make locks, and the English and American, which was practically
the same as that of Trajan, namely, blasting the minor rocks and
cutting canals and erecting dams where the rocks were too crowded. The
latter plan was in principle adopted, and the details were worked out,
in 1883, by the Hungarian engineer Willandt. The longest canal will be
that on the Servian bank, with a length of over two kilometers and a
width of eighty meters. It will be left for a later period to make the
canal wider and deeper, as was done with the Suez Canal. For the
present it is considered sufficient that moderate sized steamers shall
be able to pass through without hindrance, and thus facilitate the
exchange of goods between the west of Europe and the east.

The first portion of the rocks to be removed, and of the channels to
be cut, runs through Hungarian territory; the second portion is in
Servia. The new waterway will, it is anticipated, be finished by the
end of 1895, and then, for the first time in history, Black Sea
steamers will be seen at the quays of Pesth and Vienna, having, of
course, previously touched at Belgrade. The benefit to Servian trade
will then be quite on a par with that of Austria-Hungary. Even Germany
will derive benefit from this extension of trade to the east. These,
however, are by no means the only countries which will be benefited by
the opening of the great river to commerce. Turkey, Southern Russia,
Roumania, and Bulgaria, not to speak of the states of the west of
Europe, will reap advantage from this new departure. England, as the
chief carrier of the world, is sure to feel the beneficial effects of
the Danube being at length navigable from its mouth right up to the
very center of Europe.

The removal of the Iron Gates has always been considered a matter of
European importance. The treaty of Paris stipulated for freedom of
navigation on the Danube. The London treaty of 1871 again authorized
the levying of tolls to defray the cost of the Danube regulation; and
article 57 of the treaty of Berlin intrusted Austria-Hungary with the
task of carrying out the work. By these international compacts the
European character of the great undertaking is sufficiently attested.

[Illustration: THE "IRON GATES" OF THE DANUBE]

The work of blasting the rocks will be undertaken by contractors in
the employ of the Hungarian government, as the official invitation for
tenders brought no offers from any quarter. The construction of