17G THE GEORGIAN IIILL-COUXTRY. 



quaint little village sheltered itself. On reaching the brow 

 of the hill, the whole of the great citj of Tiflis and the 

 course of the Kur for many miles bur^t upon us with 

 startling suddenness, at least 2,000 feet below. The view is 

 very striking, and when the snowy chain of the Caucasus 

 is clear, it must be still more so. The descent was long 

 and steep, down a hillside covered with brushwood and 

 broken by crags. We met strings of donkeys carrying 

 out goods from the city, and passed others, laden with fire- 

 wood, going in the opposite direction, as we rode down 

 through a suburb of gardens into the Persian quarter. 

 After Erivan and Tabreez, the streets seemed wonderfully 

 European, with their tall houses, shops with plate-glass 

 windows, and smartly-dressed ladies in Parisian costumes. 

 The Russians have spent a great deal of money to establish 

 a handsome European city south of the Caucasus, and the}' 

 have effected their object. Tiflis is undoubtedly a success. 

 It is polyglot, but not Asiatic ; and the Persians, like the 

 foreigners in Leicester Square, keep their own quarter, and 

 even there look shady and dull compared with their coun- 

 trymen at home. 



Tiflis, June 20th to 26th. — We were delighted to rejoin 

 all our luggage at the comfortable Hotel d'Europe, and to 

 find the missing tent and portmanteau arrived from 

 Kutais. My time during the next few days was spent 

 principally in visits to the governor and postal officials, 

 which did not produce any very gi-eat results. I took 

 pains to explain our j)lan, which was in itself sufficiently 

 simple — namely, to go to the foot of Kazbek by the post- 

 road, ascend if possible that mountain, and then cross, by 

 two passes laid down in the Russian maps, into the valley 

 of the Rion. To the official mind, however, the unknown 

 and the impossible are coextensive terms ; and while I was 

 met with the greatest personal civility and desire to aid 



