44 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 



CHAPTER II. 



THE BLACK SEA AND KUTAIS. 



There is an old friend of mine out in the 

 East for whom I think I ought to say a word, 

 if by chance any word of mine can do aught to 

 restore to her the character of which she has 

 been most unjustly robbed. No one loves 

 less than I do ' the deep and dark blue ocean.' 

 Its freshening breezes are to my mind 

 inseparable from a memory of the smell of the 

 engine room ; its boundless plain only sug- 

 gestive of the confined daily walk on deck. 

 But if ever there was one section of the briny 

 element less objectionable than another, it is 

 the much maligned Black Sea. Often and often 



