1G8 THE GEORGIAN IIILL-COUXTRY. 



beyond. Careful irrigation had clotlied tlie soil with a 

 rich mantle of vegetation, vineyards and orchards lined 

 both sides of the path, and even the dividing hedgeroAvs 

 seemed to share in the general luxuriance. The village 

 stands on a brow above the sunny slope which supplies it 

 with corn and wine, and its inhabitants have a more 

 prosperous air than most of the Armenian peasantry. 

 We made our midday halt here, and I was glad to rest for 

 two hours in a clean room, for my Erivan attack had left 

 me somewhat weak and lazy. 



The only interesting features in the latter part of the 

 day's ride were the river-beds — picturesque troughs, almost 

 gorges, sunk from 100 to 200 feet below the general surface, 

 with rugged volcanic rocks cropping out from their sides. 

 We ascended all day, and towards evening reached a high 

 plain partially cultivated, and dotted with dismal villages. 

 The first we halted at offered such bad accommodation that 

 we rode on three miles further to Alekujak, which stands on 

 the left bank of the torrent descending from the Alagoz 

 glacier. Our quarters here were about the nastiest we met 

 with during our whole journey. To avoid the winter-cold at 

 this height (about 5,000 feet), the houses are all constructed 

 on the principle of a molehole — one passag'e leading into the 

 family apartments, which no stranger can enter on account 

 of the presence of the womankind, another into the stable. 

 In the latter we had to lodge on a sort of dais, provided 

 with a fireplace and two sleeping-mats, slightly railed ofi" 

 from the horses and cows that occupied the rest of the apart- 

 ment. The only fuel obtainable was cowdung, so that the 

 fire did not add much to the cheerfulness of the situation. 

 What with the stiflingly pungent smell of the stalls, the 

 noise of the animals, and the determined inroads of fleas 

 and other insects, we never passed a more miserable night. 



June Ibth. — The hills were covered with a wet blanket 



