296 SUANETIA. 



more accurate, only that at the present day the relations 

 of the vermin and the population have been reversed. 



The nature of the country has no doubt had a great 

 share in forminc^ the savajire and wild character of its 

 inhabitants. A large basin, forty miles long by about 

 fifteen broad, is shut in on all sides by glacier- crowned 

 ridges, and the only access to it from the outer world is by 

 means of a narrow, and at times impassable, ravine, or over 

 lofty mountain-passes. The main chain of the Caucasus 

 forms its boundary on the north, and this reaches its 

 greatest elevation and true central point in the huge 

 glacier-seamed, peak- surmounted wall which towers over 

 the sources of the Ingur. Tau Totonal (or Tetnuld) must 

 be over 16,000 feet, and the summits of the serrated range, 

 which stretches from it to the east for several miles, do 

 not average less than 15,000 feet in height. Three glaciers, 

 the Nuamquam, the Goroscho, and the Adisch, pour down 

 from this wall into three separate glens. They descend 

 to a level of about 7,000 feet, which may be taken as the 

 lowest point reached by glaciers on the southern side of 

 the Caucasus. The chain between Tau Totonal and Uschba 

 (called also Besotch-Mta by Radde) makes a semicircular 

 sweep to the north, and at least two considerable glaciers, 

 the Gatun Tau and the Thuber, descend from it into the 

 Mushalaliz branch of the main valley. Uschba itself is a 

 gigantic promontory, standing out between the glens of two 

 of the northern tributaries of the Ingur; like so many others 

 of the great peaks, it does not seem to be on the water- 

 shed, but it is the only one I know that is on the southern 

 side. 



A long lateral ridge, forming the westei'n boundary of 

 the Nakra valley, through which one of the best-known 

 passes leads to the northern side of the mountains, runs 

 out at right-angles to the central chain, and forms the 



