ARZ-ROUM TO AMASIA. 
343 
5th. From Niksar to Tocat is nine hours, on a bearing of S. 60 W. 
a distance which I place at thirty miles. On quitting the town the road 
continues through a variety of fine landscapes, and then comes to the 
banks of the Kelki Irmak , which here flows from S. to N. After much 
delay, and an ineffectual attempt to ford, we passed this river in a boat, 
which could receive at once only a few of our party, and a small 
portion of our equipage, and which was still more unequal to the 
numbers of the peasantry crowding into it, anxious to cross the water, 
with hoes, sickles and spades to their daily labour on the opposite side. 
We then traversed a very rich country, the yellow appearance 
of which announced the approach of harvest. In the plain were 
large plantations of rice. We now entered the pass between the 
mountains which leads to Tocat, and which here bore W. from Niksar < 
On the right is a small village; the pass then narrows into a road 
delightfully shaded by a wild profusion of trees, whilst a continual 
rushing of water over a number of small cascades, refreshes the air, 
and gives a new charm to the scenery around. At the extremity of 
this pass are one or two villages; and the road afterwards quits 
the shade of the trees, and crosses a more open country. 
Three hours before we reached Tocat, we came to the bed of a 
river, flowing in the direction of our road, and enlivening a rich 
country of com, which was then all ripe. On the right of the road, 
about four miles before the end of our journey, is a rock with ex¬ 
cavated chambers*; one of which has an ornamented front. Soon 
after we had a view of the great town of Tocat, situated in the hollow 
of two mountains, in its first appearance considerably diminished 
below its real size. As we approached, we crossed the river over 
a large and solid bridge of five arches ; and then came to a paved 
* This is possibly a part of the celebrated Comma Pontica, which is placed upon the Iris, 
the modern Toxzan Irmak .—See D’Anville’s Geogr. Ancienne 1768. tom. ii. p. 38. 
The Christians of the country pointed out to Tavernier some excavations in this dis¬ 
trict, as the retreat* of St. John Chrysostom. Tom. i. p. 13. 
