16 
KUBAN TAHTARY. 1 
chap, and, according to the opinion of the Commandant 
— > of the old mud fortress upon the Ae, when we 
entered their territory, were as much to be 
dreaded as the Circassians themselves. They 
passed us however very respectfully, probably 
owing to our number, which had been now 
augmented from twelve to twenty persons. 
Those whom we found in the different post- 
houses seemed to be as wild as American 
savages ; having their bodies quite naked, ex- 
cepting a sheep’s skin cast across their shoul- 
ders, with the wool on the outside. They 
usually appeared lying among the grass ; while 
the horses for the post were grazing around 
them. 
View of the As we drew near to the Kuban, we had 
Mountains, reached the last post-house before arriving at 
Ekaterinedara, when the view of the Caucasian 
mountains opened before us, extending, in a 
craggy and mountainous ridge, from east to 
west; but the appearance of the Caucasian 
barrier is inferior to the Alpine in grandeur, 
whatever may be their relative altitude 1 . Mar- 
shal Biberstein, a celebrated Russian botanist 
(0 The author has been since informed, that the ridge here alluded 
to is not the highest part of the Caucasian chain of mountains. 
