THE RION. 81 



width, now bent to the south ; the forest became thinner, 

 and the country more inhabited, while orchards, fields of 

 Indian-corn, and clusters of cottages, appeared on either 

 shore. The lowest outposts of the southern hills here ad- 

 vance close to the Rion, above which they rise in steep banks 

 covered with fine timber. Our little steamer contained a 

 good saloon, where an excellent dinner was served to a 

 very mixed company. The most marked characters at table 

 were a French baron, absent from home for political 

 reasons, who had been down to Poti to fetch two of Ran- 

 some's ploughs for his farm near Kutais, a fat roaring 

 Mynheer- van-Dunk of an official, connected with the post- 

 service, and the captain of the steamboat, a little scrap of 

 a man, who did his best to be polite to a very rough 

 English engineer, incapable of speaking any language but 

 his own, and labouring under the suspicion, for which he 

 probably had sufficient grounds in Russia, that everyone 

 was taking advantage of him in consequence. The 

 amiable captain paid severely for his politeness to our 

 countryman, in being compelled to swallow a tumbler of 

 porter, as a proof of the sincerity of his sentiments. 



Before reaching Orpiri, we noticed, on the hillsides, the 

 road which runs to Fort St. Nicholas through the district 

 of the Guriel, celebrated for the personal beauty and 

 pictui-esque costumes of its inhabitants. The stream was 

 exceedingly rapid, and the steamer had some difficulty in 

 cutting her way past the mouth of the Zenes Squali or 

 Horse River, the largest affluent of the Rion. The villages 

 of Orpiri and Meran stand on either bank. The former — a 

 cluster of wooden cottages, at one of which food and even 

 beds may be obtained — is on the right or northern banks 

 At Nakolakevi, in this neighbourhood, some antiquaries 

 believe that they have discovered the site of the ancient 

 Aea, whence Jason carried off the golden fleece. Those 



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