d
Force, with a numerous staff.

There had been a sharp combat by night some thirty-six hours before,
when the Turks had delivered a most determined onset upon a portion of
the Russian position; it had, indeed, been touch-and-go for a time.
General Liakoff proposed to take us up to the scene of the fight; so
the whole party mounted on wiry Cossack horses and cobs, and the
cavalcade after crossing the little river near Off proceeded to breast
the heights, our animals scrambling up the rugged hill-tracks like
cats, till we reached the summit of a detached spur where the affray
had been the most violent. The enemy had almost surrounded this spur,
and the numerous bodies of dead Turks lying about on the slopes and in
the gullies testified to the severity of the fight; Wigram, whose
experiences of the battlefield had hitherto been limited to a visit to
the Western Front on a special job, was as delighted with these grim
relics as a dog is who has found some abomination in the road.
Quantities of used and unused cartridges, Turkish and Russian, were
strewed about, and it was evident that the defenders had only managed
to hold on by the skin of their teeth. General Liakoff told me that
his troops were especially pleased at their success, as it had
transpired that the assailants were Turks belonging to picked corps
recently arrived from the Gallipoli Peninsula.

The Russian outposts were now on the next ridge, beyond a narrow
valley, and all was quiet at the moment. The views from the spur were
very fine, commanding the coast-line in both directions. Trebizond,
some fifteen miles off but looking to be nearer, glistened white in
the midday sunshine; each patch of level was bright green with growing
corn, the higher hills were still crowned with snow, and the littoral
as a whole in its colouring and its features was the Riviera faced
about and looking north. The general gave me to understand that he
would be unable to advance for some days, as he had to make up his
reserves of supplies; but the Grand Duke had let me know that
considerable reinforcements were to be brought across the Black Sea
before the final attack upon Trebizond took place.

We spent the afternoon down at Off. With recollections of Afghan and
South African accumulations of war material and condiments, one was
struck with the very limited amount of impedimenta and stores which
this Field Force carried with it. The advanced base of a little army
comprising a