SPORT AND TRAVEL 33 



Takhtali, rise sheer from the sea, whose marvellously 

 deep blue colour, at the very foot of the cliffs, proves 

 the great depth of the water. The general appearance 

 of these mountains overhanging the sea is one of bare 

 grey rock, sparsely dotted with dark-foliaged fir-trees, 

 but a more careful inspection shows that, wherever 

 ravines occur, their sides are thickly wooded, and often 

 covered with dense scrub. The Greek fishermen who 

 manned our little boat informed me that upon several 

 occasions, when they had put in here for water or 

 shelter, they had seen wild goats on the crags above; 

 and I do not doubt that they were speaking the truth, 

 as no ground could have looked more favourable for 

 these shy animals than the rugged cliffs of this wild 

 and uninhabitable coast. In the evening, accom- 

 panied by Mahmoud, I climbed up some likely looking 

 ravines, but, although we saw fairly fresh spoor, we 

 came across no wild goats, and so we returned to the 

 sea at nightfall, and slept on board the boat. 



On Monday, September 24, leaving the boat to find 

 its way back to its old anchorage beneath the shadow 

 of the Musa Dagh, Mahmoud and I climbed the moun- 

 tain above the bay, and then commenced to work our 

 way slowly westwards across the broken country that 

 lay between our camp and Port Genoese. The heat 

 was intense, the sun beating down in such pitiless in- 

 tensity from a cloudless sky upon the bare limestone 

 crags, over which we cautiously made our way, that I 

 at length began to feel as dry and parched up as my 



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