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UG THE EXPLORATION OF THE CAUCASrjS
the Suanetian snows, the liorn of Tetnuld or the white walls of
Shkara and Janga. The valleys are featureless and tame. In the
neighbourhood of Kutais they are enlivened by hamlets and the
farms of the old Mingrelian gentry, low one-storied dwellings, em-
bowered in vines, figs, peaches, and pomegranates. Great oxen,
goaded by peasants in long grey frock-coats, drag
wine-jars across the azalea commons. Groups
enormous earthen
of tall men and
comely women, sharing their meals vmder the shelter of the pine
and plane, or of orchard trees, recall Horatian measures. Mingrelia
has fairy tales ; it has pei'haps poetry. But it required the contrast
and stimulus of a great capital, the
' Fumum
et opes, strepituiuque Romoe,'
to create those admirable pictures of country life and country
pleasures, which Eton stamps into the memory even of her dullest
pupils.
What will the travellers of to-morrow care for these things ?
They will take the train. And how long will it be before the
nymph of the Nakarala has to lament the fall of her forests ?
how long before her tallest pines are converted into sleepers,
and her box-trunks cut up into blocks, to suit the purposes of
civilisation 1 The best one can wish for them is that they may
serve to commemorate the glories of their native heights, to carry
back the memories of a few, and to stir the imaginations of many,
with shadowy outlines of noble scenery. But there is yet hope.
Railway construction advances but slowly in Russia, and wood-
engraving
is on the decline.
Thinking of days and companions past and present, I rode slowly
down from the shrine of Gelati. Those white points on the
horizon, narheless twenty years ago, were now as familiar and
friendly to me as the Pennine peaks. Shkara and Tetnuld have
taken their place among the glories of the world that men love and
go on pilgrimages to visit. It was with a sad heart and lingering
eyes that I waved them what I then thought would be a last
farewell. But on the opposite bank of the Phasis rose, close at
'
hand, the acropolis of Kutais, the ancient city of -^a '
of Apollonius
Rhodius—and we hoped to catch the evening train to Batum.