THE SOURCES OP THE RIOX. 277 



shared with them. As a rule, the inhabitants of this 

 country care little for any further protection from the 

 elements than their big sheepskin ' bourcas,' which can 

 be arranged so as entirely to envelope the figure, and 

 may very likely have given rise to the fable that the 

 Caucasians are in the habit, when on the march, of carry- 

 ing with them small tents, and taking shelter in them 

 from the rainstorms, for which these mountains are justly 

 celebrated. 



July IMh. — The morning was fair, and the clouds were 

 blowing off the surrounding summits when we emerged 

 from our tent. The view up the valley was closed by the 

 snoAvy mass of the Edenis-Mta, and a small glacier which 

 descends from its flanks. The meaning of this name is 

 the Mountain of Paradise, and a tradition, similar to that 

 told of the ' Grand Paradis ' in the Graian Alps, is related 

 by the inhabitants concerning it. The track we now 

 followed abandoned the deep-cut channel of the Eion, and 

 climbed the very steep grass slopes of the range on the 

 west. Even the birch was soon left below, and we found 

 ourselves, after a long ascent, on a wide sloping pasturage 

 enamelled with alpine flowers, except in the hollows 

 where the snow still lay unmelted. The roots of the Eion 

 valley were now at our feet ; above them the main chain 

 rose in a steep wall of rock, over which the two glaciers in 

 Avhich the river has its source poured in narrow and 

 not very imposing icefalls. To the west the view was 

 limited hy the ridge we had to cross, but behind us, over a 

 gap in the lower hills, rose a serrated icy crest, the sum- 

 mits of which, although not on a scale of grandeur com- 

 parable to Adai Kiokh and its neighbours, would be 

 considered fine mountains anywhere in the Alj)S. 



Moore had been altogether vipset by the hot brew of gutta- 

 percha-flavoured grape-juice in which we had indulged on 



