A DILETTANTE IN THE CAUCASUS. 215 



bunch of needles, which make a striking outline against the 

 sky. At every bend in the valley there is a village, or aul, on 

 the projecting spur, with an old watch-tower, so that signals 

 could be telegraphed right through the pass. At Kobi there is a 

 narzan, or chalybeate spring ; the water is abundant and cold, 

 clear, ferruginous, and aerated, tasting like that of Spa. 

 Doubtless one day there will be a kurort here. In June 

 there is still plenty of snow melting in these treeless alpine 

 slopes and meadows. Grey Crows (Corvus comix comix, 

 seraia vorona in Eussian), Chough (khushitsa), Turtle Doves, 

 Black Eedstarts (Ruticilla ochrurus, Gm.), are common ; and 

 Montifringilla alpicola (Pall.), Wagtails, Grey Shrikes, and 

 Wheatears are also numerous. Of the latter (Kdmenka), there 

 are ten subspecies in the Caucasus, so I hesitate to identify them ; 

 very likely they were Saxicola cencmthe rostrata, Hempr. and 

 Ehrehb., " the commonest bird in the district," according to 

 Satunin. 



Over the watershed the deep valley of the White Aragva is 

 as fine as the Gorge of Darial, but of a different type : the 

 descent into the valley at Mlety was very abrupt, and the 

 southern vegetation rapidly becomes denser ; the milder air on 

 the southern slope is at once noticeable ; the hillsides are covered 

 with vegetation, and assiduously cultivated to a considerable 

 altitude, in spite of the apparently impossible steepness. In 

 the lower reaches the scenery is much milder ; well-wooded hills 

 replace the bold and naked crags, and the Aragva is a meeker 

 stream than the turbulent Terek. The road by Passanaur and 

 Ananur is particularly thickly wooded ; here the local Jay, 

 Garrulus krynickyi, Kal. (soika), is common ; Magpies, Pica 

 pica pica (soroka), and Turtle Doves, Turtur turtur (gorlinka), 

 are abundant ; Swifts, Cypselus apus (strizh), are numerous ; but I 

 did not see C. melba. I saw one small Sandpiper, probably Actitis 

 hypoleucos. In the gardens of every inn there is a young Bear 

 chained up. There are two forms of the Brown Bear in the 

 Caucusus — Ursus arctos typicus, L., and U. arctos meridionalis, 

 Midd. According to Dinnik there is a noticeable difference in 

 their habits, the typical form preferring the forests, rarely 

 appearing in the alpine meadows or among the higher crags, 

 while the smaller race in summer is often met with at great 



