couple of divisions, with odds and ends, scarcely
exhibited the amount of transport and food dumps that one of our
1901-2 mobile columns on the veldt would display when it was taking a
rest. The weather had been particularly favourable for landing
operations for some days, we were told, and that afternoon a small
freight ship, with a queer elongated prow that enabled her to run her
nose right up on to the beach, was discharging her cargo straight on
to the foreshore. But it was obvious that, with anything like a breeze
blowing home, landing operations at Off would be brought to a
standstill, and that the progress of the campaign was very dependent
upon the moods of the Black Sea. A road was, it is true, being
constructed along the shore from Batoum, and a railway was talked of;
but for the time being the Field Force had to rely almost entirely
upon maritime communications. A different destroyer from the one we
had come in took us back, several of the nurses saved from the
_Portugal_ also being on board, and we got ashore at Batoum after 9
P.M., to find the general and staff anxiously awaiting our arrival in
anticipation of dinner which we travellers were more than ready for.
We returned to Tiflis next day.

We had hoped to make a trip to Erzerum, so famous in the chequered
annals of Russo-Turkish conflicts in Asia; but the thaw had set in on
the uplands of Armenia, the staff at Tiflis said it would be almost
impossible to get a car through the slush for the hundred miles from
the railhead at Sarikamish, and we had no excuse for going other than
curiosity; so the idea was abandoned. It was arranged, however, that
we should proceed to Kars and Sarikamish. A short time elapsed before
we could start, and during this delay we were bidden to a gala dinner
at the palace given in our honour, at which Marsh also was present.
The palace is not a specially imposing building, but it has a fine
broad staircase, and the effect of the Cossacks of the Guard lining
this in their dark red cloaks was very striking. In his speech the
Grand Duke expressed great satisfaction at our visit to Transcaucasia,
as indicating that Russian efforts in this region were appreciated in
England.

From Tiflis up to Kars means a rise of over 4000 feet, and the
locomotives on the line were specially constructed for this climbing
work, having funnels at either end. Whatever may be the case at other
times, Armenia when the snows are melting is a singularly