BALTY. 69 
rage of the waters increase with the difficulties, to a degree that 
covers the barrier rocks, and the stream itself, with foam. 
For the first eight or ten wersts of our march from Wlady- 
Caucasus, the slopes of the mountains, on both sides the Terek, 
were clothed with trees and thick underwood ; but, as we pene¬ 
trated deeper into the valley, they gradually lost their verdure, be¬ 
coming stony and barren. On reaching Baity, a small but strong 
fort about twelve wersts forward, the hills assumed bolder forms, 
presenting huge protruding masses of rock, with very few spots 
of shrub or tree. The road here wears rather a face of danger, 
and must have been made, even thus passable, by the severest 
labour, aided by gun-powder. It runs beneath pendant arch¬ 
ways of stone, which are merely high enough to allow the pas¬ 
sage under them of a low carriage; but the path is so narrow as 
scarcely to admit two to move abreast, or pass each other, should 
they be so unlucky as to encounter; and on one side of the road 
is the edge of a precipice, which, in some places, is sixty feet 
deep ; and in others, above one hundred. At the bottom of 
this abyss are the roaring waters of the Terek. In casting the 
eye upwards, still blacker, and terrible precipices are above us. 
We see large projections of rock, many thousand tons in weight, 
hanging from the beetling steep of the mountain, threatening 
destruction to all below: and it is not always a vain apprehen¬ 
sion. Many of these huge masses have been launched down¬ 
wards by the effect of a sudden thaw ; and at various times, and 
various places, have so completely blocked up the regular road, 
as to compel the traveller to pass round them, often so near the 
brink of the precipice, as to be at the peril of his life. 
At another military station, called Lars, where we were to 
change our escort, the scene becomes still wilder and more 
