230 TIFLIS, 



having met the author when in Tiflis. He assured 

 me that, in spite of all he could say, no one would 

 credit that the Professor had really achieved the 

 ascent of Ararat, so deep-rooted is the belief in 

 the Caucasus that Ararat cannot be climbed, and 

 so utterly unable are these people to judge of the 

 value of an Englishman's word. I was struck 

 by the remark, because Professor Bryce says in his 

 book that none of the natives believe that Parrot 

 or Abich ever ascended Ararat, and it seemed sin- 

 gular that he, too, should share their fate. 



During the last day or two I had secured the 

 services of a Pole, an ex-keeper of the Grand Duke's, 

 who was also a kind of assistant bird-stuffer at the 

 Tiflis Museum. Late on the evening of my last 

 day he turned up, with a little bundle of necessaries 

 in a pocket-handkerchief, and, having handed over 

 to him a five-barrelled revolving rifle on the prin- 

 ciple of Colt's revolvers, which I had bought for 

 a mere song, he and I lay down to rest on beds 

 for the last time for many weeks. That rifle, by 

 the way, turned out an excellently accurate fire- 

 arm, the only weapon made on the revolving prin- 

 ciple that I ever met with of which so much 

 could be said. 



