I. Season and Plan of Tour. Health.

Season of Tour. The mildness of the climate (p. xxxv) makes travelling pleasant in the Mediterranean lands at almost any season. Even in the height of summer travellers who can stand a little heat will find residence in many of the islands and seaside resorts quite agreeable. Winter begins here much later and ends much earlier than in Northern or Central Europe, but until the end of March few regions are quite exempt from wintry days and falls of snow. March is considered also the windiest month in the year on the Mediterranean.

For the Portuguese coast, Andalusia, and Northern Morocco (Tangier) the best seasons are from the middle of March to the middle of May and the months of October and November. Granada, which lies high, is suitable for a prolonged stay from April till the middle of June. Seville and Cordova are often uncomfortably cold in December and January owing to lack of heating appliances. At Lisbon and Tangier winter is the season of the fertilizing rains, which often last till the middle of March. With regard to the best season for Madeira and the Canary Islands, see pp. 19, 32.

The weather is generally bright and genial in Algeria, Tunisia, and Tripolitania in late autumn, till the end of November, and also in March and April, though less settled. Winter is a dry season only on the E. coast of Tunisia and in the Sahara, but is sometimes cool and windy (see also pp. 170, 172, 321). It is still hot in October in Sicily, in Barbary, and in Egypt, where the sirocco (p. 321) is specially disagreeable in the early autumn, while health is endangered by malaria (p. xvi).

Of all the Mediterranean regions Egypt alone offers a dry, settled, and genial climate in winter. The traveller on the Eastern Mediterranean who wishes to avoid extremes of cold and heat should make his first stay at Cairo in January or February, start for the Syrian coast at the end of February or early in March, proceed to Palestine and Damascus after March has commenced, and visit Asia Minor and Greece in April, and Constantinople and the Black Sea in May. In autumn, from the end of September onwards, the above order should be reversed.

Plan of Tour. The traveller is advised to draw up a careful programme of his tour before starting. All the places described in the Handbook may be reached by steamer, or partly overland, at any time of the year, but during the winter season (from about the end of October to the middle of May) much greater facilities are offered by excursion-steamers (see pp. xviii, 1, 2), circular tickets, and combined tickets. American travellers may sail direct from New York or Boston to some of the Mediterranean ports (see p. xviii). Travellers from Great Britain may start from London, Liverpool, Southampton, or Dover, or if they dread a long sea-voyage may proceed overland to Marseilles, to Genoa, to Naples, to Brindisi, to Venice, or to Trieste (comp. p. xxiv), and begin their Mediterranean tour from one of these points. Some may prefer the overland route to Spain and Gibraltar, while others again may find it more convenient to travel all the way to Constantinople (Orient Express), to Constantza (Ostend-Vienna Express), or to Odessa (viâ Vienna and Cracow) by railway, and thence explore the Mediterranean from east to west. The railway routes will be found in ‘Bradshaw’s Continental Railway Guide’ or in the German ‘Reichskursbuch’. For the ‘trains de luxe’ services tickets must be obtained from the International Sleeping Car Co. (London, 20 Cockspur St., S.W.; Paris, 3 Place de l’Opéra; New York, 281 Fifth Ave.; Berlin, 69 Unter den Linden). For the sea-routes, see p. xvii; for particulars application should be made to the various companies or their handbooks consulted. Excursion, circular, and combined tickets are issued by Messrs. Thos. Cook & Son, Ludgate Circus, and by other tourist-agents. It may be noted here that the ‘pleasure-cruises’ organized by many of the companies offer great attractions at moderate cost, but at the almost entire sacrifice of personal independence, while the fellow-passengers with whom one is associated for weeks may not always be congenial.

As a general rule it is pleasanter and less expensive to travel with one or more companions than alone. Apart from hotel charges and railway and steamboat fares, the cost for two or three persons is often no greater than for one. Moreover, when off the beaten track the traveller thus escapes from monotonous and monosyllabic conversation with native guides or drivers (comp. pp. xxv, xxvi), and in case of illness or accident he is far more certain of obtaining assistance and relief.

The most useful language in most parts of the Mediterranean is French. In Portugal, Madeira, and the Canary Islands English is much spoken, in Egypt it is the leading language. Italian is very useful in Tunisia, on the coast of Tripolitania and Barca, in Malta, throughout the Levant, in Greece, and at Constantinople. On the other hand a slight knowledge of Arabic will be found most useful throughout the whole of N. Africa, from Morocco to Egypt, and in Palestine and Syria.

Some Hints on Health may be of advantage to the inexperienced traveller from the north. As a rule an overcoat or extra wraps should be put on at sundown, though they may often be dispensed with an hour or two later. When heated with walking the traveller should not rest in the shade. In hot climates like those of Egypt and the Sahara he should never remove his pith-helmet or other headgear in the sun. Grey spectacles or grey veils shield the eyes alike from the glare of the sun and from dust. Sunshades also are very desirable in hot weather. As a rule it is advisable to stay within doors during the heat of the day. On the other hand many places on the Mediterranean are cold in winter, Lower Egypt and Cairo being no exceptions. Steamboat passengers, too, will generally find warm clothing very desirable between October and the middle of May. An extra coat or shawl should be donned in museums, churches, mosques, and other buildings with stone pavement, as the air is often very chilly.

When engaging rooms visitors should insist on a southern aspect, which is almost essential for the delicate and highly desirable for the robust. In every case, especially if the rooms do not face due south, they should have a fireplace or else central heating. In the Mediterranean regions, where many of the plainer hotels have stone or brick floors, carpets are essential to comfort.

With regard to diet also a few general hints may be serviceable. Oysters, fish, salads, and tinned meats should be absolutely avoided. Raw fruit, except perhaps oranges and grapes, should be partaken of very sparingly. Ices and iced drinks also are apt to be upsetting. The contents of siphons, lemonade, and other ‘refreshing beverages’ are not unfrequently composed of polluted water. The safest liquids are boiled water, natural mineral waters, tea, coffee, good red wine, and, in moderation, sound English or German beer. Fairly good cognac or even whiskey may be obtained almost everywhere, but for the time-honoured ‘soda’ or ‘potash’ it is safer to substitute boiled or mineral water.

Colds, errors in diet, malaria, and over-exertion are the chief sources of the sharp attacks of illness to which even the hardiest travellers from the north are liable in the ‘sunny south’. Sunstroke is another danger. Against all these the traveller requires to be more on his guard than at home, where his nerves and his digestion are much less liable to be overtaxed. Care and moderation in sight-seeing and touring are therefore hardly less important than attention to diet.

Before the journey is begun a supply of a few simple remedies (see below) may be prepared with the advice of the traveller’s physician. In cases of serious illness one of the properly qualified doctors mentioned in the text should be consulted.

Diarrhoea, which may develop into dysentery, one of the commonest complaints, generally results from catching cold or from eating unwholesome food. The patient should first take a slight aperient and afterwards several doses of bismuth. The diet should be arrowroot (which should always accompany the traveller), rice or some other farinaceous food, and milk; fruit, meat, fatty substances, and alcohol should be avoided. In obstinate cases a change of climate is sometimes the only remedy.

