130 THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER. 



moment's examination of the limb in this position, will, 

 by showing the muscles, both of the calf and inner 

 thigh, brought to their utmost prominence, at once ex- 

 plain how singularly the powers of adhesion must be 

 increased by it. 



" The seat of a Cossack, who is accustomed to back 

 a horse from his earliest childhood, is about as short as 

 that of the English fox-hunter. It is amusing, in the 

 sham fights of Krasnoe Zelo, to see the contemptuous 

 ease with which a single Cossack forager will disen- 

 gage himself from a dozen or two of cuirassiers of the 

 guard, raining the blows of his lance-shaft about their 

 helms and shoulders, loosening in their saddles those 

 who attempt to stop him, and then getting away from 

 them like a bird, with a laugh of derision in answer to 

 the curses they mutter after him." Revelations of 

 Russia. 



From the perpetual snows of Mount Elbrouz, the 

 highest peak of the Caucasus, two rivers take their 

 rise, the Kouban and the Terek. The former flows 

 westward to the Black Sea, while the latter runs in an 

 opposite direction into the Caspian. The two together 

 form a natural barrier against the inroads of the Cau- 

 casian mountaineers, who are hemmed in between the 

 respective shores of those great waters. But this bar- 

 rier, probably, all the Russian forces would be unable 

 to defend, were it not for the Tehornomorskie, or Black 

 Sea Cossacks, the most daring and warlike of their 



