the standpoint of this pass was somewhat foreign from the idea of prevailing flatness which similar prospects had invited me to form. Two, and only two, distinct chains of heights were visible in the south. The first, which was apparently the lower, was that on the south of Erzerum, the Palandöken and the continuing eminences toward the west. Behind this outline rose a second and also horizontal series, which were identified by my informant, a zaptieh who lives on the mountain, as the range on the north of the Murad or Eastern Euphrates, known to him under the same name as that of the district of Terjan. Between these two chains lay a mass of vapour, suspended above the river which joins the Western Euphrates below the town of Mamakhatun. A third and further range, that of the Kurdish Mountains, beyond the Murad, was not, and, according to the same authority, could not be descried from this pass. [215] Proceeding on our northward journey at ten minutes before two, we entered, a little later, a break in the mass. In the hollow flowed a torrent, partially encrusted with ice, the first of the streams which find their way to the Black Sea. As we advanced, this shallow opening became a deep gorge, leading, almost directly, towards the north. The road was taken by easy gradients down this convenient valley, and, after a course of over five miles from the culminating point of the pass, reached the shelter known as the Northern Kop Khan. Here we rested for an hour and a half, continuing our ride at half-past four o'clock. We kept the torrent on our left, still adhering to the gorge, which displayed a fine view backward to the top of the mountain mass. A wall of stupendous height crowned its uppermost end, and displayed the familiar flat edge. The strata, of a marmorised limestone, which overhung the glen were much contorted, like the grain of a knot in a tree. After crossing a stream, in part icebound, which we recognised as the Chorokh, we arrived at a quarter-past six at the little settlement of Maden Khan (5455 feet) near Halwa Maden, distant some 6 1/2 miles from our last halting-place, or about 29 miles by the road from Ashkala. I do not propose to follow in detail the further stages of our journey to the coast of the Black Sea. But I have not yet taken my reader to the extreme geographical limits of the country which in the present work I am endeavouring to describe. From Maden Khan it was still a ride of one and a half days to the pass where you bid farewell to the Armenian plains. This northerly extension of the highlands of Armenia is watered by the Upper Chorokh.