proper share of the land. The country is divided into _spahiliks_,
or Mussulman fiefs, which are transmitted, in accordance with the
custom of the Slavs, indivisibly to all the members of the family.
The latter choose the most aged or most valorous of their members as
their head. The Christian peasants are compelled to work for these
Mussulman communities; and, although no longer serfs, they are called
upon to bear the chief burden of taxation and of other expenses. It
is natural, under these circumstances, that the Christians of Bosnia
should shun agriculture in order to devote themselves to trade, and
nearly the whole of the commerce is in the hands of the Christians of
the Herzegovina and of their co-religionists from Slavonian Austria.
The Spanish Jews form communities in the principal towns, where they
carry on their usual commercial pursuits and money-lending on tangible
securities. They still talk Spanish amongst themselves, and never
mention without emotion the name of the country which sent them into
exile.
The number of Mussulmans hardly exceeds one-third of the total
population of Bosnia, and they are said to remain stationary, or even
to diminish, whilst the more fecund Christians increase in numbers.[36]
For the rest, the Bosnians, in spite of the differences in their
religious belief, possess the same natural gifts as their Servian
kinsmen, and, whatever destinies may be in store for them, they will
in the end rise to the same level of intelligence. They are frank and
hospitable, brave in battle, industrious, thrifty, of a poetical turn,
fast as friends, and true as lovers. The marital ties are respected,
{131} and even the Mussulmans reject the polygamy permitted by the
Koran. In the Herzegovina the women enjoy much liberty, and in many
villages there are even back doors to the houses, in order that they
may be able to gossip with their neighbours without going into the
street. In Northern Bosnia, however, the Mussulman women are wrapped
up closely in white linen sheets, and are hardly able to see a few
steps before them. But, in spite of these good qualities, there exists
an amount of barbarity, ignorance, superstition, and fanaticism,
amongst Christians and Mohammedans alike, which is truly astounding.
Incessant wars, tyranny on the one side, and servitude on the other,
have brutalised their manners. The want of roads, the extensive
forests, and the precipitous mountains have placed them beyond the
reach of civilising influences. There are hardly any schools, and the
few monasteries which supply their places are of little use, for the
monks themselves are steeped in ignorance, and their pupils at most
learn to chant a few hymns. Besides this, the immense consumption
of _slibovitza_ undermines the health of the people and demoralises
them, and it has been estimated that every Bosnian—man, woman, or
child—drinks annually no less than thirty-four pints of this detestable
plum-brandy.
It may be matter for surprise that bustling towns should exist in
so rude a country, but the natural resources of Bosnia are so great
that a certain amount of local trade was sure to spring up. Isolated
as they are, the Bosnians are thrown upon their own resources. They
grind their own flour, manufacture their arms, stuffs, and iron
implements, and the exchange of these commodities has given rise to
commerce in the cities most favourably situated as entrepôts, the
principal amongst which are Sarayevo, or Bosna Serai, and Travnik, the
ancient capital of the country, picturesquely situated at the foot
of an ancient castle. Banyaluka, which is connected with Austria by
a railway, has some trade with Croatia; Tuzla extracts salt from its
abundant brine springs; Zvornik, which guards the frontier of Servia,
also carries on some trade with that country; Novibazar has commercial
relations with Albania; Mostar and Trebinye import a few articles from
Dalmatia. The populations of these towns have not, however, been solely
attracted by trade and industry, for the insecurity of the country
has also contributed to that result. There is no part of Europe, the
neighbouring Albania and the polar regions of Scandinavia and Russia
excepted, which is so rarely visited by strangers, and this isolation
will only cease when the proposed international railway shall have
joined it to Saloniki and Constantinople.[37]
VI.—BULGARIA.
