BYEWAYS. 399 



labours would have had any result, without the assistance 

 of a lady, the wife of one of the officers, and apparently 

 the only person in Naltschik who spoke any European 

 language but Eussian. By her suggestion, a round sum 

 was offered the men for the whole journey, and at last 

 they agreed to take us through the mountains to Ardonsk, 

 with liberty to be ten days on the road, for 130 roubles. 

 At the rate originally suggested, we should have paid 400 

 roubles for exactly the same advantages. The mention of 

 these figures will suffice to warn future travellers, that in 

 availing themselves of assistance from Eussian officials, 

 they must not leave any money arrangements in their 

 hands, unless they are willing to risk paying three times 

 the fair value for the services rendered. It was past 

 midday ere we shook hands over the bargain, and con- 

 sequently our start was deferred until the next morning, 

 when our new attendants promised to have the horses 

 ready. 



August ISth. — Wo set out for our ride at 6.30, after the 

 usual difficulty in collecting together all the animals, and 

 we finally left with one short of the promised number, 

 which the men undertook to make up on our arrival at 

 Balkar, the collective name of the highest group of 

 villages in the eastern branch of the Tcherek valley. We 

 were told it would take two days to reach Balkar, and 

 that, owing to the absence of shelter on the road, the first 

 night must be spent in the forest. The weather looked 

 unpromising ; a dull grey pall clung to the hillsides, and 

 blotted out half the beauties of the landscape. Naltschik 

 is situated on a small stream issuing from the neighbouring 

 hills some miles west of the Tcherek, to reach the banks 

 of which the road crosses the shoulder of a low chain. 

 The ground was covered with tall coarse herbage and 

 thickets of small timber, mingled with wild fruit-trees, 



