text:  The skill and activity of these men in the management of their light and apparently fragile skiffs has been celebrated by almost every tourist who has floated on the waters of the Golden Horn and the Bosphorus: and not less precise is the accuracy with which is adjusted the number of oars to be employed by the members of the European _corps diplomatique_ and the great officers of the Porte according to their relative ranks; the smallest infringement of which would be regarded as an unpardonable breach of etiquette