The navigation of the Danube from Galatz to the mouth is controlled and
regulated by an international commission, which was called into
existence by the importance of the commerce with the corn-producing
countries along the lower river. Forty-five miles below Galatz the river
divides into two branches, the left-hand one, the Kilia arm, taking a
general north-easterly course, with many turns and subdivisions, past
the Russian towns of Ismail and Kilia, and, a short distance beyond the
fishing-village of Vilkoff, flows into the Black Sea through seven
narrow channels. The right-hand branch, actually the main stream,
divides again ten miles below the first fork, the former running in a
general easterly direction to the port of Sulina, on the Black Sea, and
the latter arm winding sluggishly on towards the south-east under the
extreme eastern spurs of the great range of Dobrudscha hills. Each side
of the irregular equilateral triangle bounded by the Kilia and Saint
George’s arms and the sea-coast measures about fifty miles in a straight
line, and the larger part of the tract thus enclosed is marsh and
swamp-land, covered with a dense growth of tall reeds, interspersed with
numerous lakes and cut up into countless islands by narrow lagoons. In
the whole of this great delta there are only a few square miles of
ground higher than the general level of the marsh, and these are two
broad ranges of sand-dunes running north-east and south-west several
miles inland, marking the line of
[Illustration: GALATZ]
the ancient sea-coast when the waves and wind raised this barrier long
before the memory of man. These sandy elevations are now covered with a
forest of oak-trees, and support a sparse population. With this
exception the delta is uncultivated, and the few natives who inhabit the
great marsh are almost all engaged in fishing. They build themselves
rude huts out of the tall reeds, make their beds, and even their
net-floats, out of the same useful plant, and during the summer months
set their nets in every lake and lagoon, preserving their catch in salt
or carrying it at convenient times to the distant markets. This great
waste is at all seasons most impressive, and in summer, when the reeds
have grown to their full height and are in blossom, the landscape,
although monotonous in the extreme, often has great elements of beauty.
Narrow waterways, seldom more than a fathom broad, intersect the marsh
in all directions, and only the natives who are familiar with the
intricate windings of these thoroughfares can find their way from one
point to another of this labyrinth. Some of these waterways are known to
have existed in the period of Roman occupation, and the race of
fishermen who now make use of them have preserved their type, their
dress, their boats, and their implements practically unchanged since the
time when Ovid was exiled to the shores of the Euxine. Myriads of
wild-fowl breed in the solitude of the broad morass, and fish abound in
its quiet waters. In the autumn, when the frost has killed the reeds,
great tracts of the delta are often swept over by fires, consuming all
the vegetation above the level of the mud, but clearing the way for a
new and vigorous growth in the spring. Only during the winter months is
the marsh passable for vehicles or even for pedestrians, and when the
whole region is frozen hard the mails and the few passengers who are
obliged to travel are carried on sledges straight across from one
station to another over the level surface of land and water.
[Illustration: PEASANTS OF THE DELTA]
Russia took possession of this region after the capture of Ismail, in
the early part of the century, and, in order to help commerce at home,
put various restrictions on the Danube trade, which almost annihilated
it for a time. The adoption of free-trade by England naturally
stimulated the export business in the corn-producing countries of the
Danube, and great pressure was brought to bear to induce Russia to
remove the hampering restrictions on the navigation of the river.
International disputes arising from this cause finally culminated in the
Crimean War, and it was not without reason, therefore, that the treaties
of peace contained articles intended to place the navigation of the
river in control of the countries most interested in the corn supply.
One clause of the treaty created a riverian commission, whose duty was
to regulate the general navigation of the river, and another clause
established a European Commission of the Danube, “to clear the mouths of
the river, as well as the neighboring parts of the sea, from the sand
and other impediments which obstruct them.” The first of these
commissions found its task impossible on account of the conflicting
interests of the small countries along the river, and has never done
anything, although it is still recognized diplomatically. The Powers
represented in the active commission are Great Britain, Austro-Hungary,
France, Germany, Italy, Roumania, Russia, and Turkey. Owing to a
misunderstanding of the nature of the work to be done, the commission
was established for a term of only two years. This period was extended
at various times, and at last it was settled by the Treaty of 1878 that
the functions of this body should continue until it should be dissolved
by the Powers. It has been constantly at work since its first meeting in
1856. A few statistics will give an idea of the effect on English trade
of the improvements to navigation brought about by the commission.