The centre plateau of Turkey is still amongst the least-known countries
of the Balkan peninsula, although it is intersected by the great
highways which connect Thracia with Bosnia, and Macedonia with the
Danube. This plateau, {132} known to the ancients as Upper Mœsia,
consists of a vast granitic table-land, rising to an average height
of 2,000 feet. Its surface is diversified by several _planinas_, or
mountain chains, of small relative height, and by domes of trachyte,
the remains of ancient volcanoes. Its numerous depressions were
formerly filled with water, and the contours of the ancient lakes can
still be traced. They have been gradually filled up by alluvium, or
drained by rivers. The most remarkable amongst these ancient lacustrine
basins are now represented by the fertile plains of Nish, Sofia, and
Ikhtiman.
[Illustration: Fig. 38.—MOUNT VITOSH AND ITS ENVIRONS.
According to F. von Hochstetter. Scale 1 : 1,058,000]
The superb syenitic and porphyritic mountain group of Vitosh forms the
eastern bastion of the Mœsian plateau. Immediately to the east of it
the deep valley of the Isker pierces the whole of the Balkan Mountains,
and, crossing the plain of Sofia, takes its course in the direction of
the Danube. The upper valley of this river and the plain mentioned form
the true geographical centre of European Turkey. From Sofia diverge
some of the most important roads of the peninsula, one leading through
the valley of the Isker to the Lower Danube, another along the Morava
valley into Servia, a third by way of the Maritza into Thracia, and
a fourth down the Struma into Macedonia. It is said that Constantine
the Great, struck by these important natural advantages of Sofia, then
called Sardica, thought of making it the capital of his empire. {133}
[Illustration: TIRNOVA.]
The Turks apply the name of Balkans to all the mountain ranges of
the peninsula, but geographers restrict that term to the Hæmus of
the ancients. This mountain rampart begins to the east of the basin
of Sofia. It does not form a regular chain, but rather an elevated
terrace sloping down gently in the direction of the Danube, whilst
towards the south it presents an abrupt slope, it appearing almost
as if the plateau on that side had suddenly sunk to a lower level.
The Balkan consequently presents the appearance of a chain only when
looked at from the south. But its contours even there are only slightly
undulating; there are neither abrupt projections nor rocky pyramids,
and the prevailing character is that of long-stretched mountain ridges.
The porphyritic mountain group of Chatal, which rises to the south of
the principal chain, constitutes the only exception to this gentleness
of contour. Though inferior in height to the summits of the Balkan, its
steep precipices, slashed crests, and chaotic rock masses strike the
beholder, and the contrast between this mass of erupted rock and the
gentle slopes of the calcareous hills which surround it is very great.
The uniformity of the northern slopes of the Balkan is such that, in
many places, a traveller is able to reach the crest without having come
in sight of mountains. When the woods have disappeared from the Balkan,
these undulating slopes will be deprived of their greatest charm; but,
as long as the forests ornament them as now, the country will remain
one of the most delightful in Turkey. Running streams flow through each
valley, bordered by pastures as brilliantly green as are those of the
Alps; the villages are built in the shade of beech-trees and oaks; and
nature everywhere wears a smiling aspect. But the plains which extend
to the Danube are barren, and sometimes not a single tree is visible.
The inhabitants, deprived of wood, are dependent upon cow-dung dried
in the sun for their fuel, and they dig for themselves holes in the
ground, where they seek protection from the cold of winter.
The core of the Balkan, between the basin of Sofia and that of Slivno,
consists of granite, but the terraces which descend towards the Danube
present every geological formation, from the metamorphic to the most
recent rocks. The cretaceous formation occupies the largest area in
Bulgaria, and the rivers rising in the mountains, in traversing it,
form picturesque valleys and defiles. Ancient fortresses defend each
of these valleys, and the towns have been built where they debouch
upon the plain. Tirnova, the ancient capital of the tsars of Bulgaria,
is the most remarkable of these old bulwarks of defence. The Yantra,
on debouching there from the mountains, winds about curiously;
steep cliffs form an amphitheatre, in the centre of which rise two
precipitous isolated rocks, crowned formerly by walls and towers. The
houses of the town are built on the slopes, and its suburbs extend
along the foot of the cliffs.
