ACHALTZICII. 469 



situation of Atskur, the halfway station between Boijoia 

 and Achaltzich, is extremely picturesque. The houses are 

 grouped at the base of an abrupt crag, crowned by the 

 extensive remains of an old Georgian fortress, which com- 

 manded alike the entrance to the defile and the bridge 

 over the Kur. The type of the buildings, and of the men 

 we met on the road, had already changed ; the ' baschlik ' 

 and cartridge-breasted coat had disappeared, and we saw 

 in their place the turbans and dress of a Turkish race. 



Atskur marks the limit between the wooded and bare 

 country; beyond it the landscape became more open, and we 

 found ourselves again in the region of rolling hills which ex- 

 tends as far as Erivan and Erzeroum. The road was heavy, 

 and our cattle were weak poor-spirited brutes, though far 

 superior to the driver, who was the most incompetent man 

 for his post we had yet come across. We had constantly 

 to get out and walk, and even thus the heavy carriage had 

 several narrow escapes of rolling back again, horses and all, 

 when halfway up one of the steep hills which occurred 

 every quarter of a mile. The Kur forces its way through 

 a narrow cleft in a low range, and the road is carried over 

 the brow. Above this the valley opens out into a broad 

 cultivated basin, and there is nothing to attract attention 

 until the green roofs and white walls of the Russian 

 quarter of Achaltzich come into view. Our carriage might 

 never have reached it, had not the conductor forced the 

 miserable postilion to dismount, and himself urged on 

 the horses. 



Achaltzich, though not an imposing, is an interesting 

 place ; it is situated on the banks of a tributary of the Kur, 

 which divides it into two quarters, the Turkish and Russian 

 ■ — the former exactly similar to every other military colony 

 in the Caucasus ; the latter a mass of grey flat-roofed 

 houses, rising tier above tier against a steej) hillside, the 



