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C O N S T A N T I N O P L E

is the construction of the quays on each side of the Golden Horn. Begun in 1891 by a French company with a capital of nearly a million sterling, the quay was completed in 1899 on the »Galata side to its full length of 756 metres, with a breadth of 20 metres; and the portion on the Stamboul side, of which the total length is 378 metres, was finished and opened in 1900. The appearance of the port is much improved by the demolition of the dilapidated structures which previously bordered either shore, and which are replaced by substantial buildings. Tramways have also conduced to the embellishment of the city, for—besides causing improvement in the streets they traverse—they have promoted much new building in salubrious localities, commanding fine prospects, which were previously out of reach. On both sides of the

line, extending north-west of Pera, a large number of detached houses with gardens have been built, forming a new and extensive faubourg, which on one side reaches out in the direction of Eyub and the Sweet Waters of Europe, and on the other along the heights overlooking the lower Bosphorus and the Marmora. Excepting the streets traversed by the tramways, a few of those in which the departments of State are situated, and some of the suburban roads, the other highways and byways remain unimproved, wearing the old ragged pavement, destitute of footways, and flanked by buildings, mostly wooden, of mean design and more or less decayed. The ravages of the great fire of 1870, which consumed 5000 buildings in Pera, have been almost, though not yet completely, made good. In the renovated quarters stone

buildings mostly replace the wooden structures which the conflagration swept away. All the dwelling-houses are stone-built, and of late the fashion has set in of building large and lofty blocks divided into suites of apartments. This tendency to erect costly and substantial buildings has been promoted by the increased facilities for insuring against fire. Year by year new insurance agencies have been established, and by 1900 no less than forty-three companies (about half of them British) were represented in Constantinople. Some new public buildings in conspicuous positions fix the eye in viewing the city from the sea. Such are the Armoury at Matchka, on the heights of Nishan-Tash, above Dolma Baghtche; the Imperial Ottoman Bank, in Galata; the offices of the Public Debt, in Stamboul; and the School of Medicine, between Scutari and Haidar Pasha.

The appearance of the Bosphorus has greatly faded in recent years, owing to the large number of yalis and Jconaks which, through the dispersal of many old Turkish families, have been left empty and become dilapidated. The new generation eschews the Bosphorus,—where the price of land is still nominally high, although there is no demand for it,—and has bought ground largely along the course of the Anatolian Railway, between the terminus at Haidar Pasha and the station of Pendik on the Marmora. This region, which is mild, picturesque, and well wooded and watered, with a very productive soil, is now overspread with newly-built houses of the better sort in more or less spacious gardens, all occupied by the Turks who built them. Since 1855, when Constantinople was much shaken and somewhat damaged by the earthquake which destroyed Brusa, the Turkish capital had not ex-