UPS AND DOWNS. 321 



the same^liot gleams of sunshine alternating- with sharp 

 showers — but to-day the sunshine predominated. The 

 distance in a straight line from Suni to the next group of 

 villages is not great, but we were tAvo hours traversing 

 it, partly owing to the immense circuits made by the path 

 round lateral ravines ; it is compelled to keep at a high 

 level on the rugged hillside, as the bottom of the glen is 

 only wide enough for the Ingur, which flows for miles 

 through a gorge clothed by thick pine-forests. The chief 

 cause, however, of our slow progress during this and the 

 succeeding day was the absurd behaviour of our two horse- 

 men, who dawdled along at their horses' heads at a pace 

 of scarcely two miles an hour, and resented the remon- 

 strances made by Paul to the extent of drawing their pis- 

 tols on him. 



The j)Osition of the hamlets constituting El is pictu- 

 resque ; they stand at different heights on a sunny slope, 

 which falls into the gorge of the Ingur from the wooded 

 crest of the ridge dividing it from the Mushalaliz valley. 

 They are surrounded by fields, and the products of the 

 soil — hemp, Indian corn, and various kinds of grain — 

 showed that we were gradually approaching a milder 

 climate. We descended (I believe unnecessarily) in order 

 to pass through a lower hamlet, at which one of our horse- 

 men had a message to leave, and then faced a steep and 

 apparently interminable climb, through a beautiful forest, 

 thick enough to shut out all but occasional glimpses into 

 the bed of the Ingur. Tlie only new feature in the foliage 

 was the prevalence of pines,"^ which are seldom found near 

 the heads of the Caucasian valleys. Numerous sledge-ti-acks 

 branched off up the hill, and fear of missing the way obliged 

 us to keep close company with our sluggish horsemen. 



* Pinus sylvestris, Abies Xordmanniana, and Abies orientalis are, according 

 to Kaddc, found in the Suanetian forests. 



