48 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 



luxuriance of nothing but fever and wild 

 swine ; but the mouth of the Eion at 4 a.m., 

 the hour at which the Black Sea Steam 

 Company, with its usual perversity, insisted 

 on landing us, was, if anything, less attractive 

 than ever. 



The last words of my kind friend, Dr. 

 Schauer, of Kertch, were still ringmg in my 

 ears when I landed: ' Above all things don't 

 miss 3'our train at Poti,' so that I was more 

 than ordinarily speedy in piling my small 

 luggage and my friend in a , heap in the 

 one droschky which the town had produced 

 for the benefit of the steamer passengers, and 

 after five minutes spent in securing my heavier 

 luo-o-ao'e from the clutches of the crowd of 

 hungry-looking lightermen who swarmed on 

 the quay, I hurried off to the English Consulate. 

 Here, though of course no one was up at that 

 time in the morning, I was admitted, and came 

 upon a scene calculated to dash the sph'its of 