Sprains are best treated with cold compresses; the injured part should be tightly bandaged and given perfect rest. In the case of a snake bite or scorpion sting the wound should be immediately treated with ammonia, or better still, cauterized. Sunstroke is not common in winter, but may easily occur as late as November or as early as April. The usual remedies are rest and shade; cold appliances are used for the head and neck; in case of high temperature these should be iced. The best protection for the head is either a pith-helmet, or a tall perforated straw-hat, with several folds of gauze round it and hanging down over the back of the neck. When the eyes are irritated with glare or dust frequent washing with a weak boracic or zinc lotion affords relief (comp. also p. xv).

Lastly a few simple and well-known remedies, most of which may be obtained in a tabloid form, may be mentioned for other common ailments: cascara sagrada, castor-oil, ‘Tamar Indien’, or Epsom salts for constipation; a zinc or starch dusting-powder for chafed sores due to riding; tincture of arnica, or Elliman’s embrocation, antiseptic wool, collodion, and sticking-plaster, for bruises and wounds; ammonia (sal-ammoniac) or other antidote (muscatol) to stings or bites; disinfectants, carbolic acid, insect-powder; chlorodyne for neuralgia; quinine for cases of fever. Fever, be it noted, especially in malarious regions (Sardinia, Sicily, Algeria, Tunisia, Greece) is propagated by mosquitoes, especially by the female of the Anopheles Claviger. Light curtains round the beds should therefore be used to ward off the attacks of these troublesome insects. At dusk, and at night when the room is lighted, the windows should always be carefully closed. When a bite has been received the inflamed part should be at once rubbed with ammonia.

It should, however, be added, in order to reassure the timid or nervous traveller, that few of these elaborate precautions are necessary except for enterprising explorers who often leave the beaten track or whose tour extends beyond the usual winter season.

II. Money, Passport, Custom House.

Money. A small sum of money to start with should be taken in English or French gold, but large sums should always be carried in the form of circular notes, care being observed to keep the notes and the ‘letter of indication’ quite separate. These notes are issued by the London and the Scottish banks and by Messrs. Thos. Cook & Son (Ludgate Circus). The cheques issued by the American Express Companies, by the American Bankers Association, and by the International Mercantile Marine Co. are also convenient. Wherever the traveller lands he will find an ample supply of the small change of the country very needful.

Passports are not absolutely necessary, except in Turkey and in Russia; but consuls, and sometimes bankers, require more convincing proof of identity than a visiting-card. Passports must be shown at the post-offices also in order to obtain delivery of registered letters.

Passports may be procured in England direct from the Passport Department of the Foreign Office, Whitehall (fee 2 s.), or through any tourist-agent.—In the United States they are obtained from the Bureau of Citizenship, State Department, Washington, D.C.—Travellers may generally get their passports visés for Turkey or Russia through one of the steamboat-companies or by applying to their consulate at one of the chief seaports, if they have omitted to take this step before leaving home.

The Custom House Examination at the various seaports and frontiers is seldom very rigorous; but the traveller should be careful to declare every new article not intended for personal use; and he should note particularly that cigars, tobacco, and cigarettes, weapons and ammunition (the import of the last four articles being entirely prohibited in Turkey), playing-cards, matches, etc. are liable to a heavy duty almost everywhere. These should therefore be carried in very small quantities or dispensed with altogether. It is rarely worth while carrying large supplies of any dutiable article, as the formalities are tedious and the expenses heavy.

In Turkey a second custom-house examination of luggage takes place when the traveller leaves the country, a small duty being levied on exports, while the export of antiques without the authority of government is forbidden. In Spain, Italy, and Greece also permission must be obtained to carry away works of art. Persons who have made large purchases, or have a superfluity of baggage to send home, had better employ a goods-agent.

III. Steamboats.

All the leading steamboat-companies are mentioned in the Handbook in connection with the different routes. The great Oriental, Australian, and other liners, of 5–12,000 tons’ burden and upwards, touch at very few Mediterranean ports (Gibraltar, Marseilles, Genoa, Naples, Port Said). Travellers desirous of visiting the Portuguese coast, Madeira and the Canary Islands, Algiers, Sardinia, Sicily, Tunisia, Athens, Constantinople, and many other places of interest must generally be content with smaller and often very inferior vessels. The sections of the following brief summary of the chief lines correspond with those into which the Handbook is divided.

From the United States to the Mediterranean.—White Star Line. From Boston about every three weeks to Gibraltar, Algiers, Naples, and Genoa, in 14–15 days. From New York at irregular intervals to Gibraltar, Naples, and Genoa, in 15–16 days. From Genoa viâ Naples to New York or Boston at irregular intervals. Fares: 1st cl. from New York to Gibraltar, Genoa, or Naples, from 16l., according to steamer; from Boston to Gibraltar, Algiers, Genoa, or Naples, from 16l. 10s.; from New York to Villefranche, from 19l. 10s.; 2nd cl. 13l.

Hamburg-American Line. From New York at irregular intervals to Gibraltar, Algiers, Naples (or Palermo), and Genoa, in 13 days, and vice versâ. Fares: 1st cl. from 17l. 10s., 2nd cl. 13l.

North German Lloyd Line. From New York on most Sat. to Gibraltar, Algiers (not in summer), Naples, and Genoa, in 13 days, returning on most Thursdays. Fares: 1st cl. from $87½, 2nd cl. from $65.

Cunard Line. From New York at irregular intervals to Gibraltar, Genoa, Naples, Trieste, and Fiume, in about 20 days, returning viâ Palermo, Naples, and Gibraltar. Fares to Trieste or Fiume, 1st cl. from 16l. 10s.; to Gibraltar, Genoa, or Naples from 14l. 10s.; 2nd cl. fares from 12l.

Among the regular pleasure-cruises from the United States to the Mediterranean may be mentioned those from Boston organized by the Bureau of University Travel; for excursion-steamers from England to the Mediterranean, see pp. 1, 2.

(1). Portuguese Coast (R. 1).

Pacific Line from Liverpool (31 James St.) fortnightly, for La Rochelle-Pallice (for Bordeaux), Corunna, Vigo, Leixões (for Oporto), Lisbon, and St. Vincent (Cape Verde), and thence to S. America. Passengers for Madeira, the Canary Islands, and the Mediterranean must of course tranship at Lisbon or St. Vincent.

Royal Mail Steam Packet Co., see p. xix.

Nederland Royal Mail Steamers (London office, 2 King William St., E.C.) and Rotterdam Lloyd, both fortnightly from Southampton to Lisbon, Tangier, etc.

Yeoward Bros. Line, see p. xix.

Hall Line, see p. xx.

Booth Line thrice monthly from Liverpool (office in the Tower Building) to Havre, Vigo, Leixões (for Oporto), Lisbon, and Madeira.

Ellerman Line weekly from Liverpool to Lisbon and Oporto.

Peninsular & Oriental Co., see p. xx.

German East African Line (London office, 14 St. Mary Axe, E.C.) once every three weeks from Southampton to Lisbon, Tangier, Marseilles, Naples, etc.

Hamburg-American Line (London office, 22 Cockspur St., S.W.) and Hamburg & South American Co. several times monthly from Southampton, calling occasionally at Lisbon.

Royal Holland Lloyd monthly from Dover to Boulogne, Corunna, Vigo, Lisbon, etc.

