Note 1 — Chapter XII · ACROSS THE CENTRAL TABLELAND TO KHINIS

June 20.—Our course was directed up the fan of detritus to this Palandöken Pass.1 Our little horses, full of corn, curveted along the path through the dreary waste of water-worn stones. Erzerum was soon behind us, lost already in the expanse. What a contrast between these cities of Asia and those of Europe with their suburbs and villas! These repose upon their plains like a ship upon the ocean, which you speak, and all is soon again blank. In half-an-hour from the enceinte we gained a metalled road, which follows the course of a torrent of some size. It leads to two modern forts, planted high on the southern slope, on either side of the pass. The pass itself is placed beneath the peak of Palandöken, upon its western flank. The road goes winding up the gorge, and along the eastern side of the so-called crater, crossing and re-crossing the torrent by a number of bridges.