being deposited by the river of Peer-Bazar. To cross the lagoon in the ships was thus impossible, and a sufficient number of boats could not be procured to convey the soldiers, the stores and the guns to the mainland. The Russian commander, therefore, determined to march his troops round the border of the lake; but the marshy ground which surrounds it was so heavy that it was with the greatest difficulty that guns could be dragged over it. A thick forest occupies the surface of the country between Enzelli and the chief city of Gilan, and in this forest the Gileks were concealed ready at the suitable moment to open a fire upon the invaders. It would be almost impossible to imagine a more difficult undertaking for a general than in the face of an enemy to transport an army with stores and artillery over the muddy and marshy thickets that lie before the town of Resht; and accordingly it is not to be wondered at that when the Gileks opened fire from their ambush the Russians should have been thrown into confusion from which they found they could not extricate themselves. The order was given to retreat on Enzelli, and the expedition there took ship, leaving behind, if we may rely on the Persian accounts, some guns and stores of war.
The Russian commander-in-chief in Georgia marched out of Genja and took up his position on the banks of the river Tatar. The Shah instructed the crown-prince to endeavour to make himself master of Genja, and, in order to occupy General Seeseeanoff, Ismail Khan was Bent to make a diversion in front of the stream, on which that officer had taken up his position. He thence dislodged the Russian general, and the prince then obtained possession of Genja, the inhabitants of which city were