Compañía Trasatlántica (Philippines Line) monthly from Liverpool to Corunna, Vigo, Lisbon, Cadiz, etc.

Union Castle Line (London office, 3 Fenchurch St., E.C.) weekly from Southampton to Madeira; also fortnightly from London and Southampton touching alternately at Las Palmas and Teneriffe; also summer tours to Madeira, Las Palmas, and Teneriffe.

Royal Mail Steam Packet Co. (London office, 18 Moorgate St., E.C.) fortnightly from Southampton to Vigo, Lisbon, and Madeira; also round voyages from London, see p. xx.

Peninsular & Oriental Branch Service monthly from London (office, 3 East India Ave., E.C.) to Las Palmas.

Booth Line, see p. xviii.

Bucknall Line monthly from London (office, 23 Leadenhall St., E.C.) to Teneriffe.

Aberdeen (Thompson’s) Line monthly from London (office, 7 Billiter Square, E.C.) and Plymouth to Teneriffe.

Aberdeen (Rennie’s) Line about once every ten days from London (office, 4 East India Ave., E.C.) to Las Palmas and Teneriffe alternately.

German East African Line (London office, see p. xviii) once every three weeks from Southampton for Las Palmas and Teneriffe.

Woermann Line monthly from Dover to Las Palmas and Teneriffe.

New Zealand Line (London office, 138 Leadenhall St., E.C.) and Shaw, Savill, & Albion Line (London office, 34 Leadenhall St., E.C.), each monthly from London and Plymouth to Teneriffe.

Yeoward Bros. Line weekly from Liverpool (office, 27 Stanley St.) to Lisbon, Teneriffe, and Grand Canary, calling on alternate voyages at Madeira.

Federal, Houlder, & Shire Lines fortnightly from Liverpool, calling at Madeira, Las Palmas, or Teneriffe.

Natal Line fortnightly from London (office, 14 St. Mary Axe, E.C.) to Las Palmas.

Empreza Nacional de Navegação twice monthly, and Empreza Insulana once monthly from Lisbon to Madeira.

(3). Gibraltar and Andalusia (RR. 1, 5, 6 b, 11).

Peninsular & Oriental Co. once weekly from London (office, 122 Leadenhall St., E.C.) to Gibraltar, etc. Comp. also p. xx.

Orient Royal Line fortnightly from London (office, 5 Fenchurch St., E.C.) to Gibraltar, etc.

North German Lloyd fortnightly from Southampton (London office, 26 Cockspur St., S.W.).

Anchor Line almost weekly from Liverpool (office, 17 Water St.) or Glasgow (Anchor Line Buildings) to Gibraltar.

Hall Line weekly from London (office, 31 Crutched Friars, E.C.) to Lisbon, Gibraltar, Málaga, and Cadiz.

Royal Mail Steam Packet Co., see below.

Moss Line fortnightly (office, 31 James St.) and Papayanni Line (office, 22 Water St.) occasionally from Liverpool to Gibraltar.

Vapores Correos de Africa from Algeciras to Tangier, Cadiz, and Ceuta.

(4). Morocco (RR. 13, 14).

Royal Mail Steam Packet Co. fortnightly from London (office, see p. xix) to Gibraltar, Tangier, etc., returning viâ Las Palmas, Teneriffe, and Madeira.

Nederland Royal Mail and Rotterdam Lloyd, see p. xviii.

German East African Line, see p. xviii.

Peninsular & Oriental Co. sends ‘Vectis’ or other excursion steamer from London (office, see p. xix) several times in spring and summer to Lisbon, Gibraltar, and Tangier.

Compañía Trasatlántica (Canary Line) calls at Tangier (if required also at Casablanca and Mazagan) once a month on the voyage to and from Barcelona.

Bland Line, small cargo-boats thrice weekly from Gibraltar to Tangier; also steamers from Tangier to Tetuán and Larash.

Oldenburg Portuguese Line fortnightly from Tangier to Rabât, Mogador, etc.

Vapores Correos de Africa twice monthly from Tangier to Larash, Rabât, Casablanca, Mazagan, Saffi, and Mogador.

N. Paquet & Co. weekly from Tangier to Rabât and Mogador.

Navigation Mixte weekly from Tangier for Melilla, Málaga, and Oran.

Hungarian Adria monthly from Gibraltar to Tangier and Oran.

(5). W. Mediterranean.

From Gibraltar to Genoa (R. 15a):—White Star Line (from New York or Boston) 2–3 times monthly; North German Lloyd (from Southampton) monthly; Cunard Line (from New York) occasionally; Lloyd Sabaudo (from S. America) once monthly.

From Gibraltar to Algiers (R. 15b):—North German Lloyd fortnightly; the Hamburg-American, the Austrian Lloyd, and the German Levant, all less regularly; Navigation Mixte (Touache Co.) to Oran (thence to Algiers by rail).

From Gibraltar to Marseilles (R. 17):—Peninsular & Oriental (from London) weekly; Orient Royal (from London) fortnightly.

From Gibraltar to Naples (R. 16):—Orient Royal (from London) fortnightly; North German Lloyd (from Southampton) twice, also (from New York) once or twice monthly; Cunard and White Star (from New York or Boston), each two or three times a month; Hamburg-American (from New York) once or twice a month.

From Marseilles to Naples (R. 23):—Orient Royal (from London) fortnightly; North German Lloyd (from Southampton) fortnightly; German East African Line once in three weeks; Messageries Maritimes fortnightly; Hungarian Adria (cargo-boats) twice weekly.

From Marseilles to Algiers (R. 20):—Générale Transatlantique four times weekly; Transports Maritimes, twice weekly; Navigation Mixte (Touache Co.) weekly, also cargo-boat weekly.

From Marseilles to Tunis (R. 21):—North German Lloyd fortnightly (to Goletta only); Générale Transatlantique once weekly (and thence on to Malta), and viâ Bizerta once weekly; Navigation Mixte (Touache Co.) once weekly, and cargo-boats viâ Bizerta once weekly.

From Genoa to Naples (R. 24):—North German Lloyd (from Southampton) two or three times a month; Hamburg-American once or twice monthly; Cunard and White Star, each once monthly; Società Nazionale three or four times weekly; Italian Lloyd once, twice, or thrice monthly; La Veloce and Lloyd Sabaudo, each once monthly; Hungarian Adria twice weekly.

From Genoa to Tunis (R. 25):—Società Nazionale weekly; North German Lloyd fortnightly to Bizerta.

From Naples to Palermo (R. 26):—Steamers of the Ferrovie dello Stato daily; Società Nazionale weekly; Hungarian Adria twice weekly; Lloyd Sabaudo monthly.

From Palermo to Tunis (R. 26):—Società Nazionale weekly, also small cargo-boats weekly; Navigation Mixte (Touache Co.), cargo-boats weekly.

From Naples to Messina and Syracuse (R. 27):—Società Nazionale thrice weekly to Messina, and once weekly thence to Syracuse; also steamers of the Ferrovie dello Stato weekly from Naples to Messina, and of the North German Lloyd fortnightly from Naples to Catania.

From Tunis or Syracuse to Malta (R. 64):—Società Nazionale six times monthly; Hungarian Adria six times weekly. From London to Malta: Peninsular & Oriental usually weekly. From Liverpool to Naples and Malta: City Line about once monthly.

