Naturally, Stokes has rather cursory instructions about how to proceed with the job. There are also language problems on the Commission. An engineer, Charles Hartley arrives, with whom he has a close relationship. There are no details of how or how much he will be paid though it turned out to be quite generous for the time. The Russians prove difficult people to deal with. Stokes and his wife visit Bucharest, then later travel across Europe. He runs a bit low on money at Kronstadt and talks a local businessman into providing £20.

One of the first matters which occupied the attention of the Commission, was the obstruction existing at a shoal about 40 miles above Sulina. At this point a small stream called the Papadia left the Sulina to join the Kilia branch. This stream, together with an abnormal width at this section of the river, caused a check to the current and consequent deposit of solid matter over a large area called the Argagni. Our visit to the shoal showed us what a difficult waterway it was, as many vessels were aground.

Altogether this voyage down the different branches of the river convinced us that not only had we before us a great Engineering problem, but also that of grappling with the state of complete, and seemingly endless, confusion which prevailed in the navigation of the river.

Although my own instructions consisted only in a copy of the Treaty of Paris, without a single word of direction as to what I was to do, I found that my colleagues had, many of them, specific directions as to the part which the Commission ought to take in regulating the navigation of the river and providing for the organization of such a river police as would put a stop to the endless abuses of all kinds which we found thriving there. Five of the Commissioners, indeed were provided with regular diplomatic credentials and full powers to represent their Governments. The French Commissioner had only a letter of instructions; I not even so much as that. Our colleagues demanded that we should call upon our Governments to accredit us properly, but raised no objection to our acting as if they had already done so.

We were rather a heterogeneous body as regarded language. The Turk spoke only Gerrnan, besides his own language, which none of us understood; the Prussian spoke French imperfectly; the Austrian and Russian both spoke French fluently; the Sardinian did so fairly well; the Frenchman spoke no language but his own, but could read German; I had a good grammatical knowledge of both French and German, but spoke both with difficulty and diffidence, and had no knowledge of their idioms.

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The principal and most important duty of the Commission was to make a navigable channel from the sea to the deep water above the head of the Delta. The difficulty that opposed itself to this was the small depth of water on the bars at the entrances to the river and upon the different shoals, which compelled vessels to discharge their cargo into lighters whether to get into or out of the river, or to pass over these shoals. Their difficulties in this respect were innumerable. Pilots, most of them Greeks, were in league with the lightermen, also Greeks, and they combined to run vessels ashore and thus force upon the Captains the necessity of lightening at exorbitant charges. They often robbed vessels of the grain or goods lightened from them and acts of violence and t piracy were frequent. We had therefore, before us not only the question of the proper ( engineering works to deepen the river, and the decision as to which mouth and branch it t was the best to improve, but the equally difficult one of bringing into order this piratical population The towns of Sulina and Tultcha, which were their headquarters, were under the lax government of Turkish officials from whom no help was to be expected The Treaty of Paris, under which we were acting, provided that each Power might have two light vessels of war in the river, and it was to them that we looked to enable us to control this floating population. Our gun-boat, H.M.S. "Boxer", Lieutenant Patrick Townshend R.N., arrived before the winter, and enabled me personally to inspect the river a little more closely than I had done in company with my colleagues. On our 0 return to Galatz from our inspection on the Austrian gun-boat, my colleagues requested me to obtain the services of an Englishman to act as the engineer of the Commission My thoughts immediately turned to Capt. Hartley who had rendered such good service in the Turkish Contingent of Engineers. He was one of the four engineers to whom Lord Panmure had authorized me to give a Captain's commission. I supposed that if he were promised emoluments about equal to those which I had obtained for him on a former occasion, he would be prepared to undertake the great work which I was now I able to offer him. I therefore wrote to him and to Sir John Burgoyne, the Inspector General of Fortifications, whom I requested to examine his testimonials. Hartley was at that time employed on railway work in Devonshire, where, however, he had formerly had experience of hydrotechnic work. He was pleased to undertake the duties proposed to him, and was able to satisfy Sir John Burgoyne as to his fitness for the post.

The winter was passed in frequent meetings of the Commission. Galatz had been chosen as its head-quarters, although lying beyond its scope, a hundred miles up the river. It was the nearest town with any pretensions to western civilization, Sulina being little more than a collection of mean huts, stretching between the river and the trackless swamp, while Tultcha, a Turkish town on the right bank, was hardly more practicable We took offices and proceeded to organize our staff. The secretary General was a Frenchman, M. Mohler; a German, Herr Ruthling, was the head of our Cash Office; af German colonel, Malinofski by name, in the Turkish service, was placed in charge of ant establishment at Tulcha for obtaining supplies of timber and stone; and several other, employees were engaged.

Our finances were not in a very satisfactory state, as they depended on the supplies of money which the Turkish Government had engaged to furnish for the work. At first, however, the money was forthcoming with sufficient regularity, and we were able to make all these preliminary arrangements.

