312 SUANETIA. 



crevasses, wliicli offer little temptation to an assault. 

 Nowhere in the Alps have I seen any barrier -which 

 approaches the apparent impracticability of this portion of 

 the central ridge of the Caucasus ; between Tau Totonal 

 iind the sources of the Ingur its magnificence can 

 scarcely be overrated. The ease of our start, and the 

 absence of any crowd of greedy peasants, was a pleasant 

 change from the annoyances of the previous day. Our 

 course was clear enough ; a double track, which showed 

 that the Suanetians drag sledges over the pass, ascended, 

 in well-turned zigzags, the flowery slopes of the ridge, 

 known by the unpronounceable name of Dschkjiimer, 

 which separates the Kalde and Adisch valleys. Like 

 most mountain walks, the ascent is divided into three 

 stages — a steep climb, then a gentle rise over shelving 

 pasturages, followed by a short pull up to the final ridge. 

 It took us two hours to reach the top of the pass from 

 the tower. During the last few minutes of the ascent, an 

 apparently lofty snow-peak showed just enough of its head, 

 over the bank we were climbing, to stimulate our curiosity, 

 but in no way prepared us for the magnificent scene which 

 burst into view from the summit. The first thing which 

 fixed our attention was the icefall of the Adisch glacier."^ 

 Unlike the glaciers supplying the two eastern sources of 

 the Ingur, which are fed only by the snow lodged on 

 shelves of the clifFs that surround them, the Adisch 

 glacier is the outflow of large reservoirs of frozen snow, 

 invisible from below, and lying at the back of the line of 

 precipitous peaks we had been gazing up at with so much 

 awe and admiration for the last two days. 



* Radde mentions a second name, Gatuntau glacier. Is not Gatuntau a 

 corruption of Koschtantaii, and do not the snowfields which feed the icefall 

 surround the base of Koschtantau ? These are questions for an explorer. The 

 liussian engineers gave up this part of the chain as a had job, and the Five Verst 

 Map is q^uite unintelligible. 