(6). Steamers to Algeria.

From Southampton to Algiers:—North German Lloyd once or twice monthly direct; Nederland Royal Mail fortnightly viâ Lisbon and Tangier.

From Marseilles to Oran (R. 19):—Générale Transatlantique twice weekly; Transports Maritimes once, and cargo-boat once weekly; Navigation Mixte (Touache Co.) once weekly (also weekly steamers from Cette to Oran).

From Marseilles to Algiers, see p. xxi.

From Gibraltar to Algiers, see p. xx.

From Cartagena to Oran (R. 18):—Générale Transatlantique once weekly.

From Tangier to Oran (R. 18):—Navigation Mixte (Touache Co.) weekly, also cargo-boats fortnightly; Hungarian Adria once monthly.

(7). Steamers to Tunis.

From Algiers to Tunis (R. 22):—Générale Transatlantique, coasting cargo-boats, once weekly; German Levant Line two or three times a month; Hungarian Adria once monthly to Tunis direct. Several other lines are available for sections of the route.

From Marseilles to Tunis, see p. xxi; from Naples to Palermo, and from Palermo to Tunis, see p. xxi; from Naples to Syracuse, and from Syracuse to Malta and Tunis, see p. xxi.

(8). Eastern Mediterranean.

From Tunis to Malta, see p. xxi.

From Tunis to Tripoli (R. 64):—Società Nazionale weekly, and Navigation Mixte (Touache Co.) weekly, both coasting. (From Algiers to Tripoli direct or viâ Malta, cargo-steamers of the German Levant Line.)

From Tripoli to Malta and Syracuse (R. 64):—Società Nazionale weekly, other boats fortnightly.

From Tripoli to Alexandria (R. 65):—German Levant Line, cargo-boats, thrice monthly; Banco di Roma fortnightly.

From Tripoli to Constantinople (R. 66):—Società Nazionale fortnightly.

From Marseilles, Genoa, and Naples to Alexandria (R. 67):—North German Lloyd weekly from Marseilles to Naples and Alexandria; Messageries Maritimes from Marseilles weekly to Alexandria direct; Società Nazionale weekly from Genoa to Leghorn, Naples, and Alexandria.

From Venice to Alexandria (R. 68):—Società Nazionale fortnightly, viâ Ancona, Bari, and Brindisi.

From Trieste to Alexandria (R. 68):—Austrian Lloyd weekly viâ Brindisi, and weekly viâ Gravosa and Brindisi.

Steamers to Port Said (RR. 67, 68):—All the great liners already mentioned and others besides converge at Port Said. Of the companies despatching vessels almost daily from British ports the following are the chief: Peninsular & Oriental (calling at Gibraltar, Marseilles, and Brindisi); Orient Royal and North German Lloyd (calling at Gibraltar, Marseilles, and Naples); Bibby (calling at Marseilles); City Line (calling at Naples and Malta); British India Line (calling occasionally at Marseilles, Genoa, or Naples); Nederland Royal Mail (viâ Genoa); Rotterdam Lloyd (viâ Marseilles); Queensland Line; Japan Mail (viâ Marseilles); and Compañía Trasatlántica (viâ Genoa).

Steamers to Palestine and Syria (R. 72):—Khedivial Mail, Austrian Lloyd, Russian Steam Navigation & Trading Co., Società Nazionale, all weekly from Alexandria to Port Said, Jaffa, Haifa, and Beirut; Messageries Maritimes fortnightly from Alexandria and Port Said to Beirut direct, and fortnightly calling at Jaffa; German Levant, cargo-boats, twice monthly from Alexandria to Jaffa, Haifa, and Beirut.

From Alexandria and Beirut to Smyrna and Constantinople (RR. 72, 75, 76):—Khedivial Mail fortnightly from Alexandria to Port Said, Beirut, Smyrna, and Constantinople; Russian Steam Navigation & Trading Co., similar route, weekly; Messageries Maritimes fortnightly from Beirut; La Phocéenne weekly from Alexandria to Smyrna (Constantinople).

Steamers to the Piræus (Athens; RR. 76, 77, 78):—Khedivial Mail, Rumanian Mail, Russian Steam Navigation & Trading Co., all weekly from Alexandria to the Piræus; North German Lloyd fortnightly from Marseilles to Genoa, Naples, Catania, and the Piræus; Messageries Maritimes fortnightly from Marseilles to the Piræus; Società Nazionale weekly from Genoa to Leghorn, Naples, Palermo, Messina, and the Piræus; Società Nazionale also weekly from Venice to Brindisi, Patras, and the Piræus; Austrian Lloyd weekly from Trieste to Patras and the Piræus; also Greek-Oriental and Thessalian lines of the same company, each weekly from Trieste to the Piræus; Greek Panhellenios Co. weekly from Trieste to Patras and the Piræus; Austro-Americana, New York line (quickest), weekly from Trieste to Patras (for Athens).

From the Piræus (Athens) viâ Smyrna to Constantinople (R. 80):—Khedivial Mail weekly; North German Lloyd, Messageries Maritimes, both fortnightly; Austrian Lloyd weekly; also Rumanian Mail, Società Nazionale, and Austrian Lloyd (the three quickest routes), each weekly to Constantinople direct.

(9). Black Sea.

From Constantinople to Constantza (R. 82):—Rumanian Mail (quickest) twice weekly; Austrian Lloyd alternate Fridays and alternate Saturdays; Società Nazionale weekly.

From Constantinople to Odessa (R. 83):—North German Lloyd fortnightly; Russian Steam Navigation & Trading Co., direct line, weekly; Syria and Egypt lines fortnightly; Anatolian line fortnightly; Austrian Lloyd fortnightly; Società Nazionale weekly; Messageries Maritimes weekly.

From Odessa to Batum (R. 84):—Russian Steam Navigation & Trading Co. weekly; North German Lloyd monthly.

From Batum to Constantinople (R. 85):—North German Lloyd alternate Saturdays; Russian Steam Navigation & Trading Co. alternate Thursdays; Austrian Lloyd weekly; Messageries Maritimes, N. Paquet & Co., and Società Nazionale all fortnightly.

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Overland Routes. Travellers bound for the Central or Eastern Mediterranean, and in particular those who wish to avoid the long voyage to Gibraltar and thus to save five, six, or more days, will choose an overland route to one or other of the Mediterranean ports. Marseilles is reached from London by the ‘P. & O. Express’, starting on Thursdays, or by the ‘Calais-Mediterranean Express’, daily in winter, in 20–20¼ hrs., or by ordinary express in 22½ hrs.—Genoa is 27 hrs. from London, viâ Paris and Mont Cenis.—Venice is 32¼ hrs. from London viâ Bâle and the St. Gotthard.—Trieste is reached in 43½ hrs. from London viâ Milan.—Naples is 46 hrs. from London viâ Paris and Rome.—Brindisi is reached in 45¼ hrs. by the ‘P. & O. Brindisi Express’, starting on Friday mornings, or by ordinary express, viâ Boulogne and Paris, in 54½ hrs.

Lastly, the traveller who proposes to explore the Mediterranean from east to west, and who desires to economize time, should consult Bradshaw’s Continental Railway Time Tables, or the German Reichskursbuch, or Hendschel’s Telegraph, as to the great Oriental expresses to Constantinople and the Black Sea.

