A TANTAT.TSTXU QUEST 283 



itri .sliatts dl' lii-iit coLitiiiucd to .sLrcaiii llirouiili tlic ureal 

 gap, painting its white elitfs red; and wlien, as sometimes 

 hnp|)('n(Ml, tlic twin peaks were ca]i]^i(l wiili Invid stoTni 

 clouds, I he level rays were detiected downwards, and dis- 

 persed in juismatic colom's. 



I'^idni dui' elevated camp we overlooked the country 

 lieyond the White Peaks — a great expanse of lower hills, 

 ot" roumUnl form, and generally free from rocks, but 

 covered from top to bottom with a vast pine forest com- 

 plicated by numerous hollows, pockets, and deep narrow 

 ravines, at the I)ottom of which trickled tiny streams 

 generalh- half blockcMl wiih fallen stems. Beyond, lay 

 tlie plain again, dotted widi patches of green, indicating- 

 villages and water, and beyond that again, range upon 

 range of mountains, most of them of a uniform light gray 

 colour — an important fact from the sportsman's point <•! 

 view, for it denoted their waterless and treeless condi- 

 tion, and indeed the almost total absence of any kind 

 of life. 



The forest consists of pines of llie Corsican variety 

 which throws grand trunks, but carries, comparatively, 

 scanty tops. Fires are of constant occurrence, and their 

 track is marked l)y wide patches of whitened stems. 

 These are terrible jtlaccs to get through, for the ground is 

 littered with rotting branches, and the admission of light 

 and air induces a tremendous tangle of umh^rgrowth. 

 This forest, like every other in Turkey, is rapidly dis- 

 ajipearing. On one occasion, in ihe course of a two hours' 

 ride into these liills, I counted thirty donkeys, or horses, 

 laden with roughly-hewn beams or tiiv\\oo<b ;ind this 

 process goes on all the \'eai" round. The liucst trees are 



