"But rum is not wine," exclaimed the majority of voices; "it is sherbet, and not the juice of the grape; send for Costaki, and let us hear how it is made." So Costaki, a Greek shopkeeper who sold the magic liquor, was called, and he informed them that rum had no affinity to wine; that whereas the latter was the juice of the grape, the former was made from the sugar-cane, and therefore was but a kind of sherbet; and so the conclave of Mussulman mariners agreed that it was a lawful beverage. A vessel was forthwith freighted for a winter voyage, and a large cask of rum put on board, with a crew of picked men, all part owners in the ship and cargo. They set sail in mid-winter for Constantinople. As far as the mouth of the Bosphorus their task was easy. enough, as the weather was not bad; but hitting the boghas (the throat of the strait) was no easy task during a foggy north-wind. They now found themselves in difficulties, and they applied to their new friend, the rum-cask, which soon gave them light heads and bold hearts in the face of the dangers that surrounded them. They set all sail, and ran for a part of the coast which one of them had declared to be the boghas. While cutting merrily through the water they were hailed by a rough and familiar voice, and a vessel hove in sight. It was that of Adam capitan, a well-known Greek skipper. "Where are you bound to?" he cried, in a voice heard above the roar of the wind and waves. "Oh! Adam capitan, hosh gelden, hosh gelden! (welcome, welcome !),” shouted half-a-dozen voices in various stages of drunken intonation. Each vessel brought up; a conversation ensued, and with much difficulty Adam prevailed on these

jolly Turks to put about, and not run straight on to a line of rugged rocks at no great distance from their bows. It is satisfactory to know that they sailed triumphantly into the harbour of Constantinople, according, as in duty bound, all due praise to rum.

The first European merchants who settled in Trebizond tried to open a trade with the Circassian coast, the chief productions of which are Indian corn, hides, butter, honey, &c. ; but this was all carried on by barter; no accounts, no invoices, bills of lading, or any other regular commercial usages could be established. Besides which there was no gold-dust, elephants' teeth, or any other production of small bulk and great value to render this barter system worth pursuing, so it was abandoned as a failure. One article of barter there certainly was, of considerable value, namely, slaves; but as this was, in England at least, not considered legitimate commerce, it was left in the hands of the Mussulmans, and within a few months still flourished.

The rising importance of Trebizond has long been viewed with jealousy by Russia, and being desirous to turn the tide of commerce to her own shores, she had recourse to a legitimate mode of rivalry (as there were no Sulina channels to block up): she began by making a road from Sukoum Kale to Erivan, presuming that the Persian traders would naturally prefer the much cheaper and more expeditious means afforded by a good carriageroad, to the expensive and toilsome mcde of transport by packhorses, toiling over mountain tracks.

The Sublime Ottoman Porte has, ever since it was known to the world, treated road-making and road-mend

ing with perfect contempt, so that not only are there no Turkish roads in existence, but magnificent Roman, Greek, and Genoese causeways have either disappeared throughout the empire, or have fallen into utter ruin. I am not aware if the Sheikh-ul-Islam would decide it as contrary to the Koran to interfere with the mud of winter or the dust of summer by human road-making; at all events, the only road in Turkey is that on which the Sultan takes his evening drive, and which is kept in tolerable order. Now certain foreign ambassadors, anxious for the welfare of a country which its own government seemed to care little about, plied the Porte with urgent remonstrances against allowing a most valuable trade to be diverted from its own territory into that of a foreigner. Yielding to these representations, a road was determined on. Tilki Pasha was the lucky man chosen to superintend this important work. He was a well-educated person, having taken an honourable degree in the university of Paris, and was considered in Constantinople the model of a reformed, liberal-minded, civilised Turk, who could well appreciate the importance of the undertaking in question. The Pasha arrived in Trebizond, with a large staff of engineers and labourers, and with a chest full of money; and he began his work in good earnest. I myself some years ago saw a large gang of some hundreds of stout diggers employed in this work of civilisation, and augured well for the trade between Trebizond and Erzeroom.

Ample sums were disbursed from the treasury, large enough to have made a fine carriage-road between these two important cities. I was at that time a sanguine and

confident believer in the reform of Turkey, and I still have great hopes, but they are somewhat modified. This road was quoted as an instance of progress, but a few months passed away and the workmen rested from their labours. They had accomplished two miles of road which had been (figuratively speaking) paved with gold. Were the workmen overpaid, or the engineers? What became of the vast sums expended? No one chose to answer these inconvenient questions: the Pasha was removed to fill a high post under Government, and a road of two miles, already in bad repair, remains as a monument of Turkey's indifference and apathy to her own best interests. Since the commencement of the war the whole population of towns and villages on this route have been employed in dragging heavy ordnance over all but impassable tracts of country; the conveyance of military stores has been most tardy and imperfect, while the army of Erzeroom and Kars has thus been placed in most imminent peril.

The neighbourhood of Trebizond is by no means a bad ground for the sportsman, or, to use a much more definite, albeit Yankee, word, the "gunner." In the spring, flocks of quail come from the south, and their pleasant chirp is to be heard in all directions in the long grass of the meadows. These birds stay but ten days or a fortnight, and then, leaving a few to breed, they fly further north; but in the autumn they again return in very good condition, and many become the prey of all kinds of marauding animals, including man. Vast numbers are taken by nets, and exported to Constantinople in large cages formed by two boards kept apart by wooden bars: they thrive well in

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captivity. Another favourite mode of taking these birds for home consumption is by means of the sparrowhawk and merlin. Simultaneously with the quails, numbers of these birds make their appearance, and when an urchin manages to entrap one, he sews up his eyelids and harasses him by depriving him for twenty-four hours of food and sleep. When he is sufficiently tamed, his eyes are opened, and he is trained to allow the approach of his master as soon as he strikes down his quarry. In a wonderfully short time, perhaps two or three days, the hawk is taken out, unhooded at quails, and killing a large number during the day, as a matter of course soon becomes quite tame. So long as the quail season continues, he is kept well employed; but when the birds take their departure, the hawk is cast loose to shift for himself.

About the month of November vast numbers of woodcock arrive, and afford first-rate sport. In my humble opinion, woodcock-shooting is second to none; and as, during the greater part of the winter, these birds abound, the sportsman may make a good bag whenever he desires. I remember a Turk amusing himself by shooting them from the window of his room as they walked on a grassplot in the garden. Hares are plentiful enough, but the ground is not suitable for coursing. Partridges are of two kinds-the red-legged and the grey: the former the more numerous. In the more woody parts of the coast, and at no great distance from Trebizond, roebucks may be found, and other large game; but their pursuit requires more trouble and expense than quiet people like to incur; and as I have not explored these parts in pursuit of game, I shall be silent on the subject,