Hints to Steamboat Passengers. During the height of the season (in Egypt Jan. and Feb., in other parts of the Mediterranean March, April and even May) passages often have to be booked a month or six weeks in advance. Holders of return-tickets or combined tickets must secure berths for the return-voyage also long beforehand.

Heavy Baggage, to be stowed away in the hold, should be sent on board at least one or two days beforehand. Each passenger should endeavour, for his own sake and that of others, to limit his requirements for the voyage to one or two cabin-trunks of moderate size. Private cabins should, as a rule, be kept locked, and small articles should not be left lying about on deck unwatched.

Landing or Embarkation by small boat is often an unpleasant proceeding, as the boatmen are apt to be extortionate in their demands, especially when the sea is rough. The charge for each passenger with his baggage should be ascertained beforehand and only paid at the end of the trip, or the whole transaction may be entrusted to one of the hotel-agents. Small articles carried in the hand should not be allowed out of sight.

The Food is generally good. Coffee is served between 8 and 10, lunch at 1 or earlier, dinner at 6 or 7. First-class passengers in the British and German steamers dress for dinner.

The Fees vary according to circumstances. They are of course higher if the passenger has been ill and has required much attention. The chief steward or stewardess usually expects at least 1 fr. per day, and the other attendants receive fees proportioned to the services rendered.

Medical Attendance and medicines, in case of illness, are nominally free, but a reasonable fee is usually paid. Baths in the larger steamboats are free, fixed hours being allotted to passengers on application. Passengers may bring their own Deck Chairs or hire them from the chief steward.

IV. Intercourse with Orientals.

The objects and pleasures of travel are so unintelligible to most Orientals that they are apt to regard the European traveller as a lunatic, or at all events as a Crœsus, and therefore to be exploited on every possible occasion. Hence their constant demands for ‘bakshîsh’ (‘a gift’). To check this demoralizing cupidity the traveller should never give bakshish except for services rendered, unless occasionally to aged or crippled beggars.

Small fees are, however, not unreasonably expected by drivers, guides, donkey-boys, and others, over and above their stipulated hire. Excursionists should therefore always be well provided with small change. If no previous bargain has been made the charges and fees stated in the Handbook are usually ample.

While the traveller should be both cautious and firm in his dealings with the natives, he should avoid being too exacting or suspicious. Many of those he meets with are like mere children and often show much kindliness of disposition. In most cases their attempts at extortion are comparatively trifling; but if serious, the matter may be referred to the police or to the traveller’s consul.

On the other hand exaggerated professions of friendship should be distrusted, loyalty towards strangers being still rarer in the East than elsewhere. The natives are apt to make common cause against European visitors. While their religion usually requires them to address each other as ‘yâ akhûya’ (my brother), their brotherhood does not extend to outsiders.

As the Orientals are often remarkably dignified and punctilious in their bearing, the traveller should show corresponding respect and consideration for their customs and prejudices. He should never, for example, photograph a Mohammedan without his leave, nor look too curiously at the veiled women, nor don Oriental costume. Sacred places, such as mosques, chapels, and religious houses and their schools, must not be entered without removing one’s shoes or putting on slippers, lest the carpets and mats on which prayer is offered be polluted. Korans must never be touched; and when prayers are being recited, strangers must keep carefully aloof. In every part of the Orient the traveller meets with ‘saints’ (often imbecile or insane), who go about in fantastic rags and sometimes stark naked. Needless to say he will give them a wide berth.

The traveller may least obtrusively observe the various phases of Oriental life by visiting the native quarters of the towns, the bazaars and markets, and the popular festivals and recreations of the Moslems. Story-tellers at the native cafés (reminiscent of the Arabian Nights), jugglers, wrestlers, snake-charmers, barbers’ shops, and native schools are all objects of interest. In Turkey and in Egypt the popular theatres with their shadow-scenes (kara göz) are curious. Ladies may sometimes, by special introduction, obtain admission to a private dwelling-house and get a glimpse of the manners and customs of Oriental women. On Fridays they may see the Moslem women raising their veils in the cemeteries (comp. p. 220).

Gentlemen, when visiting an Oriental, knock at the door with an iron ring. From within is asked the question ‘mîn’ (who is there)? On being admitted, after the ladies who happen to be in the court have retired, he removes his shoes lest the costly carpets be sullied, and uncovers his head. The host approaches to meet him, one step or more according to the honour he desires to do his visitor. The latter salutes him in Oriental fashion by placing his right hand on his heart and then moving it up to his forehead. Questions as to health are first asked, but no allusion must be made to the ladies of the family, who are regarded as under a veil (sitr). Coffee is always offered. The servant with his left hand on his heart, hands round the little cups to the guests in order of their rank. The guest holds the cup in his hand till it is taken back by the servant. If the host wishes his guest to pay a long visit he delays his order for coffee, and the guest must not leave before then.

It is considered highly impolite to decline a visit, and each visit must of course be returned.

The Guides who proffer their services everywhere may generally be dispensed with, except by novices or by travellers pressed for time. Most of those at Constantinople and in Asia Minor are native Jews, who speak a little English, Italian, French, or German. All, as a rule, are ignorant and uneducated, and their ‘explanations’ of antiquities or works of art are worthless. When, as sometimes happens, they assume a patronizing or a familiar manner, they should be promptly checked and kept in their proper place. If a purchase has to be made, or a carriage or horse to be hired, the aid of a guide should be declined, as the sum demanded is then considerably raised, and part of it given to the guide as commission. On short excursions the guide usually walks, and it is quite unnecessary to provide him with a mount.

In the large towns the guides and commissionaires are sometimes in the pay of gambling-rooms or low places of entertainment. Against such, especially at night, the traveller should be on his guard.

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Geographical Sketch by the late Prof. Theobald Fischer.

The shores of the Mediterranean, formerly visited in part only and imperfectly known, now most deservedly attract, throughout their whole extent, an ever increasing number of travellers and explorers. No part of the earth’s surface can offer so marvellous an intellectual feast. Land where he may, the traveller is almost invariably struck with the beauty of the scenery, the richness of the vegetation, and the wealth of historical memories. For three thousand years the Mediterranean was the theatre of all history, the cradle of all culture, to which the whole of humanity more or less directly owes its modern civilization. It was here for the first time that the nearness of the opposite coasts and the numerous island stepping-stones, coupled with winds blowing gently for months at a time, deprived the sea of its terrors and gave birth to a hardy race of mariners. The stagnation of the continental peoples was thus powerfully stirred and their ignorance gradually dispelled. It was first in Egypt, and then above all in Greece and in Italy, that those mighty intellectual weapons were forged which were to conquer the whole earth, while from Palestine came the mightiest of all religious and moral influences. The Mediterranean was the school of almost all the mediæval geographers and navigators, such as Toscanelli, Columbus, Vespucci, the Gabotti (the ‘Cabots’ employed by Henry VII.), and others, who added a New World to the old, and who brought Europe into touch with the great Asiatic cradles of culture. The Italians were the first to educate the Spanish, Portuguese, French, and even English mariners, and to introduce them to that Ocean which was to become the world’s commercial and intellectual highway.

