The Sun.
London, England, 1860-10-22 00:00:00

THE DANUBE AND BLACK SEA

RAILWAY.

KUSTENDJIE, OCT. 4, 1860.
We have to-day witnessed an event of no small
importance to Turkey. We have inaugurated the
first railway in the empire. The Danube and
Black Sea line has ceased to be a project, and has
entered the realm of accomplished facts. The geo-
graphy of the spot is probably but little known
to most of your readers, but if they will turn to the
map they will find that the Danube, about 200

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can we desire more
for our opening day ?
sTwDuheanAec,
celebrate
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delicious,eomSemczp pyeo completion
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Kustendjieharbour.
EisthAgtaimtthheerresachadtsot
the Minister
is accompanied by AL D'Eliffe and two other 1218131."'
bers of the Board of Public Works at Constanti-•
nople. The directors and officers of the company
station n thteh;f
Commerce, is there toxepresent the Sultan.
muster in force, under Mr. Price, the vice-chair-
man ; and some hundred gentlemen from Galati,
Bucharest, and Constantinople complete the as-
semblage.
Before the train starts, however, a religious rite
has to be performed. A reverend moullah ap-•
proaches, and invokes the blessing of Allah on tie
Christian enterprise. Two innocent lambs are
slaughtered, and their blood sprinkled on the rails
before the engine. Ethim Pacha addresses a few
words to the multitude, declares the line form-
ally opened, and the first train on the first railway
in Turkey leaves the first station. The country
between Kustendjie and Tchernavoda is not inte-
resting, but two facts are worthy of notice. First,
the change which is being effected in the fact• of
the country by the immigration of the Tartars of
the Crimea. During the past ten months upwards
of one hundred thousand have renounced the bene-
ficent rule of the Czar and sought refuge under tht'
stern despotism of Turkey. About 40,000 have beenr,
located in the line of the railway, near Medjidieh,
where a colony of their compatriots was established
soon after the Russian war. They are moderately
industrious, and are rapidly bringing into cultiva-
tion a large breadth of land untouched for centuries.
The other fact I would mention is the extensive
tract of land reclaimed by the works of the com-
pany. It was hardly credited by enr fellow-pas-
sengers that the firm and level plain, covered with
vegetation and browsed by numerous herds, which
the railway traverses for some twenty miles, was
but three years ago the bed of a series of lakes fed
by the flood waters of the Danube, and of a depth
varying from 1 to 12 feet. The works by which
this result hasbeen accomplished have been severely
tested, the Danube having risen higher this year
than any time for a century past ; they have, how-
ever, passed the ordeal uninjured. The necessity
for expensive cuttings has been thus avoided.
Arrived at Tchernavoda, the excursionists in-
spected the warehouses erected by the company, and
capable of containing 80,000 or 90,000 quarters of
grain. All necessary appliances for landing the
grain from the Danube, and loading it into trucks,.
whence it may be shipped direct at Kustendjie, are
in progress.
After two hours spent at Tchernavoda the party
returned to Kustendjie, the run being accomplished
in about two hours. In the evening 120 persons
sat down to a most capital dinner, supplied by that
well known Oriental potentate, King Misseri, of
Pera. Ample justice was done to the repast, and
the toasts usual on such occasions followed.
Ethim Pacha warmly complimented the diree-
tors of the company on the quiet but energetic way
in which the operations had been conducted, and
Mr. Consul-Gf.c.-41 Green, in proposing " Success
to the Danube and Black Sea Company," pithily
remarked " that they had got hold of the latch-key
of the Danube."

One word on the undertaking in its commercial
aspect.
The construction of a good port as:Kustendjie is
part of the project. The works are in progress ;
and, although not far advanced, the protection af-
forded is not despicable. It is stated that next year
will see the completion of the covering mole. Com-
pared with the Sulina, and taking Constantinople
as the base, the Kustendjie route saves about 280
miles of sea river ; but what is of infinitely of
greater importance, the Delta and the mouths are
" abolished." What shippers will give to save the
passage to Galatz by the Salina let them declare.
The company assert that they will divert over their
line a most formidable slice of the trade of the
Danube. Time alone will prove the justice of their
previsions; but at least the idea is " imperial."
For passengers the route will certainly be the
best. London to Constantinople in little more than
six days, with only 24 hours of sea in all, is not
otherwise to accomplished.
It is but justice to record the warm tribute paid
by Mr. Hornby, judge of the Consular Court, to the
manner in which the engineers, Messrs. Liddelland Gordon, with the assistance of their ablee
sub-
ordinates, Messrs. Barkley, have conducted Ws,
the works—a tribute in which all present mo t
heartily concurred.
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