PARI TO PATIGORSK. 337 



CHAPTEE XI. 



FEOM PAEI TO PATIGORSK, AND ASCENT OP ELBRUZ. 



A Captive Bear — Moore Harangues the Porters — Camp in the Forest — 

 A Plague of Flies — Lazy Porters — A Nook in the Mountains — Cattle 

 Lifting — Across the Chain in a Snowstorm — A Stormy Debate— A Log 

 Hut— Baksan Valley — LTruspieh — The Guest House — Villany Eewarded — 

 Minghi-Tau — An Idle Day — An Enlightened Prince — Passes to the Karat- 

 chai — Tartar Mountaineers — A Night with the Shepherds — A Steep Climb 

 — Camp on the Rocks — Great Cold— On the Snowfield — In a Crevasse — 

 Frigid Despair — A Crisis — Perseverance EeM'arded — The Summit — Pano- 

 rama — The Return — Enthusiastic Reception — The Lower Baksan — A Long 

 Ride — A Tcherkess Village — Grassy Downs — Zonitzki — Patigorsk. 



July 24:th. — It is not sucli an easy matter in tlie Caucasus 

 as in Switzerland to start in the morning at the hour fixed 

 overnight. Our new trooj) of porters had to be gathered 

 together from their respective abodes, and each article of 

 the luggage lifted, in order to test its weight, before the 

 business of arranging the burdens could proceed. More 

 than half was placed on the back of a ridiculously small 

 donkey, a meek-looking specimen of his race, with long 

 ears given to flap uncertainly backwards and forwards. 

 This animal was to accompany us for some hours, to re- 

 lieve our porters of a portion of their burden. 



On parting we presented the chief Cossack with an 

 English knife, with which he was very much pleased, and 

 we had consequently to submit to a repetition of the 

 hugging and kissing business so popular abroad, and 

 pai-ticularly in liussia, but which is not appreciated by 

 the reserved and unsympathetic Anglo-Saxon. Bidding 

 farewell to the kindly Cossacks, we took a f)ath which 

 connects Pari with the few villag-es to the west — the 



