camera did not roll overboard. On the left of the road, immediately outside the inner line of fortifications, stands Gümüshli-kümbet, an old Seljuk mausoleum, and on the other side, farther on, Kel-kümbet, like a tower. Here and there, on mounds, are seen detached forts, belonging to the outer line of defence, the purpose of which is to guard the defile which opens above the town ; and so we leave Erzerum behind us. The general impression one forms of the town is that it is peculiar and strange, but monotonous, and scarcely picturesque. The best view I saw over the town was from the American mission-housea sea of roof parapets, chimneys, and minarets, all as grey as they could be, huddled up together, clumsy and solid. But it is necessary that the houses should be well built, for the inhabitants of Erzerum live on a high plateau with an extreme continental climate, where the thermometer may fall in winter to —22°. Fuel also is dear in the town, and wood and timber are brought from the Russian frontier, 66 miles off. The country is stripped and bare, and yet old men remember the time when the heights near Erzerum were still clothed with forest. We also met strings of carts laden with digged-up poplar roots, which are sold as firewood in the town. Poor people collect dung on the roads and paths, which here, as in Central Asia, is called tesek.
On the left hand stands the ridge Kirechlu, with the summit where the western Euphrates has its source, and at the narrow defile Deve-buyun, where the ascent begins to a small saddle, I bid farewell to the kind and amiable M. Srabyan, and mount my own drosky, driven by the reliable driver Shakir. At first the road is good and full of local traffic between the capital and the outlying villages to the east. But afterwards, when we come up to the hillocky, slightly snowclad heights, it becomes worse and worse, stony and uneven, and we roll as in a boat over ruts and lumps. Rime still lies at ten o'clock in the shade ; the weather is fine, fresh, and clear. Mud lies only where streamlets run across the road, and elsewhere the road is dry. This year is said to be quite exceptional, for usually the country is already covered with snow at the beginning
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