A singular parallelism has been noticed on the northern slopes of
Balkan. The elevated mountain saddles, crests of secondary chains,
geological formations, the faults which give rise to the meandering
of the rivers, and even the Danube itself, all follow the same
direction, from west to east. As a consequence, each of the parallel
valleys descending from the Balkans offers similar features; the {134}
population is distributed in the same manner; and the towns occupy
analogous positions. The valley of the Lom offers the only exception
to the rule, for its direction is towards the north-west. It debouches
upon the Danube at Rustchuk, and its green orchards and gardens are
hemmed in by dazzling white cliffs of chalk rising to a height of about
100 feet.
The symmetry would be almost complete in Northern Turkey if it were
not for the detached arid hills of the Dobruja, which force the Danube
to make a wide détour to the north. Rising in the low and swampy delta
of the Danube, these hills appear to be much higher than they are. In
reality they do not exceed 1,650 feet in height. It is possible that
during some very remote geological epoch the Danube took its course
to the south of these hills, through the depression which has been
utilised for the construction of the first Turkish railway. Trajan,
who feared that the Goths might obtain a footing in this remote corner
of the Roman empire, constructed one of those lines of fortifications
here which are known throughout the countries of the Lower Danube as
Trajan’s Walls. Remains of walls, ditches, and forts may still be
traced along the banks of the marshes, and on the heights commanding
them. This country of the Dobruja is the “savage hyperborean region”
where Ovid, exiled from Rome, wept for the splendours of the capital.
The port of Tomi, the place of his banishment, is the modern Kustenje.
To the north of the Gulf of Burgas, which is the westernmost extremity
of the Black Sea, rise the fine porphyry mountains which terminate in
the superb Cape of Emineh. They are sometimes described as an eastern
prolongation of the Balkan, but erroneously, for the ancient lacustrine
basin of Karnabat, now traversed by a railway, separates them from the
system of the Hæmus. The granitic plateaux and mountains of Tunja and
Stranja, which command the wide plain of Thracia on the north, are
likewise separate mountain ranges. The Southern Balkan is, in reality,
without ramifications or spurs, except in the west, where the mountains
of Ikhtiman and of Samakov, so rich in iron ore and thermal springs,
and other transverse chains, connect it with the mountain mass of
the Rhodope. The upper basin of the Maritza River, enclosed between
the Balkan and the Rhodope, has the shape of an elongated triangle,
whose apex, directed towards the plain of Sofia, indicates the point
of junction between the two systems. The whole of this triangular
depression, with its lateral ramifications, was formerly occupied by
lakes, now converted into bottom-lands of marvellous fertility. The
passes near the apex of this triangle are naturally points of the
highest strategical and commercial importance. Through one of them,
still marked by ancient fortifications, and known as Trajan’s Gate,
passed the old Roman highway, and there, too, the railway now in course
of construction will cross the summit between the two slopes of the
peninsula. This is the true “gateway of Constantinople,” and from the
most remote times nations have fought for its possession. The numerous
tumuli scattered over the neighbouring plains bear witness to many a
bloody struggle.
The spurs of the Rhodope intermingle with those of the Balkan, and
the lowest {135} pass which separates the two still exceeds 3,000
feet in elevation. The Rilo Dagh, the most elevated mountain mass
of the Rhodope, boldly rises at its northern extremity, and, to use
the expression of Barth, forms the shoulder-blade of junction. Its
height is 9,580 feet. It rises far beyond the region of forests, and
its jagged summits, pyramids, and platforms contrast strikingly with
the rounded outlines of the Balkan. But the lower heights, surrounded
by this imposing amphitheatre of grand summits, are covered with
vegetation. Forests of pines, larches, and beech-trees, the haunts
of bears and chamois, alternate with clumps of trees and cultivated
fields, and the villages in the valleys are surrounded by meadows,
vineyards, and oaks. Picturesque cupolas of numerous monasteries
peep out amongst the verdure: to their existence the mountain owes
its Turkish name of Despoto Dagh, _i.e._ “mountain of the parsons.”
