Untitled

100 THE EXPLOllATJO.N Ui' THE CAUCASUS
crosses it. ought to be, and doubtless is, practicable
for Caucasian
horses, but at that date we could not procure any to carry our
baggage. Nothing can well be more tame than the upper valley
of the Tei-ek above Kobi. The rocks are friable, the slopes uniform,
and the scenery is dreary and monotonous. The summit south of
the pass, Zilga Khokh (12,646), is notable as having been used by
General Chodzko as a trigonometrical station. On the descent
there is more variety in the landscape. The slate peaks of the
ridge Avhich divides the Nardon soui-ces from the tributaries of the
Kur rise in bold shapes from broad platforms, separated by grassy
gaps, which form passes over the main chain. The almost treeless
valleys consist of alternations of deep basins, and often impassable
gorges. On high jjerches, or defensible ridges, stand the rude
walls and towers of fortified farms and villages, the most remote
fastnesses of Ossetia.
This district has been approached by travellers, Dr. Abich and
Professor Hahn, from Gori on the Tiflis Rail'way by the valley of the
Liakhva and the Bakh-fandak or Roki Passes. Hitherto no Enghsh
mountaineers have followed these tracks, which are interesting in
scenery, and particularly interesting to geologists as leading near one
of the most important volcanic centres of the Caucasus.
Since the prospect scarcely pleases — at any rate, does not absorb
the traveller's attention—he may turn with interest to the people
into whose inmost territory he has penetrated. The Ossetes/ who in
1881 numbered 111,000 souls, are one of the most important of the
Caucasian tribes. They have dwelt in the same region, under slightly
different names, from the dawn of history. They had their golden
age when their communities spread north and south of the chain,
when the steppe was whitened with Ossete flocks, and the vintages
of the Georgian hills were gathered in by Ossete labourers. But
Queen
they remain essentially a primitive and a mountain people.
Thamara, the Charlemagne of the Caucasian isthmus, at the close of
the twelfth century spread Christianity among them and dotted
their heights with churches ;
the Kabardans from the Crimea drove
• Ossi is the Georgian, Assi the Kussian appellation : the people call themselves Irons. See
Hahn's Aus dtin Kaukaxus.