Dardanelles

(The,) (dardah-nělz,) or STRAIT OF GALLIPOLI. [Anc. Hellespont.] A narrow strait or channel, connecting the Sea of Marmora with the Ægean Sea, and dividing Europe from Asia;bet. 40° and 40° 30' N. Lat., and 26° 10'-26° 40′ E. Lon. It is 40 m. long, by from 1 to 4 broad. The D. forms the key to Constantinople and the Euxine, and is, accordingly, strongly fortified. On the Asiatic side, its banks are very beautiful, being covered with villas, kiosks, and gardens. Its anc. name of Hellespont was acquired from Helles, or Hellas, a Theban prince who drowned herself in its waters, later, it took the name of D., from Dardanus, an adjacent city of Troas (Troy.) Xerxes cro ed the D.by a bridge of boats, B. c. 481; and the Saracens, in 1360, advanced over it to the conquest of Constantinople. By the Treaty of Unkiar-Skele i, 1833, between Ru ia and Turkey, the latter power agreed to close the D. against the ve els of other States; a law that was set aside to allow the pa age of the allied French and English fleets into the Black Sea, to the support of Turkey, in 1853. The rule, however, of excluding foreign ships of war in time of peace was confirmed by the Treaty of Paris, 1856. InNov., 1858, an American frigate, the Wabash, pa ed the Dardanelles, and anchored at Constantinople, and was friendly received, though the Sultan avoided to openly acknowledge the correctne of the argument advanced by the officer in command, that the U. States might not be bound by a treaty to which they were not a party. [s. 264]