CHAPTER XII 



OVER THE GREAT CHAIN 



The ground, the books, the academes 

 From whence doth spring the true Promethean fire. 



Love's Laboui's Lost. 



The wonderful Vayenno-Gruzinskaya Doroga, Geor- 

 gian Military Road, claimed our admiration every 

 minute. It is true that the dust was feet deep, and 

 in bad weather would certainly be a quagmire, but 

 traffic is incessant. The road was opened for public 

 use in 1861, and cost, it is said, somewhere about 

 £4,000,000. For many years the track — one of the 

 highest in the world — was the main highway which 

 linked up Russia with her territory on the southern 

 side of the Caucasian range. The railway from Moscow 

 came to an abrupt end at Vladikavkaz, northern 

 outpost of the rampart mountain wall, but the quite 

 recent extension of the line by way of Petrolfsk to 

 Baku gave travellers the chance of avoiding the moun- 

 tain route, for at the Oil City the Transcaucasian 

 railroad joins up, thus placing Tiflis or Batoum in 

 get-at-able proximity. 



The traffic, therefore, over the great road is not so 

 heavy as in the royal days following on its completion, 

 but it is still considerable, and in the best months of 

 the year large numbers of horses are in readiness — or 



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