inadequacy and unpunctuality of salaries, and the instability of tenure of office, all of which reforms the Osmanli may, notwithstanding his predilection for Islamism and all its abuses, be induced to countenance, if not to carry out-nothing is of greater importance to the future welfare and prosperity, as well as the security, of the country, as the introduction of good roads of communication, and where possible, in time, the construction of through railroads. The regeneration of Turkey in Asia will, indeed, depend mainly upon such works being gradually carried out, and the inauguration of the British protectorate will be with the first carriage road from Mersina-one of the nearest available ports to Cyprusto Tarsus and Adana. Its prolongation to Alexandretta will quickly follow. One of the most fertile and richest provinces in Turkey in Asia, too—ancient Cilicia Campestris-would thus be opened by a road throughout its whole extent, a distance of some 120 miles, with available ports at its two extremities. The port of Lakakiyah, celebrated for its tobacco and scammony, is a little nearer to Famagusta, and the Bay of Antioch, with its open way to Antioch and Aleppo, about the same distance. We mention this latter line of road at the onset, because it has justly been remarked that the truest friends of Turkey will be those who will only sanction schemes that have been previously well matured; for any rashly-begun enterprise which resulted in failure would throw discredit upon all similar enterprises, and British capital, rendered so sensitive of late years, might refuse its support to designs of which it at present distinctly approves. Therefore it is necessary to exercise a large amount of judgment in deciding what shall be done at once, and what shall be postponed for the present. Yet does the writer of these judicious remarks go on to say that there is a rumour that the Porte has authorised an English company to construct a line from Tarsus and Adana to Marash, along the valley of the Jihun, the ancient Pyramus. There is not a more difficult pass in the whole of Taurus. The road is a mere ledge, or mule track, a few feet in width, carried for miles, with wooded precipices above and below; and the attempt to carry out any such a scheme would at once involve all concerned in impossible expenses, if not utter failure and discomfiture, thereby discouraging all truly feasible and possible undertakings. The construction of roads or of railways in Turkey in Asia must not be looked upon in the limited light of through railways either from Constantinople to Armenia, Persia, or India, or from the Mediterranean to the same objective points. It has been shown, as a simple question of finance, that the lowest rates at which goods can be carried at a profit by the Indian railways is 6.81 pies-about three farthings-per ton per mile. The cost of carrying a ton at this minimum rate over 2400 miles of line, less than half the distance between England and India, would be £7 10-that is to say, twice or three times the whole freight from England to India by the Suez Canal, the saving of time being some ten days to a fortnight. The points to be determined, then, are, first, the feasibility of the line, and next, the amount of territory it would open, and its nature in regard to local traffic, having the through traffic also in view, although the latter would never pay by itself alone. If modern science can lay down rails and provide material at a less cost than roads can be constructed, rails would natura ly be preferred, and this is especially the case where long and through traffic is concerned. Time becomes, then, a most important element in the question. In considering the project of a road or railway from Constantinople to Baghdad or the Persian Gulf, the first point that commands attention is that it must pass through Taurus. No amount of sophistry will get over this, and there are two passes that have been in use (for the best reasons-their comparative feasibility) from the most remote historical times tothe present, anl the s e are the Kulak Boghaz, or Gates of Cilicia, and the pass at Arghana Maden, which leads to Diyarbekir. The direction of the roads that traverse Asia Minor is simply determined by the necessity there is to reach one of these two passes. A direct road from Constantinople to Armenia has not to be carried through Taurus, although, in part, through a difficult country; so much so, that in as far as Erzrum and the silver mines of Gumush Khan are concerned, they would be more cheaply served by an improvement of the road already in existence from Trebizond. The ordinary high-road-and when we use this expression as applied to existing roads it will be understood that a simple camel, horse, or mule track is meant to the East, is beyond Ismid, the ancient Nicomedia, bounded to the south by a range of hills through which the Sakkariya, the ancient Sangarius, forces its way by precipitous passes. Yet was the valley of this river once proposed as a line of railway, by persons who it may be presumed were ignorant of this fact. The point at which the present road leaves the highway to cross the hills to Angora, or to Koniyah, ancient Iconium, is near Sabanjah, and the country continues to be broken and hilly as far as Bulavaddin, where it reaches the head of the plain or valley which stretches across Karamania, almost without an interruption, to the gates of Cilicia, a distance of some 160 miles. The hilly part of this route is tolerably fertile, and contains the towns of Eski-Shehr, or "old town," Kutayah, Afiyum-KaraHissar-and others of minor import. In the plain of Karamania are Bulavaddin (where the road from Smyrna would join this line), Ishakli, or Isakli,* Ak-Shehr, Ladik (ancient Laodicea, Combusta), and numerous thriving villages of Greeks, as well as Koniyah, once the capital of the Seljukiyan sultans. The existence of this long valley, dotted with lakes, gives great facilities to, at