332 DRIVING. 



any quantities in the forests that even yet cover the great 

 range of high land, some eight thousand feet above the sea, 

 that stretches east and west nearly across the whole continent. 

 There the snow lies permanently from the beginning of No 

 vember to the end of May, and in the intervening months 

 the trees must be cut up for fuel, fashioned into dwellings, and 

 put to all the uses that wood serves in primitive countries. 



The axe must be busy during the summer, and the trees 

 felled and trimmed before the snow covers the ground again. 

 Then, when all is white once more, no storms threaten, and the 

 surface is hard and smooth, oxen are yoked to the ends of the 

 trees and plod patiently along towards the towns or villages for 

 which the timber is destined. At first the work is terrible and 

 progress very slow T , but when once the main route has been 

 struck, tree following after tree wears out a groove that becomes 

 upon its surface as hard and smooth as genuine ice, and along 

 it one yoke of oxen can drag a mighty tree with but little exer- 

 tion so long as the track is level. 



Of primitive sledging that was my first experience, as in the 

 winter of 1854-5 my time was spent between the towns of 

 Kars and Erzroom, and to reach one from the other the great 

 forest-covered mountain called the Soghanli Dagh had to be 

 crossed. 



The grooves worn out by the trees are blessed by travellers 

 who have to ride across that fearful country, where roads in 

 our sense of the term are unknown and the tracks are hidden 

 feet deep beneath the snow. The sure-footed little native 

 horses, fresh shod in Turkish fashion, gallop along them with 

 rarely a stumble. If a procession of trees has to be passed by 

 leaving the hard track for only a few inches, it is quite another 

 matter, and a flounder in the soft snow is pretty nearly inevit- 

 able. Of course when meeting the trees, the horseman draws 

 out of the track and sits still until they have passed. I once 

 left Kars, just before Christmas, with the thermometer at 13 

 below zero, and galloped without drawing rein for sixteen hours, 

 except to change horses, then rested on a bare floor with my 



