484 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 





5 





Jh 





£1 





HH CD 





> 









.5 













CTJ *0 





•^ CD 





5o*5 





G o3 









-M CD 





^ 





K >> 









S <" 









13 ^ 





*H -1 





3 JH 

 .g ^ 











G OT 





n3 « 





•-< O 





<*> u. 





« (j 







14 



tf.M 



CD 



: p 



So 



b 



M 



^ rt 



« 







+^ >* 





G rO 





CD 



1^ 



OT3 







O <D 





c -g 



£ 



"l<u 



to 





w £3 



«H 5 "! 



leH 



O <« £ 



§ 



O 





tfl tn r; 



w 



CD"" 1 G 



> 



o-S bo 



fcq 



Q> <v <v 



>• 



6^ 



G OT 





J2 rt cu 



H 

 CO 



< 



.5 -a* 



55 



0*0 w 







°*G cu 

 G «^ 



!— 1 





£.s§ 



2; 



^ «_? 



w 



- | .^'d 



en 



w 



55 



a) 



■ 5 :§£ 





N 

 O 



^3 r +j 

 W P G 



T3 ,Q 



> 







2 bfl 



W 



O +j G 



'T 1 



"-t -1 co G 



*"* 



S'£?« 





S> rt +j 





*" H O 





+-• <u G 





G ^3 





cu +-> cu 









3 c/T rt 





.G cu 





tfl ^H <-j 









U= 0-=j 





aJ 'O -7- 









c/3 -3 •- 





<^ <u - 





U ,J ~J 





HSlS 









.y £ 





-M O 





52 . <u 





TO r-^> r-| 









'(Tl ■*-> +J 





■31k 







u •£ as 





CD ^j 





en cy rG 





"P > r^ 





rH '-G a! 



from books of travel, and been 

 able to discover scarce any 

 that had aught to tell ; and 

 when I began to read the his- 

 tory of the East, curiosity was 

 reawakened by finding that 

 from the very beginning of 

 history all these regions north 

 and east of the Black Sea and 

 the Caspian had remained un- 

 visited and unknown from the 

 days of Homer down to those 

 of Marco Polo. 



Unknown and mysterious, 

 but also terrible, for out of the 

 mists that shrouded them there 

 came from time to time hosts 

 of fierce horsemen, who broke 

 like sudden thunder-storms on 

 the civilized peoples of the 

 eastern Mediterranean and of 

 Europe. 



As the Cimmerians and Scy- 

 thians had descended on Media 

 and Asia Minor and Syria long 

 before the Christian era, so in 

 the fifth century Attila led his 

 Hunnish hordes across Ger- 

 many into Italy and Gaul, fol- 

 lowed by Avars and Bulgarians 

 and Magyars, and in the thir- 

 teenth century there came the 

 tremendous invasion of the 

 Mongols under Genghis Khan. 



Of this region of mystery 

 and the great mountains that 

 rise in its midst, it was possi- 

 ble to receive some impressions 

 by diverging from the line of 

 homeward journey along the 

 Transcontinental Railway, so 

 we seized the opportunity. 

 Everybody told us that we 

 should have plenty of discom- 

 forts or even hardships to en- 

 counter, but, being seasoned 

 travelers, we were not de- 

 terred, and even, perhaps, put 

 upon our mettle to see whether 

 we could not still "rough it" 

 as in former days. 



To reach the glaciers and 

 climb the great peaks would 

 be impossible, for we had no 

 tent or other equipments for 

 high mountaineering, but we 



