4 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 



coated annoyances, who incessantly blunder 

 up against yon or poke their umbrellas into 

 your eyes in their mad race against time. 



Any summer day in the hateful thorough- 

 fares of our great city would beget in me 

 longings almost beyond control for the free 

 hunter's life, away from towns and the noise 

 of men ; but a summer's day in the city in 

 the year of gTace 1882 had a peculiar spur 

 of its own to drive a wanderer out ao;ain 

 into the wilds. At every street corner j^ou 

 caught a glimpse of men whose peculiar 

 luggage and radiant faces said, in the plainest 

 language of their own plain native tongue, 

 ' Active service, thank God ; we're in for some 

 fun at last.' Every paper was full of the news 

 of war, every tongue busy talking of it, every 

 shop full of the bustle of it, so that unless a 

 civilian against his will wanted to die of 

 ennui and scarlet fever, there was nothing for 

 him but to bury himself, out of reach of the 



