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184 THE EXPLORATION OF THE CAUCASUS
Along the whole southern face of the mountains, westwards
from the E.ion sources, the frosty Caucasus and the flowery Caucasus
join
hands. In Suanetia the ice-avalanches of the Laila fall
upon beds of yellow lilies ; the terminal moraines of the Chalaat
and the Zanner Glaciers are cloaked in dense copses. But if there
is one region where, more than elsewhere, the forest giants raise
their heads to an '
unbelievable height,' where the field-flowers break
forth under the summer sun with almost fabulous luxuriance,
it is
round the sources of the Skenis Skali. The general verdure of the
southern side finds an adequate explanation in the chmate ;
in
summer the perpetual moisture of the English Lakes, combined with
Pyrenean sunshine, in winter the i^rotection afforded by a prodigious
snowfall. The depth of alluvial soil in the bottoms, the richness
of the vegetable mould formed by the decay of immemorial woods
thinned by no woodman's axe, account for the unusual dimensions
of both trees and plants. The total absence for centuries of in-
habitants or traffic in the upper glens of the Skenis Skali has preserved
the woods from the clearances wrought by the recklessness
of the natives, A\'ho have no scruple in setting fii'e to the dry mosses
on a gigantic pine, and turning the tree into a pillar of flame, for
no other motive than the childish pleasure of seeing a good blaze.
From another and a different point of view the forests of the
upper Skenis Skali are a surprise to the European mountaineer.
He, for the first time, finds himself in a region where difiiculties
begin at the point
at which he is accustomed to find them end—
that is, below the snow-level. In the valleys, the beds of torrents
or the tracks of bears are the only practicable paths, and the
traveller wades knee-deep, not in snow, but in fields of lilies and
campanulas ; knee-deep do I say — rather over head and shoulders.
A man on horseback is only just visible to his companions among
this extraordinary vegetation. To Alpine guides the southern
valleys of the Caucasus ai:e an abomination ; Es
gefdJt mir nicht,
is the burden of the Oberlander's discourse, and his occasional
utterances are apt to be of a far stronger description.
There are climbers nowadays, other than guides, so dead to the
beauty of the green things of the Earth that they grudge every