40 ACROSS THE TAURUS. 



Pasha, and literally rung with the clash of arms during 

 the prolonged era of Byzantine and Arab conflict. It 

 must be with a sigh of regret that the sentimental 

 learn that its day of greatness has all but run its course, 

 since, contrary to popular supposition, its importance as 

 a highway is not destined to be revived by the passage 

 of an iron way, which will leave the present road at 

 Ak Keupri and descend to the Cilician plain by the 

 gorge of the Tchakid Su. But of this I shall have more 

 to say later on in a chapter devoted to a discussion of 

 the railway question. 



After leaving the defile the road passes down a glen, 

 through superb mountain scenery, and finally debouches 

 on to the plain from among the low foothills of Taurus, 

 a mile or two from the nearest point on the Mersina- 

 Tarsus-Adana Railway, which runs from the coast east- 

 ward to the capital, over a distance of forty-one miles. 

 From here another three miles brought me to Tarsus, 

 whence I took train to Mersina, glad enough after the 

 discomfort of my eight days' journey through the 

 Taurus to avail myself of the kind hospitality ex- 

 tended to me by the British Consul, Colonel Massy. 



