A HAPPY LAND FOR TOURISTS. 121 or less Imeretian, and other mountaineers, all more picturesquely habited and armed, this railway journey is the most striking and most beautiful in Europe, and must sooner or later become a favourite one with English tourists. Now that the Baku line is open, a summer tour of a month's duration via the Dutch flats, the romantic Rhine, the primitive Carpathians, and the unique Russian Steppes to Odessa, occupying four days; the Crimea and Caucasian coasts to Batoum, and across Transcaucasia to Baku, taking a week; thence up the Caspian and Volga to Nijni Novgorod, and by railway home via Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Warsaw, using up the rest of the time, has become such a simple performance that it is bound in time to become a popular tour. I have said already that the mere coasting alone round the lovely scenery of the Crimea and Caucasia is worth the fatigue of the railway journey to Odessa; the same might with equal truth be said of the trip from Batoum to Tiflis. The stations are good; plenty of time is allowed at the excellent buffets to enjoy good living on the way; the pace is slow enough for the traveller to appreciate the beauty of the scenery; and he not only has plenty of time at the constant stoppages to stretch his limbs at the stations, but can purchase at most of them freshly picked fruit at fabulously cheap rates-a huge water melon for a penny, a rope of grapes, consisting of bunches strung on ropes like onions and weighing two or three pounds, for five farthings, a handful of peaches for a half-penny, and a pocketful of delicious filberts for a farthing. At nearly every station there is a regular bazaar, where not only fruit can be bought, but poultry, game, and other provisions. In connection with this very peculiar feature of the BatoumTiflis Railway, it is noteworthy that alongside and round about stations which, when originally built, contained no habitations near them, rows of shops have sprung up, attaining the proportions in one or two instances of large bazaars. In this manner the stations are becoming encompassed by markets, and facilities are afforded for trade en route to be witnessed nowhere else in Russia. Between Batoum and Tiflis the train is so crowded, and there is such a large traffic on both sides. of the Suram Pass, that the Company ought to run several through trains a day instead of simply one every twenty-four hours. Under English or American railway administration the Transcaucasian region would develop rapidly, but what growth there is seems to be rather in spite of the railway than because of it. After a couple of hours' travelling we cleared the confines of Gouria, and at eleven o'clock reached the junction station of Samtredi, where we had twenty minutes for lunch, and picked up the passengers from Poti. Here we came in contact with the more settled part of the Transcaucasian Railway. Hitherto we had passed newly annexed mountains and forests, with merely a bare little station here and there, and occasionally a tiny village. Passengers were neither picked up nor put down. Henceforth to Tiflis, however, there was plenty of bustle, and newcomers experienced a difficulty in getting a seat. Two stations beyond Samtredi is Rion, whence a branch line takes the traveller in seventeen minutes to Kutais, the capital of Imeritia. From here to the top of Suram Pass, five hours' journey, the scenery never ceases to excite interest. The railway runs along the river Rion, tracking it to its very source, three thousand feet above the level of the sea. For the most part the railway keeps to the right hand side of the river, and the fine old military macadamised road to the left; cloud-topped mountains tower above both. Villages perched upon precipices, or down on the river bank, are constantly CROSSING THE LESSER CAUCASUS. Stations Poti 123 Tschiladidi Norcé Senali Samtredi passed; the military road is enlivened by groups of horsemen in the warlike Mingrelian costume; now and again a caravan of camels is seen, and at every strategical bend are the ruins of some old fort or castle, the stones of which, if they could speak, would tell many a story of romance, war, and chivalry. For magnificent and romantic scenery, this part of the journey will compare with the Rhine from Coblenz to Cologne; in my opinion, it beats it. The presence of handsome armed horsemen, like the knights of old, imparts to the journey up the Rion an interest which is altogether lacking in the case of the Rhine. As the train approaches the Suram the inclines become very steep. The topmost station is Poni, 3,200 feet above the level of the sea. In climbing up to this point and descending from it, the gradients for more than eight miles are one foot in 224. During the four hours' journey from Quirill, on the Rion side, 045 0.025 Sea Level Kutais Quirill Dserula Bejeloubaru 3200 above sea level Poni 9000 Suram Michailovs Karili Gori Grakale Kaspe Kranka Tinis SECTION OF THE POTI-TIFLIS RAILWAY. to Michaelova on that of the Kura, the train rises a height of 2,000 feet.* Three engines, one a 60-ton The line starts from Batoum and Poti at 18 feet above the sea-level. From Poti for 40 miles the railway traverses a swamp, after which the line rises with gradients from 1 in 125 to 1 in 70, with curves of from 200 feet to 250 feet. Beyond this the gradients are 1 in 45 and 1 in 40, and finally the profile changes to 1 in 22, landing at the Poni station, at the top of the Suram Pass, 3,200 feet |