722 
BARTIN-SOU, ANCIENT PARTHENIUS. 
carry on a respectable trade in rock-salt, which they bring from 
mountains rather to the south. The honey and bread of these 
industrious people are also held in great celebrity, it being a 
custom with Tatars and travellers to stop and treat their surra- 
gees with a passing taste of these luxuries; accordingly we 
checked our horses, and were all regaled with the delicious viand, 
and plenty of coffee to boot. From this place the road continued 
excellent for eight miles ; but about mid-way the river Chirkiss 
swept off to the south, and our route gradually did the same to the 
north ; till at length we began a long and steep ascent over a 
rocky mountain, perfectly barren. By this time night had over¬ 
taken us, and we journeyed forward under the feeble light of a 
four days’ moon. After attaining the extreme point of the moun¬ 
tain, our next achievement was to descend on the other side by a 
precipitous and intricate path ; the difficulties of which might not 
have been terrible to one so used to the like, but for the danger¬ 
ous darkness. Once down, we came into a woody valley, through 
which we heard the rapid course of a river called the Hummumloo* 
It rises to the south-east, in the mountains of Ala-Daghler; and 
after receiving the waters of the Chirkiss and the Garada in its 
way to the north-west, passes a village of the same name with 
itself, (near which we first heard it, and where it is crossed by a 
stone bridge of three arches,) and thence flows onward under the 
name of the Bartin-Sou, (being the ancient Parthenius,) into the 
Black Sea. This river bounded Paphlagonia to the west, and is 
said to have derived its name from the cheerful country through 
which it flows. Hummumloo, our place of halting, is called ten 
hours from Carajular, but I should measure the distance twenty- 
four miles. The village, or rather town, is in a miserable state 
of ruin, having been nearly destroyed a short time ago by a 
