68 
ROAD THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS. 
by numerous rocks in its channel, the noise with which it 
struggles for a passage, and rushes over them, may be heard 
at a great distance. Along the northern bank of the stream, 
the huts and little gardens of the settled Tatars, soften, with 
their forms of the gentler picturesque, the vast and terrible out¬ 
lines of nature by which they are surrounded. 
The valley, through which the Terek flows, was anciently 
denominated Porta Caucausia, from its being the great gate of 
communication between the nations on each side the mountains. 
Katherine the Second was the first European sovereign whose 
troops ever passed it from the north ; a party of whom, under 
General Tottleben, penetrated into Georgia, and paved the way 
for those successes which afterwards determined the Empress 
to establish a high road direct from this pass to Tiflis. But 
this project, so pregnant with great consequences, was left to 
be begun and completed by her grandson, his present Imperial 
Majesty ; who sent General Prince Tchitchianoff, to commence 
the undertaking, about the beginning of the year 1804; and, 
by the most indefatigable labour on the side of the workmen, 
and attentive zeal on his, it is now finished: no less an achieve¬ 
ment of incalculable utility, than it is one to be wondered at, 
and to command the lasting gratitude of all who have experienced 
its securities. 
As we travelled onward, along the right bank of the river, we 
found it in many places full a quarter of a mile broad ; and in 
others, where the cliffs projected very much, it was hardly thirty 
yards. Indeed, I am informed, there are points, where the 
opposite rocks draw so near, as to narrow the stream to less 
than half that width. When this is the case, the turbulence and 
