Democratic Sentinel, Volume 1, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 June 1877 — Up the Bosphorus. [ARTICLE]

Up the Bosphorus.

Drifting cautiously down to the mouth of the. Golden Horn, picking our way among the shipping that is anchored in mid-stream, we turn away from the point of the Seraglio, head due north, and find ourselves entering a river. This is the Bosphorus; it might be the Hudson, or any other winding stream that has green walls and is lovely to look upon. Just think of it for a moment. On our right the eastern shore is Asia; on our left, to the west, is Europe; at our back is the Sea of Marmora, and in two hours we shall have come to tho waters of tlie Black sea. The channel turns so abruptly at times that seven land-locked lakes are formed, each more charming than the last. Palaces, villas, villages line the delicious shores; the hills brood over the waters like hanging gardens of delight. I believe that the remarkable beauty of the Bosphorus is positively unequaled iu the world, for nature has made here a bed for art to dream in. Behold two continents, face to face, like rival queens, glassing themselves between two classic seas. We are cruising between the Pontus and the Propontis, the Euxine and Marmora. We swing from shore to shore; pause for a few moments at each landing; exchange passengers, and have ever about us a landscape that is renewed at every turn, and a surprise that is as fresh when we steam up the Golden Horn at sunset as at the hour when we came out of it with our hearts full of expectation. —Charles Warren Stoddard, in San Francisco Chronicle.