"Hardly. This gulf, as it properly is, extends back about five miles, and several streams flow into it from the Valley of the Sweet Waters. It gets its name from its shape, and it is called golden on account of the riches brought to its shores from other lands. It is a safe harbor, though great storms sometimes pass through the Bosporus. You can see that it is crossed by two bridges of boats." "With two humps in each of them," said Scott. "Those are to enable boats to pass under them; and some of the pontoons are drawn aside to permit the passage of large crafts. Do any of you happen to know the name of this country?" "Turkey; and it was named after the Thanksgiving bird," replied Felix. "The bird of which you speak is a native of Mexico, and was first taken to Europe by the Spaniards." "Thanks to the Spaniards, for we have eaten the bird in Europe." "The people here wouldn't know what you meant if you called their country by the name of the bird. Their name is Osmanli Vilaieti; but we do not expect you to speak Turkish, and the proper name in English is The Turkish or Ottoman Empire. It consists of three divisions, Turkey in Europe, in Asia, and in Africa. The first has thirty thousand less square miles than New York and Pennsylvania together. We used to say it had a population of fifteen millions; but it has lost Servia, Roumania, and Bulgaria, and a census makes it less than five. The whole empire is estimated at twenty-seven and a half millions. "The principal industry is agriculture, which is carried on in a very slipshod manner. Grain, rice, cotton, and tobacco are raised. Olives, grapes, figs, dates, oranges, citron, and otto of roses are largely exported. The ladies will find the last at the Bazaar. This is about the season here for the nicest grapes in the world, and you will see them for sale about the streets. If you wish to buy them, the money here is in _piastres_, worth five cents apiece, and _paras_, of which it takes forty to make five cents, or one-eighth of a cent apiece. At the hotels and foreign stores French money, which is the same as Italian, is used, a franc or lira passing for eighty-eight _piastres_. "The present Sultan is Abdul-Hamid II., born in 1842. In Turkey the eldest son does not succeed to the throne of his father, as in most Christian countries. The founder of the empire was Othman, who reigned in the thirteenth century, and his oldest male descendant succeeds to the crown up to the present day. When I was here the second time in 1870, Abdul-Aziz was the Sultan. I took my hat off and bowed to him on his way to the mosque; but he took no notice of me. His son, Yussuf Izzeddin Effendi, a boy of thirteen, returned my salute, and was more polite than his father.