214 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 



through tall tangled weeds, heavy and wet 

 with the night dew, drenching and chilling us 

 to the bone, through groves of willows which 

 swung back viciously as Simon passed, and 

 cut his follower sharply across the face. 



Once out of the thickets of the low land, 

 Ave had a stiff up-hill scramble for half an 

 hour, then we plunged waist-deep through a 

 stream that came down from the glacier, close 

 to the foot of which we now were, ten more 

 minutes along a narrow break-neck ledge 

 covered with short dry mountain grass, the 

 last half-dozen steps so ticklish that I was not 

 ashamed to grip Simon's helping hand, and 

 then swing round a sharp projecting corner 

 into a little straw-lined cave, which was our 

 post for the night. 



A rumour had reached us that a party of 

 hunters from Svanetia had been about the 

 glacier for some days past, and as Simon 

 thought it quite possible they might dispute 



