Fairlie, are employed to haul the train up to the top of the pass and ease it down the other side. The operation is naturally slow, but the magnificence of the scenery repays the traveller for the delay. Commercially, the traversing of the pass by such steep gradients is a mistake, however grand the railway may be from an engineering point of view. Only Only a few trucks or carriages can be taken over the pass at a time, and the line being a single one, this will inevitably lead to a congestion of the traffic the moment the petroleum trade assumes large proportions. It is but right to say that the English engineers who constructed the line urged a tunnel instead of a crossing, and the Tiflis authorities long ago regretted that they did not listen to their advice. The forty miles of gradients involve a special extra outlay of £55,000 yearly, or nearly £1,400 a mile, to keep in order. As this sum would be more than sufficient to pay 5 per cent. guaranteed interest on the £1,000,000 needed to construct a tunnel, there is very little doubt that before long the latter will be excavated. Of course, this would be a work of years, which is a serious matter for the petroleum trade, but, in the meanwhile, Mr. Ludwig Nobel has suggested that the congestion in the oil traffic should be relieved by running a pipe-line over the pass. The trains from Baku would deposit the oil in reservoirs on the east side of the Lesser Caucasus, whence it would be pumped to the top of the pass. From here its own gravity would carry it down to the bottom, and a considerable distance beyond, and it could then be carried on again in oil-trucks to its destination. The idea is excellent, and it has this great advantage, that it

above the sea-level. After leaving Poni the line goes down a few miles at 1 in 221, after which the grades grow slighter. Beyond Gori, to Tiflis, they are comparatively easy, and thenceforth the line is virtually level to the Caspian.

would form a section of the pipe-line that will some day run from Baku to Batoum.

Poni station was reached at half-past six. I do not know any place that would give a person a better idea of a watershed, or impress upon him more clearly the difference in climate and scenery produced by a range of mountains. Up to the top of the pass, on the Rion side, he has forests, bushes, grass, and creepers growing with the utmost luxuriance under the influence of the humid climate of the Black Sea littoral. From the station at Poni, he has before him, in the direction of Tiflis, a grand panorama of mountain tops-forming, as it were, a plain of cones-all more or less bare and bleak in appearance. The cold here is The cold here is very sensible; we should have enjoyed our greatcoats. Directly the descent commences, and the new valley, that of the Kura, begins to broaden out, there is a perceptible decrease in the luxuriance of vegetation; and although the vale of Georgia, as far as Tiflis, is considered equal to any part of Italy in fertility of soil and softness of climate, this change continues to deepen until even at Tiflis vegetation is only maintained by means of artificial irrigation. The rainfall on the Tiflis side of the Suram Pass is three times less than on the Poti side.

Half an hour's ride from Poni brought us to the extensive camp at Suram, where many thousand troops are maintained in the fresh and invigorating climate of the highlands. Russia maintains the principal part of the army of the Caucasus in and about Tiflis, and the valley stretching up to the Suram. Food is everywhere abundant and cheap there, and by keeping the men well in hand in a central spot she can throw them forward to Kars, or right and left respectively to the Black Sea and the Caspian. At the station next to Suram, Michaelova, the train stopped long enough for

the passengers to partake of dinner at the excellent buffet, and then there were no more prolonged halts till we got to Tiflis. It was quite dark when we left Michaelova, and if we had not returned the same way we should have missed the beautiful scenery extending between it and the Georgian capital. Vineyards and maize fields, villages and ruined castles, mark the entire course. At all the stations grapes can be had for two or three farthings a pound, and a capful of pears or peaches for a penny or twopence. In the Caucasus there are nearly 300,000 acres devoted to the culture of the vine, and the quantity of wine produced every year does not fall far short of 35,000,000 gallons. Of this more than a third is grown in the Rion region. The wine is pronounced by experts to be of excellent quality, although it is not manufactured with sufficient skill to enable it to keep long. Throughout the Caucasus it is transported in skins, and is sold at the innumerable wine shops from sixpence a bottle upwards. Although fond of wine, I must admit I rapidly grew tired of it, and while at Baku preferred the Russo-Bavarian light beer, brought from Astrakhan and Kazan. In all parts of Russia the wines of the Crimea and the Caucasus can be bought very cheap, and are invariably unadulterated. The Russians, as a rule, despise them, although recent investigations have revealed that much of the French and German wine sold throughout the country at a heavy price is nothing more than the native article, adulterated and labelled with foreign brands.

Our train became very crowded as we approached Tiflis, and we had plenty of opportunities of studying the varieties of natives with whom we came in contact. If dress and demeanour afford any criterion of the civilization of a country, Georgia is ahead of any other part of Russia; on no other line in the Empire will the

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traveller find so many respectable and intelligent people in the second and third-class carriages as during the journey from Poti to Tiflis. The men of the Caucasus are proverbially handsome. Some of them I saw were superbly beautiful. I am sorry I cannot say as much of the women. I did not see a pretty face the whole time I was in the Caucasus. As for the women in Georgia, they seem to me to have been grossly overrated; their round flat caps and Roman noses had the aggravating effect on me that Dickens ascribes to Pip in "Great Expectations."

We had left in the morning Batoum deluged with rain; we arrived at Tiflis just before midnight, and found the place parched with heat and overwhelmed with dust. The phaeton that conveyed us and our luggage to the London Hotel (Gostinnitza London) stirred up dense clouds as it rattled over the ill-paved streets. Like all Russian stations, that of Tiflis is situated right outside the town, and we had a couple of miles to drive before we reached our destination, and made ourselves comfortable for the night.

CHAPTER IX.

TIFLIS AS A POLITICAL AND MILITARY CENTRE.

Tiflis in the Autumn-Development of the City-One's Impressions of the Place depend upon whether one is proceeding East or West-The Administrative District of the Caucasus-What it Cost to Conquer it-Political and Strategical Position of Tiflis—Table of Annexations during the various Russian Sovereigns' Reigns-The Conquest of Central Asia-Tiflis compared with Indian CentresThe next War in the East-Value of Russian Assurances-The Approximation of Russia and India inevitable-Lesson Taught by the Annexation of Merv—The Principal Fact to be Remembered in regard to Tiflis-The Armenians : Their Present and Future-Not so tame in spirit as commonly imaginedRussian Interest in the Armenian Question-The Caucasus Deficit.

As nobody goes to the Caucasus without paying a visit to Tiflis, that city has been so often and so well described that there is no need of my devoting much attention to it. Situated 1,350 feet above the level of the sea, and exposed to the dry winds from the east, it is naturally inclined to aridity; a defect which has been increased by denuding all the mountains round about of trees. The morning after our arrival the wind tore with such force down the valley, and carried with it such clouds of grit, that we were cruelly reminded of a dusty March breeze at home. Hot and dry in summer, Tiflis, however, is a delightful place in winter, and its mild and bracing atmosphere then is calculated to have an invigorating effect on the officials charged with the Government of the Caucasus.

We found plenty of progress observable. The builder is busy in every part of the city, and not only are old houses being replaced by new ones, forming