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Saljuan Bashi ; they
THE VALLEY OF THE URUKH U7
are found also between the Kion and the
Cherek sources, and wherever the rock is schistose, practicable
passes exist. But what I want to emphasise here is the result
of this ridge-and-furrow arrangement in producing internal basins
which are tilled, according to their elevation, either by vast glaciers
or pastures. North of Suanetia the great neves of the Leksur,
Tuiber and Zanner, the Bezingi and Dykhsu Glaciers, occupy
such basins. The assertion in popular wox-ks that there are no
great snowfields in the chain is consequently contrary
to the facts.
But when we look farther east we shall find the upper basins
unoccupied by ice. They are represented by the pastures of Karaul
and the broad trench of the Urukh. Laboda rises as directly
above the head of that valley as Ailama does over the Dykhsu
Glacier, or the Wetterhorn above Grindelwald.
To the Caucasian tourist of the future the Urukh A'alley
will be important for its own sake, and also because it offers a
very convenient way between Vladikavkaz and a spot destined
to be one of the centres of Caucasian mountaineering. Karaul—
the meadow said to owe its name to the guard posted there
in olden times to keep in check the forays of the cattle-robbers
from the south— is only a day more distant from the railway
by the Urukh than by Naltshik, and this day is occupied in
crossing one of the finest passes in point of scenery
in the whole
chain. My sketch of the panorama from the Shtuluvsek, published
in 1869 (which has happily borne better than I could have hoped
the test of comparison with photographs), was the first pictorial
representation of the group. It was by a happy inspiration that
we went to this spot, for after all the experiences of recent years
I cannot point out a better viewpoint. From Vladikavkaz there
are three roads, or rather mountain tracks, to the upper Urukh.
Let us, since it unites this district with the Mamison road, follow
that we used on my last expedition in 1889. As far as the silver
mines of Sadon there is a I'oad for wheels. Here we had to
organise our transport for the mountains. A great deal of energy
went in the task. We were eight English and Swiss mountaineers,
with three tents— tents of the lightest make, it is true— provisions,