368 ASCENT OF ELBRUZ. 



at our feet, and we could see beyond tliem tlie snowy- 

 crested Leila, and in the far distance the blue ranges of 

 the Turkish frontier, between Batoum and Achaltzich. 

 Shifting ag-ain our position, we looked over the shoulders 

 of a bold rock-peak, the loftiest to the west of Elbruz, and 

 endeavoured to make out the Black Sea. Whether the level 

 grey surface which met our eyes was water, or a filmy mist 

 hanging over its surface, it was impossible to distinguish. 

 The mists, beating below on the slojje of the mountain, 

 hid the sources of the Kuban, but we looked immediately 

 down upon those of the Malka. On this side the slope 

 of the mountain seemed to be uniform for nearly 10,000 

 feet ; and although there is nothing in its steepness to 

 render an ascent impossible, the climb would be very long 

 and toilsome. 



We were not hungry, and, if we had wished to drink 

 anyone's health, we had nothing to drink it in ; so we gave 

 vent to our feelings, and surprised the porters, with ' Three 

 times three, and one more ! ' in honour of the old mountain, 

 which, by the help of wind and cold, had made so good a 

 fio'ht against us. We then hurried back to the first 

 summit, on which, as it seemed somewhat the highest, 

 Francois had already set himself to work, to erect a small 

 stone-man. 



At this period, some one remembered that we had for- 

 gotten all about the rarity of the air ; we tried to observe 

 it, but failed, and I think the fact that, at a height of 

 18,500 feet, no single man, out of a party of six, was in 

 any way affected, helps to prove that mountain-sickness is 

 not a necessary evil, and that it only affects those who are 

 in bad training, or out of sorts, at the time. Such is my 

 experience, so far as it goes, having only twice suffered 

 from it — once in an attempt on the Dent Blanche, on 

 the first day of a Swiss tour, and again on Ararat, 



