TRAVELS IX CIRCASSIA. 353 



of the valleys at our feet, into which no traveller 

 had ever penetrated ; and to think how many curious 

 nooks and crannies in this Avorld of ours there are 

 which have been illuminated for centuries by its 

 calm, cold light, but which will remain for centuries 

 to come unknown and unexplored. How long will 

 it be before another party of Englishmen Avatch a 

 sunset from that spot, or cross the range behind 

 which the moon has just risen? And yet there is 

 not a country in the world more full of attractions 

 to the traveller ; every steps he takes is over un- 

 trodden ground. Every village he passes through 

 has remained heretofore unvisited. Almost every 

 man he meets gazes with wonder for the first time 

 in his life upon a stranger from the West. The 

 hammer of the geologist has never tapped the rocky 

 mountain-sides ; its luxuriant vegetation has never 

 been subject to the scrutiny of the botanist. Its 

 vegetable and mineral resoxirces are alike unknown, 

 and its inhabitants uncared for. They know indeed 

 more of us than we do of them ; for the more enter- 

 prising among them occasionally undertake journeys 

 to Mecca, or go to Constantinople upon visits to their 

 wives or daughters who are luxuriating in the harems 

 of that city. There they often stay for some time, 

 and become familiar with the appearance of Franks, 

 and come to their highland villages with wonderful 

 stories of the race that never visits them, and of 

 which they know nothing more than that they are 



