388 PATIGORSK. 



most has been made of an unpicturesque situation, by 

 planting the ground round the springs, and laying out 

 winding walks under the trees. The morning band was 

 playing at the time of our arrival, and we met numerous 

 patients rambling about the park, through which we our- 

 selves strolled. The character of the landscape changes, 

 and the road enters a shallow valley, where the Podkumok 

 flows between low rounded hills, broken here and there by 

 projecting masses of white rock. The country is covered 

 with green pasturage, but entirely bare of trees. The 

 ruins of old fortifications, still visible here and there on 

 the flat hilltops, are records of the long period during 

 which this was debateable ground between the Cossack and 

 Tcherkess. We met on the way the omnibus which, for 

 the convenience of patients, performs a daily journey be- 

 tween Kislovodsk and Patigorsk, and vice versa. The 

 ' stanitza ' of Kislovodsk, with its green-domed church, is 

 left behind on the right, and the road, quitting the valley 

 of the Podkumok, crosses a low hill, and soon descends to 

 the baths, which have grown up round the most famous 

 spring of the Caucasus. Kislovodsk is thirteen versts 

 beyond Essentuky, and is situated in a narrow glen sur- 

 rounded by low hills, which deprive it of any extended 

 view ; it owes its only claims to beauty to the rich vegeta- 

 tion with which the care of successive governors, aided 

 by the natural fertility of the soil, has endowed it. A 

 fine avenue of poplars leads up to the baths ; the wood 

 beyond consists chiefly of acacias. 



We were driven to the ' Hotel de la Couronne,' kept by 

 the same manager as the hotel at Patigorsk, where we 

 found Dr. Smirnov, who proposed that we should at once 

 visit the baths. The building which now covers the 

 famous Narzan is in a style very far in advance of what 

 one would expect to find in so remote a position. It 



