A XIGHT IX THE FOREST. 253 



yet appearances were sufficiently encourag-ing to justify our 

 resolving to make the attempt. We accordingiy set to 

 work to search for a suitable spot for a bivouac. There were 

 plenty of boulders strewn about, capable of affording more 

 or less shelter, but there was no water ; therefore we 

 reluctantly decided that we must descend the steep fir-clad 

 bank below us to the side of the stream flowing from the 

 Gurdzieveesk Pass, which here runs in a narrow channel 

 between the hillside and the huge lateral moraine of the 

 Karagam glacier. We had not gone far when Frangois, 

 fortunately, hit upon a spring, and as there was a tolerably 

 level and sheltered spot of ground not far off, we at once 

 settled to remain there for the night. The first thing to 

 do was to cut a quantity of young fir-branches, to serve for 

 beds, and to eject sundry small boulders, which inconveni- 

 ently contracted our not over-large sleeping-place. We 

 next proceeded to unpack our provisions, to count over 

 and apportion our store of bread, and to hunt out certain 

 rare delicacies, which had been specially reserved for some 

 such occasion as the present. Our dinner was of the 

 most recherche description : a first course of sardines was 

 followed by chicken, and a box of jjdte de foie gras, one of 

 two purchased at Tiflis, which, spread not too thickly over 

 slices of Caucasian loaves, proved a ' lingering sweetness 

 long drawn out ' to all of us. 



It was very difficult to realise, as we sat and chatted 

 round the log-fire which Fran9ois had prepared, how far we 

 really were from home, and that our resting-place was not 

 some old Alpine haunt from which we should cross on the 

 morrow to Zerraatt or Grindelwald. In reality our posi- 

 tion was sufficiently strange, unable as we were to hold any 

 conversation with the people of the country, and separated 

 from our interpreter and luggage by a long day's journey 

 and a great range of mountains. Its discomforts and un- 



