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Geographical Notes

1890; Nature Portfolio; Volume: 41; Issue: 1059 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1038/041351a0

1476-4687

Linguistic and Cultural Studies

AT the meeting of the Royal Geographical Society on Monday, Mr. Douglas W. Freshfield read a most interesting paper on “Search and Travel in the Caucasus: an account of the discovery of the fate of the party lost in 1888.” He began by acknowledging his obligations to M. de Stael, the Russian Ambassador to the Court of St. James's, the officials at Vladikavkaz, and more particularly to MM. Jukoff and Bogdanoff, of the Russian Survey, for the facilities and assistance given to him and his companions in carrying out the object of his journey. The topographical information accumulated by the surveyors had been placed at his disposal with the greatest readiness, and part of the result might be seen in the great map (6 inches to the mile) of the central group hung on the wall. The heights of the principal peaks were now ascertained. There were eight higher than Mont Blanc, and fifteen of over 15,000 feet. The four highest are Elbruz, Koshtantau, Shkara, and Dychtau. Ushba is 15,600 feet. Mr. Freshfield briefly described the new carriage pass, the Mamison, 9400 feet, from Vladikavkaz to Kutais. Its scenery is finer than that of the Dariel, and the road has been well engineered, but it will shortly fall into rain unless a service is organized for its maintenance. He referred to the remarkable old Ossete sanctuary of Rekom, at the foot of the Ceja Glacier, and to the tombs found at Chegem, and exhibited a collection of metal and other objects discovered mostly at Styr Degir. In many villages small settlements of “Mountain Jews” were found. There were over 20,000 of this race in the Caucasus, and a work on them has lately been published at Moscow. The author, M. Mirimisoff states that their beliefs and superstitions are singular, and show Persian influence, but they have had for centuries no connection with the rest of their race, from which they were probably separated at a very early date. The party had crossed five high glacier passes before reaching Suanetia. Here Mr. Freshfield and Captain Powell were the guests of Prince Atar Dadish Kilia, the representative of the family who once ruled Lower Suanetia. He now spends a few months in the summer at his houise at Ereri, dispensing hospitality in feudal fashion among his retainers. The population assembles every Sunday for games on the green, and the women sing ballads recounting incidents in local history or tales of love and revenge. The Leila peaks (13,400 feet) south of Suanetia were ascended for the first time. They are pre-eminent in forests and flowers. One of the glaciers falls over a cliff in avalanches into a glen which is a bed of wild roses and yellow lilies, growing often with fourteen blooms on one stalk. From Suanetia to Sukhum Kaleh the travellers forced a way with mules through an almost trackless forest, and down the deserted valley of the Kodor, the region that was once Abchasia. Strange tales are told of the forest, even by Russian officials, who declared that a wild race, without villages, arms, or clothes, haunted its recesses. No one was met, however, but a few hunters and shepherds. But considerable difficulty was met with in forcing a way through the tangle of fallen timber and finding a passage over the torrents, and the native guides employed deserted the travellers before they reached Lata, the first Russian station on the Kodor. Mr. Freshfield proceeded to relate in detail the incidents of the search undertaken by Mr. C. Dent and himself, with the aid of Mr. H. Woolley and Captain Powell, for traces of the fate of the mountaineers, Mr. W. F. Donkin, Mr. H. Fox, and two Meiringen guides, lost in August 1888. It was known, from a note in a diary left by Mr. Fox in a lower camp with his heavy luggage, that the lost party had set out from the Dumala Valley in the Bezingi District, with the hope of climbing Dychtau, 16,880 feet, from the south-east. Karaoul, at the head of the Chertk Valley, was made, therefore, the head-quarters of the search party. They bivouacked under a rock beside the Tutuin Glacier, at a height of 9400 feet. Next morning (July 29) they starred at dawn, and forced, not without difficulty, a passage through the monstrous séracs of the Tutuin Glacier. Above them they found a long snowy corridor leading to the base of Dychtau, and to the foot of a gap in its east spur, which they believed Mr. Donkin and his companions had crossed from the Dumala glen on the further side. Nothing was found at the foot of the steep rock wall, 1400 feet high, which protected the pass. The searchers therefore climbed the rocks leading to it, and when iooo feet above the snow and some 400 below the ridge, the traces sought were met with. The leader at the rope's end suddenly stopped short and gasped, “See, here is the sleeping-place.” Before our eyes rose a low wall of loose stones built in a semicircle convex to the lower precipice. A crag partially overhung it; any object dropped over the wall fell iooo feet on to the snow plain below. The space, some 6 feet square, inside the wall, was filled with uneven snow or ice, from which portions of knapsacks and sleeping bags protruded. A black stew-pan, half full of water, in which a metal cup floated, lay against the rock; a loaded revolver was hung beside it. It cost more than three hours' hard work to dig out all the objects from the frozen stuff in which they were embedded. Only three could work at once in the narrow space, and Mr. Freshfield and Mr. Woolley went on to the ridge, where they found a small stoneman, but no written record. Some manuscript notes and maps of Mr. Fox's were found in the bivouac, but nothing written after leaving the lower camp. The whole of the cliff and cliff's foot were carefully searched with a strong telescope. Mr. Woolley and his guides twice passed along the cliff's foot on his ascent of Dychtau, and he made certain that the party had not climbed the peak—that the accident therefore had happened on the ascent. After the lecture, Mr. Freshfield showed in the lantern a series of views of the Caucasus, from photographs by Mr. Hermann Woolley and Signor V. Sella. A complete set of Signor Sella's views, embracing eight panoramas and 90 views, was shown in an adjoining room. The panorama from Elhruz shows the whole chain of the Caucasus above a sea of clouds, and is probably the finest mountain photograph yet exhibited.