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CHAPTER IX
THE PATHS TO SUANETIA
Die ganze Majestat des wundersaineii Kaukasus findet in Hochsuanieii ihre Spitze, und
Niemand wage zu sagen, Er kenne den Kaukasus, wer jene hehren Eegionen
nicht betrat.
ABICH.
N many of the following chapters my
readers' attention will be kept steadily
directed to the very heart of the
Caucasus, the cluster of superb sum-
mits which forms the true centre of
the chain. We shall live in camps
near the snow-level, or lodge in holes
of the rocks beside
' The
firths of ice
That huddhng slant in furrow-cloven falls
To roll the torrent out of dusky doors.'
But for the present we may turn to
a region of wider horizons and softer
landscapes, to the forests and flowers of the Asian slope. We
must direct our steps to that unique district, which combines all
the most characteristic splendours of the Caucasus— Suanetia.
The mountaineer need not bid farewell to his mountains and
glaciers ; he will find himself still at their very feet. But the
landscape -lover may rejoice with me to escape
for a season from
between the monstrous walls which seem to shut off' the sources
of the Cherek from the habitable world, from under the roof of
trailing mists that too often hang for days obdurately across the
narrow span of sky left between the mountains that overshadow
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