1 68 By Mountain , Lake, and Plain 



willow -fringed, forget-me-not bordered streams, 

 there savage and sterile of aspect like the ranges 

 further south. 



The path now lay by the side of a river, in a 

 valley that nature had decked with a wonderful 

 profusion of wild-flowers, among them some old 

 English friends, bugle, campion, foxglove, tre- 

 foils, blue-bottle, hyacinth, and many more. At 

 one point we narrowly escaped an accident. 

 My wife's pony dropped his hind legs over the 

 bank, and failing to recover, went over into the 

 river. Thanks to the presence of mind of the 

 rider, nothing worse than a ducking resulted, 

 and this was soon put to rights in a house 

 belonging to the kat-Jchuda of the nearest village. 

 Here, with Eastern hospitality, a room was placed 

 at the disposal of the foreign lady, while garments, 

 the cut and fashion of which afforded the female 

 portion of the household subject for loud and 

 mirthful discussion and talk, I'll be bound, for 

 the next month, were dried in the hot sun. 



Next day we reached the Kara Dagh range 

 and I settled down to some hard work. I 

 think I saw game every day. At this time 

 of the year it was still very hot in the middle 

 of the day, and it was pleasant as well as 

 good policy to spend the hours from twelve 

 till two or three under the shade of a big 



