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growth in the spring. Only during the winter months is the marsh passable for vehicles, or even for pedestrians, and when the whole region is frozen hard the mails and the few passengers who are obliged to travel are carried on sledges straight across from one station to another over the level surface of land and water. Russia took possession of this region after the capture of Ismail, in the early part of the century, and in order to help commerce at home, put various restrictions on the Danube trade, which almost annihilated it for a time. The adoption of free trade by England naturally stimulated the export business in the cornproducing countries of the Danube, and great pressure was brought to bear to induce Russia to remove the hampering restrictions on the navigation of the river. International disputes arising from this cause finally culminated in the Crimean war, and it was not without reason, therefore, that the treaties of peace contained articles intended to place the navigation of the river in control of the countries most interested in the corn supply. clause of the treaty created a Riverian Commission, whose duty was to regulate the general navigation of the river, and another clause established a European Commission of the Danube, "to clear the

VOL. LXXXV.-No. 507.-46

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mouths of the river as well as the neighboring parts of the sea from the sand and other impediments which obstruct them." The first of these commissions found its task impossible on account of the conflicting interests of the small countries along the river, and has never done anything, although it is still recognized diplomatically. The powers represented in the active commission are Great Britain, Austro-Hungary, France, Germany, Italy, Roumania, Russia, and Turkey.

Owing to a misunderstanding of the nature of the work to be done, the commission was established for a term of only two years. This period was extended at various times, and at last it was settled by the treaty of 1878 that the functions of this body should continue until it should be dissolved by the powers. It has been constantly at work since its first meeting in 1856. A few statistics will give an idea of the effect on English trade of the improvements to navigation brought about by the commission. Before 1847 from 3 to 52 English vessels entered the Danube annually. Between 1847 and 1860 2648 English ships entered the river, representing a net tonnage of 509,723. Between 1861 and 1889 these numbers were raised to 12,363 and 9,842,260 respectively. In 1861 214 English sailing vessels and 35

PEASANTS OF THE DELTA.

steamers came to the port of Sulina, and in 1889 842 steamers and not a single sailing vessel. In 1890 the total number of vessels of all nationalities entering the Danube was 1519, including many steamers of 1400 to 1600 tons. The commission began in 1860 to collect tolls to maintain the improvements, and in that year the revenue was 256,583 francs. In 1889 this

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was increased to 1,348,552 francs. British ships have paid from 71 to 82 per cent. of the whole dues levied during the past ten years. The exports from the river consist chiefly of wheat, barley, and Indian corn, but oats, rye, rape and linseed, petroleum, tallow, hides, salt fish, wines and spirits, cheese, lumber, and wool are also shipped in large quantities. Machinery, coal, bar and sheet iron, and articles of clothing form the bulk of the imports. In general terms, the work of the commission has consisted in the construction of groins and revetements, straightening the river-banks, shortening the channel by cuttings, and dredging the shallow places. The whole delta has been surveyed, and accurate maps made. A great part of the Sulina arm has been canalized, and the channel deepened from eight feet at extreme low water to over 16 feet, or to 20 feet, at average low

The largest cutting yet undertaken, which will shorten the channel by four and a quarter miles, is now in active progress, and the operation of cutting through the marsh is extremely interesting. Far out of sight of any human habitation, the black funnel and grimy frame-work of an immense dredger are seen rising high above the waving mass of reeds which stretches away on every side as far as the eye can reach. A chain of steel-shod iron buckets working on movable arm, which projects in front of the dredger, cuts its way through the spongy mass of roots and mud of which the marsh is composed, and deposits the mass by means of a long trough on the side of the cutting. There the material is worked by hand into a dike, strengthened by the ingenious use of reeds and roots, and finally protected by a revetement of broken stones. This cutting will be five miles and a quarter in length, and 6,500,000 cubic yards will have to be dredged before the work is completed in 1895.

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The headquarters of the commission are at Sulina, on the Black Sea. As early as the time of the Irish famine in 1847-8 hundreds of English sailing vessels came to the Black Sea for grain. Most of them anchored in the mouth of the Sulina branch, discharged ballast there, and loaded with corn to supply the urgent demand for breadstuffs at home. squalid little settlement rapidly sprang up among the heaps of gravel deposited on the marshy banks, and, as years went on, the constantly accumulating ballast was spread further and further up along the stream and inland over the morass, and streets and houses followed the expanding area of solid ground. The establishment of the European Commission of the Danube gave a fresh impulse to

the growing place, and a busy commercial town soon covered the deposit of bal last, having its foundations literally on English soil. Commodious offices, large warehouses, and repair shops were built, churches were erected by followers of various creeds, a life-saving station was established, a fine stone quay was constructed on the south bank of the stream, and two jetties with light-houses were pushed far out into the shallow waters of the Black Sea. Few travellers ever visit Sulina, because the passenger boats usually touch there in the night, and leave before daybreak. Its cosmopolitan character and its peculiar situation in the marsh make it an interesting spot. Types of a score of nationalities may be studied on its quay, and there is a great deal of picturesqueness, of a squalid order, to be sure, in all its narrow streets. No long walks or drives are possible, for the wilderness of reeds crowds up to the very back doors of the town, but there is a unique fascination in its isolated position, and a special charm in the savage character of its surroundings. Allusion has been made to Sulina in anticipation because, although it was the goal of our journey, our arrival there was the climax of our adventures.

We set out from Galatz late one windy afternoon, and camped for the night on a low sandy flat nearly opposite the river Pruth, which forms the boundary between

Roumania and Russia, planning to make a fair start by daybreak into the territory of the Czar.

