202 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 



possibility, and our Svan (like all his people 

 skilled in the signs of the sky) declared that 

 we should have no more open weather for a 

 week at least. So, sorrowfully, I gave up my 

 last hope of killing a tur, and ordered a return 

 to Ipar, if possible, before our watery highway 

 grew too large and wild for us to follow. 



On our way back we had a rather startling 

 example of the changes wrought by atmo- 

 spheric agency on the rocks around us, for 

 whilst we were scrambling down the little 

 torrent in the narrowest part of the gorge, a 

 tremendous crash behind made us all start in- 

 voluntarily, while a shower of spray went up 

 as if a shell had burst in the water near us. A 

 second glance showed us a great mass of rock 

 which had yielded at last to the undermining 

 powers of the rain, and leaving its position 

 amonffst the cras-s overhead had fallen into 

 the bed of the torrent, blocking up its channel 

 and diverting its course. 



