44 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



forming the Csepel island below the capital, for 

 "profound hydraulic reasons," affecting the "settled 

 regime of the river ; " and to cut off a branch like 

 that of the Soroksar which forms one arm of the 

 Danube round this island is to disturb the " natural 

 equilibrium." He goes on to say, that "to change 

 the river's former regime in this reach of its course 

 may involve ultimate consequences that nobody can 

 foretell. The Danube misses her former channel 

 of the Soroksar more and more. . . . What else is 

 the embankment of the Soroksar than the artificial 

 blocking of that branch, which permanently and 

 annually anticipates the most unfortunate event 

 which possibly might happen once in a generation ? " 



M. Pulsky, in his recent pamphlet 'The Crisis,' 

 has also called attention to the present system of 

 regulation, which " fails utterly in preserving the 

 capital from the danger of inundation, which threatens 

 it every year." 



The danger is always, or nearly always, imminent 

 in the spring, when the ice breaks up on the Danube. 

 Any impediment to the onward flow of the stream by 

 the blocking of ice-drifts has the effect of increasing 

 tenfold the chance of inundation. I will now draw 

 attention to what happened in 1876. The following 

 extract from Mr Crosse's work on Hungary, 1 in Avhich 

 he describes the scene, will give some idea of how 



1 Round about the Carpathians. By Andrew F. Crosse. 

 William Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh and London : 1878. 



