THE BETSCHO VALLEV. 331 



the Betscho-Tshalai, and follow tlie main valley of the 

 Ingnr. Our horsemen, who were more insufferably in- 

 dolent and imjuident than ever, refused to take a track 

 leading- apparently in the right direction, and conducted 

 us instead by a path up the Betscho glen. The way was 

 through a wood of copper-beech and aspen, where the 

 branches formed a frame to the majestic Uschba, whose 

 base we were approaching. The men had told us we 

 should be in Pari by the middle of the day, and trusting 

 to their account we had not, as usual, brought provisions 

 with us. Having already been out three hours, and ap- 

 pearing by the map to be little nearer our destination than 

 at starting, we sent Paul into the nearest village to see if 

 he could get any bread ; he succeeded in purchasing one 

 loaf, which had a medicinal taste, as if flavoured with 

 castor-oil, and was only made eatable by extreme hunger. 

 The villages of Betscho are castellated ; one of them, the 

 Mazer of the Five Yerst Map, is of large size, and looks very 

 picturesque from a distance. Turning at length down the 

 glen, we retraced our steps at a lower level along the grassy 

 banks of the Betscho-Tshalai,'^ until nearly opposite a ham- 

 let named Doli, on the right bank of the stream, to which we 

 crossed by a good bridge. As long as we were in the Betscho 

 glen, the forest was still dense, and the foliage varied ; 

 but when, after a tedious ascent, we rounded the brow 

 that overlooks the junction of the streams, and turned 

 along the hillsides above the Ingur, the character of the 

 scenery underwent a sudden change. At the western ex- 

 tremity of Suanetia the Ingur flows in a deej) defile, be- 

 tween the projecting bases of the main chain and the Leila 

 mountains. All the villages are built at a height of 

 from 2,000 to 3,000 feet above the stream, on the northern 



* Called Dodra by the people of Pjiri. 



