306 KETURN FROM THE FIRST JOURNEY. 



but also in my room. I repeatedly got up to examine 

 the windows and doors, but found them all closed. 

 The next morning however I saw my room full of 

 snow-flakes, and discovered that they had penetrated 

 through rifts in the floor. On account of the marshy 

 ground the houses in Poti are built on piles, which 

 explains the marvel of a snow-fall in a closed room. 

 The stormy weather lasted without intermission several 

 days, and what rendered my stay particularly dis- 

 agreeable was, that I had caught a severe inflammation 

 of the connective tissue of one of my eyes. This 

 painful inflammation, alleviated by no medical aid, the 

 confined inn-parlour filled with people of all classes 

 and nationalities, moreover bad provisions and a total 

 absence of any kind of attendance, made my life there 

 simply intolerable. 



At last the eagerly longed-for steamer came in 

 sight, and in spite of the heavy sea succeeded in 

 taking aboard myself and three other travelling com- 

 panions. The passage was very stormy as far as the 

 entrance to the Bosphorus, and put our seaworthiness 

 to a severe test. All four of us however stood it to 

 the great astonishment of the captain. Among the 

 party was a Russian general, consul in Messina, and, 

 as I discovered later, father of a very charming 

 daughter, now the wife of my friend Professor Dohrn 

 in Naples; further a young Russian diplomatist, who 

 subsequently filled important posts, and finally an 

 extremely original Austrian foundry proprietor, who 

 never allowed his pipe to go out, except when eating 



