50 TRAVELS THROUGH THE SOUTH-WESTERN QUARTER

the health of the failors employed in its vicinity. Among themoft remarkable inhabitants of the ocean, which, however,prefented no great variety, were the Alcyonium Schlqßeri*\ thathere difplayed various (hades, olive-green, yellowifh, andorange, marked with white or yellowiih ftars; farther, a gela-tinous Afcidia^ fome fea-tulips, two fpecies of Sertularia y theEfchara lapldea, the T'ubularia ovifera "h, which I have formerlydefcribed from the Baltic Sea, and the tree-oyfter. The fhoreof the bay throughout confifts of beds of lime in a ftate ofefflorefcence from the a&ion of nitre, depofiting confiderablequantities of a faline calcareous powder, and appearing in amanner corroded. In other parts of the valley bordering onthis bay, we difcovered fome neglected vines and wild hops,the traces of former cultivation.

The air of Sevaftopol is falubrious, on account of its dry,expofed fituation, and the vicinity of the fea. It is not onlytempered by winds during the fummer, but is alfo milder in thewinter than in many other parts of the Crimea, in confequenceof the fhelter afforded by the mountains fituated towards theNorth and Eaft. In the former feafon, the greateft heat neverexceeds 26^ degrees of Reaumur's, or 91 degrees of Fahrenheit'sthermometer. Land and fea breezes blow alternately in theevenings and mornings, in the direction of this port; thusrefrefhing the atmofphere, and at the fame time facilitating theentrance and departure of fhips, while the North-weft and North-eaft winds prevail chiefly at fea, without difturbing the harbour.

* This baftard fponge has been admirably defcribed by Gärtner.—See alfo PallasSpicllegia Zoologica, Fafc. X. p. 37. Tab. IV. fig. 1—5. Bolryl/us ßellatus.f Spicileg. Zoolog, in the fame Fafc. Tab. IV. fig. 9.

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