Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1916-11-25
DEFILE OF DANUBE
WHERE THE FAMOUS uRON
GATES" ARE SITUATED.
Series of Dangerous BowIders That
Constitute Menace to Navigation,
Though Steamers Make Their
Way Through Them.

The Iron Gates, the last great defile
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 a bulletin is
sued by the National Geographic So
ciety:
Contrary to the general belief of
readers to whom the term Iron Gates
defile of the chief waterway of Hun
gary, Roumania Bulgaria and Serbia
does not derive its name from precipi-
tous walls of rock through which the
waters dash in Il narrow channel, as
Mt the Kazan defile. out from the dam
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 a picturesque col
ony of 800 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-R boundary, is
the attractive little Roumanlan Gus
toms village of Verciorova on the
Budapest-Bucharest railway, 237 miles
west of the latter city.
at was not until 1890 that work was
begun in definite and comprehensive
manner to rid the Iron Gates of some
of it's gravest dangers to navigation.
In that year Hungarian engineering
company undertook the task of remov-
ing nearly a 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
ers which ply the Danube from Buda-
pest to the Black sea. The canal was
designed to provide year-round chan
mel ten feet deep whereas the original
course of the river was not navlgable
for more than nine months out of
every twelve.
the occasion for q great celebration,
in which three monarchs participated
Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria
Hungary King Alexander of Serbia
and King Carol Charles y of Rou-
mania The festivities of the day were
somewhat married 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 a few feet
beneath the surface, and the boiling,
churning waves present a terrifying
sight to the timid passenger as his
steamer fights its 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 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 beautiful picture of gently
sloping hills, bountifully wooded. In
the early summer these woods are n
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"