224 THE ARDOX VALLEY. 



of ' vodka ' as tliougli it had been water, without being 

 apparently in the least the worse for it, we thought it about 

 time to be off. We descended to the stream, and crossed 

 by a bridge to the meadow on its opposite bank. The 

 group which we had before noticed now advanced towards 

 us, and a grizzled old gentleman asked to see our permit 

 to travel. Thinking that a British Foreign-office passport 

 might be beyond his comprehension, and at the same time 

 not wishing to raise a needless difficulty, I offered for 

 inspection an old ' crown-podorojno.' We were surrounded 

 for some minutes by a curious crowd, but in due time the 

 paper was restored, the chief professed himself perfectly 

 satisfied, and we went on our way unmolested. 



After crossing a tributary stream, and passing another 

 gloomy-looking village, we had a dull but easy walk along 

 level meadows to the fork of the valley. The numerous 

 villages, alike in their rude stone houses and frequent 

 towers, are invariably perched on the hillsides, and often 

 on the isolated promontories of rock which form one of 

 the peculiar features of this district. The defile through 

 which the Ardon flows out to the north seemed to be 

 wooded in its lower portion, but the western arm of the 

 upper valley was as bare as that we had just traversed ; 

 we crossed its torrent by a bridge, and mounted the further 

 bank to reach the track of the projected carriage-road 

 from Yladikafkaz to Kutais over the Mamisson Pass. 

 The road has been traced, and partly cut along the hill- 

 sides, but as wherever a mass of rock required blasting, 

 nothing has been done, it is of course impassable for 

 vehicles : moreover, in many places torrents and earthslips 

 had already half destroyed the track, which appeared to have 

 been abandoned to its fate. Eoadmaking is not a Russian 

 virtue, and the authorities are so little accustomed even 

 at home to see anything Avhich would be called a road in 



