But at the very outset a frcsh disappohitment awaited him. It was already five o’clock in the afternoon. They intended to start on the following morning, 3th September. Of Poti, then, Van Mitten could only see the public gardens, in which arc the ruins of an ancient fortress the houses (built on piles), the abodes or some six thousand or seven thousand people the wide streets flanked by ditches in which frogs croaked ncessantly and the harbour, weIl-fihlcd with shipping, which is guarded by art exccllent lighthouse, a guiding star of the 6rst magn ft de.

Van Mitten could only console himself for having so little time in which to make these observations, as he had to leave the town so quickly, by recollecting that it s situated in the mMst of the marshes formed by the Rion and the Capatcha and that by his rapid departure he wou’d run no Hsk of the fever which is so prevalent there.

While the Dutchman was titus abandoning himself to all these kinds of reflections, Abmet was busying himself in endeavouring to replace the chaise, which would have still done good service but for the indelensible imprudence of its proprietor. Now to find anothcr post-chaise, new or second-hand, in the little town of Poti vas not to be expectcd, A prec/ad-naia--—or Russian araba—mght indeed bc obtained, and Seigneur Kdraban’s purse was available to pay the cost, whatever it might be. But the available vehicles in fact were only more or less of a cart— like and primitive character very uncomfortable, and had