TRAVELS IN CIRCASSIA. 387 



driven back, after a determined struggle, in which 

 that young chieftain was shot cheering on his men, 

 and his place taken by the venerable Hadji, Avho 

 more than avenged the death of his gallant grandson. 

 The Eussians admitted to a loss of five hundred men 

 on this occasion, and gave up any further idea of 

 punishing the Uboochians, or entering their country. 

 We passed over the scene of this bloody conflict on 

 our ride from Soucha to Ardiller. There is unfor- 

 tunately now no great Ubooch warrior. The most 

 dashing young man of the tribe, and a descendant of 

 the Hadji, was, at the period of our visit, only burn- 

 ing for an opportunity of maintaining the credit of 

 the family, and with this view put himself at the 

 head of the cavalry contingent which was supplied 

 by the district to Omer Pasha, Izak Bey was in- 

 deed one of the handsomest and most gallant young 

 fellows I ever saw ; he was in the thickest of the 

 fight on the eventful day of the Ingour, and we lay 

 together under the same cloak by the bivouac -fire 

 that night on the bloody battle-field. Poor fellow, 

 he succumbed under the hardships of the retreat, and 

 died of typhus fever at Choloni the day before I left 

 the army. 



In the course of my journeys upon the Circassian 

 coast, I had now visited some eight or nine of these 

 abandoned Eussian forts, and always with sensations 

 very different from those which usually accompany 

 the contemplation of scenes of ruin and desolation. 



