Untitled

260 THE EXPLORATION' OF THE CAUCASUS
head of the lower reach of the Bezingi Glacier, -which he and
A. W. Moore had identitied with the Tetnuld of Suanetia. They
were successful, but when they gained the summit we now know
as Gestola they found that there was another Tetnuld— the true
Tetnuld— in the field. It is a pecuUarity of Caucasian peaks,
Elbruz, Ushba, Dongusorun, Janga, the Laila— I might name
others— that they have a way of proving double-headed.^ Since it
provides double employment for climbers, it may surely
to them as a merit.
be reckoned
In all probability Gestola will, with Tetnuld, be ranked in the
future among the easy peaks of the Caucasus. But the first
ascent w^as by no means tame. By a failure to allow sufficiently
for the rapid changes in the condition of Caucasian slopes, or
perhaps from inadequate reconnoitring, the party found themselves
— very much as we had done on Kasbek— in the position
of Mr.
and Mrs. Diskobolus in Edward Lear's ballad. They
were on the
top of a wall from which there was reason to doubt if they '
could
ever get down at all.' Mr. Dent tells me that he is about to
repeat the story of his adventure, with which he long ago thrilled
the Alpine Club. I shall not, therefore, anticipate here such
confidences as he may think it expedient to lay before the public.
This ascent was the main result of the journey. An attack
on Dykhtau — the climbers called it Guluku—was not pushed
very far. Mr. Donkin fixed a number of points about the great
Bezingi Glacier, and then the mountaineers rode back by the
way they had come to Naltshik and the nearest railway station.
This very brief and limited experience of Caucasian travel
sufficed, however, to furnish Mr. Donkin with the material for
a chapter which stands out, I think, from the monotony of Aljiine
publications by the vivid impression it leaves behind it, not only
of the incidents of daily life in the mountains, but of the sensitive
and happy nature of the writer, who saw and enjoyed so much
in so short a time.
The discussions raised by my friends' journey made me feel
' Tetnuld and Gestola, however, are entirely distinct peaks, as much so as the Dent Blanche
and Dent d'Herens.