FIRST SIGHT OF ELBRUZ. 359 



traveller until he lias rounded a j)rojection of the northern 

 niountam-side, the base of which the stream hugs so 

 closely, that the path is obliged to wind along the slopes 

 overlooking the thick fir-wood beneath. Here we met 

 some hunters drivmg two donkeys, each laden with a fine 

 bouquetin, recently killed on the edge of the glacier. The 

 head of one carried a noble pair of horns, but the second 

 was a comparatively young animal. Having at length 

 turned the corner, we saw before us the source of the 

 Baksan, a large glacier filling the head of the valley. At 

 a deserted hut we halted for a consultation, and our men 

 gave us the choice of turning up a glen opening on our 

 right, or going still farther up the valle3% We decided on 

 taking the former, as being the most direct course. 



The climb into the glen was rather rapid ; above us, on 

 the left, rose a striking mass of columnar basalt strangely 

 contorted, and of a deep ruddy hue. The long grass was 

 fall of snakes, which, as a rule, are rarely found in the 

 Caucasus. One of the porters beckoned me to follow him 

 a few feet up the slope above the path, and pointed out 

 a flattened snow-dome, just visible over the top of the fine 

 icefall that closed the gien, as ' Minghi-Tau.' This was 

 our first sight of Elbruz since we landed in the Caucasus, 

 our only previous glimpse of the mountain having been 

 from the Black Sea steamer, when apjDroaching Poti. 

 Half-an-hour's walk below the end of the glacier, we found 

 the shepherds, who had fixed their quarters in a level 

 meadow, which we reached in nine hours from Uruspieh. 

 In order that we might be within easy reach of capital milk, 

 cheese, and 'kaimak' (a species of Devonshire cream) — 

 delicacies of mountain life which had been long wanting 

 on the south side of the chain — our tent was pitched close 

 to the herdsmen's bivouac. The sheep, apparently dis- 

 turbed by the novel erection which disfigured their rcstin^'-- 



