Immediately after passing the central chain of the Taurus, the character of the scenery changed.  The heights were rounded, the rocky strata only appearing on the higher peaks, and the slopes of loose soil were deeply cut and scarred by the rains of ages.  Both in appearance, especially in the scattered growth of trees dotted over the dark red soil, and in their formation, these mountains strongly resemble the middle ranges of the Californian Sierra Nevada.  We climbed a long, winding glen, until we had attained a considerable height, when the road reached a dividing ridge, giving us a view of a deep valley, beyond which a chain of barren mountains rose to the height of some five thousand feet.  As we descended the rocky path, a little caravan of asses and mules clambered up to meet us, along the brinks of steep gulfs.  The narrow strip of bottom land along the stream was planted with rye, now in head, and rolling in silvery waves before the wind.

After our noonday halt, we went over the hills to another stream, which came from the north-west.  Its valley was broader and greener than that we had left, and the hills inclosing it had soft and undulating outlines.  They were bare of trees, but colored a pale green by their thin clothing of grass and herbs.  In this valley the season was so late, owing to its height above the sea, that the early spring-flowers were yet in bloom.  Poppies flamed among the wheat, and the banks of the stream were brilliant with patches of a creeping plant, with a bright purple blossom.  The asphodel grew in great profusion, and an ivy-leaved shrub, covered with flakes of white bloom, made the air faint with its fragrance.  Still further up, we came to orchards of walnut and plum trees, and vineyards There were no houses, but the innabitants, who were mostly Turcomans, live in villages during the winter, and in summer pitch their tents on the mountains where they pasture their flocks.  Directly over this quiet pastoral, vale towered the Taurus, and I looked at once on its secluded loveliness and on the wintry heights, whose bleak and sublime heads were mantled in clouds.  From no point is there a more imposing view of the whole snowy range.  Near the head of the valley we passed a large Turcoman encampment, surrounded with herds of sheep and cattle.

We halted for the evening at a place called Kolue-Kushla—–­an immense fortress-village, resembling Baias, and like it, wholly deserted.  Near it there is a small town of very neat houses, which is also deserted, the inhabitants having gone into the mountains with their flocks.  I walked through the fortress, which is a massive building of stone, about 500 feet square, erected by Sultan Murad as a resting-place for the caravans to Mecca.  It has two spacious portals, in which the iron doors are still hanging, connected by a vaulted passage, twenty feet high and forty wide, with bazaars on each side.  Side gateways open into large courts, surrounded with arched chambers.