198 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 



your devotees would have pledged yon in a 

 deeper draught than Frank and I as we toiled 

 up those endless grass slopes. 



At first we faced the long slope of green 

 hills gaily enough — it would be a good climb, 

 but we could see the end of it ; and even 

 when we had gained a view of another equally 

 high beyond it we did not despair. But when 

 four o'clock came and hill after hill, each 

 longer than the other, rolled endlessly up- 

 wards from every ridge we gained, I joined 

 heartily with Frank in anathematising such 

 a lying landscape, and devoutly agreed with 

 him that this sort of scenery would be greatly 

 improved by being rolled out flat. 



On the very top — for we did get there 

 eventually, and found it to be between four 

 and five thousand feet above sea level — we 

 found still traces of the wandering tribe of 

 Bruin, though whether he had come there to 

 enjoy the view or grub up the roots of the 



