Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1915-09-09
HISTORIC Gates
TO THE BLACK SEA
OBJECT Of ALLIES
Black Sea and Sea of Marmora
Theatre of Epic Events To.
day as in Earliest
Times.

Washington, d. c., Sept. 3--Wit' the
northwestern battle-thcatre of the Turks
proclaimed by the war-prophets as that
where the deciding master strokes In
this most titan-lke of all struggles are
to be delivered, a sketch OF this remark
able regions past prepared by Harry
Griswold Dwight for the National Geo
graphic society is of more than usual.
interest Here the West won its self
confidence. and this confidence has borne
fruits with splendid richness longer than
.'ooo years. Here the course of civiliza-
ton has been changed and modified sew
eral times and here. again to-day, the
| attention of the world is fixed in the
belief that the future OF Europe will
once more be determined by events
about TO transpire. In the bulletin just
issued by the National Geographic
society. Mr.. Dwight tells about THE
Gates to the Black Sea-
There is something alluring in tho
very shape and position of these lakes
the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmora,
! separating as they do the two most
historic continents OF our globe, and
communicating with each other and with
the outer seas by openings that seem
mira culous. And those landlocl<ed
waters have been from earliest times rs
they happen again to be to-day. the
theatre of epic events. For us Of the
West no legends are older than those
of Zeus AMI 10. of Phryxus and Helle.
of the Trojan war. of Jason and the
Argo. which commemorate the earliest
voyages into the Great Lakes of tho
Levant.
of the two the Marmora-the Propon-
tbs. If you prefer to be classcal--is by
far the smaller. Not much more than
100 miles long and some 20 miles across
at it's broadcast part 1t is about the same
size as Lake Champlain. The Marnora
has much of the softness of air, vivid
ness of color. and beauty of scenery that
we associate with the Aegean and
1onian Seas. Thread the narrow slit of
the Rosphorus. however, and YOU pass
into an entirely different world-sterner,
barer. rocker, colder.
"If the Marmora may be compared to
Lake Champaign. the Black Sea Is
about four times the size of our great
est lake. Lake Superior Is 3,2 miles Ions,
by l67 wide, while the Black Sea has n
length of $50 miles and breadth OF
/ $50. That there Is something dark and
unfriendly about it is more than a
legend. The Rosphorus is ~ miles long
and at one point its tortuous course the
hills of Europe and Asia come within
$50 yards of each other. The Darda-
nees Is twice as long and nearly twice
as wide. varying from 1.4N yards to
five miles. Its European shore, Gallipcl
peninsula. is the Thracian Cher
sonese of the ancients, and its steep
ridge overlooks the plain Of Troy on the
Asiatic bank and the broken foothills of
Mt Ida.
while its two historic gateways are
strategically the most important fea-
lures of Marmora. that picturesque lit
tie has a character all its own. In
any other part of the world it would
long ago have become n place of sojourn
for yachtsmen and summcrers, so hap
PLY is it treated by sun and wind, so
amply provided with bays, capes,
islands, mountains, forests, and all other
accidents of nature that make glad the
heart of the amateur explorer. AS II is,
the Marmora remains strangely wild
for a sea that has known so much OF
life. More numerous than the settle
ments of to-day are the ruins OF yes
tcrday. About no body of water in the
world of equal size. have stood so many
stately cities. 1t is almost impossible
indeed to give any coherent account of
the story of Marmora. so much history
and legend have crowded its shores
Writing of the antiquity Of the straits
question. Mr.. Dwigh: says:
THE question Of the straits arose as
carly as the fifth century b. c.. when
Alcibiades of Athens counseled the peo-
pie of Chrysopolis. the modern Scutari
at the southeastern extremity of the
3osphorus, to take toll Of passing ships"
Rut the Ottoman regulation OF the
anything attempted by the ancients
The Turks have allowed no foreign
men-of-war to enter the Marmora," the
writer continues, unless under rnre and
special circumstances. and not only do
they exercise surveillance over the traf-
fic in the straits, but twice during tho
last four years they have closed the
Dardanclles to navigation OF any kind
AT the moment at which ] write tho
fleets Of France and England are ham
mering at the historic gateway. Thus
the question of the Black Sea, which Is
the ancient question of the straits. Is
posed anew more dramatically than
ever before. Is il for final solution?
No solution can be found" the writer
concludes (which will give any one ma
iyht Of