Photo by li. G. Dwight 



THE NORTHERN MOUTH OE THE BOSPHORUS, LOOKING INTO THE BLACK SEA 



The shores are strongly fortified with modern masked batteries. The Russian fleet 

 before reaching Constantinople (page 441) must enter the narrow mouth shown in the above 

 picture and proceed through the straits approximately 17 miles, through such scenes as are 

 shown on pages 438 and 439. 



about it is more than a legend. It has, of 

 course, its suaver moments and its hap- 

 pier strips of coast, as in the Crimea and 

 under the shelter of the Caucasus ; but 

 much of its European shore is bordered 

 by steppes rolling unbroken to the north. 



THE SEA OE MARMORA 



While its two historic gateways — the 

 Dardanelles and the Bosphorus — are 

 strategically the most important features 

 of the Marmora, that picturesque little 

 sea has a character of its own, and one 

 not to be caught from the deck of a Med- 

 iterranean liner or from the windows of 

 the Orient express. Such impressions as 

 the passing tourist takes away are chiefly 

 of the flat and treeless Thracian shore. 

 The longer Asiatic coast, however, is 

 much more indented, and rises on the 

 southeast to the white peak of the Bithy- 

 nian Olympus. A high, green headland 

 divides the eastern end of the Marmora 



into the two romantic gulfs of Nicome- 

 dia and Moudania. The south shore 

 again is broken by the mountainous pen- 

 insula of Cyzicus. 



Ofi:' its windy, western corner lies a 

 group of islands, of which the largest is 

 the one that gives the ]\Iarmora its 

 name — a mass of marble 10 miles long, 

 famous from antiquity for its quarries. 

 Another considerable island is the long, 

 white sandspit of Kalolimnos, just out- 

 side the Gulf of JMoudania ; but best 

 known are the Princess Isles, a little 

 archipelago of rock and pine that is a fa- 

 vorite summer resort of Constantinople. 



In any other part of the world this in- 

 land sea would long ago have become a 

 place of sojourn for yachtsmen and sum- 

 merers, so happily is it treated by sun 

 and wind, so amply provided with bays, 

 capes, islands, mountains, forests, and all 

 other accidents of nature that make glad 

 the heart of the amateur explorer. As 



436 



