THE l.ESGHIAN MOUNTAINS. 259 



my surprise he let me come within ;i dozen yards 

 of him, and then wheeling slowly up, pitched some 

 two hundred yards further off. I followed him : 

 again he waited, letting me come much closer before 

 he got up, and flying only a few yards before coming 

 down again. This time when 1 approached him he 

 had evidently turned sulky, and absolutely refused 

 to budge until I struck at him with my whip, when 

 he slowly moved away with a dead quail still 

 in his talons. I could not help admiring his sullen 

 pluck, so I left him to finish his dinner in peace. 



Once out of the plain, the whole scene changed. 

 This second range was one of genuine mountains 

 well wooded, full of loud-voiced rushing torrents, 

 tall columns of white mist, and hoary trees, from 

 which the beard moss hung in grey festoons. In 

 front of us the lords of Daghestan raised their 

 glistening white crowns, so close as almost to seem 

 to overshadow us. After riding some miles along 

 the side of one of these watercourses, we came in 

 the afternoon to a Tartar village, famous for its 

 silk. Here on all sides were fine orchards, magni- 

 ficent walnut trees, and endless rows of mulberries, 

 on the leaves of which the silk-worms arc fed. The 

 houses were of a different character to those by the. 

 post-road and in the plain. No more mud huts, 

 but rather chalets, the lower half of composition 

 (mud and stone) and the top story of beam and 

 wattle, covered by a wooden or thatched roof. As 



