A EUSSIAX DOCTOR. 165 



were quite determined to liave notliing more to do, for the 

 l^resent, with the post- carriages of the Caucasus. Our 

 jDlan was to visit Etchmiadzin, and take fi'om thence a 

 track leading along the flanks of Alagoz (which we enter- 

 tained thoughts of attacking), and then passing through 

 the hiU-countrj of Georgia, and across three ridges, varying 

 between 6,000 and 8,000 feet in height, before it finally 

 rejoins the post -road, three stations out of Tiflis. Paul 

 was successful in finding a man in the bazaar, who agreed 

 to funiish us, at a reasonable price, with horses and men 

 who knew the roads we wished to follow. In the evening 

 of our first day's rest, I was attacked with a violent pain 

 at the back of the head, got no sleep, and sent next morn- 

 ing for the Russian doctor. He said there was nothing 

 the matter with me, and prescribed a mild solution of 

 peppermint, which was neither nice nor useful ; in the 

 evenino^ he came agfain, and ordered leeches and a mus- 

 tard-plaister. This vigorous treatment was effectual; I 

 slept fairly, and got better next day, so that by the morn- 

 ing of the 13th, I was ready to make a short stage of three 

 hours, on horseback, to Etchmiadzin. Tucker, meantime, 

 had been busy in the bazaar, in getting a light mattrass 

 stuffed and made up, and in making other small provisions 

 for our week's ride across the hills to Tiflis. 



Jtme 13^/i. — The ride to Etchmiadzin, despite the 

 distant view of Ararat, is on the whole a dull one. The 

 road x^asses under the fortress of Erivan, which might 

 perhaps be formidable to Asiatic troops, and crosses the 

 stream from the Gotchka lake, which here flows in a 

 picturesque ravine. There is an untidy botanical garden 

 on its further bank. For some little distance out of the 

 town the country is cultivated, but the greater part of the 

 tAvelve miles is over a bare and stony plain, broken half- 

 way by a village, and further on by a Druidic-looking 



