of the Old World. 427 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



CIRCASSIA, continued. THE ASCENT OF MOUNT 

 EL-BRUZ. 



Forest scenery. The first halt. A glacier. A beautiful 

 panorama. Sunrise. A lamraergeier slain. Glacier travel- 

 ling. Eternal snow. Avalanches. The lower summit at- 

 tained. Our exultation. A description of the higher summit. 

 The impossibility of reaching it. Grand scenery. Intense 

 glare. The descent commenced. A sudden death. Kuchuc's 

 last resting-place. Fatiguing fag. The bivouac in the pine- 

 forest. An ibex killed. Return. Finale. 



forest glowed with the most vivid autumn 

 * tints ; the foliage of the different trees exhibit- 

 ing every shade, from the brightest orange to the 

 deepest red; and contrasted strangely with the 

 peculiarly rich colouring of masses of rocks here and 

 there intermingled, forming a picture, of Nature's 

 painting, which surpassed all the efforts of an artist 

 to depict. Ferns nearly six feet in height, and of a 

 species I had not previously seen, grew in the greatest 

 profusion, whilst indigenous myrtle, box, laurel, 

 rhododendron, and gigantic heath-bushes, grew in 