My own home life, as has been described before, was pretty rough. We were in much anxiety as to the arrival of the "Hussar", and having seen the river, I could not help feeling doubtful about her getting over the Sulina bar, although our furniture did not constitute a very heavy load; otherwise she was in ballast. It was, of course, of great importance to me to secure her getting up before the river froze, and as soon as I heard of her arrival at Sulina my Austrian colleague very kindly placed at my disposal, to tow her up the river, the gun-boat in which we had made our tour of inspection. Happily, in this manner, we secured her arrival before Christmas.

We set ourselves to work to get everything in order and very shortly after we were installed, Edith was born. We, happily, had a very excellent doctor at Galatz, Doctor Serfioti, a Greek, who had been educated at Vienna, and who was our constant friend and medical adviser during the years we lived at Galatz. A proper nurse was also obtainable so that the dear Mother and child had every care and attention and everything went well.

Towards the end of February, Hartley arrived, bringing with him two surveyors, whom we had authorized him to engage. They had had several adventures on the way, the principal of which was that, H.M.S. "Sphynx", in which Lord Lyons had kindly given them a passage from Constantinople to Sulina, on arrival at that place found that the navigation had been stopped by the ice, and it was necessary for them to go on to Odessa and travel from thence overland to Galatz, a journey which, in those days was a matter of considerable difficulty and some danger. However they arrived safely, and were very welcome. One of the surveyors, Mr. Hansford, proved a most valuable acquisition to the Commission, for he was an accurate and trustworthy surveyor of water-ways. His companion Mr. Mein, was as inefficient, however, as Mr Hansford was excellent, and we very soon had to get rid of him. Hartley met with a cordial greeting from my colleagues, and was installed as the Engineer-in-Chief of the Commission. As soon as the river navigation began, he repaired to Sulina with his assistants in order to begin the study of the engineering problem before us. I ~also in company with Baron D'Offenberg, went down to Tultcha, where Colonel Malinovski had been placed in charge of our depots.

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We made our way back by land on the right bank of the river by Isaktcha and so on. It was a very interesting ride, and I was particularly pleased with the vegetation and to see crocuses growing wild in this far distant land, which reminded me of the dear old country at home.

The duties of the Commission consisted of frequent meetings for the purpose of discussing reports upon the navigation which we received from different agents, in endeavouring, by temporary works, to improve certain portions of the Sulina branch, especially the Argagni shoal, and in drawing up regulations by which we endeavoured to bring vessels navigating the river, the pilots, the lighters and so on, under control.

During the spring our hands were strengthened by the arrival of some of the gun-boats which the Governments were entitled to send up. H.M.S. "Weser" under the command of Capt. Wise, was one of these. A French gun-boat had arrived before Christmas, and the Austrian boat had been there ever since the occupation. In Capt. Wise I found a very charming companion and friend, and a valuable ally in carrying out any measures that we asked him to undertake.

During the early summer of 1857, I had the advantage of seeing Sir Henry Bulwer, then on his way to Bucharest to take up his duties as Commissioner for the organization of the Principalities; and from him, an old Ambassador, and experienced diplomatist, I received many very valuable hints as to my transaction of business with the Foreign Office. I had, of course, from the moment of taking up duties on the European Commission of the Danube, to report direct to the Foreign Office, sending copies of all my despatches, as well as independent reports, to, H.M's Ambassador at Constantinople, Lord Stratford de Redcliffe.

One of the matters on which I consulted Sir Henry Bulwer, was that of my pay, as I had received no intimation of the salary which was to be attached to my appointment, although I had authority to draw upon the Foreign office for any money I wanted for my expenses. It was on this point especially, that his advice was useful - that is, as to the manner in which I should account for the monies I had thus drawn, and the vouchers I should furnish in support of my expenditure. The position was one of great independence, for I was virtually acting on my own unaided responsibility. I absolutely did not receive from the Government at home any instructions for many months after I had taken up the work. My only guide was a copy of the Treaty, which simply defined the character of the duties, but, without indicating the manner in which they were to be performed. I had written constantly and fully upon every matter that came under the consideration of the Commission, but up to that time, that is six months after joining my colleagues, I had no answer from the Foreign office to any despatch, and I was naturally anxious on the subject. I had, however, the comfort of knowing that Lord Stratford approved of all that I had done, and from him I got a despatch from time to time; but I was not supposed to receive instructions from him.

During this year of 1857, I had much intimate intercourse with Hartley, who was busily engaged in making surveys of the Danube, and taking the measurement of the volume of water in the main river and in its branches; in gauging the strength of its currents, studying all its climatic conditions, and endeavouring to ascertain which would be the best mouth to deepen for navigation and what would be the best class of works for the purpose.

