found ourselves enveloped in a dense fog, until we
came upon the top of a narrow ridge of mountains,
with almost unfathomable depths on either side,
which were now and then imperfectly revealed
as the clouds were partially driven away by the
wind. It was bitterly cold as we mounted
higher, and we had a constant change of climate
in different altitudes, and spots exposed or
sheltered; spring, summer, winter, and autumn,
succeeded each other by turns before we reached
the plains again, The sides of the mountains
were clothed with heavy timber, the last we
were to see for many hundreds of miles. The
lofty beech and cedar were predominant, and
one of the most common bushes of the
undergrowth was that from whose blossom is
extracted the honey mentioned by Xenophon as
poisoning some of his troops. It is a bush
which bears a watery excrescence about as large
as an apple. The flower from which the
intoxicating honey is extracted, has a pale yellow
colour, and is something like our honeysuckle.
It was on the Kara-Kapan, too, that we saw the
last of the butterflies. I do not remember ever
to have met any in Persia. It was late in the
afternoon when we reached the village of Kara-
Kapan, which is nearly five thousand feet above
the level of the Black Sea. It consists only of
five or six rude huts, built mainly for the
accommodation of travellers and caravans, and is upon
the extreme summit of the mountain.

In the course of the afternoon the clouds
cleared partially away, and opened to us scenes
of inconceivable sublimity. We found ourselves
near the top of a lofty mountain, where we
could scarcely find a spot level enough to pitch
our tents, surrounded by deep gulfs and snow-
capped summits. Part of the mountain sides
and valleys below, were buried in thick clouds
driven furiously about by the wind. When they
broke away, the waters of the Black Sea at
length appeared in the distant horizon, and the
countless cottages of the Laz and Greek
peasants lay sprinkled like birds'-nests in the open
fields, and even among the trees of the forests,
all along the declivities and ravines. We were
charmed with the beauties and awed by the
grandeur of the scene around us.

The travelling was, however, terribly bad, and
our horses were quite knocked up. The latter
part of the road for some miles, was all over felled
trees laid crossways over a narrow path, with a
fearful precipice on one side, down which a false
step would infallibly have hurled us. The
downward road was easier, but still dangerous and
difficult. At the foot of the mountain is the
beautiful village of Armoot, famous for its fruit;
shortly afterwards we passed Tekeh, which
is the ancient Teches or Tesqua, the mountain
from whose summit Xenophon and his
enraptured troops caught their first glimpse of the
Euxine.

In about ten days we got by easy stages from
Trebizond to Erzeroom. It was a lovely
summer morning when we rode down into the vast
plain in which is situated the capital of
Armenia. The rich verdure about the marshes
was covered with dewdrops, and our horses
showered diamonds about them at every step.
The plain, nearly thirty miles in length, still lay
between us and the city, stretching away in an
easterly direction. Snowy mountains
encompasseth it on all sides, and the western branch
of the river Euphrates meanders through its
centre. Here and there were scattered some
peasants at work in the fields. They were
all armed to the teeth, and ready for fighting at
any time. They looked more like banditti than
husbandmen.

Leaving the caravan, we wandered along the
banks of the Euphrates after wild-ducks, and
shot an immense number of them. I never
saw so many water-fowl together; they flew
in clouds over our heads, and covered the
waters far and near when they settled. Strange
to say, our shots did not disturb them, or if now
and then a flock which had lost half a dozen of
its plumpest members rose screaming into the
air and wheeled away at an immense height out
of the range of our guns, we were sure to find
as large a flock a few yards further on.

We encamped in the evening near some
natural hot springs, said to be an infallible cure
for more than half the ills that flesh is heir to,
and we sent on a messenger to announce our
arrival to our friends in the city, as we were
rather too formidable a company to arrive
unexpectedly.

We might have saved our messenger this
journey had we noticed a very Turkish-looking
party encamped a little way off. But in our
simplicity we never dreamed that these could
be our friends and countrymen, as it turned out
they were. We did not imagine that European
settlers in the interior of Turkey soon become,
at least in appearance, far more Turkish than
the Turks themselves. For whereas the Turkish
population are always trying to introduce what
they consider European improvements into their
dress and manners, Europeans more sensibly
prefer the ancient usages and ways which have
been sanctioned by ages of experience, and
which are generally more in conformity with
the climate and necessities of the country. We
had not been long encamped before we received
a visit from these neighbours, who showed us
great kindness, and we passed the evening very
pleasantly together, talking over the last news
from Europe. We found our visitors mostly
men of great local information and attainments,
who were generally much occupied with
researches in Oriental literature and antiquarian
discovery. When they went away, it was late,
and I walked out for half an hour before my
tent, to take leave of the moon, which was at the
full, and spread a solemn spiritual lustre over
the great plain and the surrounding mountains.
The evening star shone brightly in the west, the
bat flittered hither and thither, and thousands
and thousands of frogs croaked their night-songs
in the marshes.

Erzeroom stands on a moderate elevation at
the eastern extremity of the great plain which
we crossed in approaching it. It is a very