Before 1847 from 3 to 52 English vessels entered the Danube annually.
Between 1847 and 1860, 2648 English ships entered the river,
representing a net tonnage of 509,723. Between 1861 and 1889 these
numbers were raised to 12,363 and 9,842,260 respectively. In 1861, 214
English sailing-vessels and 35 steamers came to the port of Sulina, and
in 1889, 842 steamers and not a single sailing-vessel. In 1890 the total
number of vessels of all nationalities entering the Danube was 1519,
including many steamers of 1400 to 1600 tons. The commission began in
1860 to collect tolls to maintain the improvements, and in that year the
revenue was 256,583 francs. In 1889 this sum was increased to 1,348,552
francs. British ships have paid from 71 to 82 per cent. of the whole
dues levied during the past ten years. The exports from the river
consist chiefly of wheat, barley, and Indian-corn, but oats, rye, rape
and linseed, petroleum, tallow, hides, salt fish, wines and spirits,
cheese, lumber, and wool are also shipped in large quantities.
Machinery, coal, bar and sheet iron, and articles of clothing form the
bulk of the imports. In general terms, the work of the commission has
consisted in the construction of groynes and revetments, straightening
the river-banks, shortening the channel by cuttings, and dredging the
shallow places. The whole delta has been surveyed, and accurate maps
made. A great part of the Sulina arm has been canalized, and the channel
deepened from 8 feet at extreme low-water to over 16 feet, or to 20½
feet at average low-water. Under the direction of Sir Charles A.
Hartley, the consulting engineer of the commission, and the able
supervision of Mr. Charles Kühl, since 1872 the resident engineer, the
improvements are carried on with constant regularity and great energy,
and every year the navigation of the Sulina branch becomes less
difficult and dangerous. Vessels of 2000 tons may now steam up as far as
Braila with perfect safety.
The longest cutting yet undertaken, which will shorten the channel by
four and a quarter miles, is now in active progress, and the operation
of cutting through the marsh is extremely interesting. Far out of sight
of any human habitation the black funnel and grimy framework of an
immense dredger are seen rising high above the waving mass of reeds
which stretches away on every side as far as the eye can reach. A chain
of steel-shod iron buckets working on a movable arm which projects in
front of the dredger cuts its way through the spongy mass of which the
marsh is composed, and the mixture of roots, mud, and shells is shot out
upon the bank of the cutting through a long adjustable iron trough.
There the material is worked by hand into a dike, strengthened by the
ingenious use of reeds and roots, and finally protected by a revetment
of broken stone. This cutting will be five miles and a quarter in
length, and 6,500,000 cubic yards will have to be dredged before the
work is completed in 1895.
[Illustration: DREDGING IN THE DELTA]
The headquarters of the commission are at Sulina, on the Black Sea. As
early as the time of the Irish famine in 1847-48 hundreds of English
sailing-vessels came to the Black Sea for grain. Most of them anchored
in the mouth of the Sulina branch, discharged ballast there, and loaded
with corn to supply the urgent demand for bread-stuffs at home. A
squalid little settlement rapidly sprang up among the heaps of gravel
deposited on the marshy banks, and as years went on the constantly
accumulating ballast was spread farther and farther up along the stream,
and inland over the morass, and streets and houses followed the
[Illustration: TURKISH SAILING LOTKA, SULINA]
expanding area of solid ground. The establishment of the European
Commission of the Danube gave a fresh impulse to the growing place, and
a busy commercial town soon covered the deposit of ballast, having its
foundations, literally, on English soil. Commodious offices, large
warehouses, and repair-shops were built; churches were erected by
followers of various creeds; a life-saving station was established; a
fine stone quay was constructed on the south bank of the stream; and two
jetties with light-houses were pushed far out into the shallow waters of
the Black Sea. Few travellers ever visit Sulina, because the passenger
boats usually touch there in the night. Its cosmopolitan character and
its peculiar situation in the marsh make it an interesting spot. Types
of a score of nationalities may be studied on its quay, and there is a
great deal of picturesqueness, of a squalid order to be sure, in its
narrow streets. No long walks or drives are possible, for the
wilderness of reeds crowds up to the very back doors of the town, but
there is a unique fascination in its isolated position, and a special
charm in the character of its surroundings.
