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106 THE EXPLORATION OF THE CAUCASUS
the view from the pass itself along
gorge is singularly picturesque ;
the great chain is magnificent ; the upper valley of the liion oilers
many most lovely combinations of snows, flowers, and forests. In
the suddenness of the transitions from the romantic gloom of the
gorges to the stern nakedness of the mountain basins, and again
from these to the idyllic beauty of the Rion forests, the drive
is, as a whole, typical of Caucasian scenery.
It was on this track that we set out in 1889 for the mountains.
We were a party of nine, including four Swiss and a Jew, our
cook and intei'preter, whom we had picked up at a post- station
on the Darial road. Our departure lacked the usual cheerfulness
of a stai't for the mountains ; our eiTand was a sad one, and our
guides had been greatly discomposed by the stories they had heard
from German colonists in the wine-shops of Vladikavkaz. According
to local belief, our friends Donkin and Fox, and their Bernese guides,
Streich and Fischer, whose fate we had come to ascertain, had
all been the victims of treachery on the part of the mountameers.
In venturing into the same region without an escort, and with
only a Jew for leader, we were pronounced to be courting a
similar fate. These worthy citizens knew nothing whatever of
what they were talking about, and consequently were so picturesque
and eloquent in assertion that they thoroughly convinced
their audience. The occupants of the two hindermost post-carts
during the next two days wore an air of woful anticij^ation of
the worst.
As far as Alagir — that is, until the mountains are entered—
there is nothing but an unmetalled track across the broad treeless
steppe. The torrents descending from the northern glaciers of
Kasbek and Gimai-ai Khokh, very considerable streams, have been
left bridgeless, and the fords are sometimes deep enough to astonish
a traveller new to Russian recklessness.
Our tarantass, drawn by four horses harnessed abreast, proceeded
at a leisurely pace across a sea of wild-flowers, amongst which, in
late July, the pale mauve hue of the mallows predominated. To
the south the mountains rose in broad slopes, dark with forest.
Behind the first range the snows were seen from time to time.