ariable.
Sometimes the mountains are heavily wooded down to the water's edge, and
sometimes the slopes are prettily chequered with clearings and
cultivation.

More and more lovely it grows next day, as we pass Samsoon, celebrated
throughout the East for chibouque tobacco; Sinope, memorable as the place
where the first blow of the Crimean War was delivered; and, on the
morning of the third day, Ineboli, the "town of wines."

On the evening of the third day we lay off the entrance to the Bosphorus
till morning, when we steam down that charming strait to Constantinople.
It is almost a year since I took, in company with our friend Shelton Bey,
a pleasure trip up the Bosphorus and gazed for the first time on its
wondrous beauties. I have seen considerable since, but the Bosphorus
looks as fresh and lovely as ever.

While yielding as full a measure of praise to the Bosphorus as any of its
most ardent admirers, I would, however, at the same time, recommend those
in search of lovely coast scenery to take a coasting voyage along the
southern shore of the Black Sea in June. I have no hesitation in saying
that the traveller who goes into raptures over the beauties of the
Bosphorus would, if he saw it, include the whole Anatolian coast to
Batoum.

Several very pleasant days are spent in Constantinople, talking over my
Central Asian adventures with former acquaintances and seeing the city.
But as these were pretty thoroughly described in Volume I., there is no
need of repetition here. With many regrets I part company with R, who has
proved a very pleasant companion indeed, and set sail for India.

The steamers of the Khedivial Line, plying between Constaninople and
Alexandria, have their mooring buoys near the Stamboul side of the Golden
Horn, between Seraglio Point and the Galata bridge. During the forenoon,
Shelton Bey, R--, and I had taken a caique and sought out from among
the crowd of shipping in the harbor the steamship Behera, of the
above-mentioned line, on which I have engaged my passage to Alexandria,
so that we should have no difficulty in finding it in the afternoon. In
the afternoon the Behera is found surrounded by a swarm of caiques,
bringing passengers and friends who have come aboard to see them off.
These slender-built craft are paddling about the black hull of the
steamer in busy confusion. A fussy and authoritative little police boat
seems to take a wanton delight in increasing the confusion by making
salli