VIEW OVER THE PROPONTIS. 
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erections might yet be traced, would the Turkish authorities in 
the town allow of the search; though the loftier ruins of them all, 
have long ago been swept away by violence, the mouldering of 
time, and the convulsions of nature. The present population is 
computed at about 25,000, including Turks, Greeks, Armenians, 
and Jews. Its commerce consists chiefly in corn, wool, silk, and 
cotton, which the merchants have the advantage of exporting 
from their own doors, the city standing at the head of a gulf 
opening into the Propontis, or Sea of Marmora. The numerous 
beautiful little bays which encircle this “ fairest sea of the East,” 
are not more embellishing to the coast than convenient for the 
home traffic of its inhabitants, almost all being studded with 
small marine towns, and often the remains of others more 
august and ancient. Not far from the double hill of Nicomedia, 
the relics of Astacus may be traced, which, according to Strabo, 
had given the name of Astacenus to the gulf. It runs inland 
between two peninsulas ; that to the north being bounded by 
the Euxine and the Bosphorus, and the other to the south, by 
the Propontis and bay of Mondania. The latter shoot of land 
forms part of modern Anatolia, and being very mountainous, 
presents a magnificent contrast to the softer undulating hills of 
the opposite tract. 
November 25th. — We left Is Nikmid at four o’clock this 
morning, holding our march along the northern peninsula, and 
near the winding shore of the Nicomedian gulf to our left. As 
morning broke, and the sun rose, the scene glowed and sparkled 
with beauty; a rich empurpled blush covering the nearer objects, 
while his bright rays, darting across the waves, lit the mountain- 
tops to so vast a distance westward, that I believed I even could 
discern the towering head of Kass-dagh, or Mount Ida. Our road 
