Armenia and its sorrows

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DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY 19
ban(][uets for the famished wolves when the snow
and ice recede, and disphiy these dainty morsels to
their eager eyes.
During great part of the winter the cold is so
severe that anyone standing still for any length of
time is in great danger of being frozen to death.
Dead frozen bodies are frequently brought into the
towns ;
and it is common, on the melting of the snow,
to hnd numerous corpses of men and bodies of horses
wlio have perished during the winter.
Let it never be forgotten that it was in a winter
such as wo have described that Turkish savagery
drove forth hundreds of women and little children to
wander, starving and half naked, until the drifting
snow became their winding-sheet.
The vegetation of Armenia is fairly abundant, when
the shortness of the summer is taken into account.
The richest belt of vegetation is found in the broad
valley of the Aras ;
but the marshes produced by the
many irrigating channels make this the most malarious
district in the whole country. The highlands are
chiefly pastoral, though a little corn is cultivated
but the valleys support rich vineyards and orchards,
fields of cotton, rice, flax, hemp, and tobacco.
The natural history of the country is interesting,
the bear, lynx, and wolf being the principal wild
beasts. The lemming, jerboa, and marmot are
common, while the fox, beaver, and grey badger are
only occasionally seen. Wild sheep are fairly
numerous in the mountains, and are said to be even
more difiicult of approach than the chamois of the
Alps, while the Capricorn is another difficult capture.
In bygone days the Armenian horses were as famed
as the Arab steeds are now, and we read that the
rich pastures of the country provided excellent mounts
for the Medo-Persian army. We have an allusion to
this fact in Ezekiel xxvii. 14 : "They of the house of