The eminence on the right is the Jouchi Daghi, or “Giant’s Mountain,” impending over the valley. The reason assigned for this name is a singular one. Among the many persons of our Scriptures, recognized by the Koran, is Joshua the son of Nun; to whom its commentators attribute an immense stature. They affirm that he was sent against the Roum or Greek infidels, whom he defeated in a battle, during which the sun went down in his ordinary course, but immediately rose again; so they could not be saved. It was his custom to sit on this mountain, and bathe his feet in the waters of the Bosphorus below; and when he died, they could find no place large enough on the hill for his grave, so they buried only one of his feet. These extravagant fictions they support by two authorities. There is a dervish mosque on the summit, and a large enclosure beside it. In the enclosure is a tomb seven yards long, which they show as the evidence of the length of the foot buried there; and on the walls of the mosque is an inscription in Arabic, detailing the history of Joshua, whom they call _Usha ben Nun_. It concludes with a caution to the incredulous: “If any one doubt, let him look to this inscription, and believe.” A circumstance almost as incredible, in modern times, has rendered the Giant’s Mountain famous. It is now ten centuries since the Russians, in their log-boats, made the first attempt on Constantinople, and their squadrons advanced to the Balkan Mountains. As they became a more civilized and powerful people, the attempts were made with more probability and perseverance; and Peter the Great, having Archangel on the White Sea, and St. Petersburg on the Baltic, conceived the hopes of rounding his vast empire by annexing Constantinople as his southern port, and so commanding all the seas that encircle it. Since that time, the great policy and ambition of the Russians seemed directed to this object; but while all Europe were anxiously watching their hostile approaches, and the desperate struggles of the Turks to resist them, people saw with astonishment a large fleet and an immense army quietly approach the capital, and disembark, not as enemies, but as friends and protectors; and, after an interchange of amity and good will between these deadly enemies, the one departed as peaceably as they came, and the other erected a monument as an everlasting memorial of their visit. It was at this interesting moment the Illustration was made, while the tents of the Russians whitened the mountains above, and the treaty of Hunkair Iskelessi was signed in the valley below. It represents the splendid caïque of the sultan returning from a friendly visit to his new allies, and the crowded boats of the Bosphorus “suspending the dashing oar,” as the homage paid to his passing.