300 THE entomologist's recoed. 



long before the Kassians, and their early writers throw valuable 

 light on the early history of their part of the world. They 

 voluntarily placed themselves under the protection of Russia 

 about a century ago. They use a peculiar alphabet, whose elegant 

 rounded letters somewhat resemble Burmese. Their language is, I 

 believe, of the Iranian group. Akin to the Georgian are numbers 

 of dialects, the chief of which are the Imeritian and Mingrelian, and 

 Osset. The Circassians have mostly left Russian territory and 

 migrated to Turkey, where they often become Bashi-Bazuks and have 

 earned an uneviable reputation for ferocity. Their language is little 

 known and is said to have affinities with the Isolating family. Other 

 strange tribes in the Western Caucasus are the Abkhaz, who have 

 sounds that cannot be represented by any combination of letters in any 

 European alphabet. Then there are the Svan or Svanetes, dwelling 

 round and at Elbruz, who live in five-storied circular towers. Two 

 stories are underground and three in the air, and the family moves from 

 floor to floor according to the season and the temperature. The wild 

 mountains of Daghestan are inhabited by the Lesghian group, which 

 at least one author has attempted to connect with the Albanians, to 

 my mind a fatuous suggestion. Subdivisions of this group are the 

 savage Chechents, the Tush, Ud, Kazi-Kiimiik, Avar, Hirkan and 

 many others. The Lesghian and Circassian groups are Mahommedan, 

 as are the Nogai, Kalmyck, Azerbaidjan and other Tartars, each with 

 their own dialect, who are to be met with in the steppes north and 

 south of the main range. On the shores of the Black Sea there are 

 Turks, and in and around Tidis there are Armenians, Persians and 

 sometimes Kurds, a good sprinkling of Jews, and above the heads of 

 all, the Russian oificials. Truly, an amazing assemblage of peoples 

 and tongues. 



All too soon we reached the stantsia of Kazbek, where we halted 

 for half an hour to refresh ourselves and the driver, and bask in the 

 splendour of the scenery. Far across an opening in the hills, where 

 the picturesque, but probably exceedingly dirty aid, or mountaineer's 

 hamlet, Gerget, nestles on the slope beyond, towering up to 16,546ft., 

 high above all others, stands the majestic cone of Kazbek itself, with 

 the splendid glacier of Devdorak. But hardly had we grasped the full 

 beauty of the scene, when we were ordered aboard and whirred up and 

 up to Kobi, where the valley is broad and Hat, and the Terek shrunk 

 to a tiny rivulet. Beyond Kobi the road is constantly threatened by 

 avalanches, so wc drive through long tunnels, solidly built, over which 

 the tumbling masses of rocks and stones slide, and leave the road 

 intact. Soon we reach the cross that marks the highest point of the 

 pass, 7,500ft., but the scenery is far tamer than at the stantsia 

 Kazbek, and in the gorge below. At this point we cross the watershed, 

 and bid good-bye to the Terek. We have now left Europe, and are in 

 Asia. At the first stantsia in the descent, that is, Gudaur, by a great 

 stroke of luck the car l)roke down for an hour, which gave me the 

 longed for opportunity of collecting in these heights. 



The slopes hei'e are grassy, and I hoped to find some iutei'osting 

 alpine forms, especially of (l<niii)lu)ci>rux, but the only grasshopper that 

 1 could discover was the alpine Stdiinxicnis apricarius, L. A little 

 lower are some clumps of shrubs and thickets and here I saw a female 

 Or/i/iania, but she was too nimble for me. My ear detected a familiar 



