DAROO MOUNTAIN. 
463 
in massy and spiral forms, like churches, standing perfectly in¬ 
sulated in the hollow of the dells. Two miles further on this 
serpentine and gently upland road, brought us to the village of 
Moznavi. The still towering extreme summit of the Tahite v/as 
left behind us rather to the south-east, but we now saw before us 
a new point of escalade; the smooth and marble side of the 
Daroo. I had thought the steeps of the Tahite sufficiently ardu¬ 
ous ; but here they seemed almost impracticable; yet our guide 
led us on without a shew of apprehension, and we followed. 
Words, however, cannot paint the difficulties of the pass. The 
road up which we clambered, was actually over naked and slip¬ 
pery marble rocks; then delved suddenly into deep clefts, and 
intricate and apparently untrodden paths between rough fis¬ 
sured slopes, bottomed with such beds of loose stones that the 
feet of our poor fatigued beasts sunk into them at every step, 
at the imminent risk of breaking their legs. But height after 
height of this terrible mountain rose before us, precipice on 
precipice ; and it is scarcely possible to describe what I felt, on 
looking at the people about me, and considering the dreadful 
task I had undertaken. Every mountain I had hitherto crossed, 
through the whole range of Caucasus, was security and easy 
travelling, compared with the actual dangers of this ; but our 
new Courdish guide, whom I had hired from Moznavi, made 
light of them, and went before us as if he were treading 
air. The great objects of difficulty, and therefore of peril, 
were enormous masses of the finest marble, projecting in every 
direction from the body of the mountain on the tracks we were 
ascending. Nothing could exceed their beauty; some purple, 
exquisitely veined, others blue and white, and many spotted 
with red and green jasper. Sometimes these rocks were hang- 
