Balkan Geography and Balkan Railways Author(s): Noel Buxton Source: The Geographical Journal, Vol. 32, No. 3 (Sep., 1908), pp. 217-234 Published by: geographicalj Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1777727 Accessed: 26-06-2016 23:01 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Wiley, The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Geographical Journal This content downloaded from 128.163.2.206 on Sun, 26 Jun 2016 23:01:13 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms The Geographical Journal. No. 3. SEPTEMBER, 1908. VOL. XXXIJ. BALKAN GEOGRAPHY AND BALKAN RAILWAYS.* By NOEL BUXTON. TIIE reason for public attention to the Balkans to-day takes its origin so exclusively in diplomatic events, that I must urgently beg you to remember that the studies of the Geographical Society are purely non- political. To so many of you the very name of the Balkan conjures up the picture of meetings, dispatches, and mobilizing troops, that I must urgently protest: Cannot we for once be interested in the Balkans as a subject for dispassionate inquiry and pure delight in the extra- ordinary interest of its natural features ? I, at all events, am so anxious not to offend that I confine myself strictly to the printed hints furnished for the guidance of speakers in selecting their proper subjects for study. The name of this paper is, therefore, not " Turkey in Europe" -a name which suggests a kind of political Earl's Court, a sort of Venice in London of a contentious character. Its name is "Balkan Geography," for " Balkan" is a purely geographical term. I remember a villager pointing out the way, saying, " Beyond that thick wood it is ' balkan,'" i.e. stony hills. Is it not a relief that for once to-night the name may bring to our minds, not a committee, but only this thought: that beyond the thick wood of politics there is a world of Balkan mountains to be enjoyed ? The Balkan peninsula, once the centre of civilization, is now largely a terra incognita. Thllough numberless Europeans constantly travel through it, very few of them leave the railway. It would be absurd to give the route of the traveller, or to speak of exploring expeditions, in a country so near home. Yet, so little are parts of it traversed, that * Read at the Royal Geographical Society, 5Iay 11, 1908. Map, p. 328. NO. III.--SEPTEMBER, 1908.] Q This content downloaded from 128.163.2.206 on Sun, 26 Jun 2016 23:01:13 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 218 BALKAN GEOGRAPHY AND BALIKAN RAILWAYS. for many districts there are no accurate maps, as the traveller learns to his discomfiture when he has relied on maps to guide him. Although it is only three days away from London, or perhaps because of its nearness, the mountains of Africa are more often climbed than those of Albania. No part of this still unknown land has lately been described at the meetings of the Geographical Society, except the single range of the Rhodope. For this reason, I must attempt to cover an unduly exten- sive field, and cannot hope to deal with it in more than a hasty manner, unless I run the risk of finding at the end that I have omitted my most interesting observations. But these are what I should most certainly include, and for this reason, I shall do best to hurry quickly to the most curious samples of Balkan geography. A geographical audience will easily fill in the obvious categories into which these samples fall. Thus can I hope best to throw light upon the three fields to which the Geographical Society directs your attention- geographical conditions, their influence on humanity, and their effect on human enterprise. The Balkan peninsula is the most irregular of the three prongs which Europe throws out into the southern sea. Above all other qualities it is mountainous, but in particular it is a mountain chaos. Joined to Europe by a broad base, it is yet almost divided from Europe by the greatest river of the west. It is a confused extension of both the Alps and the Carpathians. Its ranges run both north to south and west to east. While the Alps become the Pindus, and run a more or less normal course southward into Greece, the Carpathians, apparently unaffected by the geological movements which created their neighbours, turn southwards when they have dipped unde3neath the Danube, and then, like a snake, wind eastwards again to the Black sea. The two ranges form a ganglion before they part, and then, in the angle between them, the most beautiful range of the peninsula, including the Rilo and the Rhodope, drifts towards the south-east. Limestone is everywhere, except at the great heights, where granite appears. In these few instances, summits such as Rilo, the peerless Olympus, Musala in the Rhodope, Lubotim or "' the Lovely Thorn " in the Shar, probably attain to 9000 feet. But, paradoxically enough, their heights are not yet ascertained. It would be idle to enlarge further on the mountain formations, when they have been dealt with by Mr. Hogarth. I need only recall to you the brilliant description in his book, ' The Nearer East,' of the country and its effect on the inhabitants. The rivers are even more capricious. Though the neck of the peninsula is so wide, yet the rain which falls on the Dinaric Alps within a few hours of the Adriatic is shouldered away by the narrow neck of mountains and directed right across the peninsula to the Black sea, so This content downloaded from 128.163.2.206 on Sun, 26 Jun 2016 23:01:13 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms BALKAN GEOGRAPHY AND BALKAN RAILWAYS. 219 that though its base is by far wider than that of either Italy or Spain, the Balkan is almost wholly severed from Europe by a line of water. Not content with this irregularity of formation, other rivers make confusion worse confounded by cutting through the ranges which might have been expected to turn the flow of water in an opposite direction. Thus the Isker, which at Sofia appears to be debarred from the Danube by the most definite wall of mountains imaginable, pierces straight through the Old Balkan, as it is called, and flows to the north instead of the east. Quite close by, the Struma, which would appear destined for the Black sea, bores through the Rilo range and makes a most unexpectedly economic route to the Egean. The Drin accomplishes an . ;.;; is,;il:ii;;i:.iL,:-i. A BALKAN LAKE. even more remarkable feat in severing the whole enormous backbone of the Pindus, and connects, against all possible expectations, the centre of the peninsula with the Adriatic. The great Maritsa, which drains Eastern Roumelia, makes another unlikely turn, and, again to the advantage of future commerce, chooses the open Egean in preference to the closed waters of the Black sea. Strangest of all, the Danube, which is on one side a Balkan stream, penetrates the otherwise unconquered mass of the Carpathians at the famous Iron Gates. It follows that one of the remarkable features of the Balkans is the prevalence of the Turkish name " Demirkapu," or gate of iron, a fair sample of which, on a small scale, may be seen between Belgrade and Nish from the luxurious carriages of the Orient express. This content downloaded from 128.163.2.206 on Sun, 26 Jun 2016 23:01:13 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 220 BALKAN GEOGRAPIITY AND BALKAN RAIL,WAYS. It is natural in such a geological confusion that the land should not be withlout lakes. Of all the scenic attractions which, in no distant future, will make the Balkans a new and more fashionable Switzerland, its lakes will probably be the most popular. Certainly, to-day there does not exist in Europe anything more picturesque than the lake of Ochrida, where all that is attractive in a crowded town by the Riviera is combined with the contrast of the isolated peak above the lake, crowned with medieval fortresses, and the plain in which it stands, the wooded hills beyond the plain, and the interminable ranges of the Albanian mountains showing purple behind the lake. It is not surprising, in view of this confusion of features, that the climate also is distinguished for variety. Included in the peninsula we have the balmy Riviera of the north-west, and a winter of Russian rigour in the east, while tropical violence of heat is met with in the south. There is something entirely its own, also, in the astonishing contrasts of scenery in the Balkan. At times it is perfectly European. In Bosnia, Morihovo, or Rhodope, it is Alpine, with pines and meadows where the mountains above them are of sufficient height. In other districts of Bosnia, and again in parts of the Rhodope, it is absolutely English, and you might imagine yourself in some magnifiecd Hasle- mere district of Surrey, with a great profusion of pines and bracken.