DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5541#0481
448
BARREN PLAINS.
[Chap. xxv.
in this axylous country, and, as in the days of Pliny, dried
cow-dung, sometimes mixed with clay and made into cakes,
is generally used as a substitute for wood; whilst all
around a peculiarly animating concert was kept up, as if to
stimulate or announce an appetite, by the universal barking
of dogs, the lowing of herds, the neighing of horses, squall-
ing of children, and screaming of women in every variety
of tone.
Tuesday, September 20.—I found it extremely cold last
night in my tent, and was obliged to wrap my blanket
well round me, but was hardly prepared for the extraor-
dinary change of temperature which was taking place,
as the following observations will show. Yesterday at
four p.m. the thermometer inside the tent was 82° Fahr.;
at half-past eight p.m. it was 58°, and at ten p.m. 48°.
This morning at six a.m. it stood at 35°; the sun, how-
ever, rose without a cloud or the slightest breath of wind,
and the temperature rose rapidly, and at two p.m. it was
again above 80° in my tent.
After an unsuccessful attempt to copy the Latin inscrip-
tion, I left Alekiam at nine, having determined, instead of
proceeding direct to Beiad, to go round by Hamza Hadji,
to see the ruins of Hergan Kaleh, of which I had got some
accounts at Sevri Hissar, and which did not appear to have
been visited by former travellers. Leaving the village, we
proceeded due south across the plain, and soon ascended the
chalk hills, over whose barren and undulating surface we
continued for nearly twelve miles S. by E. At eleven we
had a very extensive view to the cast, uninterrupted by a
single hill; Emir Dagh bore due south, stretching away to
the S.E., while to the W.S.W. a ridge of hills rose up in
the middle of the plain, connected by a lower ridge with
the mountains of Phrygia to the west. From what I could
see, these almost insulated hills consisted of gravel and de •
tritus, and probably owed their formation to the materials
carried down from the mountains of Phrygia into this great
lacustrine basin by some then existing river, and deposited
BARREN PLAINS.
[Chap. xxv.
in this axylous country, and, as in the days of Pliny, dried
cow-dung, sometimes mixed with clay and made into cakes,
is generally used as a substitute for wood; whilst all
around a peculiarly animating concert was kept up, as if to
stimulate or announce an appetite, by the universal barking
of dogs, the lowing of herds, the neighing of horses, squall-
ing of children, and screaming of women in every variety
of tone.
Tuesday, September 20.—I found it extremely cold last
night in my tent, and was obliged to wrap my blanket
well round me, but was hardly prepared for the extraor-
dinary change of temperature which was taking place,
as the following observations will show. Yesterday at
four p.m. the thermometer inside the tent was 82° Fahr.;
at half-past eight p.m. it was 58°, and at ten p.m. 48°.
This morning at six a.m. it stood at 35°; the sun, how-
ever, rose without a cloud or the slightest breath of wind,
and the temperature rose rapidly, and at two p.m. it was
again above 80° in my tent.
After an unsuccessful attempt to copy the Latin inscrip-
tion, I left Alekiam at nine, having determined, instead of
proceeding direct to Beiad, to go round by Hamza Hadji,
to see the ruins of Hergan Kaleh, of which I had got some
accounts at Sevri Hissar, and which did not appear to have
been visited by former travellers. Leaving the village, we
proceeded due south across the plain, and soon ascended the
chalk hills, over whose barren and undulating surface we
continued for nearly twelve miles S. by E. At eleven we
had a very extensive view to the cast, uninterrupted by a
single hill; Emir Dagh bore due south, stretching away to
the S.E., while to the W.S.W. a ridge of hills rose up in
the middle of the plain, connected by a lower ridge with
the mountains of Phrygia to the west. From what I could
see, these almost insulated hills consisted of gravel and de •
tritus, and probably owed their formation to the materials
carried down from the mountains of Phrygia into this great
lacustrine basin by some then existing river, and deposited