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THE DISCOVERP]RS OF THE CAUCASUS 13
The communications of these German doctors did not reach
Europe until 1868, and then they were confined to Germany. For
at that time the Council of our Royal Geographical Society had
not yet seen its way to fulfil i)ne of its most obvious functions,
and despite the individual efforts of Mr. Clements Markham and
the late Mr. H. W. Bates, England was still without any magazine
for the diffusion of genei'al geographical
information comparable to
Petermann's famous Mitteilungen.
Where books are wanting the intending explorer may often find
a most useful and suggestive friend and companion in a map. It
was on a German map —Koch's General Map of the Caucasian
Isthmus— that Moore and I planned out our journey in 18G8. On
that map D3'khtau and Koshtantau were not marked. The
rido-es between the sources of the Rion and the Ingur were
very vaguely delineated. But no better map was to be had
in Western Europe. It was not until after we had landed
in the Caucasus that we learnt that between 1847 and 18G3
the Russian staff", under the direction of General Chodzko, had
executed a survey of the Caucasian Provinces and part of
Armenia, which resulted in the atlas, known from the scale on
wliich it was published — five versts or three miles to the inch—
as the Five-Verst Map. The necessary sheets of this atlas were
first shown us by Count Levashoff", then the Governor of Kutais,
and afterwards placed in our hands at Tiflis by the courtesy of
General Chodzko himself
The Russian si;rveyors did their woi'k vinder the greatest
difficulties— difficulties which at times took the shape of a shower of
bullets. As far as their means and their instructions carried them,
they did it adequately. They laid down with surprising accuracy
and completeness the general features of the ground below the snow-
level, and outside the hidden recesses of the range. They produced
an excellent delineation of the habitable country and the practicable
bridle-paths. They indicated precisely the extent of forests and the
positions of villages and bridges. They were employed for military
and administrative purposes, and not for natural research. To have
delayed issuing their map until they had made the survey physically
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