The stream, which had a greenish hue, was not more than some thirty feet wide; a number of rivulets, driving flour-mills, come in on the left bank. We had left that bank before opening out the village of Anguil or Enghil; it lies below the bridge, on the further side of the river, and consists of some sixty or seventy neat houses, inhabited by Armenians and a few Kurds. On the same shore, about a mile lower down, is situated the village of Mesgeldek. Some high ground separated us from the plain of Vostan; but it dies away before reaching the lake. Gaining the summit of this moderate eminence, we looked across some flats and marshes to a hillside which projects from the foot of the mountains, and forms a promontory of the shore. The foliage which softened the lower slopes of the headland belonged to the gardens of Vostan. We followed the bay of higher land, and reached the village of Atanon after over an hour's ride from the Enghil Su. Just beyond this Armenian settlement the zone of orchards commences; in the plain below a swift stream flows. An isolated house on its right bank was indicated to us as the residence of the Kaimakam of Vostan. We reached this edifice at ten minutes before seven, having covered a distance from Artemid of about fifteen miles. In the place of the official, who happened to be absent, we were received with great kindness by his brother. We were invited to pass the night in the room of audience; and quilted coverlets, filled with cotton, were spread on takhts or wooden couches, after the manner of the East. After supper and conversation we enveloped ourselves in them, and were not long in falling asleep. When morning came I commenced to explore and realise our surroundings. Vostan is no town, nor even a village, but is a district or zone of gardens at the foot of the Kurdish mountains about the spurs of Mount Ardos. On the east it extends to the village of Atanon, and on the west to the promontory. The orchards keep to the high land about the base of the range; between them and the lake there is an extensive strip of alluvial soil which, in the neighbourhood of our quarters, had a width of about two miles. I was assured on all sides that there were four or five hundred houses within the limits of the district of Vostan; but people get confused when dealing with an area of this description, and with the dispersed units of which such a settlement is composed. I doubt whether there could be found more than half that number. The Armenian families have emigrated; their room, but not their place, has been filled up, at least in part, by Kurds. As a natural consequence, it is impossible to obtain the bare necessaries of a little corn, or a shoe for a horse. A small church still remains, a memorial of better times, which is said to have existed for many centuries. We could see its plain four walls and small conical dome to the east of the Kaimakam's house. We were told that it is still attended by a priest.