316 TRAVELS IN THE EIGHTIES. 



twice referred to my compass, which I carried in a 

 noticeable position. 



At sunrise the view of Lake Gotchka burst upon us 

 as we gradually descended towards it, and the Turks 

 in ecstasies shouted out " Therapia, Therapia," declar- 

 ing it resembled the Bosphorus ; like the ten thousand 

 Greeks when they shouted "Thalassa" at sight of 

 the ocean after their retreat from Persia. This large 

 and noble-looking sheet of water abounds with trout. 

 One of apparently ten pounds' weight was brought to 

 us at the village of Elenof ka for sale, thickly spotted 

 with black markings. Half a mile from shore, upon 

 a small island, stands the monastery of Sevan, where 

 quarters can be obtained. The houses, as one travels 

 south and approaches Persia, have more of mud and 

 less of stone in their construction, till at length one 

 finds them built entirely of the former. The numbers 

 of tame geese here was perfectly enormous, tens of 

 thousands of these birds were to be seen along the 

 shore of the lake. I was now in Armenia. 



Erivan, the capital of Armenia, was four stages 

 distant, the three intervening stations being named 

 Nijni Akty, Suhaya Fontanka, and Eiljarskaya. 

 Chiefly noticeable, as we proceeded, was the splendid 

 military road the Eussians are making to the Persian 

 frontier. The whole of the inhabitants of the sur- 

 rounding country seemed to have been collected 

 together for the purpose of breaking stones, heaps of 

 which, carefully measured, lay alongside the track 

 for miles and miles. I noticed also that when piling 



