Untitled
Share Embed Flag
Download ePaper

Untitled

Untitled Untitled

gebi.files.wordpress.com
from gebi.files.wordpress.com More from this publisher
10.04.2013 Views

CHAPTER IV KASBEK AND THE OSSETE DISTRICT "EiVf fjLOi, Tiov evs aWr}\(ov, *) tl TTjpepov TrXe'oi' ftvai

KASTiKK AND Till-] OSSETE DISTRICT 81 character to that of the Dolomites gained from the sea approach to Venice, but far grander in its proportions. For a mountaineer, however, setting out about midsuinnier, the quickest and surest way of making a good start is, perhaps, to take one of the boats that call at Novorossisk, the new corn- port of Ciscaucasia. In this way he may reach the Caucasian Baths, at the foot of Elbruz, after eighteen hours', or Vladikavkaz at the foot of Kasbek after twenty-four hours', railway journey. It was by the Ciscaucasian line that I approached the moun- tains on both my last journeys in 1887 and 1889. For various reasons, I came not from the Black Sea, but by land througli the heart of Russia, from Kiev or Moscow. Russian an-angements allow any scenery through which the line may pass to be seen to The more advantage by railway passengers than is usually possible. first-class carriages are saloon cars fitted with movable armchairs and wide windows, and the pace is extremely moderate. Unfortun- ately, there is seldom in Russia any scenery to look at. Forests, cornlands, rolling downs dotted with few and far-off villages — landscapes with endless horizontal lines but no marked horizons — unfold themselves in endless succession before the eyes of the semi-hypnotised traveller, as he rolls slowly day after day southwards towards the Caucasus through the summer heat and dust. A famous Alpine guide, who was being taken out not long ago by this overland route, became so much depressed at the persistent flatness of Southern Russia, that on the second or third morning he broke out into forcible remonstrance with his employers on their folly in going farther in search of mountains in a direction in which it was becoming hourly more obvious that the world was fiat. At a desolate junction, usually reached about midnight, known as Tikhoretski, the trains from Rostov on the Don and Novo- rossisk unite. In the early dawn the line crosses the hai'dly noticeable ridg-e in the downs which divides the waters that flow to the Black Sea and the Caspian. Presently the bold lines of Beshtau— the isolated group of porphyry hills of Piatigorsk, the first outposts of the mountains, spring out of the long unifurm undula- tions of the steppe. Then the vast white dome of Elbruz flashes VOL. I. F

CHAPTER IV<br />

KASBEK AND THE OSSETE DISTRICT<br />

"EiVf fjLOi, Tiov evs aWr}\(ov, *) tl TTjpepov<br />

TrXe'oi' ftvai<br />

logo

products

Resources

Company

Terms of service
Privacy policy
Cookie policy
Cookie settings
Imprint
Change language
Made with love in Switzerland
© 2024 Yumpu.com all rights reserved

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!