acrossasiaminoro00chiluoft

ACROSS ASIA MINOR ON FOOT.
CHAPTER I.
A Black Sea gale— First snow of -winter— I seem to have started too
late — The Austrian Captain's views — The " Lord Bill " — The
glamorous coast of Asia Minor— Alluring mountain-roads— I land
at Samsdn for the Bagdad Road.
On an afternoon of mid-October I stood in the lee of
a deck-house aboard an Austrian Lloyd mail steamer,
and looked over the Black Sea in its stormiest
mood.
Since leaving the Bosphorus, two days earlier, we
had been driving against a wild north-easterly gale.
It came fierce and grey from Russian steppes, bringing
squalls of hail and rain, and whirling feathers
of snow, and an edge of cold that spoke of winter
being not far behind. Now and then the low-flying
clouds opened to leeward, and showed glimpses of the
mountainous Anatolian coast, fringed with spouting
surf; above the surf appeared a narrow band of dark
mountain-side, and then the glaring whiteness of
newly fallen snow, whose lower edge made a level
line when revealed in sufficient length. Gale, and
hail, and rain might be seasonable enough, but this
low-lying snow before its time filled me with misgivings.
For I was on my way to cross Asia Minor
A