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156 THE EXPJ.ORATION OF THE CAUCASUS
clearing. The spires of Adai Khokli indent the southern sky.
Tlie horizon is
imagination
wide and open. Nature makes her appeal to the
in a key that great artists are often fain to imitate—
not by overwhelming masses but by aerial gradations, subtle lines,
and suggestions of infinite variety, combining to produce unity.
Of the rest of the lower road to Balkar I can say nothing. It
is unknown, except to the Russian Surveyors and the natives,
who consider it a fair horse-path.
It crosses no fewer than four
passes between the glens of the streams that drain the great
glaciers Avhich descend from the northern flanks of the as yet
untouched Bogkhobashi Group, north of the Urukh. Here are three
peaks, of over 14,000 feet, waiting for their conquerors. The finest
in form, though not the highest, Giulchi, was figured
in my Central
Caucasus, and is well shown in Signor Sella's photographs. The
more accessible side of these summits is probably displayed in the
views gained from the main range south of the Urukh. Before
long, doubtless, we shall hear of their investigation.^
'
See the plate opposite p. 30. Signor Sella climbed the eastern spur of this range, Dashi
Khokh, which rises behind Stir-Digor.