Norwich bulletin., 1921-09-09

ished while seeking to seize the Oar danelles. On the Asiatic side lies the plain in which stood old Troy.
 ""The Sea of Marmora, from which the Hollespont leads, is about 140 miles in length and 40 miles wide at its greatest width. It is thus somewhat smaller than Lake Ontario, the small i est of our Great Lakes. But though | relatively small, the MarmoraL in it's time has been the center of the world: Probably about no other body of water of such size have so many important cities stood. Of these, Constantinople alone is of importance today; but liv- ing and dead cities cover the shores of prcticllly every harbor and headland of the little sea. The settlement that still exist are not even the heirs of the great cities of yesterday but rath- CT ill-kempt interiopers that under Turkish domain occupied their sites. Typical of the ancient Marmora cities was Cyzicus on the peninsula of that name on the southern shore | of the sea- It was founded earlier than Rome or Byzantium and had a | long life, possessed at various times | by Athens, Sparta, Persia, Macedon. 1 Pergabmus and Rome. It was one of the finest of ancient cities in it's prime and it's gold coins were the standard of their day as the f1orins of Florence became the standard in Renaissance times. But when Byzantium, thanks largely to it's incomparable location on the Bosphorus, rose to power, the glor- ies of Cyzicus faded. Today practical ly nothing is left of the once great city. Its buildings were not left to fall they were torn down by Byzantines and after them by Turks and the stones used in the construc- tion of the latest and still hourishing
 metropolis of the straits.
 Though it is both narrow and
 shorter than the Dardanelles. the
 Bosphorus, third link in this chain of
 historic waters. is perhaps most inn
 portant; for it is the immediate gate
 to and from the great Black Sea
 which reaches towar dthe heart of
 Europe. To command this strait is
 to command one of the great trade routes of the world, a fact which has
 been written deeply into history from
 the day of the early Greeks to those
 of the waning Turks. The strait is about<20 miles long and varies in
 width from a third of a mile to two miles. Darius, Persian king, who in vaded Europe, took his army over a bridge of boats which he had con- |
 At its northern end the Bosphorus
 expands suddenly into the Black Sea
 This is no small sea comparable tc |, one of our Great Lakes but a great body of water 750 miles long and from
 200 to 400 miles wide. If located ir
 the northeastern portion of the United States it would cover all of the New
 England states as well as New Yorl
 and Pennsylvania
 More nations are now grouped K around the Black Sea than perhap = at any other time in history. On tn,
 European side of the mouth of tn c Bosphorus is the tiny patch that re
 mains of Turkey -in-Europe Mex - comes the new northern extension O
 Greece. Bulgaria and Rumania shar e the western end of the sea, Rumani U holding the lions share. Across tn e north stretches the old Russian ter
 ritory which may contribute one o
 many nations to the Black Sea fam
 fly. To the cast, their status equall
 questionable, the republics of Georgi
 and Armenia have a Black Sea shor
 line, at least on paper. The whole 0 $ the rocky southern shore was allotte Il by the peace conference to Turkey. Bu Q it is not only the countries which hay u a Black Sea frontage that are interest E ed in that sea and its outlets to tn "a south. The broad, navigable Danub u carrying the commerce of inland Aus le tria, CZechoslovakia, Hungary an
 Jugo-Slavia to the Black Sea make u the final settlements in regard to thi l. broad expanse of water a matter c le vital interest to large part of Flu IS rope"