The Commission had also engaged a Prussian engineer, M. Richrath, to assist Hartley in carrying out the works. The Prussian Commissioner had also requested his Government to send an engineer of distinction to advise him personally on matters of a technical nature. M. Nobiling, arrived early in the spring, and proved a thorn in the sides of Hartley and myself, for he was a gentleman of cut and dried notions, who immediately, without any sufficient data, framed projects for the different engineering works, which he declared to be necessary for the improvement of the Danube. Hartley, on the contrary, declined to make any project until he had satisfied himself as to the general conditions and the correctness of the surveys of the river. The nautical surveys made by Capt. Spratt, though excellent for navigating purposes, were not of sufficient accuracy to enable an engineer to base his calculations of quantities upon them. Hartley therefore insisted upon having Mr. Hansford's soundings of the mouths of the river before he would undertake to make any proposals. Of course M. Nobiling's reports and plans appeared very enticing to the untechnical gentleman who knew nothing at all about engineering, and who had to decide upon these great questions. The result was that some of the Commissioners reported to their Governments that unnecessary delays were being made by myself and Hartley in issuing the report upon our work.

I ought to say here, that the Treaty of Paris, while creating the European Commission of the Danube for dealing with the delta, had also instituted a Riverine Commission, whose duties were to control and improve the river above that point. The Treaty of Paris had supposed that the European Commission would finish its task in two years, when it was to hand the work over to the Riverine Commission. This supposition was founded on the reports which Mr. Cunningham, the British Consul at Galatz had made to our Foreign Office during the years previous to the war.

He had maintained that the difficulties at the mouth of the river (the only navigable one - the Sulina mouth) were due to the malign influence of Russia, which was then in possession of the Danube mouths, and to that Power having neglected to dredge the Sulina, which in former years, in the time of the Turks, had, he asserted been kept open by the simple expedient of making each vessel that went out, tow a heavy iron harrow behind it, which stirred up the muddy deposits and deepened the channel. The legend on which this was based entirely omitted to say how the harrow got back again into the port! The idea, therefore, prevailing at Paris when the Treaty was signed, was that some simple combination of dredging and harrow-towing would open the river, and that all could be arranged in a couple of years. When engineers on the spot took the question in hand, they soon found the fallacy of these suppositions. In fact we did give a trial to the system by towing the harrow that we found at Sulina backwards and forwards over the bar, but we found that, although the channel might be deepened by a few inches in the course of several weeks towing, it was constantly filled in again by the wash of the sea and that this method could never have exercised any real influence on the state of the river. Dredging was also tried with equally ineffectual results, and it became evident to us that the only method of improving the river was by works which would require several years and much money for their construction. We would not therefore undertake any works or make any proposals, until we had the proper data, and, as I have said, we were obtaining these as quickly as possible, and were determined not to accept hastily drawn projects put forward by this Prussian engineer.

During the summer of 1857 therefore, I received more than one enquiry from home as to when Hartley's reports would be sent in, and had to write very strongly on the subject.

I am glad to say that when the Foreign Office referred the matter to Sir John Burgoyne, who was at the head of the Royal Engineers, he entirely agreed that we ought not to be hurried in the matter. Still, there was a constant pressure by the other Commissioners upon Hartley for his report, and it cost me a great deal of worry and anxiety, which ended in my getting an attack of Danube fever some time about the month of September. My doctor recommended me to get away from Galatz and to go to the Convent of Adam, some 50 or 60 miles up country, so I drove with my wife and children, and the fresh air of the country had such a revivifying effect upon me that, although I was carried down to the carriage in the morning by the middle of the day I was able to get up and drive myself. A stay of a week at the Convent, where we were most hospitably received, quite restored me to health. The Lady Superior was Madame Stourdza, a member of one of the best families of Moldavia, a very kind old lady, who always received us most cordially on our visits to Adam. The life in this convent was of a very different nature from that which in the West we are in the habit of associating with an institution of the kind. It was not a gloomy building within the four walls of which the nuns were immured, but more resembled a village of neat little cottages in pleasant gardens. In each of these, two nuns lived. The Lady Superior had a very good house and garden of her own and a little chapel. There were Stranger's apartments in which any traveller who presented himself was entertained gratuitously for three days, and then sent on his way rejoicing. We were put up by the Lady Superior herself, and in subsequent years when I sent my children with their Governess and servants to the Convent, we used to hire one or two of the nuns' cottages, which were then, with their it gardens, given up entirely to them. The convent was in a charming country, prettily wooded, with fields of corn all round and pure breezes blowing, which made life there most agreeable.

On my return to Galatz I found that nothing of importance had occurred, and by; October Hartley had got together sufficient data to enable him to make his report to the Commission. This report was most complete and clear, comparing very favourably in it's conciseness with the long-winded productions of Mr. Nobiling. One great disadvantage under which Hartley then laboured was that he knew little of French, and that his report had to be translated into that language. I applied myself to this matter, but no doubt the result was most puzzling even to Frenchmen, as I had not then acquired the facility of writing French which long experience has since given me. It was an immense advantage, therefore, that Mr. Becke, the Austrian was able to read the report in English, and from him we had the very warmest support in favour of Hartley's conclusions.

These were in favour of opening the St. George's mouth of the river; - conclusions at which Hartley had arrived after long and constant discussions with myself. In fact throughout the whole of our connection there, he and I were constantly in touch, and I found him most willing to submit first to my judgment the proposals which from time to time he brought before the Commission. I need hardly say that he received from me the steadfast and warm support to which his genius and energy entitled him.

