TRAVELS IX CIRCASSIA. 365 



pression of slavery appears to them to have deprived 

 of its value. 



"\Ve were half tempted to put off our departure for 

 a day, for the purpose of visiting a cave and some 

 ruins which our host described as the wonder of the 

 neighbourhood. It so often happens, however, that the 

 traveller is misled by the extravagant description by 

 savages of the marvels of their country, that we were 

 scarcely disposed to risk the expenditure of our valuable 

 time iipon the word of the Bey, though it is possible 

 we may have missed a discovery which may rejoice 

 the heart of some future traveller. It was late before 

 we were en route toiling up the steep side of the range, 

 which rose abruptly in rear of our quarters of the 

 previous night. "\Ye had replaced our shattered 

 baggage-pony by a fresh animal, and were progressing 

 prosperously, when the other pack-horse tumbled 

 over a precipice. It was fortunately not above fifty 

 feet in height, and his velocity was checked by the 

 brushwood, which cracked under him as he gently 

 revolved to the bottom, and was brought up on his 

 back in the bed of a stream. The process of hauling 

 him up again to the path caused some delay, and the 

 extreme difficulty of our way rendered our progress 

 necessarily S!OAV. As we attained a higher elevation 

 the character of the vegetation underwent its usual 

 change, and here and there a pine-tree mingled its 

 dark-green with the more vivid foliage of the beech. 

 These were already beginning to assume autumnal 