We were rather late in getting afloat the next morning, for the wind had risen to a gale in the night, and had drifted the fine sand over everything, half burying the boats, and penetrating every crevice and cranny in them. This added a great deal to the labor of packing up, and the only way we succeeded in getting rid of this nuisance was by carrying everything down close to the water's edge, where the sand was wet and hard. The Pruth is a narrow, deep stream, winding under the western slopes of a range of low hills, which divert the course of the Danube sharply from the northeast to the southeast at this point. The first Russian town, Reni, with its turnip-shaped church spires and ugly warehouses, stands on a high bluff overlooking this bend of the river, and offers nothing of interest, not even at the water-front, where there is little or no activity, and few craft of any kind. The hills abruptly recede again just below the town limits, and the river sweeps majestically round toward the east, and takes an almost straight course to the first branching in the delta. Both shores are now quite flat and well cultivated, and on either side frequent picket stations are the only houses in sight. To the south and east, across a narrow strip of meadow

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TOULTCHA.

land, the great hills of the Dobrudscha, dotted with ancient tumuli, extend far into the distance, where a range of mountains cuts sharply against the sky with bold, jagged outlines; to the north, the irregular base spurs of the line of low hills which touch the river at Reni are seen jutting out over the great marsh at intervals, until they vanish in the perspective. The wind veered round in the middle of the forenoon, and almost died away, and as we alternately sailed and paddled down the long straight reach toward the delta, past the red-roofed town of Isaktcha, on the Roumanian shore, half hidden behind a wooded island, and the great Russian monastery of St. Theraspont across the river, we heard not so much as a single hail from the soldiers on either bank, although we often passed close to their stations. In the early afternoon we saw before us a stone jetty with a spindle on the end, and soon found that this marked the place where the river divides and the delta actually begins. The fork is known as the Chatal d'Ismail, and the embankment was built by the Danube Commission, to divert the strength of the current from the Kilia arm into the main stream. Three or four miles to the south the white houses of Toultcha shone brightly among the dark green foliage of the trees, and numerous windmills were waving their arms on the rocky promontory below the town. A half-dozen miles further to the eastward is the Chatal St. George, where the stream divides into the Sulina and the St. George's arms.

We did not hesitate to follow the lefthand branch at the Chatal d'Ismail, and rounding a sharp bend to the north, we soon entered a great wilderness of reeds and willows. For some distance not even a picket station was visible on either shore; but as we paddled steadily along in

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the sluggish current we оссаsionally saw a Russian soldier in white uniform in the dense undergrowth among the willows. In a little more than an hour's time we came in sight of Ismail, picturesquely situated on a gentle slope of ground beyond pleasant meadows, where the ruins of a great Turkish fortress stand. Great cultivated fields on the same side of the river, where scores of peasants were at work, stretched far back to the distant hill-sides, yellow with corn fields and dotted with villages. A large Russian picket station on an open point tempted us to land and see what would happen, so we ran the bows of the canoes into the mud, and asked the soldiers assembled on the bank for a light for our cigarettes, at the same time preparing to go ashore. One of them went to the quarters for a live coal, while the others helped us out of the canoes in a very friendly manner, and we spent a sociable hour with them. We did not hurry away, because we planned to camp just above Ismail, and it was nearly sunset when we floated away toward the glittering domes rising above the dense masses of willow-trees in the distance. The peasants rattled across the fields in their farm wagons, leaving behind them a cloud of dust all golden in the evening light. A mounted officer cantered along the bank, paused a moment to look at us, gave a sharp command to a sentinel, and went on again. Now we noticed that a soldier was stationed at every furlong of the shore, and we began to be anxious about finding a secluded camp-ground. The Roumanian side was absolutely impossible, for the mud was not only of the blackest and most adhesive variety, but it extended so far out into the river that it was quite out of the question to try to effect a landing. We kept to that bank, however, examining every foot of ground at the water's edge until we came to the corner of the last bend above Ismail. It was not possible to camp at this place, and if we went further we should have to pass the town, a proceeding which might result in our being delayed there for the night. After some hesitation we made up our minds to paddle across the stream to a gravelly beach under a meadow bordered by a row of willows, and to land there in face of the sentinel whom we saw pacing

to and fro.

The soldier challenged us as we came near, and we answered that we were travellers, and wanted to camp there for the night. A corporal speedily came up, and one of us, taking the passports, accompanied him to the officers' quarters, a half-mile or so across the fields. Our position was soon explained to the satisfaction of the lieutenant, who, although not a particularly intelligent specimen of the officers of the line, readily comprehended the fact that we had no hostile intentions, and ordered the corporal to see that we were not molested in our camp, and to send us for our passports in the morning. In a few minutes we had our camp in or der, built a fire, and cooked our dinners, all to the great entertainment of the soldier on guard, who watched every operation with the most intense interest. Before we had finished eating, a number of officers came down from their quarters to look at our canoes, and when, a few minutes later, they saw us getting ready for bed, politely wished us good-night and went away.

Our bivouac was not far from a country road, and every passer met a prompt challenge from the soldier, who never deserted our fire except to perform this duty. Feeling very much as if we were within the lines of an army in war-time, we retired into the shelter of our tents, and left the soldier to whisper to himself and utter mournful sighs by the few remaining coals. Some time in the night he was relieved, and the new sentinel withdrew to the cover of the willow-trees, and did not disturb us in any way. In the early morning a boat-load of natives, rowing up stream past our camp, was immediately challenged by the guard and ordered to come ashore. One of the men landed and carried the passports up to the officers for the regulation visé before the boat was allowed to proceed. We then appreciated the fact that we were not treated any differently from the inhabitants themselves, but that, as far as the custom-house regulations went, the river - bank was practically in a state of siege.

After a short paddle from Ismail down a

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