THE KARAGAM GLACIER. 251 



shepherds or travellers desirous to cross the glacier while 

 the snow was hard, a j)recaution almost essential for 

 people to whom the use of a rope is unknown. We were 

 too eager to gain a view of the ice-stream, which we 

 knew from the map must fill the hollow in which the glen 

 at last merges, to take advantage of any of these bivouacs. 

 Scattered firs made their appearance, relieving the other- 

 wise desolate character of the scenery, and the Caucasian 

 rhododendron covered the ground, filling up the crannies 

 between the rocks with its thick branches. 



There were now some slight traces of a path, and we came 

 suddenly upon two peasants (probably natives of Zenaga, 

 the highest village in this branch of the TJrueh vajley) and 

 a donkey, the object of whose mountain excursion we were 

 unable to ascertain owing to our ignorance of the Caucasian 

 dialects. The two parties having satisfied each other, by 

 a close mutual inspection, that no harm was intended on 

 either side, separated ; the peasants taking a track leading 

 towards the valley, while we went forward in search of a 

 point which might overlook the great glacier, and afford 

 some insight into the chances of our proposed vejiture on 

 the morrow. An isolated grassy knoll, just in the mouth 

 of the glen, seemed the spot most likely to offer the view 

 we wanted, and the scene which burst upon us on reaching 

 it so far exceeded and differed from our expectations that, 

 at first, we could hardly realise its magnificence. The 

 whole bed of the valley into which the glen falls is filled 

 by an immense glacier only surpassed in the Alps by the 

 Aletsch.* Its head was hidden behind nearer buttresses, 



* Herr Abicli alludes to this glacier in the following terms : — ' A superb 

 glacier of the first class descends on the north from the Adai-Kliokh group 

 between the ridges of Bordjoula and of Saourdaour. It is the Khaltschi- 

 Don glacier. It is at least 1,500 feet broad, and traverses the forest region for a 

 great distance. Approaching the village of Zenaga, it descends to a level of 

 5,700 feet, the lowest point known to be reached by any Caucasian glacier.' 



