1 90 TIFLIS. 



munication is difficult, renders them extremely 

 expensive. 



From Poti to Tiflis I had two English-speak- 

 ing fellow- travellers a German landowner and an 

 English mining engineer going to the former's 

 property near Kutais to prospect for coal, of 

 which there is supposed to be a large supply there. 

 The coal, they say, is of good quality and in seams 

 of considerable thickness. This engineer, who had 

 seen a great deal of the Caucasus, assured me* in 

 common with many others, that though not in 

 sufficiently large quantities to be of any serious 

 importance, there was undoubtedly gold in most 

 of the small river beds between Batoum and 

 Duapse. From Poti to Rion the scenery is not 

 very attractive, the first part being merely a 

 cutting through a marsh forest, where all the 

 growth is too rank, and so dense as to spoil the 

 individual development of the trees which compose 

 it : it has consequently a mean, stunted appear- 

 ance besides looking horribly suggestive of fever. 

 At Rion, however, we were cheered by the sight 

 of glorious snow-capped peaks in the distance ; 

 and here, having met with a Government forester, 

 to whom I told my story of wanderings in search 

 of game, 1 was by him persuaded to stay and 

 shoot for a few days in the neighbourhood of 

 Kutais. 



After unearthing the local forester, whose senior 



