VI 11 PREFACE. 



and hence the exaggerated reports of the 

 danger of travelling amongst them. An out- 

 line map of the country will be found on the 

 cover of my book, and the best map published 

 for the Government at Tiflis has been handed 

 over by me to the Royal Geographical Society, 

 to which I have the honour to belong, and 

 there, no doubt, those anxious for a more 

 intimate acquaintance with the topography of 

 Svanetia would be allowed to see it. 



That the Caucasus contains at the present 

 moment an army of 130,000 men, for the 

 maintenance of which there is but one obvious 

 reason — that it is on the direct road from 

 Russia to our Indian frontier ; that an expen- 

 sive line of rail has just been completed from 

 Poti on the Black Sea to Baku on the 

 Caspian, from the eastern shores of which 

 the line may easily be extended to Herat, 



