124 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 



woke with a shiver, for these clearings are too 

 near the glaciers to be ever very warm at 

 night, and, tossing on fresh logs to tlie dying 

 fire, sent such a shower of bright sparks up to 

 our now dry roof, that before we knew where we 

 were the whole edifice was beginning to burn. 

 Thanks to our exertions — chiefly Frank's, I 

 think — we stopped the fire before it had done 

 much more than burn out some of our ceiling, 

 and nothing else happened to disturb us until 

 our interpreter informed us it was time to be 

 moving. 



One of the most useful of the small neces- 

 saries we had brought with us was half a 

 dozen books of the ' feuilles de savon,' 

 patented, I fancy, by some German for the 

 use of travellers. A soap-leaf by the river's 

 brim was with us the ordinary prelude to a 

 day's work, after which our mocassins were 

 dredged up from the bottom of a pool, in 

 which they had been soaking ; and after being 



