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SUANETIA 205
Between the granite and the slates, in places usurping- the
central position of the granite in the watershed,
crystalline schist ridges narrower than the corresponding
lies a belt of
belt on
the north side. Their green rounded outlines conti'ast strikingly
with the precipices of the main chain. It is over these, where
they link the slate and granite, that the gentle slopes
of the
Zagar Pass (8680 feet), only 1700 feet above the highest
villages, aftbrded in olden days, before the forests of the Skenis
Skali became pathless, the main access to the valley from Georgia.
Now the higher Latpari Pass, leading more directly south towards
the seat of government, Kutais, is universally preferred, though
in most years it is not open for horse traffic till the beginning of
July, and is closed by snow early in October. The Ingur, which
with its tributaries carries off the waters of Suanetia, lias its
source under Shkara in the glaciers that line the south side of the
central chain. Its first large tributary, the Mulklnu-a, w^hich drains
the vast snow^fields that lie west of Tetnuld and east of Ushba,
exceeds it in volume. The two torrents unite near Latal, the meet-
ing-place also of the streams from the Laila and the snows of Ushba
and Dongusorun. The glens above this — point the Ingur sources—
are covered with the castles of the Independent Suanetians : so
called because they had throwTi off all external control for at
least one hundred years before Russian rule was estabhshed in the
country. The narrower trench below^ Latal through which the
united waters of the Ingur flow was '
Dadish Kilian's Suanetia,'
named after a family from the north, probably of Kabardan origin,
which had established a feudal lordship over its communities.
In scenery, this highland basin is in evei-y respect a contrast to
the northern valleys on the other side of the chain.
'
Savage Suane-
tia,' the title chosen by an enthusiastic sportsman for his account
of his travels in the district, may have been appropriate enough if
applied to the inhabitants only.
it has to be reversed.
'
But, as far as nature is concerned,
Smiling, sylvan, idyllic,'
such are the
epithets that rise on a traveller's lips as he suddenly emerges
from the dark treeless glens and chilly recesses of the Northern
Caucasus on to a region of gentle slopes and wide distances, of