We made up our minds long before reaching Braila that we would follow
the most northerly arm of the delta, both because it marks the frontier
between Roumania and Russia, and would consequently let us have a
glimpse of the latter country, and also because that branch is not
navigable by large craft, and we would escape steamers and tourists, and
really see something of native life. The busy, bustling port of Braila,
where English is heard at every step, and the river is almost blocked by
great iron grain steamers, gave us an indication of what we might expect
between that point and the Black Sea, and we determined to escape if
possible all these signs of civilization and enterprise, and steal out
to the sea-coast through a comparatively deserted channel. How we
carried out this plan will soon be related, and I have alluded to the
work of the Danube Commission, and described Sulina, because we visited
the one and investigated the other on our way back from the real goal of
our journey.
[Illustration: HILLS NEAR MATCHIN]
We set out from Galatz late one windy afternoon, and camped for the
night on a low sandy flat nearly opposite the River Pruth, which forms
the boundary between Roumania and Russia, planning to make a fair start
by
[Illustration: KILIA]
daybreak into the territory of the Czar. A banker friend in Galatz had
strongly advised us not to attempt the voyage to the Black Sea by way of
the Kilia arm, insisting that the Russian Custom-house regulations were
extremely rigorous, and that we would probably be prohibited from
landing anywhere along that shore, while the Roumanian bank was marshy
and deserted, and did not offer any possible camping places. We had no
desire to make the acquaintance of any more autocratic system than that
with which we had become unwillingly intimate, but the advice of our
friend did not deter us from carrying out our plan, and we profited by
his warnings so far as to lay in three or four days’ store of provisions
in case we should be obliged to defy both Russia and Roumania, and
paddle down mid-channel to the Black Sea without touching land on either
side. We were rather late in getting afloat the next morning, for the
wind had risen to a gale in the night, and had drifted the fine sand
over everything, half burying the boats, and penetrating every crevice
and cranny in them. This added a great deal to the labor of packing up,
and the only way we succeeded in getting rid of this nuisance was by
carrying everything down close to the water’s edge where the sand was
wet and hard. The Pruth is a narrow, deep stream winding under the
western slopes of a range of low hills which divert the course of the
Danube sharply from
[Illustration: CHATAL SAINT GEORGE]
[Illustration: TOULTCHA]
the north-east to the south-east at this point. The first Russian town,
Reni, with its turnip-shaped church-spires and ugly warehouses, stands
on a high bluff overlooking this bend of the river, and offers nothing
of interest, not even at the water-front, where there is little or no
activity, and few craft of any kind. The hills abruptly recede again
just below the town limits, and the river sweeps majestically round
towards the east, and takes an almost straight course to the first
branching in the delta. Both shores are now quite flat and well
cultivated, and on either side frequent picket stations are the only
houses in sight. To the south and east, across a narrow strip of meadow
land, the great hills of the Dobrudscha, dotted with ancient tumuli,
extend far into the distance, where a range of mountains cuts sharply
against the sky with bold, jagged outlines; to the north, the irregular
base spurs of the line of low hills which touch the river at Reni are
seen jutting out over the great marsh at intervals until they vanish in
the perspective. The wind veered round in the middle of the forenoon and
almost died away, and as we alternately sailed and paddled down the long
straight reach towards the delta, past the red-roofed town of Isaktcha
on the Roumanian shore, half hidden behind a wooded island, and the
great Russian monastery of Saint Theraspont across the river, we heard
not so much as a single hail from the soldiers on either bank, although
we often passed close to their stations. In the early afternoon we saw
before us a stone jetty with a spindle on the end, and soon found that
this marked the place where the river divides and the delta actually
begins, forty-five miles below Galatz. The fork is known as the Chatal
d’Ismail, and the embankment was built by the Danube Commission to
divert the strength of the current from the Kilia arm into the main
stream. Three or four miles to the south the white houses of Toultcha
shone brightly among the dark green foliage of the trees, and numerous
windmills were waving their arms on the rocky promontory below the town.
A half-dozen miles farther to the eastward is the Chatal Saint George,
where the stream divides into the Sulina and the Saint George arms.
[Illustration: WINDMILLS OF TOULTCHA]