648 THE GRECO-TURKISH WAR.

first place, the International Commission, which markedit out in the summer of 1881, did not everywherelayit downspecially with a view to military exigencies. The Commissioners hadalso to take into account such points as the water supply and pasturage available for villages near the frontier on bothsides of it,and in some cases police questions, such as the facilities that would be afforded to the Greek and Turkish frontier mountainpaths. Some of the slopes are fairly easy,and,though not a single road for wheeled transport exists across this part of tlae ran<*e there is more than one point where it could he made if there were any likelihood of traffic. There are numerous villages, inhabited by a pastoral population— here Turkish, thereGreek. Blockhouses of white stone, held by customhouseguards, watchthe chiefpathsover thehills.

AN INCIDENT OF THE FIRST FIGHT: A GREEK RAIDER SHOT WHILE CARRYING A WOUNDED COMRADE.

guards for putting down brigandage and smuggling without having to enter into each Thenatural course would have been to continue the frontier alongthe watershed and give the Greeks all the country drained by the Salamvria River. It has a considerable tributary, the' Xerias or Xeraghis, which drains the plain of Elassona, and tlae natural border line woujd have run north-east between the basins of the Vistritza and the Xerias, and then curved round by Olympus to the sea. But nearly all the Xerias Valley was left to Turkey, the frontier running along the spur of the bills between the tributary and its main stream, the Salamvria, and then running north-east across other's territorie: From the point where the frontier turns eastward at the Pass of Zygos, to the sea near Mount Olympus, is about eighty miles in a direct line. For the first thirty-five miles it keeps this generaldirection,running along tlae watershed between the head waters of the Vistritza (in Macedonia) and the Salembria or Salamvria River (in Thessaly). The hills are wooded, the summits run up to 5,000 feet, and thecols between them arecrossed by numerous