278 CAUCASIAN GLACIERS AND FORESTS. 



the previous night, and had great difficulty in making any 

 progress ; so Tucker and I pushed on by ourselves, leaving 

 !Fran9ois to help our friend, and Paul to keep an eye on 

 the team of porters. We walked briskly over the wide 

 Alp, anxious if possible to reach the ridge (called by 

 Eadde the Goribolo Hohe) before the clouds had again 

 shrouded the mountain-tops. In this we were unsuccessful. 

 The pasturages were of great extent, and were linked to 

 the chain separating the Rion and Zenes-Squali by 

 a long flat-topped ridge, the ascent from which to the 

 actual pass was very considerable. One of the porters had 

 pointed out to us the spot we were to make for, a rocky 

 eminence considerably to the right of the lowest point in 

 the ridsre. On reachinof it we found that the mists had 

 already enveloped all the western chain, and that our hopes 

 of learning something of Koschtantau and its neighbours 

 were disappointed. We had, however, a good view of the 

 western end of the Eion basin, and of the picturesquely- 

 shaped summits of the Schoda chain. At our feet on the 

 west was a short glen, running down to the wooded 

 ravine of the Zenes-Squali ; a spur parallel to that on 

 which we stood separates the two sources of that river. 

 A faintly-marked zigzag, by which the peasants of the Rion 

 valley reach the upper snowfields, and pass over them 

 to the pasturages round the headwaters of the Tcherek, 

 on the north side of the mountains, could be traced 

 climbing the steep slopes of the main chain on the west of 

 the Rion sources. The pass is probably free from serious 

 difficulty, as cattle are sometimes ' lifted ' over it, but it 

 must lead across a wide expanse of snow and ice. 



It will be seen, on any of the modern maps of the Cau- 

 casian provinces, that it is at this point of the chain that 

 the name Pass-Mta is printed, in characters which seem to 

 indicate the position of a peak only inferior in height and 



