430 RETURN TO TIFLIS. 



Our Cossack told us that in the old days a native guard 

 was stationed on the knoll where we were seated, to protect 

 passers-by from the assaults of robbers, who were wont at 

 times to leap out from behind the rocks on their victims, 

 and hurl them over the adjoining precipices. The frequent 

 tombstones we had passed are, in many instances, monu- 

 ments to these unlucky wayfarers. The path now turned 

 sharply to the east, and crossed a brow where the limestone 

 rock cropped out on the surface, and was strangely split 

 into clefts and crannies, which caused some embarrass- 

 ment to the horses. Having now fairly emerged from the 

 gorge, we for a time turned our backs on the Uruch, and 

 rode across a steep hillside, until we reached the top of the 

 low ridge forming the watershed between that river and a 

 number of streams which flow down through densely- 

 wooded glens to join the Terek further east. The track 

 somewhat suddenly entered a thick forest of entirely sub- 

 alpme character ; the beech was the principal tree, but 

 there was a great variety of foliage, and the usual dense 

 underwood of rhododendron and azalea, some of the 

 plants of the latter being on a level with our heads as 

 we rode between them. 



We could not, however, give our undivided attention to 

 the sylvan attractions of the scenery, as our progress was 

 rendered more or less difficult by the swampy nature of 

 the ground, aggravated by the late rains, and by the low 

 branches which, had we not been ruthlessly cropped by a 

 Piitigorsk barber, would have threatened us with the fate 

 of Absalom. The weather most unluckily again turned 

 bad; rain threatened, but held off till after luncheon, 

 which we enjoyed on a freshly-mown meadow. The path 

 continued to follow the watershed, and, after riding along 

 the bare crest, we tm-ned sharply down a spur separating 

 two deep but narrow glens, and again entered the forest. 



