at one could almost fancy it was a
channel dug to unite the Sea of Marmora with the Archipelago. It is
very appropriately called the STRAIT of the Dardanelles. On the
left we have always the mainland of Asia, and on the right a tongue
of land belonging to Europe, and terminating at Sed Bahe. The
shores on both sides are desert and bare. It is a great contrast to
former times, a contrast which every educated traveller must feel as
he travels hither from the Bosphorus. What stirring scenes were
once enacted here! Of what deeds of daring, chronicled in history,
were not these regions the scene! Every moment brought us nearer to
the classic ground. Alas, that we were not permitted to land on any
of the Greek Islands, past which we flew so closely! I was obliged,
perforce, to content myself with thinking of the past, of the
history of ancient Greece, without viewing the sites where the great
deeds had been done.

The two castles of the Dardanelles, Tschenekalesi and Kilidil Bahar,
that on the Asiatic shore looking like a ruin, while its European
neighbour wore the appearance of a fortress, let us steam past
unchallenged. And how shall I describe the emotions I felt as we
approached the plains of Troy?

I was constantly on deck, lest I should lose any portion of the
view, and scarcely dared to breathe when at length the long-wished-
for plain came in sight.

Here it is, then, that this famous city is supposed to have stood.
Yonder mounds, perchance, cover the resting-places of Achilles,
Patroclus, Ajax, Hector, and many other heroes who may have served
their country as faithfully as these, though their names do not live
in the page of history. How gladly would I have trodden the plain,
there to muse on the legends which in my youth had already awakened
in me such deep and awe-struck interest, and had first aroused the
wish to visit these lands--a desire now partially fulfilled! But we
flew by with relentless rapidity. The whole region is deserted and
bare. It seems as if nature and mankind were mourning together for
the days gone by. The inhabitants may indeed weep, for they will
never again be what they once were.

In the course of the day we passed several islands. In the
foreground towered the peak of the Hydrae, shortly afterwards
Samothrace rose from the waves, and we sailed close by the island of
Tenedos. At first this island does not present a striking
appearance, but after rounding a small promo