TLAXS FOR THE FUTURE. 391 



pointed out tlie route we wished to take. Our plans were 

 afterwards so fully carried out that I may here repeat, for 

 the benefit of my readers, what was then explained to the 

 General. 



We had selected Naltschik, a small town and military 

 post at the foot of the mountains, distant some eighty 

 versts from Piitigorsk, as our new base of operations ; 

 thence we desired to push up the eastern arm of the 

 Tcherek (to be distinguished from the better-known 

 Terek, of which it is a tributary), and cross from its head, 

 by a j)ass, called ' Per Stuleveesk ' in the map, to the head- 

 waters of the Uruch, the valley into which we had already 

 looked down from the icefall of the Karagam glacier. 

 After following this river for some distance, we proposed to 

 turn, by a track crossing low spurs, to Ardonsk, the second 

 station on the post-road on this side of Vladikafkaz. 

 Our object in adding this supplementary piece to the pro- 

 gramme with which we left England, was to gain some 

 knowledge of the scenery and geography of the great 

 mountain- group under the southern face of which we had 

 rambled in Eastern Suanetia. Viewed on the map, this 

 group appeared to resemble in shape the letter T, the top 

 bar being represented by the watershed, from a point 

 above Jibiani to Tau Totonal, and the downstroke by a 

 gigantic spur, in which are situated the second and third 

 summits of the Caucasus— Koschtantau and Dychtau. 



Had not what we had already accomplished been kno^vn, 

 our wish to penetrate the recesses of the mountains would 

 not have been so easily believed, and greater difficulties 

 might probably have been suggested. The most useful 

 piece of information we obtained was that the Stuleveesk 

 Pass was practicable for horses — a very impoi-tant fact, 

 as it obviated the necessity of again encumbering our- 

 selves with a troop of porters, and suggested the pleasing 



