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TRAVEL AND MOTNTAINEERING IX SITANETIA 257
away, like a sea-beacli, from under our feet. Its toj) was the tirst
of the Laila summits, the crest seen from Ezeri. The second was a
few feet higher, but we had lost so much time that we could hardly
afford to o-o on to it. Sisfnor Sella climbed it a week or two later, and
subsequently
Herr Merzbacher of Munich visited all three summits.
The Laila is admirably placed for a panorama. It rakes the
centi'al chain of the Caucasus and overlooks the great forests west-
wards. But, apart from its topographical interest, the view gains
a peculiar charm from the carpet of green and gold that is
thrown down at the feet of the stupendous cliff's of the great
chain, to the contrast between the vales of Suanetia and the snows
of the Caucasus. The position
of the climber relative to the
great chain may be compared to that of a traveller on Mont
Emilius behind Aosta to the Peiniine Alps. To suggest the com-
parison is to enforce, on those wlio have seen both, the superiority
of the Caucasian view. And it can hardly be said too often,
the transparency of the Caucasian atmosphere softens the outline,
deepens the shade, magnifies the bulk of the peaks. The moun-
taineer who has spent several hours on a fine day on the crest
of the Laila will ever after carry in his mind a recollection of
a sight, or rather of a series of visions, of exquisite aerial effects,
of transfigui'atious,
in which what the author of the Book of
Proverbs calls '
the highest parts of the dust of the world '
as the silver spires of a temple raised by no mortal architect.
appear
The ascent is so very easy and, when taken the right way,
comparatively so short, that there is little excuse for any traveller,
who has higher ambitions than to be a chimney-jack, leaving it out.
It fills me with surjirise when I remember that I did not myself
seek this Pisgah until my third visit to Suanetia.
The Prince and his hunters were visible on a patch of rocks some
distance below the snow-pass. We rejoined them at the base of
the peak, and regained Ezeri very late the same evening.
The next
morning broke unclouded, and was succeeded by one of the finest
and hottest days I have ever known in the Caucasus. I strolled
alone up the shadeless dale behind Ezeri, to a gap from which a
path descends directly to ilazeri, above Betsho. Thence I followed
VOL. T.
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