Our discussions of this Report naturally lasted for a very long period, extending from December 1857 to April 1858. The Commissioners were divided. The Austrian, Sardinian and Turkish Commissioners, with myself, were strongly in favour of opening the St. George's branch, the French and Prussian Commissioners being in favour of the Sulina, and the Russian, whilst preferring the Kilia, would rather open the Sulina than the St. George's. It meant this, that the Russian and his supporters of Prussia and France, wished that the mouth nearest to the Russian frontier should be opened, with a view to its control by Russia. As I was the only technical member of the European Commission the issue of this division of opinion was the appointment of a Technical Commission that was assembled at Paris to decide upon our reports and on the various reports of Hartley, M. Nobiling, and M. Richrath, which had been laid before us, and sent to the several Governments.

This Technical Commission was composed of Capt. Fowke. of the R.E., Col. Menabrea of Sardinia, a distinguished engineer, M. Postaip a French engineer, and M. Leutze of the Prussian Public Works. In April 1858 the European Commission recognized that, whatever mouth might be eventually chosen for permanent improvement, something must be done at once temporarily for the Sulina, and Hartley was directed to submit a project for that purpose.

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In his proposal for the permanent improvement of the river he had suggested works which should be applied at.the Sulina mouth on the same principle as those he had recommended for the St. George's, namely, the projection of piers over the bar which would carry the river current across it into deep water, so that the force of the current, contracted between the piers, would sweep away the bar, and maintain a deep channel. He now proposed works in the same direction but constructed in a temporary manner. The piers were to be a combination of timber piling and heavy timber cribs, which were to be sunk and filled with stone on the line of the piers. The first project for these provisional works contemplated an expenditure of œ40,000 only.

Our examination of all these questions had of course led to the consideration of the resources of the country in timber and stone, as the materials for the work. At Toultcha there were large quarries of Grauwacke, a stone which could be turned out in blocks which, thrown down pen melt, were fairly well adapted for the protection of the root end of the piles. The neighbouring woods of the Dobrudsha, an extensive forest, stretching almost continuously from Isaktcha to Baba Dagh, supplied very good oak timber, and hornbeam, with some limes, but none of these trees would provide piles of sufficient length and scantling for the contemplated piers. The hornbeam supplied the largest piles, but that was a wood which teredo navalis soon attacked, and which consequently lasted but a short time. We therefore undertook an expedition into the Carpathians to ascertain what we could obtain in those forests. Our party consisted of the Austrian Commissioner, Hartley, my secretary, Mr. Standen and myself, together with M. Genin, a Frenchman, who acted as interpreter. This journey was, as an expedition, full of interest giving us a view of the beautiful and little explored mountain regions of Upper Moldavia but was less successful than we could have wished in its immediate object. The pine trees of the Carpathians furnished magnificent masts, but the wood, though useful for many purposes in our work, was too soft and porous to be well suited for piles, and, in the end, our wants in this respect were supplied mostly from the forests of the Save valley.

On our return, Hartley set to work to repair damage caused by the weather to the north pier at Sulina, and shortly floated out and sank a new crib, which, however, was soon swept away by a storm. He came then to the conclusion that it was better to trust to only piling, and thence-forward made rapid progress with the pier on this system.

During the summer, acting on the advice of Capt. Fowke, our Government twice telegraphed directing me to discontinue the works, but I evaded compliance, on the ground that having formally assented to the project approved by my colleagues I could not draw back.

Soon after Easter 1858, Sir Henry Bulwer, having been appointed Ambassador at Constantinople, the Government decided to give a certain eclat to his departure from Bucharest by sending H.M.S. "Weser" up the river to receive him. Capt. Wise proposed to me and my wife that we should accompany him and pay our first visit to Bucharest. This we gladly did, and were very kindly entertained by the Consul General, Mr. Buchanan, who gave us a cordial reception and introduced us to Wallachian society.

On the first night of our arrival, we went to a grand ball at the house of a Mr. and Madame Otiteliceano. The history of these people was very typical of Roumanian society. Mr Otiteliceano was a great gambler, he had made an immense fortune in this way and had built a palace. The general company assembled in magnificent salons, but on the upper floor there was a regular "hell" where gambling of the most reckless description was going on. Madame Otiteliceano was a charming lady who received her guests with great distinction; we were told that she was the second wife. Mr. O. in his days of poverty had married a woman of his own class, who knew nothing about society or receptions, and when he became wealthy, this good woman said "My dear, I am not fit to take the lead in society to which your fortune and your grand palace entitle you. Divorce me and marry a young and pretty woman, who will do the honours of your house properly. You can get me a small house near at hand, and when you are sick, I will nurse you. And this she eventually did, for, before I left the Danube, I heard that he had lost all his money, and that this poor woman literally did nurse him on his death-bed: - this woman who had sacrificed herself to his ambition.

