HARBOUR -WORKS AT POTI. JOURNEY TO ORPIRI AND KUTAIS. 271 



harbour of the coast, Batoum, because thereon depended 

 the further development of the whole Caucasian terri- 

 tory. The acquisition of Batoum alone would have 

 been a sufficient equivalent for the cost of the last 

 Turkish war. 



I was met at Poti by my brother Walter, in 

 whose company I now continued the journey to Tiflis, 

 which both then and also three years later, when I 

 made a second journey to Kedabeg, was attended with 

 serious inconveniences. One had to go first in a 



o 



river-steamer up the Rion, as far as Orpiri, a place 

 which was exclusively inhabited by a Russian sect, 

 consisting of beardless men, who had been brought 



O ' O 



thither from all parts of the Russian empire. Apart 

 from the interesting omnium-gatherum of the most 

 varied nationalities and tongues on board the vessel, 

 the only noticeable thing, which presented itself on the 

 voyage up the Rion, was the sight of a really impene- 

 trable, swampy, primeval forest on both banks of the 

 river. 



From Orpiri we drove to Kutais, the ancient 

 Kolchis, which is situated on the slope of a mountain 

 range, connecting the great with the little Caucasus, 

 on the border of the Rion valley, in surroundings 

 pleasing and beautiful. 



High above Kutais towers a famous monastery 

 named Gelati, which is considered to be one of the 

 oldest in Christendom, and is said to be built on a 

 site regarded as sacred since the grey dawn of time. 

 I visited it on my second journey, and found myself 



