Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-12-01
MOUNT ARARAT.

"HOId, am not coward, as you ell VIII acknowledge since you know where have travelled and where am now on my way, but not for all the gold which these temples once contained would I ever undertake again to ascend Mount Ararat, the accursed noun tain"
 It was Dc Thon who was speaking to us three of his friends who were seated with him one superb moonlight night among the ruins of~the temples of Karnak, in Upper Egypt. After long rambls through those mute vestiges of the ancient civilization of the Pharaohs, we had all stretched ourselves on the warm sand that the winds of the desert had heaped among the stones, and each one seemed to have given himself up to his own special reveries De Thon, whom a fortu- nate chance had added to our little com pany on the shores of the Nile when he was making his final preparations for voyage through the country of the Gallas, had just come up to join us as he had promised. And it was he-this dauntless explorer of regions hitherto unknown; this tall, powerfully built fellow, six feet in his Moorish sandals of red leather, whose superb figure and proud bearing indicated no ordinary degree of energy, courage and daring, who was openly confessing to having been overcome by fear at least once in his life. It was cer- tainly very strange, to say the least of it.
 He slowly seated himself on a ruined col umn half buried in the sand, and if the recollection of this adventure overcame him still, he began to relate 1t to us. All the sur roundings were wonderfully iu harmony with his narrative. Behind us, the majestic chaos of ruins; masses of marble jet black, and milky white, and around us the silence of that vast stretch of sand, only broken by the distant howl of the jackal and the hou hou of the owl
 had just been through the whole Turco- Russian campaignin Asia'Minor, and many time had fought side by side with my friends the Georgians and the Kourdes. As soon as the war was ended stopped for Q time in Bay azed One day, l Go not know why, this Colossus of the Caucasus, whose snowy sum- init rose before me- and on which had been gazing necessarily, seemed to exercise per feet fascination over me, and l determined then and there to make the ascent l have always been apt to yield to sudden impulses, I hurried to the pasha, governor of the town, to communicate my intention and ask his ad- vice.
 Do not attempt it." he said. ''That mountain is haunted by evil spirits; the Agri- Dagh devours the in1pious who dare to tread the green turf on it's sides. But know you, M. de Thon, and you never will give up this wild idea. If you will go choose twenty of my best horsemen as an escort; they will ac- company you to the foot of the mountain, if you desire it, but not the boldest among them would venture to set his foot on the side of the Mother of the World, from whose black rocks even the birds flee in terror" I had already in my service the Albanian whom you have all seen on board my ''dahabieh," |" | and who would follow me into the very jaws | of death. One day when his body was about | to swing from the gibbet for one of those | innumerable peccadilloes which cost a mans | life in time of war, I had interceded for him and obtained his pardon. He swore eternal gratitude, and has shown himself ready to prove it by the willingness with | which he has accompanied me in my | perilous wanderings to the center of Africa | So I determined to start with Ali, and after rough ride we reached the foot of Mount Ararat The chief of the escort, who had frequently shaken his-head in an | ominous manner as we rode along, now | quilted us without uttering word to wait our return near Nakhitchevan, and we were 1 left entirely alone. We had brought pien- tiful supply of provisions. These I confided to little shepherd who was guarding his l flock not far from us, and made him promise | to keep them for and meet us at the same | place on our return in the evening. Then wa started to make tho ascent. Day was just breaking, the sky was pure, the atmosphere 
 | to return by twilight. How shall I describe the ascent? Ararat is moro than 15, ,OOO feet high, and often we came upon the scoria of its eruptions we seemed to be ad- vancing to the assault of bare and totter- ing walls which crumblcd in fragments at our feet Still we got along bravely, tri umphing over innumerable difficulties, and we finally drew near the summit. Neyerthe less, by this time the sun had already passed its zenith. During our journey we had gradually exhausted the stock of provision: which we carried in our pockets, and to en able us to struggle against the fatigue anG giddiness consequent upon the ascent we haG emptied the last drop in our gourd I wa! about to give the order to start on our re turn, when my Albanian, who for some min utes had seemed very nervous and disturbed as he scanned the soil closely, suddenly ex claimed:
 "Master, where are the stonesa''
 "What stones do you meant"
 "Why, the stones that we could see abov
 us, from where we were standing few min
 utes ago. Those on which Noah's ark restet
 during the deluge-where are theya"
 "You are crazy, Ali Do you not see tha
 they are covered by a hundred feet of snow
 Come, don't stop to think about that-come
 let us hurry to begin our descent, or nigh
 will overtake us, and see clouds ga Sherin
 on the plain below"
 sThat is very unfortunate," replied he sbut we ought to be able to see those stones
 Woe to him who climbs so high on thi
 mountain and fails to touch with his .han
 the sacred rock from whence ife descende again upon the earth" By this time piercing, icy wind began t
 blow.
 It now seemed to me at each step that m | feet were weighted down with hundred poun
 weights; there was ringing in our ears, ou /. breath came in quick gasps, and it was ev
 dent that we must descend as quickly as po
 sible to avoid suffocation from the rarefat
 tion of the air. For awhile we proceede
 without a pause. We descended the slopes
 glaciers and stepped over the ridges of ol / sidian, shining and slippery as glass, but 500 \ the clouds enveloped us, and we entirely lo
 our bearings Stumbling along the stee
 ridges of the cone, we continued our descer c in zigzag fashion, while the sun san lower and lower in the horizon Finally VI