ACROSS THE BOSPHORUS. 31 



Turkoman Uzun Hassan, — rolled in successive waves 

 from the East to be hurled tumultuously against the 

 portals of the west ; while from time to time and 

 with varying success the colonies or legions of Athens, 

 Sparta, Macedon, Gaul, Rome, and Byzantium, the 

 fervid bands of the crusaders, and the enterprising 

 traders of Genoa and Venice, streamed across the 

 dividing gulf, and raised the standards of the West 

 among the empires of the East. Finally, fate and 

 the conquering genius of the Osmanli Muhammed II. 

 set up on the threshold of Europe the stronghold of 

 an Asian power, which endures unto this day, and 

 which, ignoring the arbitrary line of map-makers, 

 confronts you with the East before you are well 

 quit of the West. So there are bazaars, and mosques, 

 and swarthy-visaged easterns on the western shore ; 

 but there are also telegraphs and railways — and 

 Germans — to remind you of Europe on the East. 



But despite all signs of prosy Western commerce, 

 the atmosphere is perceptibly of the East. You look 

 at your watch ; it is mid-day. You glance at the 

 station clock — if there is one — and you observe that 

 the hands point to 7.30. You ask for an explanation, 

 and you learn that in Turkey sunset is twelve o'clock, 

 that the sun set at 4.30 (European time) the day before, 

 that it is now nineteen and a half hours after sunset, 

 and that the hands of the clock therefore point to 7.30 ! 

 You digest this as soon as you can, make a note of it 

 for future occasion, and w^onder vaguely if you will ever 

 remember to make the necessary daily alteration to 

 keep time with the sun. 



I looked at my watch after an early crossing of the 

 Bosphorus on the morning of December 17, and found 

 that it wanted a few minutes to six, so that if the in- 

 formation I had received in Constantinople to the effect 



