686 
ANCIENT CAPPADOCIA. 
maze of trees, we got housed for a few hours within a wretched 
hovel, where we lighted a fire, and boiling a little coffee, made 
ourselves as comfortable as we could, till day should bring us 
light. 
November 13th. — Sound sleep had soon beguiled me of the 
intermediate time, and at five this morning we left the friendly 
shed, to explore our way out of the forest, or rather, I should 
say, into the direct road. An hour’s rambling brought us at 
length to our object, and we came forth at the point called 
Derbent, which is a small post of musketeers. Though now on 
the road, we were still surrounded by the forest, which, as we 
advanced N. 55° W., seemed interminable. For four hours more, 
we were riding through glades, thickets, and towering woods, 
with no tamer objects of romantic scenery to soften the land¬ 
scape ; but at the end of that time, we came upon the banks of 
a beautiful little stream called the Kara-Chai. The road lay 
along its margin for a considerable way, affording us much 
pleasure from the contrasts it presented to our late travel. 
Several mills were at work on the banks, and the peasantry busy 
about them, or employed on the green and richly cultivated 
slopes which stretched thence on each side to the skirts of the 
forest. The high chain of mountains rose on our right, which 
seems to barrier the Black Sea; the whole of that great line 
forming what is now called the Aggia-Daghler, but which, ac¬ 
cording to Strabo, were formerly known by the name of the 
Scydisses. The branch that marks the course of the Kara-Chai, 
is called that of Shub-Khanah Dagli. 
We were now in ancient Cappadocia, and fast approaching a 
country rendered famous as the kingdom of Mithridates. At 
half-past eleven o’clock, we came to an immense ridge of hills, 
