342 THE RAINS. 



ries. Still the red -deer is by no means extinct 

 even now ; in proof of which a gentleman working 

 at Poti, in the capacity of a civil engineer, told me 

 that a few months before my arrival he had been 

 invited to a large shooting party on the domains of 

 one of the neighbouring princes, on which occa- 

 sion not less than one hundred shots were fired at 

 red-deer during the day, although, owing to bad 

 shooting, very few were bagged. 



From Poti we steamed to Sotcha, where I was 

 entertained by the agent of a German gentleman, 

 Mons. G., who stayed on the estate to protect it 

 throughout the late war. The danger to the pro- 

 perty, he informed me, was to be apprehended not 

 from the Turks but from the Russians, more espe- 

 cially the Cossacks, against whose evil doings he 

 inveighed very bitterly. According to my autho- 

 rity, wherever the Turks camped during the war, 

 private property was respected, and crops only 

 mulcted of as much as was necessary for the imme- 

 diate use of the troops. On the contrary, where- 

 ever the Cossacks were, there too was wanton 

 destruction. Their only excuse if remonstrated 

 with was, ' if we don't do it the Turks will ; ' 

 and their officers refused to interfere. At a small 

 place in the immediate neighbourhood of Sotcha, for 

 example Adler or Pol Sulian the Turks never 

 showed their noses, and yet the place is in ruins. 

 No compensation was granted to any of the suf- 



