Black Sea, or EUXINE (the Pontus Euxinus of the ancients), is an inland sea lying between Europe and Asia, extending from 41° to 46° 38' N. lat., and from 27° 30' to 41° 50' E. long. Its greatest length from east to west, on the 42d parallel, is 720 miles; its greatest breadth, near the west end, 380 miles; and its area, exclusive of the Sea of Azov, is 163,711 sq. m., according to Strelbitsky. On the south-western extremity it communicates by the Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmora, and the Dardanelles, with the Mediterranean, and on the north-east by the Straits of Kertch, or Yenikale, with the Sea of Azov. The Black Sea drains nearly one-fourth of the surface of Europe, and also about 114,000 sq. m. of Asia. Throughout its whole extent it has but one island, and that a small one, lying opposite the mouths of the Danube, called Adassi, or Isle of Serpents, on which is a lighthouse. In the centre its depth ranges between 1000 and 1070 fathoms, and as there are no shoals along the shores, except at the entrance of the Bosphorus, the navigation of the sea ought to be particularly easy and safe. It is so in summer; but in winter, being inclosed on every side, it becomes the scene of conflicting winds, and of storms which, though of short duration, are terrible while they last.
All the coasts are high, with good harbours, except between the mouths of the Danube and the Crimea; there the land is low, and the danger of navigation greatly increased in winter by the presence of floating ice; for, from the many large rivers which flow into this sea and that of Azov (Danube, Dniester, Bug, Dnieper, Don, Kuban, and Rion, in Europe; and the Kizil-Irmak and Sakaria, in Asia), the waters are fresher, and consequently more easily frozen than those of the Mediterranean. The specific gravity of the water of the Black Sea is 1014 (fresh water being = 1000), while that of the Mediterranean is 1028. The shores from Odessa to the Crimea are ice-bound during January and February; and although the harbour of Odessa is never frozen up, yet the drift-ice frequently renders the entrance to it dangerous.
There is no tide in this sea, but the large rivers flowing into it give rise to currents, which are particularly strong in spring when the snows melt. There is a strong flow out through the Bosphorus.
The most important ports on the Black Sea are those of Kustendji, Sulina, Odessa, Nikolaiev, Kherson, Eupatoria, Kertch, Sebastopol, Poti, Batoum, Trebizond, Samsun, Sinope, and Varna.
The depth of the water is unfavourable to the extensive establishment of fisheries, but sturgeon are caught in the Straits of Yenikale, and other fish are abundant.
The ancients believed that the Euxine was at one time much more extensive, and that it had no connection with the Mediterranean, until the Thracian Bosphorus had been burst through by an earthquake, or by the great deluge known as the Deucalion deluge, which inundated Greece.
The sea has been navigated from a very early period. Its original Greek name was Axeinos, or 'inhospitable' sea, afterwards changed euphemistically to Euxeinos, 'the hospitable.' In the time of Xerxes, large quantities of corn were exported from its ports to Athens and the Peloponnus. The Romans and Byzantines, and also the Genoese, had large traffic on the sea. From the fall of Constantinople (1453), all but Turkish vessels were excluded from its waters, until the treaty of Kainardji (1774), when the Russians obtained the right to trade in it. Ten years after, Austrian ships were privileged to trade here; and by the Peace of Amiens in 1802 British and French ships were admitted. It was entered by the allied fleets, at the requisition of the Porte, in January 1854, and a dreadful storm in November of the same year caused great loss of life, shipping, and stores. By the Treaty of Paris (1856) it was opened to the commerce of all nations, and closed to ships of war, while the erection of arsenals was forbidden; but this article was repudiated by Russia in 1870, and in the following March, at a conference in London, the neutralisation of the sea was abrogated. Since then both Russia and Turkey have kept fleets in its waters. The Bosphorus and Dardanelles are still closed to other ships of war, but the sultan can open them at need to allies.