The river Temes flows into the Danube which, once more bifurcating, forms another island nearly 4 miles in length. The Kubin then joins it from Servia, and from Bazias the Lower Danube begins. The island of Moldava, 3 miles long, lies in the midst of an area of shifting sand-banks. At the far end the Danube is over 2000 yards broad, contracting with startling suddenness to a quarter of that width. At the end of this wedge is the pinnacle-like rock of Babakhai, standing out in midstream near two islands. It has an interesting legend connected with it.
The next place of interest is the castle of Kolumbacz.
The scenery presents characteristics of wild solitary grandeur, beetling cliffs, shooting up into the sky, the exclusive domain of eagles and other birds of prey; vast interminable forests that climb the highest mountains and descend into the deepest gorge; cataracts roaring and leaping from rock to rock; majestic trees, with the soil washed from under them, and ready to be hurled by the next blast into the river; others, stript of their bark, white and mutilated, dashing along with the current.
This fine description is still as true as when it was written many years ago.
The Kolumbacz fly, a peculiarly virulent kind of mosquito, is known and dreaded far and wide. Tradition says that in a cave in these rocks St. George slew the dragon and that the swarms originated in its putrefying carcase, an explanation which does not incline one to endure the torments meekly.
Finest of all the defiles through which we go is the Kazan Pass, where the river-bed narrows to 400 feet, and the towering cliffs rise to a height of 2000 feet, and fall so sheer to the water that without artificial means not even a goat could pass along their base. But no less than two roads can be seen, one on each side; one is clear and well-kept, the other fallen to ruin. The first was that made by the Romans in the time of Trajan, and wonderfully they did their work. In the absence of gunpowder, they made a way by fixing great baulks of timber, cut from the primeval forests of oak which clothed the cliffs, into niches or sockets cut in the living rock. These they further supported by hewing out a terrace or platform for part of their length, and then by filling in the projecting part with other timber; thus they formed a kind of hanging gallery broad enough for men to march along. Part of the rock was smoothed and an inscription recording the date of the work was made, but wind and weather have done their part, and it became almost indecipherable. Stimulated by this fine example, Count Széchenyi followed it in the nineteenth century, and made a road all along the river, which will endure for all time, because, having the use of gunpowder, the solid rock was blasted to make it. At the entrance to the Pass a smooth tablet cut in the rock records his work.
At Orsova Servia and Hungary, which have marched with the Danube, meet Roumania, so that the famous “Iron Gates” are the concern of all three rulers equally.
The term Iron Gate leads one instinctively to expect a defile as stern as that of Kazan or many another further upstream; as a matter of fact, the term gate is more appropriate than it would be to a mere defile, which, however narrow, would be open. The gate consisted of ridges of rock in the river-bed, forming quite as great an impediment to river traffic as any iron barrier reared vertically. These rocks have been removed by blasting and now, though the channel requires navigation, it is quite practicable at any state of the water. The “Gate” was declared open by the rulers of the three countries which meet at this point in 1896, though the work had been completed by Hungary alone. The length of the rapids is 1700 yards more or less, and the drop is considerable. This is the end of our special subject in this direction, though a continuation of the trip to the Black Sea may be recommended.
CHAPTER XI
BOHEMIA AND OTHER LANDS
There is a kingdom in the Austrian Empire which arose at one time to such a height of power that it might well have been the one eventually to overshadow the others and assume, as Prussia did, the leading position in the German confederation. This is Bohemia, at first a duchy, which became a kingdom about the thirteenth century. At one time its king had so extended his dominions by purchase and conquest that they included almost all the Empire of Austria as at present known, the kingdom of Poland, and more besides, and reached from the Adriatic to the Baltic Sea.