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CHAPTER VI THE ADAl KHOKH GROUP Ilia sub horrendis praedura ciibilia silvis, Illi sub nivibus sonini, curaeque, laborque Pervigil. CLAUDIAX. 'HE traveller who crosses the Mamison Pass has frequently ill sight the broad glaciers and closely clustered summits of a mountain group which rises steeply above the sources of the Rion. This block of mountains and glaciers situated on the main chain, near the spot where it ceases to be the watershed, and about half-way between Kasbek and the Central Group — that is, some fox'ty miles from either. The upper valleys that almost enclose it run roughly parallel is to the main ridge of the Caucasus. The Rion and Ardon valleys are best represented by two T's, the Urukh by a Y. In the Kassara gorge the Ardon makes a clean break through the granitic axis. Its main sources are derived from the southern range of slates, to which the watershed has been transferred. So gradual is the slope of its bed that, as I pointed out in the last chapter, in an ascent of 7000 feet from the town of Alagir to the top of the Mamison, there is only one zigzag on the road. The scenery of this portion of the range is very varied. The open basin of the liion, filled by low, broad, green spurs, has 12G
THE ADAl KlloKII GROUP 127 iiuiiiy of the ('harms of Suanetia, though all on a smaller scale. Glorious forests, in which lofty, smooth-stemmed beeches mingle with the dark cones of gigantic })ines — jiines that are to those of the Alps what Salisbury spire is to a village steeple — clothe the river banks. Rolling downs, fringed with birch-groves and carpeted with flowers, spread along the base of the frosty chain, itself a succession of bold buttresses, snow-peaks, and tumbling bays of ice. But there is no Ushba behind Gebi, and tlie southern summits of Adai Khokh are 2000 feet lower than the giants that overhang the sources of the Ingur. On the north side the upper valley of the Urukh, parallel with the stern to the main chain, is picturesque in comparison troughs up which the mists course before they gather round the feet of Dykhtau and Koshtantau. The scenery of the Zea valley is unicjue in the northern Caucasus in its rich variety of foliage and romantic wildness. The great glaciers, the Karagom and Zea, end under bristling I'ock-peaks and among luxuriant forests. The upper snowfields of the Karagom produce an overwhelming- impression of vastness and pui'ity, difi'erent from, but not inferior to, the effect of the stupendous and apparently perpendicular mountain-walls that confine within naiinwer limits tlie sources of the Bezingi Glacier. The Adai Khokh grouji has been called the Monte Rosa of the Caucasus, and in some details the comparison may hold good, but I should prefer to Oberland— an Oberlaud with it compare to the Bernese the points of the compass reversed and its Aletsch Glacier, a little below the ' Place de la Concorde,' plunging suddenly in an ice-fall as high as that of the Ober Grindelwald Glacier towards the fields and forests. It would be easy, at this point, to encumber several pages with a laboriously compiled statement of orographical facts, to point out the exact position of the chief ridges and their relations to the great snowfields. But all this information can be better procured by those who care for it from the map, where it is, in my judgment, in its jiroper place. To decompose a niaj) is a short way of making an article appear solid, much favoured by a class of Continental writers who pretend to be scientific, and
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CHAPTER VI<br />
THE ADAl KHOKH GROUP<br />
Ilia sub horrendis praedura ciibilia silvis,<br />
Illi sub nivibus sonini, curaeque, laborque<br />
Pervigil.<br />
CLAUDIAX.<br />
'HE traveller who crosses the<br />
Mamison Pass has frequently<br />
ill sight the broad glaciers<br />
and closely clustered summits<br />
of a mountain group which<br />
rises steeply above the sources<br />
of the Rion. This block of<br />
mountains and glaciers<br />
situated on the main chain,<br />
near the spot where it ceases<br />
to be the watershed, and about half-way between Kasbek and the<br />
Central Group — that is, some fox'ty miles from either. The upper<br />
valleys that almost enclose it run roughly parallel<br />
is<br />
to the main<br />
ridge of the Caucasus. The Rion and Ardon valleys are best<br />
represented by two T's, the Urukh by a Y. In the Kassara<br />
gorge the Ardon makes a clean break through the granitic axis.<br />
Its main sources are derived from the southern range of slates,<br />
to which the watershed has been transferred. So gradual is the<br />
slope of its bed that, as I pointed out in the last chapter, in<br />
an ascent of 7000 feet from the town of Alagir to the top of<br />
the Mamison, there is only one zigzag on the road.<br />
The scenery of this portion of the range is very varied. The<br />
open basin of the liion, filled by low, broad, green spurs, has<br />
12G