EESULTS OF THE EXPEDITION. 267 



wliicli bounds every northward view from tlie Upper 

 Rion, and to learn something of the breadth and character 

 of this portion of the Caucasian watershed. The result of 

 our expedition was satisfactory, for it enabled us to form 

 a tolerably correct idea of the general character of the 

 chain westwards from the Mamisson Pass to the sources 

 of the Rion. Tau Burdisula may be taken as a point of 

 division ; from it to the Koschtantau group, the central 

 ridge is too narrow to support any vast snowfields or first- 

 class glaciers, while to the east of it the chain branches into 

 a network of ridges, the spaces between which are filled 

 by vast neve-reservoirs, of which the Karagam glacier is 

 only one of the outlets. No attempt to distinguish these 

 ridges, or to name the numerous peaks which rise out 

 of them, has been made by the authors of the Five Yerst 

 Map ; but the portion of the chain between Tau Burdisula 

 and the Mamisson Pass, from the number and height of its 

 summits and the size of its glaciers, forms undoubtedly one 

 of the most remarkable mountain-groups of the Caucasus. 

 July 12th. — Our quarters were not so luxurious that we 

 cared to remain in them longer than necessary, and we 

 rose at daybreak. Our breakfast was workhouse fare, 

 stale bread and water, and very little of the former. It 

 did not take long to dispose of, and we were glad to set 

 out and shake off, by a brisk walk down to the valley, the 

 chill and stiffness produced by our night's lodging and 

 previous hard work. We soon lost sight of the track of 

 the previous evening, and ran down the steep and, at 

 first, only partially-wooded slopes in search of another. 

 Before very long we lighted on a broad path, which, after 

 skirting the hillside for some little distance, descended by 

 a succession of steep zigzags to the stream, which, rising 

 in the glaciers of Adai Khokli, joins the Glola-Squali 

 between Gurschavi and Glola. When we got fairly into 



