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132 THE EXPLORATION OF THE CAUCASUS we could see, beyond the point where they plunged out of sight, the fir-forests and corn-land of the Urukh. In the opposite direction the great ice-fall closed the view, and gave no hint of the mysterious region from which it flowed. Next morning at daybreak we set out on our adventure. For two hours a shepherd's track helped us as far as the highest grass on the west bank of the ice. Here we were close to the foot of the last and loftiest of the frozen cascades, and the work of the day began. At first all went smoothly ; we found corridors between the great ice-blocks, and were able to avoid the chasms that seamed the slope. But when these chasms became more and more continuous and, running across the snowy dells, forced us right or left into the intricate labyrinth and among the crystal towers, our prospects of success began to look very questionable. We had to encounter in an aggravated form all the familiar difliculties and perils of an Alpine ice-fall. The aggravation consisted chiefly in the constant repetition. No sooner had one turret-staircase been hewn out in a crack of some imposing bari'ier than another castle appeared behind it. The glacier was something more than a mountain dragon : it was a very hydra. But our motives for perseverance were strong. To retreat meant a long tramp down to a distant village, where we should have to trust to signs to get provisions, and to run the risk of being ai-rested as suspicious characters, and sent down two days' journey to some Cossack outpost on the northern stej^pe. I renounce any attempt to dejiict the individual difficulties— the ' bad places '—we encountered during the next few hours : ' The moving accident is not my trade, To freeze the blood I have no ready arts,' to quote Wordsworth—and climbers suftering under no such dis- ability have frequently depicted their feats and those of their guides in similar emergencies, both with pen and pencil. One particular snowbridge or causeway remains pre-eminent in my memory. It was long and narrow and rotten, and it ended in nothing. The leader had to lean across and cut a precarious foothold in the
THE AIJAI KllUKli GROUP 133 opposite bank of ice, and then make a bold leap into his pigeonholes. Devonassoud leapt, and we followed. The rest was not quite so bad, but there was a great deal of it. We wearied of the exquisite beauty of the icicle-fringes and the blue ravines, of the fantastic forms of the sun-smitten towers and pinnacles. There was not a moment's pause in the battle ; we halted neither for food nor rest. At last the clear ice turned to more opaque neve, the surface was less tormented, and we began to count on victory. But the final moat, at the point wdiere the steepening of the slope caused the most severe tension, had still to be overcome. It held over us an upper lip which was not mastered at the first attempt. It was half-past one, and we had been six hours in the fall, and nine hours from our bivouac, before we sat down on the level snows to consider our further course through the undiscovered country no human eye had ever before seen. We were on a great snowfield, sloping gently towards us from the south more ; steeply from the east. A low rocky mass divided the branches ; to the right rose a conspicuous and welcome landmark, the crest of Burdjula. Behind us were wild rock-peaks, the Karagom Khokh of my map : the highest summit of Adai Khokh and its neighbours were no doubt seen to our left, but 1 did not identify them till long afterwards. We chose the southern bay, and again set out. The surface at this late hour of the day was soft, and it was not till after three hours of steady and heavy wading that the monotony of the white and blue world into which we had l)roken was suddenly relieved by the appearance, above the level snows that had hitherto formed our sky- line, of the purple line of the mountains on the Turkish frontier. The view from the pass tow'ards Asia was of surpassing beauty. The whole basin of ancient Kolkhis, Mingrelia and Imeretia, the Racha and Lechgum, lay at our feet. Flashes of reflected sun- shine showed where the waters of the Rion forced their way through a labyrinth of green ridges and dark forest-clad ravines to the pomegi-anate gardens of Kutais. Far away in the west we saw for the first time the snows of the Laila, the range that
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THE AIJAI KllUKli GROUP 133<br />
opposite bank of ice, and then make a bold leap into his pigeonholes.<br />
Devonassoud leapt, and we followed. The rest was not<br />
quite so bad, but there was a great deal of it. We wearied of the<br />
exquisite beauty of the icicle-fringes and the blue ravines, of the<br />
fantastic forms of the sun-smitten towers and pinnacles.<br />
There was<br />
not a moment's pause in the battle ; we halted neither for food<br />
nor rest. At last the clear ice turned to more opaque neve, the<br />
surface was less tormented, and we began to count on victory.<br />
But the final moat, at the point wdiere the steepening of the slope<br />
caused the most severe tension, had still to be overcome. It<br />
held over us an upper lip which was not mastered at the first<br />
attempt.<br />
It was half-past one, and we had been six hours in the fall,<br />
and nine hours from our bivouac, before we sat down on the level<br />
snows to consider our further course through the undiscovered<br />
country no human eye had ever before seen.<br />
We were on a great snowfield, sloping gently towards us from<br />
the south more ; steeply from the east. A low rocky mass<br />
divided the branches ;<br />
to the right rose a conspicuous and welcome<br />
landmark, the crest of Burdjula. Behind us were wild rock-peaks,<br />
the Karagom Khokh of my map : the highest summit of Adai<br />
Khokh and its neighbours were no doubt seen to our left, but<br />
1 did not identify them till long afterwards. We chose the<br />
southern bay, and again set out. The surface at this late hour<br />
of the day was soft, and it was not till after three hours of<br />
steady and heavy wading that the monotony of the white and<br />
blue world into which we had l)roken was suddenly relieved by the<br />
appearance, above the level snows that had hitherto formed our sky-<br />
line, of the purple line of the mountains on the Turkish frontier.<br />
The view from the pass tow'ards Asia was of surpassing beauty.<br />
The whole basin of ancient Kolkhis, Mingrelia and Imeretia, the<br />
Racha and Lechgum, lay at our feet. Flashes of reflected sun-<br />
shine showed where the waters of the Rion forced their way<br />
through a labyrinth of green ridges and dark forest-clad ravines<br />
to the pomegi-anate gardens of Kutais. Far away in the west we<br />
saw for the first time the snows of the Laila, the range that
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