ASIATIC CARTS OR WAGGONS. 
731 
At eleven o’clock we left our umbrageous menzil, and with it 
the shores of the lake, our course then lying N. 70° W. In our 
travel forward we were accompanied by so many rural objects of 
husbandry and horticulture, that I stop here to notice again the 
form of the Asiatic cart, and the gradual changes it underwent 
in its progress westward. I have remarked its unwieldy con¬ 
struction, where used in the vale country on the frontiers of Per¬ 
sia : from thence it gradually assumes a more manageable form ; 
but first it takes a lighter fabric only, wearing still the clumsy 
shape and solid wheels seen in the plain of Salmos. When we 
reached Tosia, that part of the vehicle was rendered less cum¬ 
bersome by hollowing the wheel, and attaching it by a rude kind 
of spoke. Travelling farther, we found two more wheels added ; 
and by the time we reached Boli, we saw the strong, yet light, 
regularly built waggon. In our way thence we overtook trains of 
the most powerful of these machines ; they belonged to govern¬ 
ment, and were transporting large timber trees, many so weighty 
as to require a draught of sixteen buffaloes. From our late men¬ 
zil we saw the lighter sort of waggons proceed, laden with apples, 
onions, and other vegetables for the Ottoman capital. Indeed 
we afterwards overtook others on the same route, in trains of 
ten, twenty, and thirty. The front feet of the buffaloes are shod 
with iron, with the shoe made in two parts to fit the exact shape 
of the foot; the animal is thrown down on its side while this 
necessary defence is fixed to his hoof. 
The style of country we passed over, after leaving the lake, was 
a noble plain, rich in the highest cultivation, with the forest 
mountains standing to our left at a distance of nearly two miles. 
While drawing near the town of Is Nikmid, ancient Nicomedia, 
where we purposed closing our day’s march, the view it presented 
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