Russian And Georgian Officers In Gorgeous Uniforms Of Dark Green, Gold Lace, And Astrachan; French And German Merchants With Their Wives And Daughters; With A Sprinkling _Demi-Mondaines_ From Odessa Or Kharkoff, Sipping Tea Or Drinking Kummel And "Kaketi" At The Little Marble Tables, And Discussing The Latest Scandals.

Kaketi, a wine not unlike Carlowitz, is grown in considerable quantities in the Caucasus.

There are two kinds, red and white, but the former is considered the best. Though sound and good, it is cheap enough - one rouble the quart. Tobacco is also grown in small quantities in parts of Georgia and made into cigarettes, which are sold in Tiflis at three kopeks per hundred. But it is poor, rank stuff, and only smoked by the peasantry and droshki-drivers.

[Illustration: TIFLIS]

Tiflis has a large and important garrison, but is not fortified. Its topographical depot is one of the best in Russia, and I managed, not without some difficulty, to obtain from it maps of Afghanistan and Baluchistan. The latter I subsequently found better and far more accurate than any obtainable in England. The most insignificant hamlets and unimportant camel-tracks and wells were set down with extraordinary precision, especially those in the districts around Kelat.

There is plenty of sport to be had round Tiflis. The shooting is free excepting over certain tracts of country leased by the Tiflis shooting-club. Partridge, snipe, and woodcock abound, and there are plenty of deer and wild boar within easy distance of the capital. Ibex is also found in the higher mountain ranges. For this (if for no other reason) Tiflis seems to be increasing in popularity every year for European tourists. It is now an easy journey of little over a week from England, with the advantage that one may travel by land the whole way from Calais. This route is _via_ Berlin, Cracow, Kharkoff, and Vladikavkas, and from the latter place by coach (through the Dariel Gorge) to Tiflis.

The purchase of a warm astrachan bonnet, a bourka, [C] and bashlik, [D] completed my outfit. It now consisted of two small portmanteaus (to be changed at Teheran for saddle-bags), a common canvas sack for sleeping purposes, and a brace of revolvers. Gerome was similarly accoutred, with the exception of the portmanteaus. My interpreter was evidently not luxuriously inclined, for his _impedimenta_ were all contained in a small black leather hand-bag! All being ready, eleven o'clock on the night of the 12th of January found us standing on the platform of the Tiflis railway station, awaiting the arrival of the Baku train, which had been delayed by a violent storm down the line.

I received a letter from the governor a few hours before my departure, wishing me _bon voyage_, and enclosing a document to ensure help and civility from the officials throughout his dominions. It may seem ungrateful, but I felt that I could well have dispensed with this, especially as I was leaving his Excellency's government at Baku, a distance of only ten hours by rail.

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