. I Otchakoff to Odessa along the coa about 80 versts. Odessa is surrounde a series of fortifications which exter Akermnnn, on the Dniester. This c of works, armed with guns of 1» calibre, and supplemented by sub-mi torpedoes, would make an attack fror sea very diflicult. But the line o fence extending from Odessa to Nico has one weak point, at Perekop, "* the Crimean penidsula, the Nogai steppe. Tlfctt wpole of the them and western coast of the Criro almost unprotected, though Russia little to fear on that side, as any inv army which wished to circumvent tin of fortifications between Odessa and lai'eff would be obliged to otom (he

Las of Perekop. When the Tartars ruled lover the Tanrian Peninsula they blockaded tbis isthmus with a huge wall, flfmiliir to that of Trajan in the Dobrudgcha, and fortified the adjoining hills of Kara-Djanai, Kullah, TJtch-Djilga, and TJrmemskoibazar. 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 strengtnening the works round Sebastopol. Torpedoes have been laid down in the Bay of Tchernaya. and also at Cape Khersonese and Balaklava, which harbour ii protected by a fort. There are other fortifications at Sudak, in the Bay of Takkieh, 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 westex-n extremity of the peninsula of Tainan, on the hill of iakil, at Kertch itself, and at Yenikaleli. Cape Fanar, on the other side of the Kimmerian Bosphorous, is also to be fortified. On the Caucasian coast the following are the pr.n iid forts : -Djemiter, ISovorossiskaya, Gelendtchik, Tenpinsk, Lazarevsk, Golovinsk, Doucha, Soukhoum, Kaleh, Ilori Redout Kaleh, Poti, and Nikolaya.