The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1929-04-19

prepared by the National Geographic
Society. Washington. D. CT
II UR0PE'S Temporary Ice Age
~ the most severe winter that has
L. been known for many decades
gave the role of destroyer to the
stream that is normally the Beautiful
Blue Danube. The stream was frozen
so solidly that ice dams were formed,
imprisoning millions of cubic feet of
water. When milder weather caused
a break in the ice barriers, the result
ing flood damaged hundreds of the riv-
er boats that had been imprisoned in
the ice.
Economically the Danube is to the
land-locked nations of Europe what
the Mediterranean is to the countries
of southern Europe. Once the North
ern frontier of the Roman empire; la
ter the path for conquering hordes of
Huns, Slavs and Magyars; now the
commercial Main street of Central Eu-
rope, the Danube may claim to be the
most important river of Europe,
though it is exceeded by the Volga in
length.
Human activity attains extremes
along the Danube's course even more
marked than the contrasts along BIZ
zarre Broadway, N. Y. Its waters
see the reyels and restitution of
Vienna and flow by fiat rocks on which
Hungarian women pound their clothes
with wooden mallets and bear them
away in tubs on their heads. They
pass mills like those of Minneapolis,
bear vessels like those on the Hudson,
and turn the wheels of boat-borne wa
ter wheels TO which peasants bring
grain in primitive OK carts with even
the wheels kept in place by wooden
pins.
The river halves Budapest and
courses by busy Belgrade where it
receives the waters of the Save. 1t
carries barges on which families live
as they do on canal boats. Grim cas-
ties. great estates, and tiny cottages
stand along its banks.
ScenicalIy the Danube possesses va
riety almost rs infinite. Rising in the
Black forest. some of its waters seep
through underground assures 10
stream of the Rhine basin. Sometimes
ii is pressed between high hills. Small
er craft appear on its waters in Ba-
varia. In Austria il splits into many
arms and forms whirlpool In Hun
gary plains it sprawls wide, receiving
many important branches. remnant of
a prehistoric inland sea. Ii resumes
a wild. torrential aspect again when
it pierces the KaZan defile and the
iron gates. 1t receives nearly as many
tributaries as there are days in the
year, and drains an area almost equiv
alent to that of Egypt
Along the steep right bank of the
Kazan defile can be traced road built
by Trajan early in the Second century.
Not until recently has the construction
of a modern road made the defile pass
able upon either bank.
Recognition Of the International i'm
portance of the Danube was attested
by placing il under a commission in
1856. and further provisions regarding
it are contained in subsequent treaties.
including that of Versailles in 1919.
The Scenic GIories.
The scenic gIories of the Danube
are chiefly to be seen along the up
per reaches of the river; but the broad
highway of the lower reaches is eco
nomieally of more interest. because of
the traffic ii carries.
Below Giurgevo. Rumania, and Rut-
schuk. Bulgaria. the Danube widens
TO about three miles from bank to
bank. Giurgevo, point of great
strategic Importance, is accessible by
river steamers at high water and has
an auxiliary port about two miles fur
Their down stream.
The lower Danube has a very slight
fall, only 40 feet in the last 600 miles
Of its length. but because of the great
volume of water, increased as ii goes
on by the Alt. the Argesch. the Jalo-
mitZa, the Sereth, and the Pruth. as
well as smaller streams. il flows with
great force. The Bulgarian banks are
high {; the Rumanian shore is low and
fat and often overflowsL
Silistria, the fortress of the Da-
nube" since Roman times. though of
less military importance than Galatz.
is the next place of interest below
Rutschuk. Roman relic. -Trajan's
WALL" may be seen from the river be-
low Silistria, and forty miles from
that city there is a railroad bridge over
two and half miles long and the only
one below Belgrade. connecting Buch-
Arrest and the Black sea porf of Con-
stanza. This is one of the most re-
markabIe examples of its kind of en-