CONSULAR EXPERIENCES IN TURKEY. 
431 
were also found and some stone articles and pottery, and a few ivory 
carvings. Altogether we sent 13 cases to the British Museum. 
The general routine of life at Yan was something in this way :—The Life at Yan 
native population goes from the gardens to the city for business in the 
morning and visitors used often to drop in upon me on their way, even 
before 1 had had my breakfast. If I had business with the Pasha I 
used to ride down to the Konak about 11 o'clock, or else I wrote 
despatches, etc. In the afternoon, according to season, I either 
remained at home or went out with my gun in the immediate 
neighbourhood. One spring I was engaged in building a boat with 
the assistance of one of the American missionaries in his garden. 
Then about 4 o'clock, when the people came back from their business, 
I either received or paid visits, and generally at this time came those 
who wished to bring complaints or reports of their condition and wants. 
In the evening I read or wrote if I was at home alone, but Kamsaragan 
and I often spent the evening at each other's houses. 
In summer the heat in the middle of the day is great, but the nights 
are always fairly cool, on account of the elevation above the sea. The 
winter is very cold, the thermometer ranging to 10° or 12° below zero 
and there is deep snow for some four months during which com¬ 
munication with the rest of the country is almost cut oft and even the 
weekly mail from Constantinople was very irregular. 
The winter and spring before my arrival in the country there had Famine, 
been a great scarcity of snow and rain, and as no rain at all falls in 
the summer months, the fate of the crops depends upon the abundance 
of snow in the winter and rain in the spring. Consequently there was 
a great failure of crops this year and a severe famine in parts of the 
country. Lady Strangford exerted herself most generously to collect 
funds in England for the relief of this famine, a part of which were 
entrusted to me to administer. The difficulties, however, in dealing 
with the distress were very great on account of the difficulties of 
transport. It was generally possible to obtain corn from the plains 
west of the Lake of Yan, though at a high price, but the difficulty was 
to convey it to the parts where the most distress was. Only pack 
transport could traverse the routes and a large proportion of the 
beasts in the distressed parts had either died of starvation or been 
eaten. The American missionaries were most generous with their help 
and provided trustworthy agents from their congregations. We there¬ 
fore managed to convey a certain amount of corn into the distressed 
districts. A soup-kitchen was also established in Yan for the refugees 
who came in, and I made several journeys through different parts of 
the country and distributed money in places where it was found that 
the inhabitants could procure food if they had the means. But in 
spite of all that could be done, the loss of life was certainly great. 
The refugees who came in had had their health so undermined by 
privation and the indigestible substances they had been driven to eat, 
that the wholesome food, when they got it, did not seem to be able to 
restore them and a considerable proportion died. Altogether I don't 
think the mortality in the regions with which I had to deal could have 
been much below 10,000. 
57 
