February 8.--Leaving the cluster of wayside hospices in which we had passed the night, our course was directed westwards down the stream. On either bank rose hills of marble with no great relative elevation, covered, like the valley, with deep snow. The current sometimes flowed in an open channel, and as often plunged beneath a continuous crust of ice. Not a single tree, nor even a bush, was visible in the landscape. A little further down the hills opened, and gave place to a stretch of plain (Fig. 172). At the western end of this expanse they again circled inwards, and the valley took an abrupt turn towards the east. At the mouth of this passage is situated the castle and town of Baiburt, barring the approach to these uppermost reaches of the Chorokh. But on the west of this picturesque and ruinous fortress the heights which deflect the river to its long course toward the east command the stronghold and detract from its value in modern war. Indeed they constitute an undulating upland or plateau, framed by the convex shapes of distant hills. At about its highest point this plateau has an elevation of some 5620 feet. Leaving the town, we made our way across this upland in a direction of west to west-north-west; and, in a little over an hour, overlooked one of the flat depressions which have already been so often described. Upon its snow-clad surface was placed an Armenian village with three fine buildings, now in ruins, a relic of the old times. What an eloquent memorial those shapely forms and that finished masonry still preserved to a cultured and beneficent race! Varzahan was the name of the village; but we had again been placed under surveillance, and it was impossible to perpetuate the image of these decaying remains. [216]