558 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Photograph by W. P. Whitlock 



A CORNER OP A CARAVAN KHAN OP SMYRNA 



Although Smyrna is connected with the Anatolian railway system, much of the commerce 

 with the hinterland is carried on with camels, which file into the city over the Bridge of 

 Caravans. Carpets, tobacco, silk, green acorn cups used in tanning, and the figs which have 

 carried the name of Smyrna to all parts of the world are the chief products of this greatest of 

 Asia Minor cities, now largely in ruins. 



surrounded by fields of growing corn, had 

 changed its aspect so completely that we 

 could recognize it only from the position 

 of the mountains and the position of the 

 ruins. The fields of corn were changed 

 to a waste of gravel. 



As we began to wander over the waste, 

 we saw that the gravel overlay growing 

 corn, which could be seen in some places 

 struggling through where the gravel was 

 least deep. 



An exceptionally heavy rainfall and 

 thunderstorm had occurred not long be- 

 fore our arrival ; the rain-water had car- 

 ried down from the mountain side through 

 the watercourse an immense mass of 

 gravel and disintegrated rock which over- 

 whelmed the fields, and within two hours 

 the entire harvest on which the village 

 depended for food during the ensuing 

 year disappeared. 



In older time the numerous terraces 

 would have detained the water from 

 point to point right up the mountain side, 

 preventing it from ever acquiring a vol- 

 ume sufficient to sweep down in a de- 



stroying flood. Trees also formerly 

 served to detain the water by their roots. 



Now, when the trees and terraces and 

 every means of storage have been de- 

 stroyed, the rains of spring, instead of 

 being a blessing, are often a curse. 



Such a storm as that which wrecked this 

 valley does not occur except, perhaps, once 

 or twice in a century ; but the land has 

 been cultivated for many thousands of 

 years, and in that time many such storms 

 have occurred. They can be controlled 

 and made beneficent, or they may be left 

 uncontrolled to devastate the neighbor- 

 hood. 



PEOPLE STIMULATED TO HARD WORK BY 

 NECESSITY 



It is not too much to say that the great- 

 est gift of God to the men of the Medi- 

 terranean land was a soil that required 

 hard work and scientific skill to make it 

 productive, not a land where food grew 

 with the minimum of labor and care. 



The people were stimulated to hard 

 work because this was necessary to life; 