We did not make a very long stay at Bucharest, for Sir Henry Bulwer was about to leave for England. He made his formal departure in the man-of-war, but as he knew well that he could not trust to her to take him up the river with speed and safety to joir the railway at Baziasch, as there was not water enough over the Iron Gates to admit of her passing, he therefore arranged to ascend the river in her for a few miles only, until overtaken by the Austrian mail boat which he would then join. As the river was then in flood Capt. Wise thought that he might get up as far as Turnu Severin, whence he proposed that we should make an expedition into the Carpathians. As our presence on board the "Weser" while she conveyed Sir Henry would not have been correct, we decided to leave Giurgevo by the mail steamer. We had an adventurous drive from Bucharest by night. It was very dark and the driver lost his way; it was amusing to see him walking about, lighting lucifers to try and regain the track. He eventually succeeded, and we reached Giurgevo in time to join the mail steamer. In due course we overtook the "Weser", and changed places with Sir Henry who continued his journey less ceremonially by mail boat.

The town of Turnu Severin is interesting from the fact that at this point, one of Trajan's bridges crossed the Danube. We found the old piers of the bridge, a bridge built, not, as might be supposed, of hewn stone, but of layers of large bricks and rubble, laid in the splendid cement for which the Romans were famous, and which has stood the destructive effects of the floods for all these centuries. We made our way to Orsova on the Austro-Turkish frontier and from thence a drive of some ten miles up the lovely valley of Czerna brought us to the famous Herkules Bad of Mehadia. We had heard much of the beauty of this Carpathian gorge, and in this we were not disappointed, but in the matter of accommodation we found that we had reckoned without our host. The season had not begun, and we arrived at night to find all the hotels closed. We had great difficulty in gaining admittance to one of them, after much persuasion, and had but a miserable entertainment. In after years we became familiar with this beautiful place under pleasanter conditions.

Returning, we made a detour through the mountains, so as to traverse the beautiful pass of the Kazan. This journey was interesting and full of adventures. In this wild mountain country accommodation for travellers scarcely existed; the few people we saw were civil enough, but communication with them was most difficult. They were more familiar with Roumanian or Hungarian than with German, which last I spoke indifferently and my companions not at all. We struck the Danube as we intended some miles above Orsova, and there found a splendid road running along the river bank. This road, constructed by Count Secheny, is in many places blasted out of the rock which rises sheer from the water. On the opposite bank we could see traces of the road made by Trajan. Here holes had been made in the face of the rock to receive cross bars and struts on which they built a timber track. On the Secheny road similar positions, passed by blasting, had a solid floor of rock. At length we joined the "Weser", and began our downward voyage, which proved of a rather critical character, as the floods had fallen and we were much afraid of becoming

stranded on one of the river banks; we had however a good pilot on board and, getting safely down to Giurgevo, we reached Galatz without further adventure.

We heard during this summer that the Technical Commission assembled at Paris, was fully discussing the question of the Danube works, and in the autumn I received from the Government a copy of their report. This supported the majority of our Commissioners in the choice of the St. George's branch for permanent improvement but made a recommendation of a system which appeared to me and to Hartley to bt inadequate and almost certain to fail in its object. This consisted in a proposal that (t lateral canal should be dredged from a point in the St. George above the bar, and led so far out into the sea that deposits from the river would not be likely to choke it. The upper end of this canal was to be shut off from the river, and entered by gates closint over a sill only 16 ft. below the level of the sea. We considered that this entrance wouk become speedily choked by the deposits from the river, and that even if the systen should prove successful, no vessel drawing more than 36 ft. of water could ever enter The Technical Commission cited in support of their recommendation the works at the mouth of the Vistula, and at the mouths of the Elbe, the Rhone, and the Ebre. I therefore applied to the Foreign Office, of which the Earl of Malmesbury was the head. as Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, for permission to go home and lay before him the objections to the scheme, visiting the Vistula and the Elbe on the way. I received permission to do this early in December and the navigation of the river being now closed, I had to make my journey in a post-waggon from Galatz, by Transylvania and Hungary to Vienna. This journey was an interesting and adventurous one. The post-waggon in which I got a seat took the road by Tekutch and Roman, by which we had travelled in our expedition to the Carpathians in the summer, but the roads were in such a deplorable condition, that I was 16 hours in reaching Tekutch, which I had done in 6 on the previous occasion. Our waggon was drawn by eight horses, but we had to put in sixteen to get up the hill near the Sereth. My companions were the Courier in  charge of the mail, and a Moldavian soldier, the guard. I carried my own provisions but seas not prepared with sufficient warm clothing for such a journey at that time of year. Between the upper part of the Moldavia and the first post in Austrian territory, we had to traverse a bit of Wallachia. After leaving the last post-house in Moldavia I became suddenly aware, about ten o'clock at night, on awaking from a sound sleep, that we were standing still, and on looking out, I found there was a dense fog, that neither driver nor horses were to be seen, and that we were planted in a marsh. There was nothing for it under the circumstances, but to try to get to sleep again and keep as warm as one could, but the cold and fog, penetrated to one's bones. At daylight I roused my companions and there still being no driver or horses, I suggested that he should send back the soldier to the guardhouse to make them bring the horses up again, for, evidently the men had lost their road in the night, and as the heavy waggon got stuck in the marsh, they had left us to our fate, and gone to the warmth of the posting station, some miles back. Eight o'clock arrived! nine o'clock! and no sign of the horses. At last I suggested to my companion, the Courier, that he should go back and hurry them on. "Sir" he said "I have 5,000 ducats in that case". "Well" I replied "you know who I am. I am not likely to run away with them, I will take care of them until you return." Accordingly he went and at last, between ten and eleven o'clock, came back with the horses and we started again. I shall never forget the journey thence into Austrian territory. The road was no road at all; it passed over rough water-courses, and huge boulders, and the men galloped so heedlessly that my head struck frequently against the roof of the waggon, as we pitched about in every direction. At last, after some two hours, we reached the Austrian frontier and there we had a pleasant change. From the frontier there are military roads which are kept in perfect condition. We had of course to pass through the ordeal of the Austrian Custom-House. They opened everything we had, and excited my wrath at the way in which they pulled the things out of my bags. We however, got away at last, and in due time arrived at the pretty little town of Kronstadt, in Transylvania. I was glad enough of a rest at this place for a few hours. It was Sunday so I went to the Schwarze Kirche the "Saxon" Protestant Church, and as I was returning, witnessed a most interesting procession. Coming towards me, I saw some waggons drawn by white oxen, decorated with flowers and surrounded by crowds of people, bearing to the Church, the bells to be hung there. On enquiry, I found that just ten years before, the bells had been melted down, by the Hungarian Revolutionists, and made into cannon. Permission had lately been obtained from the Austrian Government to resmelt these cannon, and cast them again as bells, and these were now with great triumph and ceremony, being escorted back to the Church.

