70 
POST AT LARS. 
stupendous. The valley narrows to the appearance of a frightful 
chasm; so steep, so rugged, so walled in with rocks, as if cleft 
by the waters of the deluge. Its granite sides are almost perpen¬ 
dicular, and are many hundred feet in height. They are sur¬ 
mounted by summits lost in the clouds, which sweep along their 
ridges, or, rolling down the gloomy face of the abyss, form a sea 
of vapours, mingling with the rocks above our heads, as extra¬ 
ordinary as it is sublime. But, in short, that undescribable 
emotion of the soul, which instinctively acknowledges the pre¬ 
sence of such amazing grandeur in Nature’s works, is almost 
always our companion in these regions. 
Most of the Russian posts here, are on stations formerly 
occupied by the ancients, for the same purpose ; and the remains 
of these old fortresses may frequently be found in digging 
foundations for the new. At Lars, and about a werst from it, 
walls and towers of a commanding height, still rise in frowning, 
though decayed majesty, over the abrupt points of rock which 
defend the passage of the valley. By some, it is said to be one 
of the spots, where the locks or barriers, so much in use in 
times of antiquity, were erected; and indeed this part of the 
defile is so shut by nature, little trouble would be necessary to 
throw piles across, and close the whole with gates. 
Evening came on, while we were yet some distance from our 
halting-place. I regretted it the more, as the darkness would 
deprive us of every sense of the scenery we were passing 
through, except its probable danger. The increasing gloom and 
indistinctness of the surrounding objects ; the history of the 
place, in which we now silently and apprehensively travelled; 
the hoarse murmurs of the rushing waters at the foot of the 
ravine ; and the vague musings which possess a man journeying 
