156 
KODl. 
spot of our little encampment, but is no regular post, and there¬ 
fore seldom, but when self-provided as we were, made a halting- 
place for travellers. We slept that night in our tents ; and, next 
morning, our two parties were to separate. 
After taking leave of my Russian friends, whose route was then 
directly contrary to mine, myself and my own little band set our 
faces to the south-west; gladly turning our backs on the bitter 
cold wind of the morning, which was blowing strongly and 
keenly from the north. When the line of mountains stopped at 
Saganlook, it did not terminate, but made an acute angle direct 
south; and thence continued, stretching along the magnificent 
acclivities which formed, as usual, an Alpine wall to our road. 
On quitting Saganlook, we bade adieu to the banks of the Kur, 
leaving that river far to the East of our future march. Having 
travelled about ten wersts onward, we descended a narrow and 
rocky ravine, into a fertile little vale, bounded, to the rising sun, 
by an inconsiderable, but romantically situated lake. The hills 
to the westward, on our right, presented old crumbling towers; 
and here and there a few clusters of mud- huts, the habitations of 
the peasantry, who were occupied on the low grounds, ploughing 
and sowing, for the early harvest. Each plough was drawn by a 
couple of oxen, or buffaloes. 
On leaving the valley, a steep ascent brought us to an exten¬ 
sive plain, and to Kodi, our first post, where we took fresh 
horses for the baggage. It is a small place, but delightfully 
situated, on a fine open tract of country, which spreads eastward, 
almost to the shores of the Kur. After an hour’s halt, we 
moved forward ; our point being Shoulavar, then distant nearly 
twenty-six wersts. The road would have been pretty good, but 
for the numerous little channels, which the natives had cut in 
