Untitled

66 THE EXPLORATION OF THE CAUCASUS
In the time of Augustus the Swiss Alps had ah-eady attained the
condition of the Caucasus at the date of my first visit. In the six-
teenth century they were provided with accommodation of a sort.^
A hundi'ed years ago, De Saussure found their recesses an inhabited
and civilised region, traversed in many directions by frequented
by-ways of commerce, and within easy reach of centres of civilisa-
tion. The district that is the subject of these pages — the Central
IN THE KALDE VALLEV
Caucasus— is in extent nearly equal to Switzerland. Its topo-
graphical boundaries may be taken as the Ciscaucasian and
Transcaucasian Railways on the north and south, the Darial road
on the east, and the Klukhor Pass, the new road from Sukhum
Kale to the Kuban, on the west. Now, within these boundaries,
there is only one carriage-road across the main chain, the
' See Siniler's De AJpihus Commentarius, a.d. 1574. 'Sunt autem in onniiljus Alpibus
per quas frequentius iter tit, hospitia et xenodoclieia quaedam pro
viatoribus exslructa.'