THE SHORES OF THE DARDANELLES.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XL, Issue 12541, 12 May 1915, Page 3

THE SHORES OF THE DARDANELLES.

(By Evelyn Ross, in the "Daily Express."}

On ft certain foggy monihig a Messageries boat slowed <lo\vn to let mo full rather -than step into a caique, one of a, rather small flotilla waiting for passengers to disembark for Chanak. Later in the afternoon began a journey for the interior, in ;i native cart or taloka drawn by two of the finest horses in the- countryside. Two hours's run brought me. to the village of Renquoi, and from that point a long drive through pitch darkness —at a breakneck speed which was not at all pleasant in a springless carttook me to my destination, in the midst of.those scenes of which Homer and Virgil wrote, where. Helen loved and Priam fought and lliam's citadel for ten long years defied Agamemnon and Achilles. The morning revealed a wonderful panorama. To the extreme, left the island of Tencdos lay .stretched almost, opposite Besika Bay. On the mainland was the village of Alexandria Troas, now a. mass of ruins, whilo further north was the Tomb of Assietes, excavated by Hr sjcliiemann.

Up the coast lay the village of Kum Kaleh, the fort on the extreme northerly' point. .lust round the coiner the River Scamander emptied itself into the straits, down which peasants floated pine logs from Mount Ida in the interior.

Not far from Mondere liridge. lay the ruins of Troy, through which L wandered for many hours during my stay in the. Troad. Beneath the walls on which Helen of Troy stood to view the Trojans lighting lav "a grassy plain, to the right of which is' the village of Ohiblak, composed of mud huts, a tiny place, but very quaint. Across the water stretched the long .spit of land on the European side, (he I'ort of Scddelbahr, almost, exactly opposite to that of Kum Kaleh, all now destroyed. Tho allied fleets have passed Troy, whose walls were loophuled and whoso warriors' weapons wero "made for use at verv close quarters, ami where the Again emnon was hit at 11,000 yards. What, would be the thoughts of King Priani could ho rise from the dead for one brief hour and sec the modern warfare?

Not fiir from the ancient, city are mounds now grown over with glasses. Dip through .'iml von will find little but, white a.sh, lor these, were the, funeral pyres, where, dead Trojans were_ burned. Sometimes a. bono will bo discovered which break* on being touched. These mounds are now the home of counties badgers which roam abroad all night. In one square mile of country here there is perhaps more history crammed than in any other similar spaeo throughout the u'nivomc, and today lnon: is being added which may clia.ugo our very existence as event* did that of the an. iont. Trojan in ages long gone by. C'hanak itself is a fair-sized town, bordering on the (straits oppolstu the Narrows. "Forts are on all _ sides, and were supposed to be quite impregnable until the advent, of the -Allied lleets. liarracks there are of a. sort, a prison.

and a well-equipped hospital, the latter perched on tho to].) of a hill overlooking Nagara Point, where a .short distance from the shore lies anchored the firman boat. . The European, element, is practically confined to consular ollicials, and only about half-a-dozen Knglish inhabit, tho spot. Tor the rest of the population, Greeks. .Armenian Turk's, and peasants complete the number, most, being engaged in either pottery manufacture or agriculture. On the plain of Troy proper, a. little to the north of the actual ruins, some of the finest hard wheat in Asia Minor is grown.. I!ye. barley, maize, haricot beans, aud ; water-melons are cultivated for export. The wants of the natives are few

and, to their credit be it said, they; try to live—and generally succeed--within their very limited means. Hospitality, frank and unbounded, is in evidence throughout the countryside, from tho meanest hut to the head house of the village, and though payment for food is rarely asked or expected, till a medjid (3s 4d) left on departure is really welcome to the simple folk who neither forget a kindness nor, I believe, an injurv, bo the latter imaginary or real. The actual soil is fertile, ploughing being conducted with the ancient wooden instrument, shod at tho tip with iron, and drawn bv two oxen or buffaloe. The animal goad, a long rod with a short nail in the end, servos as a gentle reminder to these slow-going beasts that some exertion is necessary, be it never so

little, in order that a crop of com may come some time. Sometimes as one wanders over the. land, an antique vase shows itself, turned up by the ancient plough. Perhaps a tiny terra'-eotta bust will show its head, or perhaps a rare coin, or part of a statue will show, half hidden in the soil. But for these rarities tin: native cares less than nothing, familiarity once again showing the discovery to he. of no account, to him. Rains come till .March Iroin the prc-

ceding October, while the Hiver Scumaii<lct- Hows from Mount Ida throughout Ih., vear—in winter a full volume of wafer, in the summer months little more than a small stream. Down this river, when in season, are. floated logs, planks, and sometimes whole pin 3 trees, from the mountain, an easy form of transport to the wood-cutters in the: interior. These logs are gathered in by men at the entrance, near Kum Aateli, and stored for shipment. For many months the, Troad was my home, a calm, peaceful spot where I learned to love, the East. The forts boomed 'on the. feast of Bairam, but that, was to rejoice. Now huge cannon deal death 011 ev'erv side, and mine sweepers clear a. way for the mightiest battleships the world has ever seen. . The face of the countryside is being chanced, but the. grey rums of I roy will remain intact. There are no barbarians here to serve them as the. Germans served the grand old cathedral at Klieims, or an they served the glories of houvain.