Norwich bulletin., 1916-09-27
THE WAR PRIMER By National Geographic Society

The Iron Gates, the last great de- file of the Danube in it's course to the Black Sea and the first point at which the Austrians launched an offensive against their new enemies, the Ru- manians, is described 1T. the following Geographic Society issued today:
 Contrary to the general belief of readers to whom the term Iron Gates of the Danube,' is familiar, this fla
 nous def1le of the chief waterway of Hungary, Roumania, Bulgaria and Serbia does not derive its name from precipitous falls of rock through which the waters dash in a narrow channel as at the KaZan defile, but from the dangerous boulders that fairly litter the riverbed for 8 dis tance of nearly two miles, beginning Ada Kaleh which was captured by Hungary in 1878 and is still inhabi- tod by a picturesque colony of 500 Turks. Opposite this island, on the left bank of the Danube and at the mouth of the inconseQuential Bachna River, which here forms the Hunga- rian- n-Roumanian boundary, is the at tractive little Roumanian customs will lage 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 def1nites and compre- hensive manner to rid the Iron Gates of some of it's gravest dangers to nav igatiOn. Tn that year @ Hungarian engineering company undertook the task of removing nearly a million and a quarter cubic yards of stone from the Watercourse. Eight years after the enterprise 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 steamers which ply the Danube from Budapest to the Black Sea. The canal was designed to provide a year round channel ten feet deep, whereas the original course of the river was not navigable for more than nine months out of every twelve.
 'fThe opening of the waterway was the occasion for a great celebration in which three morarchs participated Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria Hungary, King Alexander of Serbia, and King Carol CCharles T. of Rou- mania. The festivities of ese day were somewhat marred by the dis covery that the current through the canal was so swift that while steam CTS 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 west ward bound traffic.
 When the water is high the rocks or the Iron Gates are completely sub- merged but they are only a few feet beneath the surface and the boiling, churn1ng wa1tes present a terrigying sight to the timid passenger as his steamer fights it's way to the calmer | reaches in the vicinity of Orsova (pronounced Orshova), the first town in Hungarian territory, five miles above the rapids and ten-hours Journey by boat below Belgrade, the
 peace 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 a beautiful picture of early sloping hills, bountifully wooded. In the early summer these woods are a fairyland of flowers and the winds are fairly weighted with the ragrance ds wild blossoms in countless variety, while O short distance from the river the huntsman finds deer, wild boar,
 bear and other game in abundance Enchancing 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 apear and are succeeded by barren sand rfdgeS'