Scutari are the principal cities situated near the southern entrance. The passage through the Bosphorus is highly picturesque, the land on either side being richly clothed with cypress, laurels, and ancient plane trees, with palaces, kiosks, villas, villages and gardens scattered in profusion. The same international agreement with regard to the passage of men-of-war and merchant ships of course applies to the Bos-chorus as to the Dardanelles, and loss of control over one or both would immensely affect the prestige and political influence of Turkey.
The Bosphorus is strongly fortified, but Constantinople is fortified only on the land side. In its great history, the city has already with: stood twenty-eight sieges, and har eight times been captured. Fresh material for this interesting record is likely to be forthcoming in the near future. We may yet see the Turks "rolled back into their natural place in Asia and deprived of all richt of speech in the affairs of Europe.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.