•264: CAUCASIAN GLACIERS AND FORESTS. 



dark forest-clad ravines, tbrougdi the centre of wliicli tlie 

 Rion finds a devious way to Kutais and tlie Mingrelian 

 lowlands. The waters of the river flashed in the sunshine, 

 and pointed out the deep cleft through which it passes 

 before reaching Oni. On the one side rose the imposing 

 mass of the Schoda ; on the other was a cluster of snowy 

 peaks, remarkable for their elegant pyramidal outlines, 

 situated to the south-east of Gurschavi, and separating- 

 some of the headwaters of the Ardon and the Kion. Far 

 away in the west a high glacier- crowned chain arrested 

 the attention ; reference to the map showed that it must be 

 the Leila mountains, which form the southern boundary 

 of Suanetia. The mists, which some hours earlier had 

 been sufficiently numerous to cause anxiety, had now 

 melted away, and left the blue sky unclouded. It was a 

 perfect summer's evening, and the sloping rays of the sun, 

 already sinking rapidly towards his rest, flooded and 

 transfigured the wide landscape with a golden glory, which 

 overcame the indifference to the charms of nature too 

 often brought on by fatigue, and roused us to make 

 constant appeals to one another to admire some freshly- 

 discovered beauty. 



A very short scramble down the crags brought us to 

 the head of the gully, where we were delayed by an 

 incident we regarded only as ludicrous at the time, but 

 which caused us a provoking loss. Tn stepping off the 

 rocks on to the snow. Tucker suddenly subsided into a 

 deep hole, the existence of which was concealed by a thm 

 and treacherous crust. He went down at least ten feet 

 below the surface, and the chasm was so narrow that 

 considerable exertion was required to haul him out 

 again. It was not discovered till some time afterwards 

 that an excellent telescope had been wrenched off his 

 shoulders in the struggle. It Avas an illustration of 



