1. F. Parrot, 1829. Started from the monastery of St. Jacob (chasm of Akhury) and made the ascent by the north-western slope. 2. K. Spasky-Avtonomoff, 1834. From Akhury. 3. Herrmann Abich, 1845. From Sardar Bulakh. 4. H. D. Seymour, 1845. (From New Akhury?). 5. J. Khodzko, N. V. Khanikoff, and others, 1850. From Sardar Bulakh. 6. R. Stuart and others, 1856. From Bayazid. 7. J. Bryce, 1876. From Sardar Bulakh. 8. G. P. Baker, 1878. From Sardar Bulakh. 9. Sivoloboff, 1882. 10. E. Markoff, 1888. From Sardar Bulakh. 11. Semenoff, 1888 (?). 12. Raphalovich and others, 1889. From Sardar Bulakh. 13. T. G. Allen and W. L. Sachtleben (1892?). From Bayazid. 14. Postukhoff, 1893. From Sardar Bulakh. 15. H. B. Lynch, H. F. B. Lynch, and Rudolph Taugwalder, 1893. From Sardar Bulakh. CHAPTER XIV RETURN TO ERIVAN September 25.--We passed the morning upon the mound, in the little open summer-house, face to face with the airy snowfields which we had scaled to their topmost vaulting, with the cavernous recesses which we had penetrated to their inmost core. Such is the silence of Nature at the foot of this solemn mountain that the faintest sound reaches the ear. I was therefore startled by a clamour of voices in the direction of the cantonment, and I hurried down towards the noise. A booted figure in drab uniform, covered with dust from head to foot, was gesticulating under the influence of extreme excitement to a little group of Russian military in their white tunics, accompanied by some languid Orientals at a respectful interval. It was the officer of Cossacks who had joined our party near Takjaltu, and who had left us at Sardar Bulakh. Suiting his gestures to his words, he was narrating a thrilling story of a night encounter with the Kurds. His little eyes were bloodshot and distended with emotion; his legs were parted and his feet planted firm. His detachment had fallen in with a band of marauders, who had carried off some cattle from over beyond Akhury, and made away towards the Turkish frontier. They had fired on the Kurds, who had returned their fire; they had recovered the cattle and chased the Kurds away. I enquired what bag he had made of these human vultures, and he replied, with a sigh, that they had carried off their dead.