414 THE TCHERKK VALLEY. 



our men, wlio declared that the horses were overloaded, and 

 could not possibly carry the baggage over the mountain 

 unless their masters received higher pay. While declining 

 to accede to their demand, we pointed out that we should 

 all walk the greater part of the way, and that the baggage 

 might be subdivided, as our two men would be perfectly 

 content to have one horse between them. By this means, 

 after a vexatious amount of palaver and delay, the question 

 was settled, and we set out up the eastern branch of the 

 Tcherek. After passing over the level meadows, and the 

 stony bed of a stream flowing from the glacier of an un- 

 pronounceable peak which rises grandly on the left, the 

 path climbs a gentle ascent, whence the tops of both Dych- 

 tau and Koschtantau are for a moment visible together, 

 and then finds itself in another plain, apparently an old 

 lake-bed. A strong iron-sj)ring bursts out under the hill- 

 side, and colours half the plain with a bright-red deposit. 



On the opposite side of the lightly- wooded glen, a large 

 glacier pours over the clifi*s, descending from the same 

 snowfields which feed the infant Eion on the southern 

 side. The termination of the glacier is most peculiar and 

 picturesque. The frozen flood descends in one great 

 sheet, until it reaches the edge of the line of clifi*s im- 

 mediately over the valley, and then separates into two por- 

 tions ; the larger pours down in an icefall, broken into 

 the usual minarets and towers ; the other keeps a course 

 parallel to the river, along the top of the clifl*s, until it 

 finds a curious cleft, into which it plunges, and shoots 

 forth a long tongue of ice. Mineral waters, fine air, and 

 mountain excursions are all ready prepared, and some day 

 perhaps a comfortable bathing establishment may make this 

 spot a centre for mountain explorers. 



The main stream finds its way, both in and out of this 

 basin, through deep clefts, and the path makes a rough 



