art of the country is still called. But Varna
is above the point where the Balkan Range strikes the coast, all
of which is steep and rocky.

Above Varna begins the Delta of the Danube, up which steamers and
heavily laden barges sail continuously, but here also begins the
neutral territory of Rumania, the Dobruja, the richest section of
the Danube basin, which was ceded to Rumania by Bulgaria after
the Second Balkan War.

* * * * *

CHAPTER XLV

THE CAUCASUS--THE BARRED DOOR

We now come to that section of the eastern theatre of the war which
received the least extended notice in printed reports--the barred
doorway between Europe and Asia--the Caucasus. Not because the
fighting there was less furious, but because the region was less
accessible to war correspondents. The struggle was in fact quite
as bloody and even more savage and barbarous here than elsewhere,
for on this front Russ meets Turk, Christian meets Moslem, and
where they grapple the veneer of chivalry blisters off.

Here again, as in Galicia, we come to a natural frontier, not only
between two races, but between two continents. For here, crossing
the isthmus between the Black Sea and the Caspian, stretches a
mountain range over seven hundred miles in length, rising abruptly
out of the plains on either side. These are the Caucasus Mountains,
forming the boundary between Europe and Asia.

The higher and central part of the range (which averages only from
sixty to seventy miles in width) is formed of parallel ridges,
not separated by deep and wide valleys, but remarkably connected
by elevated plateaus, which are traversed by narrow fissures of
extreme depth. The highest peaks are in the most central chain;
Mt. Elburz, attaining an elevation of 18,000 feet above the sea,
while Mt. Kasbeck reaches a height of more than 16,000 feet, and
several other peaks rise above the line of perpetual snow. The
outlying spurs and foothills of this chain of lofty mountains are
of less extent and importance than those of almost any other mountain
range of similar magnitude, subsiding, as they do, until they are
only 200 feet high along the shores of the Black Sea. Some parts
are almost entirely bare, but other parts are densely wooded and
the secondary ranges near the Black Sea are covered by magnificent
forests of oak, beech, ash, maple, and walnut.

This range is an almost impassable wall across the narrow isthmus
which joins Europe