At Kronstadt I became a little uneasy as to whether I had money enough to reach Vienna, so I went to a man in business at that place and asked him, after showing him my passport, if he would allow me to draw on our Consul General at Vienne for £20. To my astonishment, without any other guarantee, he furnished me with the money I wanted. I took the whole inside of the diligence from Kronstadt to Hermanstadt, and started, towards the evening of that day, on my dreary journey across the Hungarian plains. It was a bitterly cold night, and at one of the halting places, I heard an altercation going on with a woman who wanted a place in the inside. The guard said "No, you cannot have a place inside, it is engaged by the gentleman who is in it". I thought it would be a very selfish thing to shut out a poor woman who wanted a place and make her drive outside on such a night, but she proved to be a most disagreeable companion, a horrid old woman, who spat in every direction and made my life a burden to me. I vowed I would never be so soft-hearted again. However all things come to an end, and we arrived at length, at Hermanstadt.

This town is beautifully laid out and is largely inhabited by the descendants of the Saxon immigrants who settled there some seven or eight hundred years before. The fresh pretty-looking girls, walking abut in all directions, were a pleasing contrast to the Easterns of whom I had seen so much for the previous two years: the place made a very favourable impression upon me.

At Hermanstadt I found that the quickest route to the railway, was to take a diligence to Arad, and that place I reached without much further trouble. It interested me as being one of the fortresses which played a part in the recent revolutionary wars in AustriaHungary. I had a very slow journey from Arad to Vienna. At the latter place I called upon Lord Augustus Loftus, H.M. Ambassador to the Emperor Francis Joseph, and had a very kind reception from him. I stayed there a day or two, getting any particulars I could about the Danube, and thence proceeding to Berlin, where Lord Bloomfield was Ambassador. I had met him in former years at the house of his Father, Lord Bloomfield, who was the General at Woolwich whilst I was a cadet there, and at whose hands I received my sword. He was most kind and helpful to me in the inquiries upon which I was engaged, took me to the of fine of Works of the Prussian Government, and got me orders to view all the works at the mouths of the Vistula and Elbe. What was of even greater value, he procured for me tracings of all the plans of these works which had been taken at intervals for more than a hundred years, and which showed the whole history of the opening of those two rivers. The importance of those plans to me was, that they proved that the technical Commission at Paris had made a great mistake in citing the opening of the Vistula and Elbe to navigation as examples justifying their recommendations for the mouth of the Danube. The conditions which had led to the success of the works on both rivers, - more especially the Vistula, - were entirely different from those which we had to consider. In the case of the Vistula the success had been due to a freak of nature of a very curious character. The Vistula debouches in the Gulf of Dantzig, which is formed by the projection of a long spur, called the Helas, which protects the Gulf from the north winds as by a natural breakwater. This Helas also guides the strong littoral current up the Baltic till it strikes the opposite shore, and doubles back into the Gulf, flowing with force from east to west across the mouth of the river In former days, and within about a quarter of a century of the time when I visited it, the Vistula, flowing down from the Carpathians, approached the Gulf in a direction perpendicular to the shore; but within a few hundred yards of it, turned abruptly to the west, and ran along parallel to the shore to the town of Dantzig where it entered the Gulf at an angle. Since the middle of the 18th century repeated attempts have been made, by projecting piers into the sea, to obtain navigable depth. These efforts, as shown by the series of plans which I had received at Berlin, had never obtained more than a partial and temporary success. In the year 1840, owing to an extraordinary block of ice, at the angle, the water forced a way through the sand dunes to the sea, and made an entirely new channel at the spot where one would naturally expect the river to debouch.

