aao Account of a Journey to Choy in Vcrjia. 



the laft remains of his ftrength by a fuJden fpring, he fell 

 back and rolled down the precipice, fo that we faw no more 

 of him. 



We now defcended the mountain, the road being neither 

 verv fiecn nor lont;, till we arrived at the next ridoe, which 

 IS, as it were, placed upon the former. This third and higheli 

 fnow mountain was fo fteep that we almoR defpaircd of being 

 able to pafs it. We found it now impoffible to ride; for, 

 though the road was here and there two feet in breadth, we 

 uere frequently obliged, for the diliance of half a werft and 

 more, to clamber over the rocks fonietimes up to the middle 

 in fnow. When we had at length, wiih great labour, jiain, 

 and fatigue, got to the fummit, we obfervcd the clouds rolling 

 under us, and could no longer fee anv thing of the furround- 

 ing country. We now travelled above an hour, involved in 

 a Ibrt of tliick fog, cxpofed to the wind and fnow, and to a 

 more penetrating cold than we ever remembered to have 

 experienced at Pctcrfourgh. 



When we began to defccnd from this high ridge, and had 

 ^ot about half way down, three of the mules laden with the 

 lervice of filver plate deftined as a prcfent to Perfia, fell into 

 a fmall fiflure near the road, which at firfl, as we faw their 

 heads above the ihow, did not appear to be of much confe- 

 quence. Thefe animals, however, exerted their whole ftrength 

 to extricate themfelves, and two of them were fortunate 

 enough to fucceed ; but the third, which had approached 

 too near to the declivity of the mountiin, by its exertions 

 fell deeper into the fnow, and, getting Hill nearer and nearer 

 to the edge of the precipice, rolled down the fide of the moun- 

 tain to the depth of about 400 fiuhoms from the road. The 

 boxes containing the plate broke loofe by the violence of the 

 fall, one rolling down on one fide and the other on the other j 

 and one of them, being daflied againft the projefting point 

 of a rock, burR in two ; but the other fell unhurt on a Imall 

 eminence which was at the diftanee of two hundred fathoms 

 trom us. In that fituation we were obliged to leave it, as it 

 was impoffible to approach it on account of the Iteepnefs of 

 the mountain. A Grufinian (Georgian) prince, whom the 

 czar fcnt to meet us on the frontiers, promifed, as foon as 

 the weather would permit, and the new fnow fhould be 

 melted, to take proper care that the Ofielines in the next 

 ■village fiiould bring up the box which remained whole, and 

 alio collect the fcattered plate which had fallen from the box 

 that had burft, and which could not fink into the old hard- 

 ened Ihow, ns it if fo ftrong even in fummer as to bear the 

 weight of a horfe. On our return, indeed, one of the boxes 



with 



