38 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



mountains, which should receive the Szamos, Kb'ros, 

 and Maros, and subsequently enter the Danube at 

 Karas, between the dunes of Deliblat and the com- 

 mencement of the defile of Bazias. This system of 

 canalisation would have the double object of averting 

 floods and of directing water for purposes of irrigation 

 into dry districts. 



According to received opinion, the geological study 

 of Hungary shows, that at an epoch relatively recent 

 the Theiss ran something like a hundred kilometres 

 to the east of its present bed, following the base of 

 the Transylvanian Alps. But in course of time the 

 Szamos, the three Kb'rb's rivers, and the Maros, all 

 coming in from the east, worked together to throw 

 the Theiss westward, and the towns on the western 

 bank, notably Szegedin and Czongrad, are obliged to 

 retire from time to time before the devouring current. 

 There are certain local exceptions to the westerly 

 tendency of the Theiss, such as that caused by the 

 impulsion of the Danubian waters, which have had 

 the contrary effect, throwing that portion of the river 

 in an easterly direction, as the following fact will 

 prove. In the time of Trajan and Diocletian, the 

 Romans established fortifications against the Dacians 

 on the plain of Titel, which was then on the east of 

 the Theiss ; the plain is now found on the west side 

 of the river. Notwithstanding local differences, we 

 must accept the fact that the general displacement of 

 the Theiss towards a westerly direction is constant 



