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240 THE EXPLORATION OF THE CAUCASUS
in 1876. The last time I passed in sight of their homes their
towers had been razed to the ground, and a few selected ruffians
were enjoying free quarters in Siberia. But we innocent strangers
did not suspect the object of our deviations, and were well con-
tent to be brought back to the glaciers.
We hurried through ill-famed Adish, and, leaving
behind us
the comparatively bare glens of the Ingur sources, followed for
miles the low spur which, projecting from the base, of Tetnuld,
separates the narrow trench of the Ingur from the broader valley
of the Mulkhura, known as the Mujalaliz.
This brow is a more or less level natural terrace some ten
miles in length. The walk along it is the most beautiful I know
in any moinitain countiy. Nowhere else do the sublimity of
snows and the beauty of woodlands so completely join hands. No
descriptions can convey, except to a very sympathetic reader, who
supplies a great deal from his own experience and imagination, the
faintest idea of the natural charms here united.
A map, if he can read one— few Englishmen, and hardly any
Englishwomen, know how much instruction, what romantic pictures
may be derived from maps —a map to those who can profit by it may
give some suggestions of the views that meet the traveller in every
direction. Overhead soars the splendid pyramid of Tetnuld. On
one side the eye ranges down the deep pine-clad defile of the Ingur
to where the triple crest of the Laila sends down long glaciers into
the forests. It follows the great sweep of the main chain, from the
towers of Ushba round to the massive crags of Tiktengen, tracks
the glaciers as they wind between granite precipices, until, at the
edge of the forests, they release their streams to dance down among
the meadows and corn-fields of the Mujalaliz, the valley of towers.
All these visions the map may suggest to such Alpine travellers
as can read its shorthand. But the beauty of the foreground is
beyond all possible anticipation. Level lawns of smooth, lately
mown turf are surrounded or broken by thickets of laurels, rhododendrons,
and azaleas. Yellow lilies, lupines, and mallows flower
amongst them ; bluebells and campanulas carpet the ground.
Woods of ash, hazel and fir, beech, birch and pine offer a pleasant