VIEW OF ERZEROOM.
"We are only a hundred and ten miles from Erzeroom," said Fred, "the city of Turkish Armenia, which is well worth seeing. Wouldn't it be fun to go there and have a look at a place that stands more than a mile in the air?"
"Is that really so?" Frank asked; "more than a mile in the air?"
"Yes," replied his cousin, "Erzeroom is six thousand two hundred feet above the level of the sea, and two hundred feet higher than the plain which surrounds it. It had a hundred thousand inhabitants at the beginning of this century, but now has about a third of that number, owing to the emigration of the Armenians after the war between Turkey and Russia in 1829. It is frightfully cold in winter and terribly hot in summer, but for all that the climate is healthy."
"How long will it take us to get there?"
"About fifty hours," was the reply. "We must go on horseback, but can return in forty hours, as the road descends a great part of the way from Erzeroom to Trebizond. Isn't it strange that with such an immense trade as there is between that place and this—for the road to Persia passes through Erzeroom—the Turks have been content with a bridle-path instead of a wagon-road, or, better still, a railway. Besides—"
Further discussion of the road to Erzeroom and the possibilities of travelling it were cut short by the announcement that it was time to return to the steamer. An hour later our friends saw the coast of Asiatic Turkey fading in the distance, as the steamer headed for Southern Russia.
Her course was laid for Sebastopol, the city which is famous for the long siege it sustained during the Crimean war, and for possessing the finest natural harbor on the Black Sea. Doctor Bronson suggested that the youths should dispose of the time of the voyage by reading up the history of that celebrated war, and particularly of the siege and capture of Sebastopol.