TIFL1S. 187 



This I have heard frequently both before and 

 since. 



The arrival of the old steamship ' Kotzebul ' on 

 Sunday put an end to all these gaieties as far as 

 I was concerned ; and leaving behind me a whole 

 mass of invitations unaccepted from my hospitable 

 friends at Kertch, I once more sailed for theCaucasus. 



From Kertch to Poti we had a fair and pleasant 

 voyage, over a sea calm and still as an inland lake, 

 past a coast where mountains in the background 

 sink into hills in the foreground, and the hills 

 themselves run right down into the sea ; while 

 almost from the point where they touch the waves 

 with their feet the forest starts upwards and clothes 

 them to the very summit. On November 26, at 

 Sukhoum, the skies were blue and cloudless, many 

 of the trees still in their green foliage, some double- 

 pctalled wild roses in full bloom, and the tem- 

 perature that of an English summer. 



Sukhoum itself though, in spite of the lovely 

 weather, is but a sorry sight. The houses are most 

 of them ruins ; the town is full of soldiers camp- 

 ing amongst the ruins and making confusion 

 worse confounded ; the gardens are already halt* 

 absorbed in the wild growth that surrounds them ; 

 the splendid avenues of k bignonia catalba ' which 

 once graced the town have been ruthlessly cut 

 down, though useless I should think even for fire- 

 wood ; there is no church left, and I saw very few 



