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Show WAR NAMES AND PLACES. I A correepondt-nt wants to know . what in meant hy the Dobrouccba, or "Dufirudeba," which is a country he j is unable to identify, although it j appear lo be important; he would like lo have an explanation of the meaning ot "Sublime Porte," which figures conspicuously in Turkish atUir; and liimlly, lie aka whether the north hank of the Danube is ineanl when the "left hank" of that great river is referrt-d to; and if bo, why the phrase "north hank"' is not used. beginning with this last point we may any that the style of designating the banks of rivers as "right" and "left" ia by far the more convenient and exact, especially when the rivers are winding or crooked in their courte, Buch us the Mississippi, Missouri, Cumberland and others id our own country, and the Danube in Europe. Looking down stream, or towards the mouiu of tho river, the bank which is ou tht right hand of the observer is tne "tight bank," and that on his left hand is the "left hank." Tois method ot description is precise, whilst it the writer or apeaker were to say the eas-t, wist, north or south bank, it would leave the mailer Quite obscure if the river ib crooked. Next as to the Dohrouscha or Dobrudsha. This is the northeastern northeast-ern section of the Turkish province of Bulgaria, extending up between the eastern boundary of Roumania and the Black sea. It is a rectangular peninsula, embraced hetwsen the Danube from Rassowa to its Kilia mouth on the west and north the Black sea on the eaht, and ' Trajan's Wall" to the Bouth, the line of "the wall" extending in a shallow curve Irom near Rusaowa, ou the Danube, to Kuntenji, on the Black Bea. This tract is, for the greater part, a low lying, swampy country, very frequently fre-quently inundated, but aflording good pasturatte lor thu largo num ber of horseB grazed there by its Tar i tar inhabitants. It ia au unfavorable country for military operations, but it has mure than once allorded a route for Ru-sian columns invading Turkey. With regard to the frequently uaea phrase, "the porte," or "sublime pone," in relation to Turkish aflairs, it is to be understood as meaning the government of Turkey, just as some of our Hue writers sometimes say "Ihe Court of St. James," when they mean the government of Great Brilian. There was a time when the phrase "sublime porte" had a real significance: that was when ihe gateway, gate-way, or porU, ot the Sultan's palace was the Beat of the administration of justice to the Sultan's subjects. The name Btill remains as a designation for the sultan's government, but the reason for it has passed away. In the matter of failure to find on the maps some of the names of places mentioned in the dispatches, wo shall probably not be of much assistance to our correspondent and other readers in similar straits, but we can help them to some hints. In the first place, there are good maps and poor maps and some very bad ones. For continental Europe and Asia, Keith Johnson's (British) are good, but the German atlases are the best in our judgment. Among our American atlases Colton's are good, and perhaps some others. For most purposes a school atlas will do. The newspaper "war maps" are for the most part wretched aflairs. Except the last, any of tho others will show the principal princi-pal cities, towns and impoitunt places; the courses of the rivers and mountain moun-tain ranues, and the most important roads. They are nearly all, however, defective iu failing to show the railways, rail-ways, those modern revolutionizes of distance and political geography. In the next place, the modes ot spelling oriental names ditler according lo the language through which they find their way to English or American maps. If they come through German Ger-man geographers they are spelled according to ihe German value of the letters representing the sounds; if through the French, the letters have their French value, and if through the English, they have tho English value, or spelling with which we aru familiar. So they are given on th maps, even on good maps, according to widely different ways of FpeHinu; and this again is varied by the cable telegraph, which has mutliods of spelling peculiar to itselt, and which no follow can Gnd out. But, anart from these difficulties iu the identification of some of the names, there is final trouble of thiu kind: Military combats, marches, enpngprncnts, pitched and decisive battles often occur near unimportant places, which have no names beyond those familiar in the immediate neighborhood. Such places and names rarely appear upon maps, unless un-less the mups ore on a large scale. Who knew anything of Pittsburg Landing, or Shiloli Church, as thu Rebels called it, in Tennessee, prior to General Grant's memorable victory there? Is it wonderful lhatour British friends failed to find it in ihe right spot and located it near the only Pittsburg their maps gave thern any knowledge of? How would they have found Antietam, the field of Genera! McClel bin's great victory, on any mf.psofthe United Scales they had t at hand? Advanced detachments, ( heads of columns and armies get into ( conflicts wherever they chance to ! meet each other, and ibis olten happens hap-pens at places that have no names on general maps, which is a final reason 1 why readers occasionally look for them iu vain The only remedy in 1 such case ie to locate the principal adjacent places, cities, towns, rivers, 1 mountains and roads. Philadelphia 1 Ledger. |
