RETURN TO KERTCH. 



grey cliffs, until everything appeared at a white heat, 

 and all life seemed stilled, except for the myriads 

 of lizards that revelled in the fierce sunlight at the 

 cliff's foot. But all things must have an end, and 

 at 6 P.M. I was at rest in the telegraph station, 

 with a substantial dinner before me and a bottle 

 of beer, which, if not Bass's, bore at any rate 

 some faint resemblance to the beverage beloved of 

 Britons. 



On the Sunday morning, November 9, I 

 received a polite message from the Governor of 

 Duapse to warn me that, as the Caucasus was 

 still under military law, and not as yet entirely 

 settled, I must oblige him by not going to stay in 

 any Tscherkess ' aoul,' and if I neglected this Avarn- 

 ing, he added that my words and deeds would be 

 watched. Moreover, he requested that I would 

 bring my shooting trip in his district to an end. 

 This sounded a formidable message : but on inter- 



o s 



viewing the Governor I found him not by any 

 means inclined to be unpleasant, and indeed his 

 only desire appeared to be to prevent my getting 

 into scrapes by meddling with politics, though, at 

 the same time, he was evidently exercised in his 

 own mind as to the real object of my visit to the 

 Black Sea coast ; as he, in common with all the 

 other Russians I met, seemed to find it impossible 

 to believe that any man would visit a distant land 

 merely for sport. Several times I had warnings 



