328 
RUSSIAN FRONTIERS. 
ceeded to our camp, and from this time forwards the Ambassador was 
in the Russian possessions. 
It is unnecessary to particularize the topography of each following 
stage, because as far as Kara Klisseh, which is the chief military post 
of the Russians on this frontier, we saw only the traces of habitations, 
the whole having been kept a complete desert, by the desultory sort of 
warfare which for the last fifteen years has been carried on between 
the two nations. Even the grass confirmed this, for it was occasionally 
strewed with human bones, and the bones of horses. 
From the encampment of Aberan, we went to a spot in the moun¬ 
tains called Gavmishlu, from a village which once existed of that name. 
From Gavmishlu we pitched our tents near Hamamlu, a village still 
possessing a few habitations, and famous for being the scene of one of 
Abbas Mirza’s defeats. Here we saw a small tract of cultivated ground. 
The next day we encamped near Kara Klisseh, and this was the termi¬ 
nation of my excursion with the Ambassador. 
As far as Hamamlu, the country was hill and dale, and the whole 
one continued coat of verdure. From Hamamlu it begun to be wooded, 
and to our eyes, which had been accustomed to nothing but the arid, 
hard-featured rocky hills and mountains of Persia, nothing could be 
more delightful and refreshing. We followed the stream of the Pam- 
bek, beautifully wooded on each side, and presenting some of the 
sweetest landscapes that the imagination can conceive. Previous to 
reaching our camp, the Ambassador had been met by the Colonel Com¬ 
mandant of this district residing at Kara Klisseh, and a large body of 
officers, all with European faces, and when a band of music struck up a 
lively air, away went Persia and her barbarities, and we all appeared 
restored to our right places again. 
Kara Klisseh is most romantically situated in a deep dale, formed by 
the bases of high hills, which, covered with wood to their very summit, 
entrench it on every side. The Pambeki river, that runs close by it, 
and at length flows into the Kur, enlivens the whole of its landscape. 
It is the chief place in the district of Pambek, and the Russians gene- 
