36 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 



were beaten down and traversed in all direc- 

 tions by bear slides, and on our way np 

 through the woods on the lower hills we 

 frequently came on spots where chamois had 

 taken their afternoon siesta. But we saw 

 neither bear nor chamois ; and Simon, agreeing 

 in this with all my other guides, assured me 

 that in the region haunted by tur you never 

 find chamois. 



Our way lay along the edge of a great 

 wall of rock, rising higher and higher until it 

 reached the base of the highest crags. Below 

 us, between our precipice and another, a 

 glacier rolled its frozen waves down to the 

 distant valley. 



Just as the first dawning light crept over 

 the snows above us, we gained the furthest 

 edge of brushwood, and from almost the last 

 rhododendron bush we passed I flushed one 

 of the black mountain pheasants which I saw 

 years ago in Daghestan. 



