a carriage, the road is cut down through it, so as to make it easier for them; and if there is a place near a road where a person might fall over a cliff, or down a hill, or into a ditch, then there is sure to be a fence of some kind or other to prevent accidents; and, indeed, the common roads are always fenced on both sides, either with a wall or a pretty green hedge.

J. With blackberries, and blossoms, and big daisies, and roses in it.

H. Dog-roses!

U. O. A dog-rose is better than no rose. I may describe a Persian road to you by saying that it has none of the things which belong to an English road.

H. Then, how are they made, Sir?

U. O. That is the thing; they are not made at all. When one comes to a plain he sees no road, but a number of tracks which have been worn by the feet of the cattle, like the footpaths in a field, and the traveller may follow them or not as he pleases. In rainy weather, and in marshy grounds, the want of stones sometimes renders the ground so soft, that it is very difficult and tedious to get along. My horse has sometimes sunk so deep, that it could not be got out

again without much difficulty. In some places, where the road is very narrow and rocky, so that the cattle always walk in the same track, I have seen the path full of deep holes, worn in the solid rock by the action of their feet; and as their feet always slip into those holes if they do not put them in of their own accord, the poor beasts suffer much fatigue in continually lifting them out of the holes, and their feet are also much hurt by being knocked and pressed against the hard edges of these pits, which might be filled up with a little trouble; but nobody takes the trouble.

You know Persia is full of mountains; and these mountains must be passed over, not only by travellers on horseback, but by cattle with very heavy loads upon their backs. The paths over the mountains are called passes; and some of them are very frightful to go over; but nothing is done to make them safer or better. First one has to go over and among great rocks, where the horse is continually stumbling and slipping; then he has to go up a place so steep, that he must get off his horse and walk up; and then he must go down another place so steep, that he must get off to walk down; or if he

chooses to stay on horseback, he can hardly help falling forward or sliding backward. At last he gets high up the mountains, and then finds he has to pass along a narrow ledge, about two or three feet wide, all rough, broken, and uneven, and from whence it makes him giddy to look down over cliffs much higher than the highest steeple you ever saw. There is nothing at all to prevent him falling over and being dashed to pieces if his horse slips.

F. But can't he get off and walk?

U. O. If he likes; but it is often safer to trust to the horse or mule; they are used to these passes, and seldom make a false step, so that an accident does not often happen. I never had a slip on a mountain-ledge more than once, and then it was winter, and the paths were slippery with ice.

J. But were you dashed in pieces then, dear Uncle?

U. O. (laughing.) No. Here I am, my darling. It was not a cliff, but a steep slope that I had to fall over, and I slid down very comfortably upon the snow, until I was able to catch hold of a bush, when the men who were above let down a rope and pulled me up.