lace where the only path to the
summit commences. Here we were obliged to dismount and take to
our legs. After about two hours and a half we got to the summit,
and were extremely glad of it, for although it is not to be
compared to Mount Ararat, it is still rather difficult. Trusting
to my Ararat experience, I thought of descending in the snow, and
started. I was much astonished at finding the slope far steeper
than I expected, and consequently went down like a shot, and
reached the bottom one hour and a half before the others. A
Russian doctor tried it after me, and in trying to change his
direction was turned round, and went to the bottom sometimes head
foremost. He was not a bit hurt. There was no danger, as we had
only to keep ourselves straight. My trousers are the only
sufferers! I was the first up. None of the Russians succeeded!"

With one more quotation, Gordon's description of Etchmiazin, the
celebrated monastery where the Armenian Catholicos resides, the
extracts from these early letters may be concluded:--

"We passed through the oldest of the Armenian churches and
monasteries, a place called Etchmiazin. It professes to be 1500
years old, and certainly has the appearance of great antiquity;
it was existing during the time of the ruined city of Ani, and is
built in a similar style. The relics there are greatly esteemed.
People make pilgrimages to this monastery from all parts. There
is, firstly, an arm of St Gregory, which is enclosed in a gold
case covered with precious stones; next the piece of the ark,
which is necessarily of great antiquity; a piece of the cross and
of the spear, and a finger-nail of St Peter complete the relics.
All these are enveloped in gold cases, and richly ornamented with
every sort of precious stones. The monastery owns ten villages
and a great deal of land. The monks gave us a grand dinner, and
their feeding certainly was not bad. The monks' council chamber
was splendidly got up, all the ceiling being carved and gilded."

The concluding stages of the delimitation work were rapidly concluded,
and before the end of September 1857 Colonel Simmons and his staff had
returned to Constantinople. The illness of all the English officers
except Gordon detained them some weeks in the Turkish capital, and he
wrote home that his surveying duties had been