The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1870-06-02

tween two and three hundred yards,
at the romantic Gates Of the Dam
ube." These formed a formidable
obstacle to navigation, until the tall
ented and enterprising SzechneyI, By
his engineering skill, removed the
distractions. Besides most laboriOus |
and expensive blasting at the Gates,
he had to construct long road IN |
order TO obtain access to the locality, |
sometimes tunneling, where the
Romans had formerly a plank road
(called via Trsjana), resting on tim
bers mortised into the perpendicular
rocks for a considerable distance
along the banks, the long line of
mortise holes being yet distinctly
visible. In 1882 the first vessel
passed through these rapids, and even
vet they lave occasionally to remove
distractions by blasting. The whole
scenery from the railroad station.
Basiasch, to Orsova, is rocky and
picturesque. A short distance below
this point, the banks become again
gradually low, although the distant
Balkans relieve the view in the south
and western back ground.
The evening before reaching Rust
shuck, where we took the cars for the
Black Sea, / observed a popularity at
sunset, on the water, which, if imita-
ted by a painter, would have been
generally pronounced, not true to ma
ture. The surface of the slowly flow
ing Danube was gently rippled, and
reflected perfectly the tints of the
golden and azure canopy above. The
sun was setting with a radiance of
yellow, passing into the deep blue of
| the vaulted heavens, and forming a
delicate green, which | had never be-
fore observed at the intermingling.
The top of each sunlit, ripping,
! Danube-Wave reflected to the eye
naught but the golden yellow rays of
| wave trough glinted back deep azure
tints, with a mellow intermingling of
| the two shades between, into a soft
green, thus blending the tints of earth
and heaven into beautiful harmony.
| We now dashed, at pretty fair speed
| (leaving a railroad just completed,
which branches to Bucharest), past
| Bulgarian villages, Inhabited often
by Omissions, although the Mosques
sometimes sent up stately minarets,
with cultivated fields around these
little towns. large herds of goats, do
mesticated buffalo, similar to those of
Italy, hay stacks and cotton fields,
scrubby timber, quarries of soft, yell
low, tertiary limestones, wagons with
wooden wheels and no tires, we'll
sweeps, occasionally dark and rich
looking soil, aud sometimes the ia
miliar MULLEN, indicating a less pro-
ductive region. After passing Shum-
la, few hours brought us to Varna,
where we embarked on board the
regular packet Neptune" bound for
Constantinople, over the dark waters
of the Euxine.
THE BLACK SEA.
The medley on deck was very anus
ing. Here a booted Armenian with
red fez making more gesticulations
than Forrest in Hamlet; there a jew
ess, her hair bound with fillet, TO de-
note her married condition, while by
her side was an unmarried compan-
ion with loose flowing hair through
which peeped string of pearls, ex-
tending from earrings to collar, back
of the head. One Mahommedan, on
the quarter deck, seemed to be count
ing his numerous ghost-like yelled
wives and mummy like swaddled
children, to see that none were mis-
sing. while others lay about the for
ward deck on carpets, skins or blank
ct cloaks, in diverse oriental costumes.
A few, at sunset, were kneeling on their
rugs, with their faces towards Mecca,
ENGAGED In apparently earnest prayer.
Some AlbaDians. In fine military
costumes, with short sword and pistols
stuck in the belt, diagonally in front
of them, were grouped around Wala-
chan sheep, with long spiral horns,
fat tailed Tartar Sheep and Bulga-
rian chickens, destined for the Con-
stantinople market. The last sight
after the motley groups had stretched
themselves in every conceivable atti-
tude on deck, (for the Turks did not
occupy the cabins), was the brilliant
| phosphoresence of this Euxine Sea,
which is full of acalephs (sea nettles)
to whose peculiar jelly-like bodies
this light is chiefly due; and the first
prospect, In the glorious morning,
which revealed the same crowd yet
| stretched on deck, was the magni6
cent entrance to
THE BosPHoRUs AND THE GOLDEN
1
HORN.
As soon as the first dawn of day
permitted, / was on deck to greet the
glorious scenery Of the Thracian Bos-
phorus Cor more properly Bosporus),
a strait sixteen miles In length, and
averaging one and a half In breadth,
across which heather mythology re-
ports 10 having swan, when trans
| formed bv limo into a oow. banoe
the name, signifying OK. or bovine
passage. Casting our eyes to east
ward, we hailed, for the first time,
Asia, the continent of ancient man
ners and customs, the apparent
birth -place of the sun, and the
known cradle of the human
race. Most picturesque was that
sight. A fine old Roman tower
stood, in its dark majesty (rendercd
yet more sombre by the thickly clus
teriug ivy, which here luxuriates as
freely as in its English home, } against
horizon gilt with Aurora's rays
and, by the time the chariot of the
sun had climbed a small segment of
the azure arch, the solar beams,
streaming from the heights of Asiatic
Soutari, and the Castle of Asia
(Anatolia Hissar), fell upon the impos
ing tower of Roumili Hissar, on the
opposite European coast, illumining
soop after the fine valley and village
of Buyuk Dere, and subsequently
were reflected in dazzling glimmer
from the white walls of palaces occu-
pied by the Russian, French and
English Embassies.
Msjestically we swept past the Sui