THE PASS OF THE CAUCASUS. 183 



Mleti, and we were amused at the difference between the 

 long' guttural grunts of the Russian driver, and the sharp 

 tones used by an Italian voiturier in like circumstances. 

 The station at Mleti is one of the most frequented and 

 best provided on the road. 



June 28th. — The ascent from Mleti, up a slope broken by 

 cliff's, is steeper than any Alpine carriage-pass I remember, 

 except the wonderful zigzags beside the Madesino Fall, on 

 the south of the Splugen. At one picturesque corner the 

 road is seen on the top of a cliff overhead, and anyone 

 unused to mountain engineering might well wonder how 

 it got there. A little fountain, spurting up a jet by the 

 wayside, is an incongruous bit of civilisation in the wilder- 

 ness. In mercy to the horses we walked, and having 

 scaled the rocky mass, which, during the latter part of our 

 drive the evening before, had seemed to block the valley, we 

 found ourselves on grass slopes covered with azalea-bushes 

 and smaller flowering plants. From this part of the road the 

 view of the head of the valley beneath is very striking. A 

 thin waterfall leaps down the opposite cliffs ; a village, close 

 beside a curious isolated rock, occupies the last habitable 

 spot in the valley, and higher up a mere ravine runs under 

 the base of a pointed peak, which rises above it in gi-and 

 precipices. A group of houses — consisting of barracks, a 

 station, and a wayside inn — stands on the mountain-side 

 about 1,000 feet below the pass, filling the place of the 

 * hospice ' on an Alpine road. I had slightly rubbed my 

 foot during the ascent, and therefore waited for the 

 carriage, but the rest of the party walked on as far as 

 Kobi. We now traversed, at a level, a steep hillside cut 

 into terraces, and staked up to prevent avalanches from 

 gathering impetus enough to sweep over and carry away 

 the road. The old horse-path crossed the ridge at a point 

 slightly to the east of the course now followed. The grass 