The Rilo Dagh, likewise famous on account of its monasteries, has
altogether the aspect of the Swiss Alps. The moist winds of the
Mediterranean convey to it much snow in winter and spring, but in
summer the clouds discharge only torrents of rain, and the snow rapidly
disappears from the flanks of the mountains. These sudden rain-storms
are amongst the most remarkable spectacles to be witnessed. In the
forenoon the mist which hides the tops of the mountains grows dense by
degrees, and heavy copper-coloured clouds collect on the slopes. About
three in the afternoon the rain begins to pour down, the clouds grow
visibly smaller, first one, then another summit is seen through a rent
in the watery vapours, until at last the air has become purified, and
the mountains are lit up in the sunset.
To the south of the Rilo Dagh rises the mountain mass of Perim, hardly
inferior to it in height. This is the Orbelos of the ancient Greeks,
and the rings to which Noah made fast his ark when the waters subsided
after the deluge are still shown there, and even Mussulman pilgrims pay
their devotions at this venerated spot. It is the last high summit of
the Rhodope. The mountains to the south rapidly decrease in elevation,
though the granitic formation to which they belong is spread over a
vast extent of country from the plains of Thracia to Albania. The
extent of the hilly region connected with the Rhodope is still further
increased by numerous groups of extinct volcanoes, which have poured
forth vast sheets of trachytic lava. The rivers which flow from the
central plateau of Turkey into the Ægean Sea have cut for themselves
deep passages through these granites and lavas, the most famous amongst
which is the “Iron Gate” of the Vardar, or Demir Kapu, which formerly
figured on our maps of Turkey as a large town.
The aspect of the crystalline mountain masses to the west of the Vardar
is altogether of an Alpine character, for the peaks not only attain a
high elevation, but snow remains upon them during the greater portion
of the year. The Gornichova, or Nije, to the north of Thessaly, rises
to a height of 6,560 feet; and the Peristeri, whose triple summit
and snow-clad shoulders have been likened to the spread-out wings of
a bird, and which rises close to the city of Bitolia, or Monastir,
is more elevated still. The mountains of ancient Dardania enclose
extensive circular or elliptical plains, and the most remarkable
amongst these, {136} namely, that of Monastir, has been compared by
Grisebach, the geologist, to one of those huge crater lakes which the
telescope has revealed to us on the surface of the moon. In most of
these plains we meet with swamps or small lakes, the only remains of
the sheets of water which at one time covered them. The most extensive
of these lakes is that of Ostrovo. The Lake of Kastoria resembles the
filled-up crater of a volcano. In its centre rises a limestone hill
joined to the shore by an isthmus, upon which is built a picturesque
Greek town.
According to Viquesnel and Hochstetter, traces of glaciers do not
exist in any of these ancient lacustrine basins, or on the flanks
of the mountains. It is certainly remarkable that whilst other
European mountains—as, for instance, the Vosges and the mountains of
Auvergne—have passed through a glacial epoch, the far more elevated
Peristeri, Rilo Dagh, and Balkan, under about the same latitude as the
Pyrenees, should never have had their valleys filled by moving rivers
of ice.[38]
All the large rivers of European Turkey belong to the Bulgarian regions
of the Balkan or Hæmus. In Bosnia there are merely small parallel
rivers flowing to the Save; Albania has only turbulent torrents forcing
their way through wild gorges, like the Drin; but the Maritza, the
Strymon or Karasu, the Vardar, and the Inje Karasu, which descend from
the southern flanks of the Balkans, or originate in the crystalline
mountain masses of the Rhodope, are large rivers, which bear comparison
with the tranquil streams of Western Europe. As yet we know but little
about their mode of action. The volume of water discharged by them has
never been measured, and they are hardly made use of for purposes of
navigation or irrigation. They all traverse ancient lake basins, which
they have filled up gradually with alluvium, and converted into fertile
plains. This work of filling up still goes on in the lower portions
of these fluvial valleys, where extensive marshes, and even gradually
shrinking lakes, abound. One of these lakes, the Takhino, through which
the Strymon flows before it enters the Ægean Sea, is said to be the
Prasias of Herodotus, and its aquatic villages were no doubt similar to
the pile dwellings discovered in nearly all the lakes of Central Europe.
