LAND & WATEK 
September 14, 1916 
It is at this approach that the mapiiificenre of the work, 
already striking in the great length which it has attained, 
becomes most apparent. The branch of the Danube here, 
opposite the town of Cernavoda. is fully a half mile across. 
Its depth is. I believe, when the water is high, 100 feet 
in the deepest part, or more, and the bridge had to be so 
constructed that saiUng vessels could pass under it. The 
floor of it is therefore 120 feet above the main level of the 
water belqw. To this height the works approaching the 
bridge have gradually to rise, (^n the further, or southern, 
shore, at Cernavoda itself, there is a steep bank, the hills 
coming down to the stream which receives the high 
bridge without any great prolongation of viaduct ; but all 
across the northern shore for more than two miles the 
line has gradually to rise xmtil it reaches the required 
level. When it has reached it the great girders begin, 
which form so conspicuous a monument to the eye of the 
traveller following the Danube stream. 
This is the passage which, while it remains intact, 
will give our Allies, Russian and Roumanian, their 
strategical advantage in this theatre ; but which, if it be 
broken or occupied by an enemy, renders exceedingly 
difficult all effort from north to south against the Bul- 
garian forces, and therefore against the line which feeds 
(Constantinople and therefore against the Narrows and 
the gate of Russian trade and supply — the acquisition of 
w hich by the Allies would at once change the whole war. 
When we are well possessed of the fact that the bridge 
of Cernavoda is the determining point, we may turn to the 
details of the Bulgarian advance — if that can be called 
" detailed " of which we have but such exceedingly 
meagre information. ' 
The Bulgarian advance presupposes the successive 
(iccupation of point upon point along or near to the 
southern Danube shore. Turtukai. Silistra, then south 
of the three lagoons, i, 2 and 3 on Map III., the road 
touching the villages of Lipnita, Cusgun, Marleanu and so 
to Cernavoda. It is hardly a road, it is little more than a 
track, and this is true of all the roads parallel with the 
Danube in this region. But it is hard ground and a httle 
after Lipnita there are parallel alternative tracks to serve 
the advance leading to the railway, as will be seen upon 
Map III., the central one leading from Cusgun to Medgidia, 
a station upon the Cernavoda-Constanza railway and the 
southern main one crossing the open rolling country to a 
point upon the railway near Constanza and so on to 
Constanza itself. 
The great difficulty incidental to such an advance, 
odd as it may seem in such a country, is water. The 
basis of the rolling, grassy 'prairie of the Dobrudja is 
calcareous. The water level upon the Black Sea side is 
commonly as far down as 200 to 240 feet ; upon the 
Danutx! side it is lower still, falling in places to the ex- 
treme depth of 600 feet. 
The sparse nomadic tribes which once occupied this 
region found a sufficiency of water for their flocks and 
themselves. The present population finds it also, or it 
could not remain. But an army marching in cohesion is 
another matter, and it is upon this account that I believe 
the Bulgarian advance will be compelled to hug the 
1 )anube valley as closely as possible. There is no difficulty 
in the mere going at this season of the year, and, apart 
irom this difficulty of \'(satering a large force far from the 
river, there is nothing to impede a considerable move- 
ment qf troops. 
So far as can be gathered from the meagre evidence 
which has been allowed to trickle through, we may take 
it that the Russo-Roumanian plan is to strike down 
southward upon the right flank of the Bulgarian advance. 
We have statements— not official — that an attack from 
the sea has cornpelled the Bulgarian evacuation of Varna, 
and a rather vague official statement that Bulgarian 
attacks near Dobritch have been repelled. While similar 
statements, more detailed and reliable, tell us that our 
Allies are in Baltich upon the sea coast. It is perfectly 
clear that any very considerable force thus occupying 
and advancing southward along the belt towards the 
Black Sea would prevent a further Bulgarian advance 
along the Danube side until the menace were successfully 
dealt with. 
Meanwhile the actual progress of the enemy has been 
as follows : 
Early last week a portion of that northern combined 
force, mainly Bulgarian, which we saw in our last issue 
to be estimated at about five divisions, but which might 
be larger and has in some quarters been estimated as 
high as seven divisions, struck at Turtukai. 
The value of Turtukai (the first town upon the Danube 
in the newly-annexed belt which Roumania took from / 
Bulgaria three years ago) is that it stands at a point where 
the passage of the Danube can easily be effected. 
The river is here narrower than in most parts of its 
lower course, and there is a break in the otherwise con- 
tinuous broad ■ belt of marsh upon the northern shore 
opposite. In this break between the belts of marsh, 
stands the Roumanian town of Oltenita, connected by a 
single line railway with Bilcharest, the capital, only 
36 miles away. This railway goes on past Oltenita to 
the river bank itself and so runs along sidings on a hard, 
where goods can be transhipped. To the west of this 
