Untitled

7-i THE EXPLORATION OF THE CAUCASUS
imitable by the brush, but what is most delightful to the eye and
most stirring to the imagination.
In the Caucasus the artist will find opportunities, less common
in Switzerland, at any rate during the months the Alps are most
visited. The atmospheric eflfects are singularly beautiful and varied.
The sky is luminous and soft ; the distances are at once distinct
and deep in tone ; there is none of the hai'shness of outline of
Switzerland. On the northern steppe the light is the glow of the
East ; the atmospheric colours often recall those of the Roman
resemblance on an
Campagna, to which there is some general
enormously magnified scale in the landscape. Up in the mountains
of Suanetia the effect, when the west wind blows, may remind
Englishmen
of what is called tine weather at our own Lakes.
Scarves of mist play in and out of the great towers of Ushba ;
tangled maze of low, long Avooded ridges and deep glens, of flashing
sti'eams and white-towered villages, is now half- veiled in a passing
shower, now lit up by brilliant arrows of sunshine. In clear northwind
weather the sky is of a less hard blue than in the Alps ;
and sometimes in the morning, under a cloudless vault, the
mountains gleam through a thin, perfectly transparent golden haze,
a Coan drapery w^hich melts as the day goes on.
In my judgment, then, the supremacy of Caucasian scenery Hes
in the heart of the chain : it consists in the forms of the peaks,
their lavish glaciation, and the richness of the flowers and forests
that clothe many of the upper valleys. Its inferiority, compared
to Alpine scenery, will be found in the outskirts of the mountains.
The strength has to be sought ; the weaknesses, on the contrary,
are obvious at first sight.
The Caucasus has no lakes. It offers nothing to compare to the
highly decorated loveliness of Como, the stately charm of Garda
and Maggiore, or the pastoral romance of Lucerne and Thun. The
landscapes on the flanks of the Alps
tlie
are full of cheerful trivial
human incident ; those of the Caucasus are less adorned and varied.
How much of the pleasure we derive from the green and red
heights that break down in alternate capes and bays on the
'
waveless plain of
'
Lombardy is due to the cities and villages.