ABSTRACT
T W O pleasant days spent in Colonel Ross's house sufficed to complete our preparations for our inland journey. Four mules were procured for ourselves and baggage to take us across the coastland and the difficult mountain passes to Shiraz, a journey of eight long marches. Four dreadful passes had to be climbed; they were called the Stone Ladders by the Persians, and the road that led across them was indescribably bad. Skeletons of mules that had fallen or been thrown off the narrow track in some parts covered the bottom of the ravines. The country was desolate, but picturesque. Between the Pass of the Maiden and the Pass of the Old Woman^ we crossed the southern Persian forest region, consisting mostly of oak trees and wild almond bushes; these oaks are much smaller than our European oak trees, and their leaves are of a different shape and colour; the big acorns are edible. They are used for making a sort of brown bread, which is not at all bad in taste.