The ancient Romans were fully aware, from a very early period, that they could maintain their empire on land only by securing their supremacy at sea also. Favoured by the central situation of Italy, they gradually subjected the whole of the Mediterranean lands to their sway, thus imparting to them a certain social and political unity. The name of ‘sea in the middle of the land’, though of late-Roman origin, still suggests the idea that both sea and land belonged to Rome. But this unity was afterwards destroyed by the repeated incursions of Germanic tribes from the north, followed by Arabs and Turks from the south and east. Owing to the discovery of the great ocean highways the Mediterranean was almost entirely neglected in the 16–19th centuries, but since the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 it has become one of the world’s most important arteries of traffic. The establishment of the French in Algeria (1830) and Tunisia (1881) and that of the British in Egypt (1884) have still more effectually reunited Europe and Africa and promoted the progress of civilization and commerce. With Asia also Europe has been brought into closer touch since the Crimean war of 1854–6, when the Black Sea was opened up, and new avenues to the Orient were thus rendered available. While nominally belonging to three different quarters of the globe, the Mediterranean with its shores, being bounded on the north by a long wall of high mountains and on the south by a vast and even more impenetrable expanse of desert, possesses quite a unique individuality of its own.

Geologically considered the Mediterranean forms part of an immense depression girdling the whole of the earth’s crust and separating the northern from the southern parts. This depression probably existed during the earlier geological periods, but in its depths has not yet assumed a settled character, as is evidenced by frequent earthquakes, mostly tectonic, and by continuous volcanic activity. This great depression is believed by geologists to have extended in the mesozoic period into Central Asia, far beyond the limits of the present Mediterranean, forming an immense sea to which the name of Tethys has been given. In its depths were deposited those strata, chiefly calcareous and argillaceous, which were afterwards raised and converted into dry land by means of the centripetal motion of the earlier masses of rock and by lateral pressure. In proof of this it may be noted that some two-thirds of Italy and four-fifths of Sicily consist of subaqueous formations of the tertiary or even a later period.

In the midst of this vast ‘Eurasian’ (European-Asiatic) region of folded rock formation, some 930 miles in length, bounded on the north by the solid primæval rocks of the continent of Europe, and on the south by the great plateau of the desert, lies the Chief Basin of the Mediterranean, embracing the Adriatic and the Greek Archipelago, where the highly indented coast and the numerous islands and peninsulas display a most striking variety of picturesque scenery. On the other hand the smaller part of the sea, lying to the south of a line drawn from the Lesser Syrtis, past the south coasts of Crete and Cyprus, to North Syria, has been formed by encroachment on the plateau of the desert (p. xxxiii), and is almost entirely destitute of attraction. In the geological history of the Mediterranean it is important to note also that three great rock-masses of the earliest periods still survive. These are the Iberian mass to the west, once probably connected with the kindred rocks of the Atlas in Morocco; then the Tyrrhenian mass, in the centre, and the Rumelian to the east. These three belong to the archæan and palæozoic periods. Once towering to Alpine peaks, they were gradually undermined by the action of the waves and by the subsidence of the land. Their bases were thus partly covered with their débris, built up in new formations. By later movements of the earth’s crust, however, these shapeless primæval masses were again broken up, and by the pressure and counter-pressure of the fragments were piled up anew into smaller mountain-ranges of considerable height. Thus from the Iberian primæval rock sprang up, in the Castilian range (Sierra de Gredos), peaks to a height of nearly 9000 feet; in the Rhodope of Rumelia rise similar peaks to nearly 10,000 feet high; and even amid the ruins of the Tyrrhenis (p. xxxi) still towers the granitic Monte Cinto in Corsica to a height of 8900 feet.

Around these great primæval masses, deeply rooted in the earth’s crust, were gradually built up the recent folded mountains, out of materials forced aside and upwards by the débris of earlier rock as it sank into the sea. Thus on the Iberian Pedestal, from the north side, out of the depths of the great Biscay abyss, arose the Pyrenaean-Cantabrian Folded Chain (culminating in the Aneto or Maladetta, 11,168 ft.), the fan-like structure of which has been due to lateral pressure coming from the Ebro depression also. By similar pressure from the south side the Andalusian Folded Mountains were piled up against the Iberian nucleus (Meseta Mts.), and, though only 23 miles distant from the Mediterranean, they tower in the Mulhacén of the Sierra Nevada to a height of 11,424 feet, the greatest altitude in Europe apart from the Alps. As the Pyrenees are fringed on the east, on the frontier of Spain and France (near Port Vendres), with a deeply indented coast, so too the Andalusian range is strongly marked by transverse fissures, the eastmost of which have severed the Balearic Islands from the mainland. Still more striking is the great westmost fissure or cleavage, where the girdle of mountains takes a sharp turn from west to east, where the action of tides and waves has hollowed out the Straits of Gibraltar, and has further widened them within the historic period. The Mediterranean is here separated from the Atlantic by a submarine bar or threshold, at a depth averaging only 650 feet, extending from Cape Trafalgar to Cape Spartel, a distance of 27½ miles, and forming the boundary between the inner Alboran basin or depression and the outer or Andalusian. Thus, on north and south alike the Iberian central bed-rock is bordered with lofty mountains, whose seaboard almost everywhere repels human traffic, and seems barred against Europe by the Pyrenees and against Africa by the mountains of Andalusia. On the east side, however, between the Pyrenees and Cabo de la Nao (p. 112), the original rock-nucleus slopes gradually down to the Mediterranean. Still more important is the western slope down to the Atlantic, whose waves have penetrated into the lower estuaries of primæval rock on the coast, thus forming a number of excellent harbours, such as in particular that of Lisbon at the mouth of the Tagus. Towards the Atlantic descend also the plains of Lower Andalusia, the so-called Guadalquivir Basin, which lies between the Iberian central pedestal and the Andalusian sedimentary and contorted formations. In this basin lie Spain’s chief seaports for traffic with Africa and America, the island-harbour of Cadiz, the estuary-harbour of Huelva, the starting-point of Columbus, and the river-harbour of Seville, accessible to large vessels at high-tide.

In North-Western Africa the Andalusian contorted formation is continued by the Rîf Mts. of Morocco (p. 93) and by the Tell Atlas (p. 169), extending to the south and then turning eastwards. These ranges are characterized by deep fissures, formed by prehistoric volcanic action and descending abruptly to the Mediterranean. The whole northern coast of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, apart from numerous wave-worn beaches, is completely rock-bound, forbidding all approach. Even the artificial harbours like that of Algiers are maintained with difficulty. At the east end of this long stretch of coast comes at last the welcome haven offered by the Gulf of Tunis which runs inland at the mouth of the depression between the Tell Atlas and the Sahara Atlas (p. 320), and on which the Medjerda and other streams and several important roads converge. Here, as in Lower Andalusia, a great avenue to the interior was thus opened up. This favoured spot therefore became a great focus of traffic, and as it lay on the Straits of Pantelleria (p. 396) it was also of great political importance. The ancient Utica (p. 353) was succeeded by the ‘new city’ of Carthage (p. 344), the predecessors of the modern Tunis. From this base the Carthaginians, the Vandals, and the Moors ruled Sicily and Sardinia. With such a base as the admirable naval harbour of Bizerta, lately constructed by the French, they in turn may perhaps some day become masters of the Mediterranean.

