We drove on next day to this place (Kasvin), and Mr. and Mrs. Goodwin were good enough to ask us to stay with them.  The big fires in the house were very cheering after our cold drive in the snow.  The moonlight was marvellous, and the mountain passes were beyond words picturesque.  We passed a string of 150 camels pacing along in the moonlight and the snow.  All of them wore bells which jingled softly.  Around us were the weird white hills, with a smear of mist over them.  The radiant moon, the snow, and the chiming camels I shall never forget.

Captain Rhys Williams was also at the Goodwins; and as he was in very great anxiety to get to Hamadan, I offered to take him in my car, and let Mr. Scott do the last stage of the journey in the Legation car to Tehran.  We were delayed one day at Kasvin, which was passed very pleasantly in the sheltered sunny compound of the house.  My little white bedroom was part of the “women’s quarters” of old days, and with its bright fire at night and the sun by day it was a very comfortable place in which to perch.

Hamadan. 24 February.—­Captain Williams and I left Kasvin at 8 a.m. on February 19th.

I had always had an idea that Persia was in the tropics. Where I got this notion I can’t say.  As soon as we left sheltered Kasvin and got out on to the plains the cold was as sharp as anything I have known.  Snow lay deep on every side, and the icy wind nearly cut one in two.  We stopped at a little “tschinaya” (tea-house), and ate some sandwiches which we carried with us.  I also had a flask of Sandeman’s port, given me last Christmas by Sir Ivor Maxwell.  I think a glass of this just prevented me from being frozen solid.  We drove on to the top of the pass, and arrived there about 3 o’clock.  We found some Russian officers having an excellent lunch, and we shared ours and had some of theirs.  We saw a lot of game in the snow—­great coveys of fat partridges, hares by the score, a jackal, two wolves, and many birds.  The hares were very odd, for after twilight fell, and we lit our lamps, they seemed quite paralysed by the glare, and used to sit down in front of the car.

We passed a regiment of Cossacks, extended in a long line, and coming over the snow on their strong horses.  We began to get near war once more, and to see transport and guns.  General Baratoff wants us up here to remove wounded men when the advance begins towards Bagdad.

The cold was really as bad as they make after the sun had sunk, and an icy mist enveloped the hills.  We got within sight of the clay-built, flat Persian town of Hamadan about 10 p.m., but the car couldn’t make any way on the awful roads, so I left Captain Williams at the barracks, and came on to the Red Cross hospital with two Russian officers, one a little the worse for drink.

[Page Heading:  ARRIVAL AT HAMADAN]