80 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



I reached Samsoun on May 25th, my impressions of the 

 Black Sea having been far from favourable, and that same day I 

 started with Bersa for the interior. Now there are so-called 

 carriage-roads in most parts of Asia Minor, but the advantages 

 of this in practice I soon found to be somewhat dubious, for any- 

 thing more appalling than the condition of these roads would be 

 quite inconceivable. Heavy rains having recently fallen, the 

 entire surface was one deep quagmire of mud for miles. The 

 carriages I had secured at Samsoun (kind of covered vans, called 

 "yileys," whose occupants had nowhere to sit except on the 

 floor) were constantly over the axles of the wheels in thick mud, 

 while the horses sank in above their knees, and the holes were so 

 deep, and the joltings so frequent and yet so sudden, that it really 

 seemed as though the horrors of the Black Sea were being " con- 

 tinued in our next." Outside and away from the town 1 hoijed 

 for better things, but if anything matters grew worse, and the 

 "arabaje" (yiley driver) looked very gloomy when asked if the 

 road was going to be like this the whole way. So I declared that 

 I would take only the one yiley for my luggage, that they must 

 procure saddles for the two horses now attached to the other one, 

 and that 1 and Bersa would ride, rather than be shaken to atoms. 

 But all kinds of obstacles were raised in the way of this arrange- 

 ment, which I afterwards found out was because the two yileys I 

 had engaged did not hail from Samsoun, but were returning any- 

 how to Mersivan. The man they belonged to therefore did not 

 wish to leave his yiley behind in exchange for a couple of saddles. 

 So we persevered, and I resigned myself to my fate, with an 

 inward reflection that travelling in Asia Minor was not exactly 

 " travelling made easy." Neither was it possible to get out and 

 walk, for the mud was so deep and thick that in many places I 

 might almost as well have decided " to get out and walk" from 

 the Austrian Lloyd steamer on the Black Sea. And yet every 

 peasant here is taxed three francs a year for the maintenance of 

 these roads, the money being unscrupulously appropriated by 

 the authorities. 



As we got up into the mountains rain came on — a perfect 

 deluge ; we passed through dense clouds of vapour, sometimes 

 scarcely able to see a yard ahead, and towards evening experienced 

 the effect of driving through the heart of a thunderstorm. It 

 was a marvellous sight, as from time to time the thick atmo- 

 sphere became one mass of lurid fire from the lightning, and the 

 simultaneous roar of the thunder was quite deafening. For we 

 were in it, and it was all around us, and the torrential rain 

 descended with unabating violence. Then darkness came on, 

 and still through the night the rain fell heavily, though the 

 thunderstorm had swept away. The road was wild and deserted, 

 but the very violence of the storm was in itself a protection, and 

 one must be prepared to encounter some inconveniences in order 



