BLACK SEA COAST. 91 



feel revenged in contemplating the utter failure of 

 the race which has supplanted them. 



But for us the day was no day of idleness, but 

 rather one of considerable toil and difficulty. The 

 road grew exceeding steep and rugged, and the 

 little baggage cart which we had endeavoured to 

 send on by our men came to grief, and was broken 

 beyond repair. The driver, who was on the top 

 of the baggage, probably asleep, got a bad fall, and 

 was rather seriously hurt. The tripod of my 

 photographic apparatus was broken, and the stock 

 of my rifle snapped short off at the pistol grip. 

 The 'plunger's' store of eau-de-Cologne, without 

 which this hero felt it impossible to travel, was also 

 lost in the general disaster, and he, poor fellow, 

 had very bad times throughout the day, having 

 had too much to eat and too much shaking up 

 after it. For a cavalry officer, too, it was some- 

 what undignified, when ascending one steep little 

 ravine, to slide off over his horse's quarters ; and for 

 a man of his weight it must have been as painful 

 as it was ridiculous. Laughter went a long way 

 towards leaving me as helpless as he was, for a 

 more ludicrous sight than our gallant companion 

 rolling off behind, it would be difficult to conceive. 



The night was, if anything, worse than the 

 day, for my old friend the Cossack, having a great 

 deal of pain from an old injury near his spine, 

 determined to cure it with hard drinking ; the result 



