94 HEIMAWS DATCH. 



portion died near Duapse, and were there landed 

 and buried, or left to bleach, according to the means 

 of their friends. Their graves are still marked 

 by little mounds and inequalities in the ground 

 throughout the place. On their miserable journey 

 they sold everything they possessed, and I have 

 frequently heard in Kertch and in the Caucasus of 

 girls being sold for a few roubles, and valuable 

 daggers (the last thing almost that a Tschcrkess 

 parts with) for about the same. Now Duapse is 

 a vilely squalid hole, with two telegraph stations 

 and a governor's house. The steamers from Odessa 

 and Poti touch here, if it is fine, once a week, but 

 if there is any sea on they cannot come in, as I 

 was hereafter to learn to my cost. Why Duapse 

 exists, and still more why it has a governor, I 

 never could conceive. 



It was, then, with a feeling of intense relief 

 that on October 21 I left Duapse behind me and 

 turned my horse's head southwards along the 

 Black Sea shore. I had managed to engage a 

 couple of Russian peasants, Ivan and Yepheem, to 

 guide me to some happy hunting-grounds of which 

 they knew, some fifty versts from Duapse. Taking 

 three horses, we loaded each with as much pro- 

 visions as he could carry, and then climbed on top 

 ourselves. It was difficult work to so adjust your- 

 self and baggage, as to keep your seat over the 

 boulders. Grip was, of course, impossible, and 



