434 
CONSULAR EXPERIENCES IN TURKEY. 
From the battle-field of Cunaxa we can trace them step by step to 
the passage of the Centrites River, now the Bohtan Su, near Sert, 
where they met with resistance from the Carduchi or Kurds. They 
continued their march northwards, presumably by the valleys leading 
towards Bitlis, but after this point their wanderings cannot be clearly 
traced. They seem to have spent an inordinate time, in the first place, 
before they reached the Euphrates and, again after that, before they 
came in sight of the Black Sea and, as far as I am aware, their route 
in the interval has never been accurately made out. If they passed 
through Bitlis, it seems very strange that Xenophon makes no mention 
whatever of the Lake of Van. It is true that the route from Bitlis to 
the plain of Mush does not actually pass within sight of the lake, but 
when on the Rahwan, as the plateau is now termed, lying at the head 
of the Bitlis Valley and between the Lake of Van and the plain of 
Mush, a distinct and broad gap is seen on the east between the 
mountains, and a divergence of a very short distance from the route 
would bring a man over the crest of the plateau in sight of the lake, 
and one would have expected the Greeks to have had flankers out, who, 
one would think, could not possibly have failed to see the water. 
I formed on the spot a theory to account for the formation of the 
Lake of Van and, I think, it would be very interesting if any future 
travellers would examine the case and either verify or overthrow the 
theory. My theory is that originally the basin now occupied by the 
lake was drained into the Euphrates through the plain of Mush and 
that the barrier of the Rahwan that now shuts in the waters was 
formed by an outflow of lava from the great volcano lying to the 
north. My reasons are these :—The plain of Mush lies about 1000 
feet below the present level of the lake and is now drained only by an 
insignificant stream rising in the slopes of the Rahwan. From Van, 
when one looks towards the west end of the lake, the barrier of the 
Rahwan, which is only some 400 feet above the lake, disappears on 
account of the curvature of the earth and a gap is seen with a water 
horizon, which looks obtrusively like the line of drainage. Lastly, 
the Rahwan, as far as I could observe, consists entirely of lava. 
From this digression I will return to our journeyings. The route 
from Sert to Bitlis, although such an important line of trade, is a 
shockingly bad road. I have taken two different ways between the 
two places and in both the passage of baggage animals was exceedingly 
difficult in many places and I declined to ride myself, but walked and 
led my horse at these spots. We took three days from Sert to Bitlis 
and on the second night we camped about a quarter of a mile from 
Olek, a Kurdish village. As we sat in our tent just after dinner we 
were aware of a great noise, apparently arguing and shouting and a 
wailing of women. We went out to see what was the matter and 
found that a quarrel had arisen in the village and a man had been 
stabbed. His wife and mother had insisted on loading the wounded 
man on a donkey and bringing him to our camp. He looked very 
bad; he had been stabbed in the back between the shoulders and was 
apparently in a state of collapse. The wound was not 4 bleeding out- 
