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CHAPTER XI
TRAVEL AND MOUNTAINEERING IN SUANETIA
(1868-87-89)
The mountains were all dark with clouds upon their heads. Such an impression I never
received from objects of sight before, nor do I suppose I ever can again. Glorious Creatures ;
fine old Fellows ! I tiu-n back to these great places, participating in their greatness.
CHARLES LAMB.
"IHE passage through the forests
of the Skenis Skali frora Gebi
to Ushkul has been described
In the preceding pages. I
broke off my story
at the
point where, on a great crocusstudded
hay-meadow, gently
sloping towards the Ingur,
the first English explorers of
the Caucasus caught sight of
the black towers of '
Queen
Tharaara's Castle,' the old for-
ti'ess that watches the easiest entrance to '
Free Suanetia. '
As the green featureless glen we were descending opened out
towards a larger valley, a great company of towers met our
astonished eyes. We could count at least fifty, clustered in three
separate knots, and most of them covered with a rude white plaster.
Squai'e in form, they were redeemed from a resemblance to factory
chimneys by their roofs and battlements, pierced for musketry.
Round their base clustered barn-like dwellings built of dark slate.
The scene was weird and strange. i\Iy mind wandered far for a