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20.S THE EXTLOKATION OF THE CAUCASUS
that of the West Coast of Scotland or the English Lakes. The
afternoon breezes from the Black Sea bring up showers and
vapours to colour the atmosphere, to soften the mountain outlines
and magnify their bulk. The north wind from the stejjpe suffuses
the sky with an impalpable haze through which the great peaks
glimmer like golden pillars of the dawn. To the natural beauties,
the snowy peaks, the flowers and forests of the Suanetian landscape,
man has added something. It is a land where every man's house
is his castle. The meadows and the cultivated valleys are strewn
with high white towers. In one spot a single tower stands isolated,
in another they cluster in groups
of fifty to eighty. Every
hamlet has as many towers as
the cities of Tuscany in the
Middle Ap-es. Nothincj so fan-
tastic as these family fortresses
can be seen elsewhere outside
San Gimignano or the frame of
an Old Master.
Mestia alone boasts seventy
towers, each 40 to 80 feet
liigh ; Ushkul over fifty, and
two black castles besides. The
houses to which the towers are
attached are quadrangular
blocks, slate - roofed , without
cliimneys, and with narrow slits,
closed by wooden shutters, for
windows. Sometimes they have
no windows at all, the light
penetrating only thi'ough the
A TOWER AT USUKUL
interstices in the unmortared
wall, while the smoke escapes through the roof. Torches made
of bu-ch - bark are used at night : a wooden passage, capable of
being cut down in case of necessity,
the tower of refuge.
leads to the first floor of