THE GATES TO THE BLACK SEA 



443 



it is, the Marmora remains strangely wild 

 for a sea that has known so much of life ; 

 yet its shores are b}^ no means uninhab- 

 ited and between them plies many an 

 unhurried sail. 



The focus of this quaint navigation is, 

 of course, Constantinople, standing high 

 and pinnacled on either side of the 

 crooked blue crack that opens into the 

 Black Sea. (For a description of Con- 

 stantinople see pages 448 and 459). 



In the meantime the busiest town in 

 the Marmora after Constantinople is 

 Pandemia, on the south shore, joined 

 to Smyrna by a railway that taps one of 

 the most fertile districts of Asia Minor. 

 In its vicinity exists one of the few borax 

 mines in the world. Another little rail- 

 way climbs through the olive-yards of 

 the Gulf of Moudania to Brusa, on the 

 lower slopes of Alt. Olympus. This de- 

 lightful town, the first capital of the 

 Turks and their most picturesque city, is 

 the Hamburg of the Levant, enjoying a 

 renown of many centuries for its hot 

 mineral springs. It is also the center of 

 an ancient silk industry, first introduced 

 from China in the sixth century by the 

 Emperor Justinian. Its cocoons are con- 

 sidered to rank in quality above those of 

 northern Italy and are much exported to 

 this country and to France. 



Another ancient watering place of the 

 Marmora is Yalova, in the wooded hills 

 above the Gulf of Nicomedia, whose 

 baths were visited of old by the Emperor 

 Constantine, and there are many less fre- 

 quented hot springs in this region. It is 

 not for an amateur geographer to say 

 whether this fact is connected with the 

 one that the basin of the Marmora is a 

 center of seismic disturbance. Constan- 

 tinople has often been damaged by earth- 

 quakes, of which the last serious one took 

 place in 1894. In 191 2 the strip of coast 

 between Gallipoli and the thriving town 

 of Rodosto was shaken very severely. 



This little Riviera is famous for its 

 grapes and wine ; so is the charming bay 

 of Artaki, under the western point of 

 Cyzicus, and the neighboring island of 

 Pasha Liman. But the southward-look- 

 ing slopes of the Gulf of Nicomedia pro- 

 duce a white grape, locally called the 

 chaoush, of a flavor to spoil those who 

 taste it for all other grapes in the world. 



The Marmora is reputed for its mel- 

 ons, too. Gay cargoes of them, heaped 

 high in picturesque sailing boats, make 

 in the summer the most characteristic 

 touch of local color, and many an olive 

 plantation means a livelihood for many 

 a cluster of red roofs beside a blue bay. 



ABOUT NO BODY OF WATER OE EQUAL SIZE 

 HAVE STOOD so MANY STATELY CITIES 



More numerous than the settlements 

 of today, however, are the ruins of yes- 

 terday. Every harbor, every headland, 

 has some fragment of ancient masonry, 

 and the workmen in the vineyards are 

 constantly turning up coins, pieces of 

 broken pottery, bits of sculptured marble, 

 that have come down from who knows 

 when or where. About no body of water 

 in the zvorld, of equal size, have stood so 

 many stately cities. 



It is almost impossible indeed to give 

 any coherent account of the story of the 

 I\Iarmora, so much history and legend 

 have crowded its shores. I have already 

 spoken of the Argonauts, a good part of 

 whose adventures took place in these wa- 

 ters, and of Troy, buried in the marshy 

 plain at the mouth of the Dardanelles. 

 The latter name is derived from that of 

 Dardanus, son of Zeus and Electra and 

 mythical ancestor of the Trojan kings 

 and, through ^Eneas, of the Romans. The 

 town of Dardanus stood farther in the 

 strait. Colonies from the Greek cities 

 and islands emigrated along these shores 

 in the dawn of European history, carry- 

 ing with them the spirit of their race and 

 not ceasing to play a part in its politics. 

 Thus Byzantium entered the second 

 Athenian League ; and the battle of 

 ^gospotami, which closed the Pelopon- 

 nesian wars, was fought in the Darda- 

 nelles. 



The true question of the straits arose 

 as early as the fifth century B. C, when 

 Alcibiades of Athens counseled the peo- 

 ple of Chrysopolis, the modern Scutari, 

 at the southeastern extremity of the Bos- 

 phorus, to take toll of passing ships. Yet 

 another aspect of the question of the 

 straits had already risen earlier in the 

 century, when the Persian expeditions 

 against Scythia and Greece crossed the 

 Bosphorus and the Dardanelles. What 

 success they had we know, and how a 