The Prussian Engineers, with great promptitude and good judgment, immediately replaced this block of ice by a dam through which river craft from Dantzig could pass by means of gates. The scour of the river being now carried out to sea by the new mouth, it was easy to control the out-flow at Dantzig, and the endeavour to deepen the entrance to the harbour by means of piers, which had failed hitherto, became a success. But it was a fallacy to suppose that, because in this case vessels could enter through a lateral canal, a similar success would attend the creation of such a canal at the mouth of the Danube. It is true that, owing to this freak of nature, the old mouth of the Vistula became so far removed from the deposits of the river that it was possible to carry out works which had a fair amount of success in making a channel into the harbour of Dantzig; but the vessels that entered there could not ascend the Vistula. Only vessels of very small tonnage and draught could pass through these gates to get into the principal river.

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I found Dantzig a curious, old-fashioned German town, with a comfortable inn. I stayed there for a day or two, examining the plans and inspecting the works, but my case was already made. I thence proceeded to the mouth of the Elbe, and there found that, in the same way as at the mouth of the Vistula, the success attendant upon what was called a lateral canal was due entirely to the natural circumstances of the river. As a matter of fact this passes through a large lake, called the Haff, whence it issues again into the sea. At this point a pier had been constructed, and vessels of considerable draught were able to pass in and out. But the maintenance of that passage was due, not to any lateral canal, but to the fact that in certain conjunctions of high tide and strong wind an immense volume of water was forced from the sea into the Haff and found its way back again through the channel under the guiding pier. This led to such a scouring away of the sand that the channel was maintained at a very fair depth, and, as this process was repeated two or three times a year, the case was certainly one of improvement, but was in no way applicable to the Danube where there was no Haff. The Rhone was cited by the Paris Commission, not so much with regard to the efficiency of the lateral canal, as to show the failure of piers such as we were making at Sulina. But I was able to prove that the works at the mouth of the Rhone failed because the prevailing winds blew straight into the channel between the piers, checking the river flood and depositing the matter in suspension. The case of the Danube was different, as the current and wind crossed the mouth of our piers and kept it open. With regard to the Elbe, I ascertained that the lateral canal was on a small scale, and far from a success, so that there was, in this case no justification for our adopting the system. I arrived in England on Christmas Day, 1858, with a body of evidence in my possession which, as I thought, most triumphantly proved the strength of my objections to the recommendations of the Paris Commission. I crossed from Calais to Dover, and had the steamer all to myself.

Arriving in London I went to my father in law's Mr Maynard's house in Cleveland Square which I found almost as empty as the boat had been. They had all gone elsewhere for their Christmas party, but I was so buoyed up with the success of my journey that I felt my disappointment the less. My first visit the next day was to the Foreign Office, but at this season it was difficult to see the authorities, but I had time therefore to go to Cobham to visit my dear Father and Mother and from thence to Ashridge to see my brother Edward who was staying there. Lady Marion Alford gave me a warm welcome, and I stayed the night there.

When at last I had an interview with Lord Malmesbury he received me very graciously and seemed greatly impressed with the result of my inquiries. He was disposed to grant my request that I should be sent to Paris, Berlin and Turin, to endeavour to confirm ml theory that the report of the Technical Commission was based on erroneou information.

I had an interview with Capt. Fowke, and was rather surprised to find him offering as ( disingenuous defence of the Commission, the fact that, for his part, he had not based his recommendations on the examples which I had been criticizing, but that it was his opinion independently that a lateral canal was the proper system by which to open such a river as the Danube.

On the 1st of January, 1859 the Emperor Napoleon made his famous speech to Count Hubner, the Austrian Ambassador, which foreshadowed the coming war between France and Austria in Italy. This upset the chances of international agreement upon any subject at that time. Lord Malmesbury sent for me, and said that, he could not now enter into my suggestion that I should endeavour to upset the-agreement which had been come to between the Powers. I had better return to my post and abide by my instructions As I considered that it would be fatal to the improvement of the river to carry out these instructions, I begged for permission to continue the provisional works at Sulina, to carry them to their proper termination, and to leave the other question in suspense until our experience should show the best system. I asked to be allowed to put forward officially my strong objections to the inconclusive evidence given by the Technical Commission. Lord Malmesbury allowed me to do this, and also to remain in England until there was greater convenience for travelling, so that I need not return to Galatz by the difficult overland journey by which I had come. This gave me a happy time at home, and I was able to see something of my father, - a happy circumstance, for we were never to meet again as he died that year.

I also attended the wedding of a very dear friend, Miss Collinson, who married Mr. Tom Harrison, one of the foremost Civil Engineers, whom I had consulted on the Danube works on my arrival.

My dear Father, who was now in his 85th year, was as bright and affectionate as ever, but his physical powers were much weakened. His daily walk was now but for a few hundred yards. My little sister had grown up to be a dear girl, and the joy of the house. My Mother though ageing somewhat, was still active and hearty. I had the pleasure o meeting some very old friends, as well as of making new ones.

