I walked out the first evening, for a stroll, along the edge of the Bosphorus; the road being a small flint-paved path between the houses and the water, unapproachable for carriages. It was a cold wintry- looking night, and the spent swell of the Euxine was lapping and splashing against the quay. But the lights along Buyukdere and the Asiatic coast were very effective ; and the occasional sound of a tinkling guitar, or the voice of a Greek girl singing, gave a sufficiently romantic air to the scene. Some of the songs I heard, appeared to be popular. I was indebted to a young lady of Pera for the music which 1 subjoin.
TURKISH AIR
We had sword-fish for supper that evening. It was of excellent flavour, and far more delicate than would be imagined, from looking at the huge specimens of the tribe hung up at the shops—some having been caught that weighed eighty pounds. T may mention, by the way, that every kind of fish is taken in the Bosphorus. Some of the specimens are very beautiful, but the shopkeepers do not see the use of displaying them to advantage, as we may observe at our fishmongers.
Whilst I was at Therapia, I had the honour of receiving an invitation from Sir Stratford Canning, to the Embassy, which is situated on the side of the Bosphorus. The palace of our Ambassador at Peru was burnt down in 1831; and a new one is nearly completed, under the able direction of Mr. Smith— it is needless to say, an English architect—to whose taste and experience Pera and the Bosphorus will soon be indebted for most of their finest buildings. Our Ambassador's house at Therapia is charmingly situated. Extreme good taste and refined comfort are visible everywhere; sufficient in themselves to leave an agreeable recollection, quite apart from the amiable courtesy exhibited to the visitor.
A ride to Belgrade was proposed, and we formed a large party—ten or twelve in all. This village is two or three hours from Thcrapia. It must not be confounded with the Belgrade on the Danube, six hundred miles away—for I have heard more than one traveller make this mistake before he has been there—but it is still an important plaee in its way, inasmuch as the greater part of the water that supplies Constantinople is collected about it. It is, so to speak, the "New River Head" to that city. How this is managed, I will endeavour to explain daily tours istanbul.
Belgrade is situated in the centre of a large and finely-wooded forest, about which several springs rise and form small rivulets. This wood is very carefully preserved, for the shade of its foliage prevents the ground from becoming heated, and the springs therefore from drying up. The country is very irregular, and the rivulets, of course, collect into some ravine by chance channels, to form a larger stream. The ravine is then clammed up, and the body of water thus formed, with its masonry, is termed a bend. When a street-boy in town blocks up a gutter with mud and rubbish, to make a pool behind it, he con-structs a bend on a minor scale.
Aqueducts for that distance
The next task is to convey the water to Constantinople. Aqueducts for that distance would be very expensive, and so it flows through underground pipes, —at least for the greater proportion of the distance. Every now and then, at particular levels, it ascends to the top of a pyramidal tower, called a Souterazy, whence it again passes underground, having come in contact with the air, to the next conduit. The advantages of this system are that it is comparatively in-expensive, and it enables the superintendent to tell readily at what point any leak or obstruction may occur, which he could not do, if it flowed continuously underground. Neither in that case could it come in contact with the air, and so be freshened.
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