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42 THE EXPLORATION OF THE CAUCASUS
an estimate of from G25 to G50 square miles will not be very
far wrong. This is not a guess, but the result of very careful
calculation with the best available material.'
From the glaciers we naturally raise our eyes to the crests
that overshadow them. The ridges of the Central Caucasus are
far steeper than those of the Central Alps. The whole southern
front of the Central Group keeps up the average slope of the
steepest part ;
Macugnaga precipices
of the eastern face of Monte Rosa
it is as if the
extended for ten miles. The northern front
is almost as steep, though less lofty. Take the steepest bit of
the Breithorn, double its height, and spread it along from Monte
Rosa to the St. Theodule, and you may form some faint picture
of what the mountaineer sees from the heights above the Bezingi
Glacier. He fancies nature has here done her utmost in the
perpendicular style of mountain architecture. Then he goes up
the neighbouring Mishirgi Glacier— quite left out in the five-verst
map —and sees precipices profounder and still more impressive.
Sheer rocks are often strange rather than beautiful objects.
The frozen combes of the Caucasus owe their singular fascina-
tion to the ample folds and exquisite arrangement of the snowy
drapery that clothes their crags. In a run I made to the
Bernese Oberland, soon after my return from one of my Caucasian
journeys, the first thing that struck me was the comparative
meagreness of the neves and glaciers clinging to the loftier
summits. A great deal of the Caucasus is like the finest portions
of the Alps — the Wengern Alp face of the Jungfrau, or the
Pelvoux above the Glacier Noir. Signer Sella's and M. de Dechy's
photographs of the Bezingi and Mishirgi
Glaciers illustrate this
splendid feature in their scenery.
The first feature to attract attention, as we descend from the
mountain crests towards the south, is the exquisite
verdure of the
highest uncovered slopes. Every isolated piece of bare soil among
the Caucasian snowfields becomes a summer garden. The moraines
' The glaciers of Switzerland cover 710 sqiiuie miles. No one, so far as I know, has yet
been at the pains to compute accurately the amount of ice in the whole Alps or even on both
sides of the Pennine Chain. In the Mont Blanc group the ice covers about lUO square miles.