1S4 THE KRESTOWAJA GORA. 



and flowers were most luxuriant, owing to the quantity of 

 springs whicli burst out of the ground on all sides. There 

 is little distant view from the summit, on which is a stone 

 refuge. The Krestowaja Gora (or Kreuzberg, as translated 

 on German maps) is the real name of the pass over the chain 

 of the Caucasus leading from Asia into Europe ; ^ the 

 ordinary name of ' Dariel ' road is only so far appropriate 

 that the defile of Dariel is the most striking natural 

 feature between Vladikaf kaz and Tifiis. If the pass of the 

 Splugen from Chur to Chiavenna was ordinarily termed 

 the ' Via Mala road,' it would be an exactly parallel case. 

 The descent on the north side into the valley of the 

 Terek is one of only 1,500 feet, but it must be very dan- 

 gerous in spring, as the way lies down a deep glen choked 

 at the bottom with the remains of enormous avalanches, 

 . which in more than one j)lace still buried the track, oblig- 

 ing a passage to be cut through them. The slopes are ter- 

 raced, to protect the road; the idea of building covered 

 galleries has either not occurred to the Russian engineers, 

 or was considered too expensive by the Government. It 

 must be adopted if the pass is ever to be kept open at all 

 seasons. Kobi, the first village on the northern side, is 

 strikingly situated, at the point where the glen joins the 

 valley of the Terek. A high cliff shelters the posthouse, 

 from whence the summit of Kazbek is not in view, being 

 hidden by massive buttresses. The postmaster here was 

 tipsy. As an English traveller mentions the same fact in 

 1837, and as he was in a similar happy condition upon 



* I follow the most eminent modern geographers in considering the 

 Caucasian watershed as part of the boundary between Europe and Asia. 

 Though^this conclusion has been for many years generally adopted, the public 

 and their instructors are, as yet, scarcely awake to the necessary corollary 

 that Mont Blanc and Monte Rosa must be regarded as usurpers, and that 

 Elbruz and Kazbek, Koschtantau and Dychtau, are entitled to precedence on 

 the roll of European mountains. 