The Danube, to the north of the Dobruja, performs an amount of
geological work, in comparison with which that of the Maritza, the
Strymon, and Vardar sinks into insignificance. That mighty river
annually conveys to the Black Sea a volume of water far in excess of
that which is carried down the rivers of all France, and the solids
which it holds in suspension are sufficient to cover an area of ten
square miles to a depth of nine feet. This enormous mass of sand and
clay is annually deposited in the swamps and on the banks of the delta,
and the slow but steady growth of the latter is thus sufficiently
explained. Even the ancients {137} anticipated a time when the Black
Sea would be converted into a shallow pond abounding in sand-banks, and
it must, therefore, afford some consolation to our mariners to be told
that six million years must pass before the alluvium carried down the
river will fill the whole of the Black Sea.
[Illustration: Fig. 39.—THE DELTA OF THE DANUBE.
Scale 1 : 1,500,000.]
The large triangular plain which the Danube has conquered from the
sea has not yet fully emerged from the waters. Lakes, and the remains
of ancient bays, half-obliterated branches of the Danube, and the
ever-changing beds of rivulets, have converted this delta into a
domain, half land, half sea. More elevated tracts, consolidated by the
attack of the waves, rise here and there above the melancholy mire
and reeds, and bear a dense vegetation of oaks, olives, and beeches.
Willows fringe most of the branches of the river which take their
winding course through the delta. Twenty years ago the Danube had six
mouths; it has now only three.
After the Crimean war the Western powers determined that the Kilia
branch, which conveys to the Black Sea more than half the volume of
the Danube, should thenceforth form the boundary between Rumania and
Turkey. The Sultan thus possesses not only the whole of the delta,
which has an area of about 4,000 square miles, but also the only mouth
of the river which makes the possession of that territory of any value
to him. The mouth of the Kilia is closed by a bar of sand, which does
not even permit small vessels to enter it. {138}
The southern mouth, that of Khidrillis, or St. George, is likewise
inaccessible. The centre branch, that of the Sulina, which has served
the purposes of commerce from time immemorial, can alone be entered by
vessels. But even this channel would not be practicable, in the case
of large vessels, if our engineers had not improved its facilities of
access. Formerly the depth of water on the bar hardly exceeded a fathom
during April, June, and July; and even at times of flood was at most
two or three fathoms. But by building convergent jetties, which guide
the waters of the river into the deep sea, the depth of water has been
increased to the extent of ten feet, and vessels drawing twenty feet
can enter. Sulina is now one of the most important commercial ports
of Europe, and a highly prized harbour of refuge on the Black Sea,
which is so much dreaded by mariners on account of its squalls. We are
indebted for this great public work to an international commission,
which enjoys almost sovereign rights over the Danube as high up as
Isakcha.[39]
[Illustration: Fig. 40.—COMPARATIVE DISCHARGE OF THE MOUTHS OF THE
DANUBE.
Kilia Mouth. Sulina Mouth. St. George’s Mouth.]
The Bulgarians inhabit the country to the south of the Danube as far as
the slopes of Mount Pindus, excepting only certain detached territories
in the occupation of Turks, Wallachians, Zinzares, or Greeks. In the
Middle Ages their kingdom was even more extensive, for it included the
whole of Albania, and had Okhrida for its capital.
The origin of the Bulgarians has been a theme of frequent discussion.
The Bulgarians of the Byzantines, who laid waste the plains of Thracia
about the close of the fifth century, and whose name became a term
of opprobrium, probably were a Ugrian race, like the Huns, and spoke
a language akin to that of the Samoyeds. The name of these savage
conquerors is sometimes derived from the Volga, on the banks of which
they formerly dwelt; but their manners and appearance have undergone
a singular change, and nothing now indicates their origin. Originally
Turanians, they have been converted into Slavs, like their neighbours
the Servians and Russians.
[Illustration: BULGARIANS.
Christian from Christian Ladies Mohammedans A native of
Viddin. from Skodra. from Viddin. Koyutepe.]