614 Journal of a Tour through [Nov. 



cation what have been the operations of nature on the grandest scale. 

 These passes are in truth the roost sublime and solemn solitudes that 

 can possibly exist, and rouse the breast of man to meditations border- 

 ing upon rapture. Uninterrupted by the intrusions of the world, he 

 can hold converse with his God in the midst of his most awful works — 



To sit on rocks, to muse o'er flood and fell, 



To slowly trace the forest's shady scene, 



Where things that own not man's dominion dwell, 



And mortal foot hath ne'er, or rarely been ; 



To climb the trackless mountain all unseen 



With the wild flock that never needs a fold ; 



Alone o'er steeps and foaming falls to lean ; 



This is not solitude ; 'tis but to hold 



Converse with nature's charms, and view her stores unroll'd. 



On arriving at the base of the mountain, we descried the wide 

 prospect of the windings of the Bostan river, that issues from the 

 Carducian mountains. Bostan, being interpreted, signifies the 

 *' garden," and gives its name to a small hamlet and valley situated 

 on the southern bank of the river — a denomination well due to the 

 whole of the surrounding country. Its hills are clothed with wood, 

 its villages embosomed amongst trees, and its fruitful soil reminded 

 me of countries where man is, " like a tree planted by the rivers of 

 water, that bringeth forth his fruit in season, whose leaf shall not 

 wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper." 



Independent of these lovely valleys and plains which display the 

 most abundant fertility, the mountains in general possess a soil of 

 considerable depth ; and the wild luxuriance of unforced vegetation 

 proves their productive qualities. The order of cultivation appears 

 to be thus : the plains and valleys are appropriated to grain, the 

 southern slopes of the hills form vineyards ; the northern produce 

 the oil and tobacco plants ; and on the summits and inaccessible crags 

 the goats and mountain sheep browse upon the heath, while oxen, 

 horses, and cows, graze upon the pasture that skirts the villages. 

 Wheat and barley are both plentiful and cheap ; grapes are not so richly 

 flavoured as the Persian , but cherries and other stone fruits are the 

 finest I ever ate. The Kurdistan walnut is the largest in the world, 

 and nearly all the European fruits are very abundant. The cattle 

 are small, but of the best breed, and so are sheep and goats. They 

 all sell cheap, as well as horses, which are proverbial for performing 

 the most astonishing journeys. Sir John Macdonald Kinneir 

 assured me, that he had ridden a distance of seventy miles over this 

 mountainous country without once dismounting from bis horse; and in 

 June, 1828, I purchased a gelding at Bagdad, that carried me to 



