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THE DISCOVERERS OF THE CxVLCASL'S 21
In 1891 two German climbers, Herr Merzbacher and Herr Purt-
scheller, with two Tyrolese guides, made an extensive tour, in the
course of which the three sununits of the Laiha, Tetnuld, Dongiisorun,
the northern Adyrsu Bashi of the one-verst map (first ascent), the
eastern peak of Janga and Gimarai Khokh (first ascent) were
climbed, and Kasbek reached for the first time from the head of
the Genaldon Valley, by a route meeting
the great snow-field north of the summit.
the Devdorak route on
In 1893 four Englishmen, Mr. Solly, Mr. Woolley, Mr. New-
march, and Mr. Cockin, and in the following year Mr. Solly and
]\Ir. Newmarch, with ]Mr. Collier, visited Suanetia. Their climbs
are duly chronicled in the Appendix to these volumes.
In 1895 Mr. Clinton Dent and Mr. Woolley again visited the
Caucasus, in company with Mr. M'Cormick, an artist who had
previously been with Sir W. M. Conway in the Karakoram. The
ascent of Ziteli, the second summit of the Lal)oda Group, from the
Urukh Valley, was their chief climb. The results of their journey
were mainly photographic and artistic. Mr. Cockin and Mr. New-
march were once more drawn to Betsho, and pursued their pro-
tracted courtship of the southern peak of Ushba without meeting
with any reward for their constancy.
I have left to the last the journeys of Signor Vittorio Sella, my
fellow-labourer in the preparation of this work. In 1889 he made,
with his younger brother Erminio, a long journey in the mountains :
and in 1890 he returned to them, taking with him tliree Italian farmservants
to carry his photographic apparatus. He climbed, besides
Elbruz and the Laila, three high sununits, Burdjula, Zikhvarga, and
UUuauz Bashi. But his distinguishing success was in the work
that gives their chief value to these volumes. He has illustrated the
Caucasian snows as no distant glacier chain has ever been illustrated
before. With the help of his sturdy Piedmontese followers, he
carried his camera and his glass-plates to elevations of over sixteen
thousand feet, and brought back with him images, not only of the
valleys and their people, but of the summits and their vast mountain
panoramas. He anticipated the Russian surveyors in correcting the
representation of the Suanetian glaciers on the five-verst map.