COMPARISON OF LANGUAGES.

165

at Bukharest, will enable the reader to form some opinion of the composition of the Walla

CHAPTER VI.

VOYAGE ON THE DANUBE. FROM SCALA CLADOVA IN WALLACHIA TO GALATZ IN MOLDAVIA.

Embark on steamer.-Inefficiency of Wallachians.-Severin. -Trajan's bridge.-Palanka.-Bust of Trajan.-Boundary between Wallachia and Bulgaria. — Bulgarians — Their history. The Balkan.-Windings of Danube.-Scenery. -Widdin. Muezzin.- Turks.- Costume.-Women.-Dervésh.- Pasha.-Lom Palanka.-Sunday on board. -Nicopolis.- Plague.-Breadth of river.-Turkish villages. Hay-making. Pelicans. - Osprays. - Batina.— Giorgervo.-Trade.-Departure and dispersion of passengers. Bukharest-Its population, morals, and commerce. -Quarantine forms. Rustchuk. - Fountains, population, and trade. -Coffee-houses. - Streets. - Houses.· Bazaar.— Burial-ground.—Russian siege.-Consideration of Turks.-Visit to pasha.-Genoese camp. -Turtuka.Grapes and water-melons. Scenery.-Geological phænoSilistria.-Russian quarantine.-Fortifications. Soldiers. Pont-volant. Russian power. Horses. Whirlpools. Chalk hills.-Hirsovo. Islands.-Watchtowers. Pelicans.-The Jalonissa. — Ibrail.

mena.

Siege.

Monument.-Town.-Inn.-Ships and trade. Ispravnik

and lady.-Boundary of Wallachia and Moldavia.-Arrival

168

RE-EMBARKATION.-SEVERIN.

at Galatz.-Review of voyage down the Danube.-Reflections. Appendix, with distances and fares between Vienna and Constantinople.

THOUGH We hastened from our quarters at Tchernitz to join the steamer, we were not under weigh till four o'clock the following afternoon, as the Wallachians employed to load the vessel evinced no ordinary want of skill and activity, and dropped into the water a new carriage en route from Vienna to Bukharest; an act of negligence which delayed our departure for some hours.

Four miles from Scala Cladova, on the Wallachian bank, stand the ruins of an ancient tower which once rendered terrible the fortress of Severin, erected by Septimius Severus and still called after him. The government is now building a new town on the site of the old one, with a custom-house and quarantine: this promises in a few years to become a place of some note, and to be substituted for Scala Cladova as a head station of the steamer.

A little further, on each side of the river, are the remains of a bridge which Trajan erected in his second expedition against the Dacians. The Danube is here two thousand four hundred feet in width; and, occasionally, four arches may be perceived close to each bank,

TRAJAN'S BRIDGE.

169

but none are visible in the centre of the stream. From the size of those which have survived the wreck of time, it appears that twenty-two would have been required to extend across the water; but, from the absence of all traces of masonry and from the nature of the soil, it is inferred that there was once an island in the middle, which was united by two small bridges to the adjacent shores; and the fact that an islet still exists a little lower down corroborates this conjecture, as that would have afforded the means of a communication between the two banks at

a less expense than must have been requisite to construct a bridge half a mile in length.

In the evening we anchored nearly opposite the Servian town of Palanka, called by the ancients Aquæ from its abundant springs; but none of the passengers or crew were allowed to go on shore, and we could procure no supplies.

Resuming our voyage the following morning, we soon reached the Servian village of Praova, near which a fisherman last year discovered in the bed of the river a bronze bust of Trajan. Nine miles below this, the ancient Timacus, now dwindled into a little stream called Timok, and falling into the Danube, forms the boundary between Servia and Bul

VOL. I.

L