The Straits of Pantellería, leading from the western to the eastern basin of the Mediterranean and separating the Atlas from the Apennines, have been formed, like those of Gibraltar and the narrow side-portal of Messina, by transverse cleavage. Owing to the subsidence of the flat offshoots of the Apennines and to the erosive action of the waves the straits have been gradually widened to about 90 miles. The Maltese Islands are fragments, now broken up by fissures, of what was once a tableland, but they too are being rapidly washed away by the action of the surf. On the other hand the island of Pantellería, which has given its name to the straits, rising to a height of 2743 ft. from the verge of the central abyss and 3900 ft. in depth, is of volcanic origin. These transverse fissures are indeed generally the scenes of volcanic action, and they are usually situated at points where the mountains of recent contorted formation take a sudden bend (as is notably the case in the lower valley of the Danube).

Italy forms an immense bridge across the trough of the Mediterranean, extending to Cape Bon in Tunisia. Like a lofty embankment, rising over 18,000 ft. from the bottom of the sea, Calabria, culminating in the Aspromonte (6424 ft. above sea-level), separates the Tyrrhenian Sea (12,000 ft. deep, though of recent formation) from the Ionian Sea. The latter is the deepest basin in the Mediterranean, attaining a depth of 14,500 feet. The Apennines, deviating in their southern course from the usual ‘Eurasian’ direction, were probably influenced by the primæval Tyrrhenis. This ancient nucleus of the Italian continent has been broken up by movements of the earth’s crust which began in the mesozoic period, were still more marked in the later tertiary period, and continue to this day. Some of the solid blocks, as in Tuscany, Calabria, and Sicily (the Monti Peloritani near Messina), have been incorporated in the later rock structure of the Apennines; others again rise as isolated masses from the abysses of the Tyrrhenian Sea, such as Corsica, Sardinia, and Elba. The lines of cleavage, especially between Cosenza and Palermo, were marked by great volcanic activity. In a curve, parallel with the abrupt ramparts of Calabria and Sicily, rise the volcanoes of the Lipari Islands (Stromboli) and Ustica in succession. To the north the series is continued by Vesuvius, the Epomeo, and the Ponza Islands near Naples, and by the Alban Mts. near Rome. All these lie on the inner declivity of the Apennines. To the south the series is continued by Mt. Ætna in Sicily, lying outside of the Apennines. In the quaternary period the new Apennine formations underwent an upheaval which imparted to the range its present orographical unity. The result was that the straits which once intersected Southern Italy, connecting the Tyrrhenian with the Ionian basin, were filled up, with the exception of those of Messina, while these last were narrowed to 2 miles and shoaled at the north end, where they are only 335 ft. deep. The intensity of the upheaval is evidenced by the fact that quaternary deposits cover the terraces of the Aspromonte in Calabria to a height of 3900 feet above the sea-level. That these movements of the earth’s crust still continue is proved by the variations of level in the Bay of Naples observed within historic times. The most striking instance of this is the great subsidence in the island of Capri which has taken place within the Christian era. In the Blue Grotto there we find remains of a flight of steps of the time of Tiberius, descending to the water, but the lowest step is now 19 feet below the surface.

Italy opens towards the west. On the west side lie its picturesque bays and islands, as well as most of its great centres of culture, Rome and Florence, Genoa and Naples, besides many others. But the east side also is important owing to its close connection with the south-eastern basin of the Mediterranean. The chief outlets in this direction are the lagoon-harbour of Venice, as great a portal of continental commerce in the middle ages as Genoa is at the present day, and the excellent harbours of Brindisi, Taranto, Messina, and Syracuse. Were geographical advantages alone decisive, Italy might again become mistress of the Mediterranean. Ethnographically also she is highly favoured. Her population, densest on the coasts, is about one-third of the scattered and heterogeneous hundred million inhabitants of the whole of the Mediterranean lands.

Almost all along the coast of the north-western basin of the Mediterranean the recent stratified and contorted headlands abut most picturesquely on the sea. On the north-west only, on each side of the Pyrenees, the basin is bounded by a coast of the primæval bed-rock formation, and is easily accessible from the Iberian mountains by the valleys of the Ebro, Jucar, and other rivers. Still more important are the avenues afforded by the Aquitanian Plains and the Rhone Valley. Hence it was that from a very early period the streams of Roman culture flowed through Marseilles and Narbonne to western and central Europe. But these, like the Straits of Gibraltar on the west, the Carso or Karst near Trieste on the north, and the Bosporus on the east, afford inlets also for the cold winds which sometimes pour into the warm mountain-girdled basin of the Mediterranean and force back the zone of southern vegetation (p. xxxv).

The southern margin of the north-western basin of the Mediterranean lies in the same latitude (36°) as the northern margin of the south-eastern basin (Cape Tænaron, on the south coast of Asia Minor). This less favoured south-eastern basin sends two great branches towards central Europe, the Adriatic and the Greek Archipelago, both of which open out in the direction of the Suez Canal and the Red Sea. From these branches run important roads leading to the heart of Europe, in particular those from Venice and Trieste into Austria, and that from Saloniki to Belgrade and up the Danube. This last, as also the road from Belgrade to Sofia, Adrianople, and Constantinople, traverses the Rumelian Primary Formation, to which the greater part of the south-eastern European peninsula belongs (Thrace and Macedonia, extending into Servia). To the same period probably once belonged also the north-western part of Asia Minor and Ægaeis, of which last the only surviving relics are the islands of the Cyclades. Here, too, over the primæval bed-rock, recent folded mountains have been gradually built up. The Balkan is one of these ranges. Another is the Illyrian-Greek Range, running in a different direction, which with its broad girdle gives the peninsula its southern trend, while shutting it off from the Adriatic and barring direct access to the north-west. As the Balearic Islands belong to the Andalusian stratified formation, and as Sicily and its adjoining islands form part of the Apennines, so the western stratified girdle of the south-eastern European peninsula crumbled, even within the historic period, into peninsulas and islands, formed chiefly by very recent subsidence. Thus arose Greece, a hill-country with an extensive seaboard, a new and unique region which was one day to reign supreme in the intellectual world. It is probable that the Greek range of hills was once prolonged eastwards, as appears to be indicated by the lie of the Cretan mountains, and that these in their turn were connected with the similarly stratified Taurus Mountains in Asia Minor. Just as the south-eastern peninsula of Europe, with Asia Minor, thus formed the great stepping-stones of traffic which brought the ancient culture of Europe into contact with that of Mesopotamia and Syria, so when the railway from Constantinople to Bagdad is completed a great future may yet be in store for the Orient.

