98 SPORT AND TRAVEL 



my trousers' pockets, as exposure to the wind numbed 

 my fingers instantly. 



After three intensely disagreeable hours, we en- 

 tered a tract of country covered with velonia forests, 

 where we were protected to a considerable extent 

 from the bitter wind. The velonia-tree is a species 

 of oak, bearing acorns in profusion, the cups of 

 which are rough and hairy. It is from these acorn 

 cups that the celebrated velonia dye is made ; they 

 are collected by the Turkish peasantry in many parts 

 of Asia Minor, and carried in bags on the backs of 

 camels and donkeys to the railways, by which they 

 are conveyed to the ports and exported to Europe. 

 In the forests I have seen, the trees were always small, 

 growing well apart from one another and without any 

 kind of scrub or undergrowth beneath them. The 

 acorns with which the ground was covered would 

 fatten herds of tame swine, were Asia Minor a Chris- 

 tian country; but as it is, they are only eaten by the 

 wild boars, which feed on them at night, but retire 

 before daylight to the shelter of the scrub-covered 

 slopes of the neighbouring mountains; for although 

 the Turks consider these animals to be unclean beasts 

 in common with the domestic hog, they destroy them 

 whenever they can, on account of the damage they do 

 to their crops. 



At about one o'clock we reached a small Turkish 

 village, where our horses were relieved of their saddles 

 for the first time since leaving Chivril. The head man 



