AN EXTENSIVE TABLELAND. 109 



hoary with ice fields and glaciers, domi- 

 nated and saddened the whole view. 



On the opposite side of the river to that 

 on which we stood the banks sloped gradually 

 up for about a third of a mile, until they 

 reached a tableland which, with a few unim- 

 portant breaks, continued the whole leng-th of 

 the valley. On this tableland were a suc- 

 cession of hamlets all built of grey stone and 

 protected by tall white towers, much battered 

 by private feuds or the later inroads of the 

 Russian. The tableland had been cultivated 

 too, but for the most part the crops were 

 down now, and anything more grim and grey 

 than the whole scene it would be hard to 

 conceive. 



What the land must be like when the 

 stream is frozen and every village cut off 

 from its neighbour by snowdrifts ; when 

 winter takes all the cheeriness out of the sky, 

 and hides every vestige of vegetation, buries 



