1-20 THE TERSIAN POST-ROAD. 



saw it. The track — a broad belt of mud streching across 

 the swampy downs — was not difficult to find, despite the 

 driving mists ; the carcase of a camel, or a dying horse, 

 by the wayside, and the telegraph-wires singing a quiet 

 tune of their own overhead, sufficiently revealed the 

 whereabouts of what the Russians naively call a road, 

 and illustrated the happy definition we afterwards heard, 

 ' Une route de poste en Caucase, c'est ou il y a ni route ni 

 chevaux.' 



A short descent brought us to Achta, after a ride of six- 

 teen versts, during which my steed and I, to my great 

 surprise, did not once part company ; as trotting with 

 a saddle about the size of a lady's bonnet, and stirrups 

 which exalt your knees to the level of your face, is an 

 exercise more sensational than safe. Tucker, rran9ois, 

 and the baggage arrived in due time, and we continued our 

 journey in carts. The stream from the lake, remforced 

 by contributions from the western range, flowed in a 

 deep depression on our right, while we continued to 

 traverse the swampy downs which spread round the base 

 of Ak-Dagh. So deep was the mire that we could 

 seldom get beyond a foot's pace, and it was dark ere 

 Ave reached the next station, a lone house standing in a 

 hollow, near the base of a conical hill of apparently 

 volcanic origin. Soon after our arrival a ' tarantasse ' (a 

 carriage with a hood and rough springs) drove ujd. Its 

 occupants were a gentleman, a member of a Greek firm 

 at Teheran and Tabreez, who spoke a little English, his 

 wife, and a lady's-maid. He told us that Mr. Abbott, 

 the English Consul-General, was at present at Urmia, but 

 that we should find a hospitable welcome at Tabreez 

 from Dr. Cormick, the English physician in charge of the 

 heir-apparent of Persia, who holds his court at Tabreez. 

 He also gave us a note to an old servant of his firm 



