THE BANKS OF THE KUR. Il3 



great zigzag to avoid. At tlie tliird postlLOuse we crossed 

 a small stream, the Algeth, and stopped half an hour to 

 lunch on cold turkey ; for we had profited by experience, 

 and started well supplied with provisions. We now fol- 

 lowed, for some twenty-six versts, the valley of the Khrara, 

 a large tributary of the Kur, which is principally fed by 

 the streams from the Mokraja Gora, and other chains 

 which lie between Tiflis and Alexandrapol ; their wooded 

 summits, broken here and there by castella,ted crags, formed 

 the southern horizon. At the Red Bridge we were de- 

 layed for want of horses. This brick structure, the centre 

 arch of which is of considerable span, is a relic of Persian 

 rule, and is probably the oldest in the country. It was 

 repaired by Eostom, king of Georgia, in 1647, and still 

 remains perfect, although it is being slightly widened for 

 the ncAV road. The Russian engineers must have been 

 relieved to find so substantial a structure ready-made, as 

 bridge-building is not one of their strong points, and they 

 too often neglect either to make proper approaches, or to 

 dii'ect the course of the stream with dj-kes. In conse- 

 quence, their arches are often left high-and-drj-, with the 

 water sweeping over the road a hundred yards on one side 

 of them. We had now returned to the Kur, which has 

 here entirely quitted the mountains, and entered on the 

 dull green steppes, through which it winds a weary way 

 to the Caspian. Its bed, a belt of swamp and forest, 

 is considerably below the general level of the plain, 

 which breaks suddenly into it. This part of Georgia is 

 exceedingly wild and thinly populated, and forms the 

 borderland of the steppe country, inhabited only by 

 wandering tribes of Turcomans and Kurds. We passed 

 several underground villages, the existence of which is 

 indicated, at a distance, only by a brown blotch on the 

 surface of the plain ; on nearer approach a low mound of 



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