This was my first opportunity of personal intercourse with the Foreign of fine and I was not very favourably impressed by the Staff. They seemed to know very little about my work, and to be apprehensive of committing the Government to any expenditure in aid of it, altho' it was likely to prove of such importance to the trade of the country. Mr Hammond, the Under Secretary of State, was a testy old gentleman who evidently failed to appreciate the difficulties with which I had to deal, and the senior clerks were elderly men who had no experience of the kind of work upon which I was engaged. I was, however, able to arrange one point to my satisfaction, and that was, that I should receive a salary in lieu of my military pay, in addition to the expenses which I was able to charge. This salary was fixed at £500 a year.

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I had one great disappointment while I was at home. My dear brother's wedding with Miss Helen Gaisford had been fixed for the 8th of February, to take place at Wells, in Somersetshire. I had asked for an interview with Lord Malmesbury, to which I attached considerable importance, and he happened to fix this very day. My vexation can be imagined when, after having waited for hours, I was not after all able to see the Minister. However, before leaving England, I had the satisfaction of seeing the newly wedded pair.

One unhappy event occurred while I was in England, I received a telegram from my wife telling me of the sudden death of Capt. Wise R.N. of the "Weser", which sad news I had to impart to his Mother. It was a great loss to me, on my return to the Danube, not to have this friend at my side in my difficulties with the river population of the Sulina. E+e was succeeded in the command of the "Weser" by Capt. Johnstone, who was a worthy good fellow, but hardly so much of a companion as poor Wise had been.

I got back to Galatz early in March. During the winter months the actual work in the river was always at a stand-still; the ice formed, as a rule, early in January, and. attaining a thickness of several feet remained till, in the spring, the melting snows of the mountains brought down floods causing a debacle in which the ice disappeared with wonderful quickness, setting free the frozen-in vessels and restoring the river, after a little time, to its normal condition. Two of my colleagues, Bitter and Englehardt. accompanied by Hartley, had followed my footsteps in visiting and inspecting the Vistula; they returned very shortly to the scene of our duties, and the works were resumed as soon as the state of the river permitted, and went on developing through the year 1859.

In August, 1858 another daughter had been born whom we named Alice. Her health from the first caused us some anxiety. In the summer of 1859 I sent all my children with their Governess up to the Convent at Adam, and there the poor little child died of meningitis, the day after she was a year old.

One evening during that summer three young noblemen (English) arrived, having lost the tutor with whom they were travelling. They were the Marquis of Tullibardine, now Duke of Athol, the Marquis of Hastings and Lord Maidstone. Their tutor who had left them at Kustendjeh to take a run to Odessa, was to meet them at Galatz. This he failed to do, having as it afterwards transpired met with difficulties and obstructions from the Russian authorities on account of his Anglican Orders. I put them up for a few days. and then the two latter went on to Pesth, but young Tullibardine was short of cash and decided to remain with me till he should hear of the tutor. He was a pleasant youngster and became a great favourite on board the gun-boat. Eventually he received news ol his tutor, and I lent him money to get on. I have never met him since.

In the early summer of this year my wife went to England, and I made an excursion up to Vienna and thence into the mountains, visiting Gmunden, Ischel and Salzburg? making my way to Paris where she met me on her return journey. After spending a few days there in sight-seeing we made our way, via Cologne, to Dresden.

We had registered our luggage for that place, but, unfortunately did not observe the warning at the back of the ticket that we must pass it through the Custom-House at Cologne; we went away gaily to visit some friends and see the beautiful Cathedral. On arriving at Dresden we were told that our luggage had not arrived, and that we ought to have seen to it at Cologne. We had nothing with us except one little hand-bag. The three days that we spent in Dresden were occupied in sight-seeing, and, although we much enjoyed the glimpses of the Museum, the beautiful picture gallery and the lovely scenery, the delights of Dresden were naturally interfered with by the fact that we were constantly worrying to get our baggage, which we feared might arrive too late, as we had to catch the Danube boat. Happily it did at last arrive, and we just caught the train at Vienna which took us down to join the boat at Baziasch. Had we missed it, we should have had to wait a whole week.

The principal matters which occupied the attention of the Commission this year, in addition to continuing the work, were the rules which we passed for various branches of the navigation, such as regulations for the pilots, lighters and so on, and the condition of our finances. The Sublime Porte, which had begun by claiming the right to furnish funds for our works, and which had repudiated all offers of assistance from Austria, was beginning to feel the pinch of its resources and was very backward in sending us remittances. The result was that the works were frequently brought nearly to a standstill. Under these circumstances the Branch of the Ottoman Bank at Galatz, the directors of which were English, advanced the necessary funds in 1860 to enable the Commission to complete the provisional works, to the extent of £30,000, on security of dues to be raised on shipping. The terms were onerous, 12 per cent, per annum, and a commission of one per cent on the loan; but without this money we must have discontinued the works just as success was within reach.

The year 1859 terminated in a sad loss to me, as I heard of my dear Father's death, on the 23rd December, just two months before completing his 86th year. Consequently our Carnival in January, 1860 was passed in seclusion, and we took part in none of the gaieties of the place.

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