TOUR TO CIBELDA. 295 



wooden houses of the large village still stood entire, 

 just as their inhabitants had left them a year ago; 

 only here and there some destruction had been caused 

 by the bears in their search for food. 



When we had quartered ourselves, we had first 

 to try to recover a human aspect, for in breaking 

 through the dense vegetation, which had made the 

 former gardens of the village almost impenetrable, every 

 inch of our clothing as of our beards had become 

 fringed with a layer of burs, so that we ourselves 

 looked more like brown bears than human beings. 

 The removal of the burs was an extremely trouble- 

 some and in part painful operation. 



After a refreshing night's rest in the abandoned 

 dwellings our miner investigated the old copper -pit, 

 which he declared not to be worth working: but even 

 had it been so in the highest degree, its situation 

 would have made any mining operation impossible. 

 My brother Otto and I had meanwhile fully enjoyed 

 the overpowering grandeur and sublime beauty of the 

 environment. By the morning light one perceived still 

 better than in the evening the wild ruggedness of the 

 exposed surface of Elbrus , with its ice - fields and 

 glaciers, to which the lines of the water-courses, rushing 

 down the slopes and glittering in the sunshine, lent a 

 quite peculiar charm. The plateau, on which we stood, 

 descends abruptly to the river-valley, which separates 

 it from Elbrus; on the other sides it is surrounded 

 by high mountains, which, in contrast with Elbrus, 

 presented the most luxuriant green of Caucasian vege- 



