on the Bulgarian than on the Roumanian side.

[Illustration: TERMINAL PIER OF TRAJAN'S BRIDGE ON ROUMANIAN SHORE.
(FROM A SKETCH BY THE AUTHOR.)]

But although that is the stretch of the river which comes strictly
within the scope of our survey, there is another portion, lying
immediately above it, that well merits a passing notice, more especially
as we know that it played an important part in the Roman conquest and
the subsequent colonisation of ancient Roumania. There is perhaps no
river scenery in Europe to equal, and certainly none which excels, that
part of the Danube stretching for about seventy-five miles from
Bazias--the terminus of a branch of the railway from Vienna to
Verciorova--to the so-called 'Iron Gates.' It is here that the river
cuts its way through the Carpathians, and whilst along its general
course it varies in width from half a mile to three miles or more, in
the Kazan Pass, a defile having on either side perpendicular rocks of
1,000 to 2,000 feet in height, it narrows in some parts to about 116
yards, and possesses a depth of thirty fathoms. The banks closely
resemble those of a fine Norwegian fiord, rising more or less
precipitously, and being covered with pines and other alpine trees, and
occasionally, as in Norway or even in Scotland, the steamer appears to
be crossing a long mountain-locked lake. At the lower end of this reach
of the Danube are what the metaphor-loving Ottomans first called the
'Iron Gates,' and they no doubt found them an insurmountable barrier to
their western progress up the river. Considerable misapprehension,
however--which is certainly not removed by the accounts of modern
writers, who have apparently copied from one another without visiting
them--exists concerning these same 'Iron Gates.' Some of the writers
referred to speak of 'rocks which form cascades 140 mètres' (or about