2 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 



chano-ed. We were on the crest of a liio-h 

 tableland, sloping gradually away towards 

 and beyond Uslikul. Round us stretched 

 great fells of short grass, studded with a small 

 orano-e-coloured crocus, and trees for the time 

 ceased to be a feature in the landscape. 



Having passed the round hill which seems 

 to block the road to Mookmer, and its two 

 blackened towers (the first Svanetian build- 

 ings we had seen), we came suddenly upon 

 the river Ingour, still small and brook-like, 

 not having long left the side of its parent 

 mountain, Kamquam. 



Alono; the bank of the Ino-our stretch 

 the three hamlets which compose Mookmer ; 

 villages at first sight composed not of huts 

 or houses, but of half-ruined factory chim- 

 neys, — factory chimneys without smoke and 

 without ugliness ; straight square towers 

 standing each by itself, without order or any 

 regard to symmetry. Round the base of each 



