13G THE PERSIAN" POST-ROAD. 



short time on the road. The horse-track leads up into the 

 elevated tableland of North-western Persia, by a gentle bnt 

 continuous ascent of at least 3,000 feet. Leaving on our 

 left the isolated cone we had remarked from the Russian 

 bank, we rode along bare slopes in the direction of the 

 only gap in the chain before us. The backward view was 

 very wonderful ; a shelf at the base of the hills on our leffc 

 was dotted with the bright-green or chards of several 

 villages, while below us lay the trough of the Araxes, bare, 

 brown, and hideous, from which the eye sought relief in the 

 pure snows and noble forms of the summits of Kanudschuch, 

 which looked from here their full height of 12,854 feet. 

 The narrow glen through which our road now lay was 

 sufficiently picturesque. The mountains on either side 

 were covered with grass ; a little stream, with a line of 

 trees along its banks, turned several watermills. Farther 

 on the crags became bolder, and we noticed an extraordi- 

 nary distortion of the strata. The narrowest point of the 

 pass was defended by two old towers, now in ruins. We 

 emerged at length on an upland plain surrounded by bare 

 hills, a description applicable to the greater part of Persian 

 scenery. The village of Datarzian soon came into sight 

 under the hillside on the leffc, and the first house in it 

 proved to be the post-station. The three we saw on the 

 way to Tabreez were almost alike, and a description of 

 one will serve for all. A square building of unbaked mud 

 surrounds the courtyard, into which you ride ; on three sides 

 are the stables, on the fourth the rooms for the reception of 

 travellers. There are generally two — one on the ground- 

 floor beside the gateway, and the other (which is cool and 

 airy in hot weather) built over it. These rooms we found 

 quite bare of furniture, but had no difficulty in obtaining 

 mattrasses and pillows to lie on, which both looked and 

 proved clean and free from insects. Datarzian is a small 