The Eastern Mediterranean, the smaller south-eastern basin to the south of Malta, Crete, and Cyprus (p. xxviii), lies within the region of the great primæval desert-plateau of northern Africa (apart from the Atlas regions), of Arabia, and Syria, and has been formed by the subsidence of part of that plateau. In contrast to the richly varied shores of the western and central basins its coasts, as may even be seen from a glance at the map, are monotonous. Their formation, whether perpendicular or horizontal, is featureless, and there is an almost entire lack of islands, harbours, and rivers. The Nile greatly relieves this monotony, but its sources lie within tropical regions far beyond the limits of the desert. Alexandria possesses almost the only natural harbour on this flat coast of early formation. The old-world characteristics of the land, its inhabitants, and their language at once strike the traveller on landing at Tripoli. Yet even this part of the Mediterranean, especially the Levant Basin, beyond the passage between Crete and Barca, contains recent formations. The hill-region of Barca, the ancient Cyrenaica (p. 413), averaging 1600 feet in height, is composed of miocene marine strata. The bay now filled up by the Nile delta, and at one time connected with the Red Sea, is of even later origin, dating perhaps from the pluvial or glacial era. That the mouth of the Nile once lay much farther to the north and watered Palestine is evidenced by the identity of its fauna with that of the Jordan and the Lake of Tiberias (crocodiles, for instance, occurring in the Nahr ez-Zerkâ, to the south of Mt. Carmel; p. 468). Movements of the earth’s crust also account for the peculiar conformation of that part of the great desert-plateau which we call Syria. It is only differentiated from the monotonous North Arabian desert by the great Syrian Valley or trough, running from north to south, and ending at the Gulf of Akaba in the Erythræan depression (the Red Sea), which dates from about the same epoch. On each side of this long narrow furrow, descending to a depth of some 2500 feet below the sea-level, strips of land have been forced upwards so as to form lofty mountains. These, in spite of subsidences and erosion, still attain a height of about 10,000 feet in the twin-giants of Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon in Central Syria. It is to this highly picturesque mountain-wall, which condenses the vapours from the sea and remains snow-clad till late in summer, that the Syrian seaboard, 10–16 miles in breadth, owes its luxuriant subtropical vegetation, and Palestine its cultivability as far as its southern borders. Syria, which may be regarded geographically and anthropologically as a kind of peninsula of the Mediterranean, thus forms a bridge between north and south, connecting Asia Minor and Mesopotamia with Arabia and Egypt, and bounded by the sea on the west and by the desert, only some 60 miles distant, on the east.

The Black Sea, which from the north-eastern angle of the Archipelago runs far into the interior of the Old World, lies outside of the Mediterranean regions. Like the inland Caspian Sea it is a relic of the tertiary Sarmatic Sea, which was afterwards broken up into lakes of brackish water. It was not till the diluvial epoch that those subsidences which created the Sea of Marmora brought the Black Sea also into connection with the Mediterranean. Through the Sea of Marmora there must once have flowed a great river, into whose valley the sea afterwards penetrated from the south, forming the Dardanelles and the Bosporus of the present day. Travellers on the Rhine will observe an interesting resemblance between these straits and the Rhine Valley between Bingen and Coblenz. Like these straits the Black Sea also is a great trough hollowed out between lofty stratified mountains. On three sides its bold rocky coasts are inhospitable and forbidding. On the north it is bounded by the ‘steppe’, a plateau of primitive formation, no less monotonous than the desert-plateau on the south side of the Mediterranean, yet cultivable owing to its more northern situation. At two places on this side, through gaps in the mountain rampart, the sea has overflowed the plateau, forming the shallow Gulf of Odessa and Sea of Azov. Two great routes of traffic were thus opened up from the Black Sea into the heart of Eastern Europe and even of Central Asia, enriching the world’s commerce with the products of these regions, and at the same time forming the portal through which Byzantine culture and Greek Christianity found their way into Russia. Through these passages great masses of cold northern air are poured into the Black Sea; but between them the Peninsula of the Crimea, a relic of the broken-down mountain-girdle, still stands boldly forth, giving shelter to an almost Mediterranean vegetation on its southern coast. On that coast lies the admirable harbour of Sebastopol. Nearer the Sea of Azov once lay the flourishing Greek colonies of Pantikapaeon and Phanagoria, and in the middle ages the Genoese settlements of Sudak (Kertch) and Kaffa (Theodosia or Feodossiya). As the corn of Southern Russia is now the chief export from Odessa to London and Antwerp, so, from the 14th century onwards, quantities of Russian caviare were brought by Italian merchants from Kaffa to Bruges, which was then one of the world’s greatest markets.

The Climate of the Mediterranean is very equable. In every age northerners have been attracted by the mildness of the winters, when the occasional storms and heavy rains are of short duration and are soon succeeded by bright sunshine. The heat of summer is tempered everywhere, especially on the more southern coasts, by refreshing sea-breezes. The farther south one goes, the longer the dry season lasts. At Tripoli, for example, it lasts for seven months and at Alexandria for ten. The subtropical maximum air-pressure over the eastern Atlantic, by which rainfall and wind-movements are determined, is usually continued in winter past the southern limit of the Mediterranean (comp. p. 29), thus bringing the whole of that sea within the zone of the changeable and rainy winds of Central Europe. In summer the pressure lies farther to the north, producing in most parts of the Mediterranean steady northerly currents of air. The climate is tempered also by the warmth of the sea itself. The bar at the west entrance of the Straits of Gibraltar (p. xxix) keeps out the cold water of the deep Atlantic, but allows the influx of the warmer surface-water to compensate for what the Mediterranean loses by evaporation. This loss would otherwise amount to a depth of 10–15 ft. per annum. The influx of water from the Atlantic causes a current to flow along the North African coast from west to east, but its thermal effects are soon lost. In summer the surface of the Mediterranean is heated by the sun up to 75–82° Fahr.; but the temperature diminishes rapidly down to a depth of about 1000 feet, where it reaches a uniform minimum corresponding with the surface temperature of February, the coolest month in the year. This in the north-western basin is 55° Fahr. only, and in the south-eastern 56¼°, but it suffices to temper the cold winds of winter, while additional warmth is brought from time to time by the hot sirocco from the interior of Africa (comp. p. 321). It may be stated generally that the winter temperature on the Mediterranean averages 14° Fahr. above that of almost all other regions in the same latitude. The warmest places are of course those on the coasts facing the south and sheltered from the north, while the average temperature rises gradually from south-east to north-west.

The Vegetation is rich and varied. Evergreens abound, being better able to stand the long droughts than deciduous trees and shrubs. Among the forest-trees in the warmer regions the commonest are pines, including stone-pines, and oaks of the evergreen and other varieties. The underwood (macchia, maquis, or garrigue, Grk. phrýgana) is composed of mastic-bushes (Pistacia lentiscus), myrtles, arbutus-trees (Arbutus unĕdo), broom, tree-like heaths (Erica arborea and scoparia), resinous and aromatic cistus-shrubs with large blossoms resembling wild roses, and climbing-plants of many varieties. Most prominent among trees in the cultivated lands is the silver-grey olive, which, as well as the vine and the fig-tree, has thriven here from the earliest times and is the most characteristic feature in every Mediterranean landscape. Most of the other fruit-trees also have been known here since remote antiquity. The fruit of the date-palm attains perfection in the oases of North Africa only (comp. p. 171), but the tree bears fruit on the Spanish coast, and is very popular as an ornamental tree on the French and Italian Riviera and in other sheltered situations. Lemons were introduced by the Arabs, and oranges were brought from southern China by the Portuguese about the middle of the 16th century. Many other foreign trees and plants have been introduced since then. Aloes and opuntias, which now grow wild and are often regarded as characteristic of the Mediterranean, were introduced from America. In the beautiful and luxuriant gardens, especially in Italy, on the French Riviera, and in Algeria, the flora of almost every quarter of the globe is represented.