366 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



tints, and at the top of the range to drop their yellow 

 leaves. We estimated our elevation at the highest 

 point at about 6000 feet above the sea-level, and it 

 was no small relief to exchange the upward scramble 

 for the downward rush. The Circassian ponies re- 

 tain their centre of gravity on these occasions with 

 wonderful instinct, and they are by no means to be 

 sitpposed to lack sure-footedness because they occa- 

 sionally tumble over precipices. In no other country 

 that I have ever been in are horses expected to 

 perform such extravagant feats. Indeed, except in 

 !N"epaul, I have never seen such dangerous roads, and 

 there men carry the passengers, and sheep the mer- 

 chandise. The wonder in Circassia is, not that the 

 horses fall over the precipices, but that they do it 

 with so much impunity. It is singular also that in 

 a highland country a horse should be as indispensable 

 a possession to a mountaineer as his wife. Xo Cir- 

 cassian is without one or two horses, and yet, except 

 tipon the occasional stony bed of a river, or along 

 the sea-shors, there is not fifty yards of level ground 

 in the country. Even the natives are obliged fre- 

 quently to dismount, though they fearlessly ride over 

 ledges of slippery rock, over hanging dizzy heights, 

 which make one shudder to think of, past which it 

 requires some nerve even for a man trusting to his 

 own stout legs and careful steps to carry him, and 

 to attempt which on horseback seems little short of 

 insanity. As we descended towards the valley of the 



