e town of
Silistra is reached, when an artificial frontier cuts down from the
river to the Black Sea coast. By the cession of territory to Roumania in
1914 this artificial frontier took a more southerly course, and reaches
now to a point just north of Varna. The coast of the Black Sea bounds
Bulgaria on the east, and she has there two ports, Varna and Burgas. On
the south the frontier is now European Turkey as far west almost as the
24th parallel of latitude, and then the bordering territory is Greece.
On the west the boundary is Servia. The Balkan Mountains and the Rhodope
Mountains run roughly east and west: the former almost in the centre of
Bulgaria; the latter near to the Turkish border.

The valleys and plains of Bulgaria are watered by tributaries of the
Danube, by tributaries of the Maritza and the Struma flowing into the
Aegean Sea, and by some small streams flowing directly into the Black
Sea. The soil of the plains and the tableland is generally good, and 70
per cent of it is suitable for cultivation. In the mountains there are a
few small lakes and many deep gorges and noble peaks, offering to the
traveller the attraction of scenery wilder than that of the Alps.

For the tourist with an autumn or a spring month to spare, I could
imagine no more interesting journey than to cross on horseback or with
an ox-wagon the Rhodopes or the Balkans. (In the summer such a tour
would be less pleasant because of the heat of the plains and the
prevalence of flies.) But in the autumn, of all seasons, the Balkan
Peninsula has supreme charms. The climate then is perfect, usually fine,
with warm clear days and cold nights. The atmosphere is full of light
and colour. Sunset as seen from the lower foothills of the Balkans is a
rare pageant of glowing colour. These foothills are covered with oak
scrub, which with the first frosts of autumn puts on burning robes of
red and gold. As the sun goes down to rest in the western sky, hung with
banners of the same red and gold, the twilight steals up first as a pink
radiance then as a deep purple glow. Light melts into light--softly,
insensibly--the display in the sky and on the hill-sides gradually
passing from one colour to another, until at last night and darkness
come to end the long-drawn-out procession of colour.

These wild mountains abound in game which has been driven from the tamer
parts of Europe. There are bears, wolves, jackals, wild boars, deer,
chamois; and all kinds of b