The Monticellonian., 1916-11-02
DEFILE OF DANUBE
WHERE THE FAMOUS %RON
 GATES" ARE SITUATED.
Series of Dangerous Bowlderz That Constitute Menace to Navigation. Though Steamers Make Their
 Way Through Them.

The Iron Gates, the last great detile of the Danube in its course to the Black sea and the first point at which the Austrians launched an offensive against their new enemies, the Rou- manians, is described in bulletin ts- sued by the National Geographic so- ciety:
 Contrary to the general belief of readers to whom the term Iron Gates of the Danube is familiar, this famous defile of the chief waterway of Hun gary, ROumania. Bulgaria and Serbia does not derive it's name from precipi- tous walls of rock through which the waters dash in narrow channel, as at the Kazan detile, but from the dan gerous powders that fairly litter the river bed for distance of nearly two miles, beginning at the once strongly fortified island of Ada Kaleh, which was captured by Hungary in 1878 and still is inhabited by picturesque col ony of 500 Turks. Opposite this is- land, on the left bank of the Danube and at the mouth of the inconSequen- tial Bachna river, which here forms the Hungarian-Roumania boundary, is the attractive little Roumanian GUS toms village of Verciorova on the Budapest-Bucharest railway, 237 miles west of the latter city.
 Tt was not until 1890 that work was begun in a definite and comprehensive manner to rid the Iron Gates of some of it's grayest dangers to navigation. In that year Hungarian engineering company undertook the task of remov- ing nearly million and a quarter cubic yards of stone from the water course. Eight years after the enter prise was inaugurated the canal which had been hewn from the solid rock on the Serbian side of the river was ready to be thrown open to the steam CTS which ply the Danube from Buda- pest to the Black sea. The canal was designed to provide year-round chan nel ten feet deep whereas the original course of the river was not navigable for more than nine months out of every twelve.
 "The opening of the waterway was the occasion for a great celebration, in which three monarchs participated Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria Hungary. King Alexander of Serbia and King Carol Charles D of Rou- mania. The festivities of the day were somewhat marred by the discovery that the current through the canal was so swift that while steamers could rush through it in their downward journey. they could not make the trip upward, so that the old river course had to be used for westward bound traffic
 "When the water is high the rocks of the Iron Gates are completely sub merged, but they are only few feet beneath the surface, and the boiling, churning waves present terrifying sight to the timid passenger as his steamer fights it's way to the calmer reaches in the vicinity of Orsova (pro- nounced Orshova), the first town In Hungarian territory, five miles above the rapids and a ten hours journey
 
 times capital of Serbia.
 "Instead of the gloomy gorge which most travellers expect to find. the banks on each side of the Iron Gates present beautiful picture of gently sloping hills, bountifully wooded. In the early summer these woods are fairyland of flowers. and the winds are fairly weighted with the fragrance of wild blossoms in countless variety, while short distance from the river the huntsman finds deer, wild boar, bear and other game in abundance. Enhancing the charm of the scene are the songs of myriad birds. which make their home in the forests.
 AS the river progresses eastward into Roumania the wooded hills dis appear and are succeeded by barren sand ridges"