48 SPORT AND TRAVEL 



As it was already late in the afternoon when the 

 train reached Chardak, and Dr. C. had to return to 

 his home at the other end of the mountain to get his 

 blankets, etc., before finally joining me, I arranged to 

 stop at the station until his arrival the following morn- 

 ing by the down train from Dinair, due at Chardak 

 at 8 A. M. He and I were then to have a day in the 

 mountain, whilst Pabli and Manoli would get our tents 

 and baggage conveyed on a bullock cart to a spring 

 of water at the base of the mountain about five miles 

 from Chardak, where they were to pitch camp and 

 have everything ready to receive us at the end of our 

 day's tramp. On this evening I was the guest of the 

 hospitable Greek station-master and his family, who 

 were all suffering from malarial fever, the effects of 

 which they were endeavouring to mitigate, they told 

 me, by daily doses of quinine. As Chardak stands at 

 an elevation of about three thousand feet above 

 sea level, and as at the time I am speaking of the 

 nights were cold and frosty and the days by no means 

 too warm, one would not have thought that the cli- 

 mate ought to have been feverish; but I expect that 

 the station-master and his family had originally caught 

 their fevers in the summer months, when the exhala- 

 tions from the large salt pan lying at the foot of the 

 Maimun Dagh must be very unhealthy; and a mala- 

 rial fever once caught is often difficult to get rid 

 of, as some of us know from personal experience. 



When nearing Chardak I had seen from the train 



