FRAX90IS IX DIFFICULTY. 377 



distance not unlike the sea. To tlie soiitli we liad occasional 

 glimpses, through the clouds, of the snowy chain we were 

 leaving. Our progress was delayed by the breakdown of 

 the cart, which its OAvner haj)pily succeeded in exchanging 

 for another we found on the road. Now up and now down, 

 we traversed for hours the same description of country, 

 passing between meadows of gigantic weeds, amongst 

 which the wild sunflower had the pre-eminence. Lunch 

 took jDlace, under the shadow of the cart, beside a muddy 

 brook, the only water we saw for miles. Our progress 

 throughout the day was of the slowest description ; one of 

 us rode the horse in turn ; the others either walked or took 

 lifts in the bullock-cart, which creaked slowly along at 

 about two miles an hour. We had one good laugh to 

 relieve the dulness of the ride. Fran9ois, whose notions 

 of horsemanship are jjractical but not scientific, was about 

 to mount the horse, when he felt that the stirrup was 

 weak. He met the difficulty without hesitating for a 

 moment, by going round to the other side and mounting 

 with the left leg foremost, consequently with his face 

 to the tail. This result, however, had been foreseen, and, 

 with a dexterity for which we were unprepared, the rider 

 wriggled himself round in the saddle, quite unconscious of 

 the amusement his proceedings had afforded to the party in 

 the cart. 



As we drew near the river Malka the hills sank, and the 

 country became well cultivated, the grain principally 

 grown being a kind of spelt. The view was very striking 

 from the brow above the slight descent to the ford. 

 On the river-bank was a large Tcherkess village, and 

 before us a vast plain — golden in parts with uncut corn, 

 dotted in others with the small ricks into which the 

 peasants first heap it — stretched to the horizon. A group of 

 bold hills rose like islands in the distance, in the loftiest 



