The Alaska daily empire., 1915-03-30
THE BOSPORUs.

THE BOSPORUS.
 The Bosporus and the part is has played in human history is the sub. iect of statement just prepared by the National Georgraphic society which is of peculiar Interest ot this particular jonelurs when another chapter in its wonderful story is being written The statement is as fol- lows
 "One writer states thot there ia per haps no other locality in che world surrounded by SO many historical sou. venirs and adorned with so many va. ricd sits of nature; another chat God man. nature and el together created and placed there the most marvellous point ofyiew which the human eye can contemplate upon earth; still another remarks tho, upon this planet therc is no other stream SO wander,ul, that its equal can be found 1T at an. only upon some other star
 Hallowed Banks.
 "Dr Edwin A. 6rosyenor remarks that there is hardly @ nation in the ciy- nied world whose blood has not min- gled with its waters hardly a faith. hardly heresy which by Che devo- uon Of its adherents and martyrs, has not hallowed its banks Associations tho most dissimilar, the most incon- gruous. the most distant elbow one another in every hamlet and village The German emperor. William II, in 1889. disembarks at the same spot which tradition makes the landing place Of the other youthful leader Jason. with thts Argonauts in that sublime voyage of the fourteenth cen- ury before Christ.
 The physical features of the Bos- porus are described by che same au- thor In striking form. He says that in ils swift flow it is river and in its depth 8 sea yet many a sea is less profound and many 8 river spreads wider and has less rapid current. It's average depth is about iS7 feet At no point in the channel is the lepth less than S9 feet.
 "So sharply do its submarine banks descend that large vessels. hugglug the land too closely. though in deep water. oWen run their bowsprits and yards into houses on shore. Tho Strait of Gibraltar which wrests At- rica from Europe. is IS miles wide; even the Dardoneles expand from one mile to four But at ils widest the Bosporus is only one and four. fi;ths miles.
 The length of the Bosporus is less chan i7 miles Each Asiatic side in denture finds 9 convex bend on the European side: each European bay is. met by an Asiauc promontory
 Tradition goes back to the time when. countless ages ago titanic fore cs here rent Asia and Europe asund- err when the pentnp resistless waters of the Black sea tore through valleys and leveled mountains. in thcir sud den southward rush Co the Mediter ranean The volcanic origin of the region confirms this tradition.
 Seventy edible varieties Of fish sport in Che waters of the Bosporus. They are mostly migratory. The strait is che only line Of communico- ,ion between the Black sea and ,he. Mediterranean, their summer and win. ter homes. Tn their migratious count less shoals succeed one another al in- tervols of days. and never did the men In che crows nest of a battle ship scan the horizon more earnestly for an enemy than the outioo6s for Che peer into the deep for signs oC fish migration. As soon as the advanced guard arrives. a signal is given. and immediately inc Bospovus becomes black with fishing boats. So regular are che nsh in their habits and so unchanging in their ways ihat Aristotles account Of their move ments. penned 22 centuries ago. is sdll an accurate description of the va rites and their migrations-
 "The Empire Of tho World"
 "A hundred years ago Constantino-I pie and the Bosporug hung in the bal-' ance just as it does today pr. Gros- ycnor relates how. after the treaty of Tisit Emperor Alexander of Russia had insisted to Napoleon upon the ab- solute necessity to his country was the possession Of Constantinople- He. declared chat there was no price so great. no condition so hard. that it would not be gratefully accorded by| him for the city's acquisition. Napol- con gazed in silence earnestly and long at the map of Europe of which he was. at that moment. the autocratic lrbiter. and then exclaimed Con itantinoplei constantinoplel Never! ! It is the Empire of the world.'"
 Manohn, guitar and banjo lessons,