Erzeroum is a terribly cold place, although there are double windows and stoves all over the house, and though the skin-covered doors shut tight by means of a weight, it is impossible to keep warm. The snow in the town is four to twelve feet deep. It is supposed to be the coldest place in Turkey, and is on a snow-covered plain, surrounded by snow-covered mountains. Only four months in the year are surely free from snow. Mr. B⸺, the Chancellier here, tells me that the Erzeroumis are so sharp that there are no Jews. A colony once came, but finding that the natives weighed the eggs and bought only the heaviest ones, they left the place in disgust. Of course the state of my eyes prevented my seeing anything of the place, but I shall never forget the cold. Of my journey from Trebizonde to Erzeroum I have few details,[18] and my blindness prevented my writing up my diary. I reached Teheran on the 13th of April, and meeting M. Sergipatoffski, one of the attachés at the Russian Legation, three stages out, I hurried in just in time to be present at the races got up by the Europeans, of which he advised me. Being too wayworn and dirty to be introduced to the ladies, I saw the principal race decided in my posting dress. Here I saw one hundred pounds offered to my chief, Mr. B⸺, for his chestnut horse, Arkansas, who walked off with the big race as he pleased. Mr. B⸺ refused it, but the animal was not good for much afterwards. I looked forward to a good rest, but on the 15th I had, after a two days’ stay, to start on duty at nine P.M., getting to Ispahan after a heavy journey in sixty-three hours (rain came down nearly the whole time. Distance, two hundred and seventy-two miles) on the 18th of April. My colleague, Dr. C⸺, whom I had gone thus hurriedly to attend, was seriously ill, but soon got on his legs. Early in June I left under orders for Shiraz, marching at night, on account of the heat. In this mode of travelling one sees little of the country. For distances and stages see Appendix.