358 FROM TARI TO PATIGORSK. 



that all our preparations were completed. We had with 

 us five natives, who put the greater part of their loads, 

 for the present, on the backs of two horses, which were 

 to go with us as far as the highest pasturage. Our 

 companions were equipped with poles, armed with tre- 

 mendous iron spikes about two feet long, gradually taper- 

 ing to a point, and a species of ' crampon,' to attach to 

 the heel in climbing ice or slippery turf. They soon 

 proved themselves far better walkers than any we had yet 

 had to do with, and we retraced our stejDS up the valley 

 at a ver}" tolerable pace. Our plan had been to turn up 

 the glen leading to the eastern glacier of Elbruz, 

 ■which, by the map, is manifestly the most direct route to 

 the mountain, and, owing to our difficulty in conversing 

 with the poi-ters, it was not till the point where we pro- 

 posed turning off was reached that we found their inten- 

 tions differed. They declared that we must go up the 

 main Baksan valley to its head, and then turn to the right, 

 in order to reach the south-eastern Elbruz glacier. The 

 objections to the route we proposed were diverse ; there 

 were no shepherds in that direction, there was no path up 

 the glen, and it made such a circuit that it would take 

 three days to reach the foot of the mountain. The first 

 two reasons were plausible ; the third was ridiculous, and 

 entirely contradicted by the views we subsequently had in 

 the course of the ascent. 



As soon as we understood the points of the case, we 

 acquiesced in our men's wishes, and continued in our old 

 tracks up the valley, occasionally profiting by their local 

 knowledge to make short cuts through the wood. Close 

 to the hut where we had spent the night after crossing the 

 range, wild strawberries grew in great profusion, but, gene- 

 rally speaking, they do not abound in this country. A bend 

 in the direction of the valley hides its head from the 



