452 RETURX TO TIFLIS. 



* new love,' which, without wishing to persuade them to be 

 ' oft' with the old,' we desire to introduce to the notice of 

 lovers of Al^Hne nature. I must now call attention to the 

 deficiencies of the Caucasus, and the points in which it is 

 manifestly inferior to its better-known rival. A total 

 absence of lakes, on both sides of the chain, is the most 

 marked failing. Not only are there no great subalpine 

 sheets of water, like Como or Geneva, but mountain-tarns 

 — such as the Dauben See on the Gemmi, or the Klonthal 

 See near Glarus — are equally wanting. There is no first- 

 class waterfall in any of the valleys we visited, nor did we 

 hear of any elsewhere. Certain districts, notably the head- 

 waters of the Terek, are duller than anything in Switzer- 

 land, and their treeless monotonous glens are defaced, 

 rather than enlivened, by the dingy and ruinous character 

 of the native dwellings. Add to this list of defects that, 

 on the north side, the mountains sink abruptly into a bare 

 and featureless steppe, and that the only halting-places 

 within reach — Patigorsk and Kislovodsk — cannot vie in 

 attractions with the numerous tourist-haunts on the north 

 side of the Alps, and we shall, I think, have fairly gone 

 through the principal charges to which Caucasian scenery 

 is liable. 



Readers seeking geological information in old scientific 

 works on the Caucasus must beware of the hasty genera- 

 lisations in which they indulge, on the strength of an 

 acquaintance with perhaps only one valley of the chain. 

 It is unfortunate that no member of our party was skilled 

 enough, to make his observations of value ; but we have the 

 authority of Herr Radde, as well as the evidence of our 

 own eyes, for stating that the central chain is chiefly com- 

 posed of granite, and that the rocks of both Kazbek and 

 Elbruz are igneous. I do not think that anyone who 

 has made close acquaintance with Elbruz will doubt its 



