VIEW FROM MACHOUCHA. 385 



(3,258 feet), wliither we climbed one cloudless morning, 

 and enjoyed a perfect view of the great chain, from 

 Kazbek, the crest of which was just distinguishable among 

 the slanting rays of the newly-risen sun, to the double- 

 headed Elbruz. The ugly little molehill, called the 

 Yutskaia Gora, which from the town cuts off some of the 

 lower portion of the mountain, is completely sunk, and 

 the whole 8,000 feet of unbroken snowslope, falling towards 

 the valley of the Malka, exposed to view. The monarch of 

 Caucasian and European mountains brooks no rivalry ; 

 clothed in his wide-spreading ermine mantle, he stands 

 forth a burly but not undignified sovereign, taller by the 

 head and shoulders than any of his neighbours. The 

 sharper peaks of Dychtau and Koschtantau are so distant 

 that none but a trained eye is likely to appreciate their 

 real height and beauty, and few who had not known them 

 before would have noticed the twin summits of Uschba. 

 shooting up, keen as ever, over the intervening ranges. On 

 the north, Beschtau was of course conspicuous ; elsewhere 

 the prospect extended over a boundless stepjDc, dotted by 

 isolated mounds like the ' tells ' of the Syrian desert. 



A . carriage-road has been lately completed round the 

 base of Machoucha, forming a pleasant afternoon's drive 

 for Patigorsk society. We followed it as far as the 

 sulphur-spring, called by Eussians ' The Proval.' It is a 

 natural grotto of the form of an inverted funnel, at the 

 bottom of which is a deep well of sulphur-Avater. A 

 Moscow merchant, who had benefited by the Patigorsk 

 springs, rendered the grotto accessible, by having a passage 

 cut to it through the hillside at his own expense. Owing 

 to its distance from the town, and the similarity of the 

 water to others nearer at hand, it is now little used. 



The hours kept by the patients are very remarkable. 

 They dine from 12 to 4 p. m., and sup from 8 p. m. to 1 a.m. ; 



c c 



