Close to the Harbour of Sophia stood a tower known as the Bukanon, or the Trumpet (τὸ Βύκανον).[1098] It was so named, according to the Anonymus,[1099] both because trumpets were kept there, and because the tower itself, being hollow, resounded like a trumpet when struck by the waves. Whenever the Imperial fleet, the same writer adds, sailed from the city, it was customary for the ships to assemble before this tower and exchange musical salutes with it; a legend, which is probably a fanciful travesty of the simple fact that the tower was a station from which the movements of vessels were directed by trumpet signals. If the order in which the Anonymus mentions the tower, between the SS. Sergius and Bacchus and the Harbour of Sophia, indicates its actual position, the Bukanon stood on the eastern side of the harbour. Harbour of the Kontoscalion (τὸ Κοντοσκάλιον). Another harbour on the Marmora side of the city was the Harbour of Kontoscalion. The first reference to the Kontoscalion occurs in the Anonymus,[1100] in the eleventh century, but the harbour acquired its greatest importance after 1261, when it was selected by Michael Palæologus to be the dockyard and principal station of the Imperial navy. Here the emperor thought his fleet could lie more secure from attack, and in a better position to assail an enemy, than in any other haven of the city. For the force of the current along this shore would soon oblige hostile ships approaching the port to beat a hasty retreat, lest they should be driven upon the coast, and consequently expose them, as they withdrew, to be taken in the rear by the Imperial vessels that would then sally forth in pursuit. Great labour was therefore expended upon the old harbour. It was dredged and deepened to render it more commodious; and to make it more secure, it was surrounded with immense blocks, closed with iron gates, and protected by a mole.[1101] Subsequently, as his coat-of-arms on the western tower of the harbour indicated, the Kontoscalion was repaired by Andronicus II.[1102] A Russian pilgrim who visited the city about 1350 has drawn a vivid picture of the harbour when crowded with triremes on account of contrary weather:— “De l’Hippodrome on passe devant Cantoscopie; là est la superbe et très grande porte en fer à grillage de la ville. C’est par cette porte que la mer pénétre dans la ville. Si la mer est agitée, jusqu’a trois cents galères y trouvent place; ces galères ont les unes deux cents et les autres trois cents rames. Ces vaisseaux sont employés au transport des troupes. Si le vent est contraire, ils ne peuvent avancer, et doivent attendre le beau temps.”[1103]