Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1916-06-07
Asia Minor Roads On1v
impossible Goat Tracks
John r. BramhaIl In CHICAGO News.

sSSVV
lish lord should think OF crossing the
karawil Dagh. He was once nearly
frozen to death going from Kars to Erze-
rum. about the time of the Crimea war,
and more than half of his men were frost
bitten. The path over the mountains, he
declared, was covered With snow and there
were deep chasms alongside the track.
some of them over 100 feet deep. Tho
guides carried poles to sound a path be-
fore the horses, and even then disasters
were not infrequent. This Burnaby found
to be true, and his party nearly lost its
track in a mountain pass in a snowstornl.
Near Arabkir southwest of TribiZond
$50 miles) the track was very narrow
and sloped toward a precipice. In some
cases there was a clear drop of at least
400 feet with six inches OF our horses.
The surface upon which they had to walk
was like glass; a slip would have been
certain death. 1t was marvellous how they
avoided stumbling"
When they reached the Frat Huphrates)
near Erzingen, to which point the Rus
slams are now pushing from the east, he
writes: I'VE continued the march along
side OF the world renowned river. The
path was cut out of the solid rock. In
some places the track was not above four
feet wide No balustrade or wall had
been made to keep a horse or rider from
slipping down the chasm.' And here
they had to pass a caravan of 100 mules.
Incidents of this character are numerous
in Captain Burnaby's story. Approaching
. Erzerum, the party was compelled to slide
down a precipice on horseback, and at an
other place a great snowdrift was nego-
tiated by a charge of the camel brigade.
1t was hard work. even following the steps
of the Kurds. If a horse or camel devil
ated a hairs breadth from the line marked
out he would be buried in a drift and a
long time be wasted In extricating him.
Garlic McCOan gives an account of the
effort made by the Turkish government to
facilitate the transport Of ore from the
copper mines Of Arghana. which was the
beginning of an attempt to convert into q
road the camel track between Birejik, on
the Euphrates cover which all the traffic
with Mesopotamia passes), and a road to
AleXandretta. He says: but after sew
eral months time and q disproportionate
sum of money had been spent on a few
kilometers outside Aleppo. the undertake
ing was abandoned; and, barring these
and the filling In of some Of the worst ruts
between Antioch and Beylan. the track
remains as the crusaders left It,"
And a vizierial circular reports that IL
the government roads were worthy of tho
name no sacrifice would be regretted, but
they are, for the most part. bad roads,,
which a single fall of rain has in some
districts suff1ced almost to destroy" To
be sure, some improvement has been made
in recent years, especially In districts UNI
der German influence. and I'm many places
these now Giaours. with an entire disre-
gard Of ancient tradition. have substituted
wagon roads for goat paths and have built
gasthauses for khans. But for the main
part in Asia Minor rocks and morasses
take the place OF roads. which circum-
stance may explain why the Russians
nave been unable during the winter to
make much progress In an advance to the
BoSporus.