acrossasiaminoro00chiluoft

OLD WAYS OF TRAVELLING 337
terranean end of the only caravan route between
the sea and an immense area of inland Asia Minor.
Li times of peace and truce one thinks the Gate
of Holy War must have been also the gate of a
secular commerce as rich and varied as the East
could show.
From Tarsus, on a morning more like summer
than spring, I set out for Mersina, the present port,
which is sixteen miles distant. It stands at the
western extremity of the plain, where mountains
and coast, after being separated for more than a
hundred miles by the united deltas of Cilician
rivers, are drawing together to meet near the ruins
of Pompeiopolis in an abrupt seaboard once more.
So as I went between converging mountains and
coast there was the Taurus, in blue and white cut
by shadowy gorges, ever growing above me on my
right, and on my left a line of low sand-hills and
cane-brakes marking the marshes of the coast. The
road on which I travelled was constructed by Ibrahim
Pasha to connect his new port of Mersina with Tarsus,
and in the Roman manner he made it straight for
its whole length. You could hardly find a highway
more dull, with the double dulness of a straight road
among featureless surroundings ; for it goes through
a seemingly unpeopled country of cotton and wheat
alternating with wide areas of rough grass. The
railway keeps the road company at a little distance,
yet a conservative people cling to old ways of travelling
and conveyance. Caravans and lines of cottoncarts
drawn by oxen were plodding steadily in both
directions, and now and then appeared travelling
flocks of sheep and goats driven by ancient longbearded
shepherds in embroidered white felt cloaks.
One incident on the road brought to mind the
proximity of Cyprus, the Heligoland and warder
island of this end of the Mediterranean. A little
way back from the road stood a long low hut, built of
interwoven canes in the style of the plain, and before
it were eight or nine men in line, carrying sticks.
Y