]82 THE KRESTOWAJA GORA. 



Russians live here, and we had a letter for the com- 

 mandant of the district, who, we were informed, would 

 probably be able to aid us in our preparations for attacking 

 Kazbek. We found, on enquiry at the station, that he, 

 like everyone else, had gone off to meet the Grand 

 Duke, so we pursued our journey without delay. 



The next stage was across a ridge, wooded to the summit 

 with fine park-like timber, and down a long and narrow 

 glen on the other side to Ananour. On the tongue of rock 

 projecting at the mouth of the glen stands a most pic- 

 turesque group of buildings, consisting of two old churches 

 and a belfry, enclosed by battlemented walls and towers. 

 The larger and more modern church is decorated externally 

 with large and elaborately-carved crosses, and sculptures of 

 trees with animals feeding on their branches. The village 

 clusters round the foot of the fortified mound, in a very 

 pretty position at the junction of two torrents. The road now 

 led up a narrow valley, the wooded slopes were frequently 

 dotted with castles and towers, and the vegetation was 

 richer than that of a Swiss, but the rocks not so bold as 

 those of an Italian, Alpine valley. At Pasanaur, remark- 

 able only for a church in the most gingerbread style of 

 Russian architecture, the river forks, and the road, follow- 

 ing the western branch, enters a defile, above which the 

 upper valley, lying at the foot of, and running for some 

 wnj parallel to, the main chain, opened before us. Scattered 

 hamlets and noble trees studded the slopes ; the lower 

 wooded buttresses of the mountains were beautifully 

 shaped ; the higher ridges (9,000 to 10,000 feet), 'up to their 

 summits clothed in green,' often ended in peaks of bold 

 outline, and picturesque glimpses of the snowy chain 

 opened from time to time up side-glens. The horses, which 

 had done seventy-five uphill versts in the day, required a 

 great deal of persuasiou to trot the last half -hour into 



