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26 THE EXPLORATION OF THE CAUCASUS
we bow most reluctantly to the decision of the new survey. The
second and foiu'th peak of the chain, the two highest summits of the
great spur of the Central Group, the Dent Blanche and Weisshoi'n
of the Caucasus, were named Koshtantau and Dykhtau by the
makers of tlie five-verst map, and for a quarter of a century these
names had held their place in geographical literature and tales of
mountain adventure. It was on the Dykhtau of the five-verst
map
that Donkin and Fox met their fate. These names have been
reversed in the still unpublished new sheets, on the ground of local
usage.
All our remonstrances, on the score of convenience or
sentiment, against the change
have been fruitless. There is no
Court of Appeal from the official verdict. Henceforth Dykhtau
must be Koshtantau, and vice versa. We English mountaineers
submit, but we do so with infinite regret.^
' Those who read Kiissian will find a mass of information relating to the Caucasus in the
ten or more volumes entitled Materials for the Stvdy of the Caucasus, issued by M. Janovsky at
Titiis since ISS.'j. The best general description of the Caucasus in English is that contributed
to the Encyclopiedia Britannica (187.t; by one of the early members of the Alpine Club, the
well-known geographer, iSIr. Edward Bunbury.