least, a portion of the line. It is a little broken up by volcanic eruptions at the southern foot of the Karaja Tagh, and it is marshy in crossing to Eregli, or Harakli-one of the numerous Heracleas of olden times-and beyond that point we enter upon the Gates of Cilicia. The engineering difficulties presented by this celebrated pass are by no means so difficult as have been imagined. There is a slight and gentle ascent beyond Heraclea, then a descent, and the road follows the valley of a tributary of the Sihun, or ancient Sarus-the river of Adana-for some distance; then a gentle ascent to the south or right hand, a bend over an upland, and a rapid descent (Ibrahim Pasha constructed his defences of the approach to Cilicia at this point), and then the narrow passage (Kulak Boghaz) which gives its name to the whole pass. This is, indeed, a remarkable ravine, being very narrow, encumbered with fallen rocks, and hemmed in by lofty precipices on both sides. But it is of no great length, and could be got through partly by clearing the way, partly, possibly, by tunnelling, at no remarkable expense, being so very short; and beyond it a hilly country extends all the way to close upon Tarsus, but with a greater amount of plain, to Adana. We are thus brought close to Cyprus. The road carried across Cilicia by Adana, Missis (ancient Mopsuestia), and the battle-field of Issus, to Iskandrun, or Alexandretta (like Tarsus, infamous for malaria), would have to be carried over Mount Amanus by the Baylan Pass, or Gate of Syria. This, although presenting greater difficulties than the Gate of Cilicia, has been explored in recent times by competent engineers, who have declared it to be quite amenable to modern scientific appliances. The pass once surmounted, the lake and plain of Antioch lie beyond, and these can be reached from the bay of same name in the Mediterranean, by an almost open valley-the most remarkable entrance into Syria and almost the only gap in the mountains, save that of Esdraelon to the south-an opening which seems, indeed, as if pointed out by nature to be the highway of nations. Between the plain of Antioch and Aleppo, there exists a low, but in parts hilly, and generally rough, stony limestone district, known in part as the Jebel Siman, or Mount St. Simon, from its having been the home of St. Simon, surnamed Stylites; and there * See "Travels in the Track of the Ten Thousand Greeks." are still many relics of churches and monasteries and habitations belonging to early Christian times. This tract of country has been more particularly explored by General Chesney and Sir John Macneil, and it has been decided that the difficulties which it presents to engineering operations can be circumvented. It is probable that the best way of accomplishing this would be to carry the line by Ghindaries and Azaz to Bir on the Euphrates, having short branch lines to Aleppo on the south, and to the thriving towns of Aintab and Kilis to the north. Another way presents itself by carrying the line up the valley of the Orontes as far as Jisr Shuger, or "Sugar Bridge," where there is an opening in the limestone hills south of the Jebel Raiha. The line might then go by Kinest in, or Aleppo, as might be judged best, and thence to the river bend near Kalah Jaber, but such a line would serve few useful purposes. A line up the Orontes would, however, constitute part of the chief road to Damascus and Palestine, which would be carried past Hamah and Homs to Baalbek, and by the Bukaa, "the entering in of Hamath." In either case the hard limestone district would be avoided. If, as is most likely to be the case, the line by the Tigris were determined upon, the road would go to Bir, and from thence by Urfah and Nisibin, to Mosul and Nineveh. The long line thus presented across northern Mesopotamia presents few engineering difficulties, and whit there are arise from an overflow of basalt, with no heights, but with a stony, rough surface, which might be avoided by taking a southerly line, as from the plain of Haran, to that of Nisibin, and from this latter station to Mosul and Nineveh cannot be more accurately described than as a grassy plain with some few undulations of no import whatever. As far as a road is concerned, it is there already made by nature; but without artificial aids it would probably be muddy or bad at certain seasons of the year. We come next to the road by Arghana to Diyarbekir. Many, taking the map as their guide, would carry this liue by Angora, the road to which, we have before seen, leaves the high-road to the East, at Sabanjah. This line would save distance, but the advantages gained thereby would be more than lost in the greater difficulty presented by the country, which is hilly, almost for its whole length. It is the same between Angora and the valley of the Halys; and the line would be either directed up the latter valley, a point to which we shall presently allude, or carried across the upland plateau of Yusgat and by the mountainous region known as the Buzuk, to Sivas, where it would join the ordinary high-road. Such a Such a line would then only serve Bey Bazar, Angora (the commercial importance of which, although the seat of a pasha, is no longer what it was) and Yuzgat. The Buzuk, with its mountain ranges of the Chickuk Tagh, and Ak Tagh, is one of the least fertile and least populated regions of Asia Minor. No ancient road, indeed, crossed this inhospitable district, which is chiefly celebrated with the Osmanlis for the frequent insurrections of its Turkoman chieftains. TOGETHER. Joy and sorrow are like two women walking together, the one young and beautiful with garlands of summer in her hair; the other no less lovely, but clad in a widow's weeds. GREEN leaves are greener when suffused with rain: Blue eyes are bluer beneath limpid tears: Fond hearts grow fonder when they throb with pain: Red gold is redder when by fire tried : A mansion statelier when marked by time :- CECIL MAXWELL-LYTE. |