KOBI. 
85 
unavailing toil, by the spent horses, that had it not been for the 
unwearied exertions of the soldiers in extricating it from its 
numerous difficulties, and yoking themselves to the work, we 
must have passed the whole of that inclement night upon the 
road. Sleety snow was mingled with the rain, and a cutting 
wind, that carried the cold through us, as if pierced with arrows. 
Though we had these ascents and descents, of sufficient mag¬ 
nitude to make our beasts feel the difference, yet the absolute 
line of the road was gradual ascending ever since we left Wlady- 
Caucasus ; our next day’s journey, therefore, from our anticipated 
night’s resting-place, it was hoped would bring us to the highest 
point of our mountain route, — a circumstance I began most 
devoutly to wish, from apprehension that if much longer exposed 
to the stress of up-hill work, the bad repair of my caleche would 
entirely give way ; a disaster of incalculable mischief to me, who 
had more essential calls for its use than the mere carriage of 
myself. But its trials, for this night, were not yet over. The 
darkness increased to such a degree, as did the thick falling snow, 
that it became impossible to see a yard before me: at length, 
after a tedious contest with various impediments, in the shape 
of heights, depths, and the darkness itself, we reached a bridge, 
and, for the last time, crossed the Terek, now become very 
narrow, and so quiet in its course, I judged all the broken rocks 
of the valley must be in our own path. From this spot our 
road lay across a plain, intersected with small shallow streams, 
but deep in water and snow, both of which completely drenched 
myself and people to the skin, so finishing what the fore-part 
of the evening had begun. It was not until eleven o’clock that 
we reached Kobi, almost chilled to death with wet and cold. 
This post, like most of the others, consists of a square fort, 
