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242 THE EXPLORATION OF THE CAUCASUS
crossing the chain. Our 2:)assage of the Dongusorun
hnd its place on a later page.
Pass will
I must now ask the reader to leap nineteen years, and join
M. de Dechy and myself on our descent from the great glaciers
that separate the head - waters of the Baksan from the Asian
slope. The valley of the Mulkhura is divided by nature into two
basins ; the highest, known as the Mujalaliz, is a broad smiling
oasis of corn-lands and meadows. Below a ravine lies the second
basin, that of Mestia, jjartly devastated by the torrent from the
Leksur Glacier.
I and my companion had with us three Chamonix guides, and
some eight Urusbieh men as porters. We were consequently no
small addition to the society of Mestia, and on our arrival had,
as usual, to be '
'
at home to the entire jiopulation.
The first mark of progress was that we had a roof to be at
home under, a modest wooden shed or Cancellaria ; the next was
the presence of a representative of order, responsible
to the
Government, in the shape of a burly Suanetian, whose chain and
medal— like a waterman's — badge proclaimed him to be the Mayor
or Starshina. He was a very big man, of wild aspect, with a
broad face like a Nineveh Bull. A very small sharp boy acted
as his interpreter.
The acquirements of this precocious youth were
explained when, on my afternoon stroll,
I came across a school-
house, a wooden cottage, the walls of which were pasted with
newspaper pictures of single Cossacks pursuing Turkish armies,
and of common objects of civilisation, some of which must have
sorely puzzled the brains of the young
Suanetians. It was holi-
day time ; the master was absent. The environs of the village, or
rather villao-es— for Mestia consists of several hamlets and no less
than seventy towers— are charming. Close to the guest-house is
a very ancient birch-tree, with stone seats under it. The open
ground is fringed with azaleas and rhododendrons, the glacier
streams meet in a birch-hung cleft resembling the gorge at
Pontresina, and at an amazing height in air the spire of Tetnuld
flushes red in the face of the sunsets. The peak farther off,
seen over its northern slope, is Gestola.