7G SAVAGE SVANETIA. 



happy were the stolid black buffaloes whose 

 broad backs were just visible above water in 

 some of the shallows of the Rion/and even 

 they were almost too lazy and hot to flap 

 their ears. 



For us in our narrow saddles, going at a 

 crawl on animals utterly destitute of any live- 

 liness, always up or down steep inclines, even 

 the beautiful scenery had not much attraction. 

 Sometimes for versts we would wind our way 

 through a succession of straggling villages, 

 half hid in neat well-kept orchards, shut in 

 with wattled fences. The sight of them made 

 our parched lips ache for the fruit which was 

 not yet ripe. The season was not a happy 

 one in some thmgs ; too early for fruit and 

 too late to see the dark masses of rhododen- 

 dron thicket tbat fringed our path, bright 

 with its yellow blossom. We had been too 

 busy to get anything to eat before starting, so 

 that in spite of the heat, our appetites began 



