The High Lands of the Great Continent (_continued_)—The Caucasus—The
Western Asiatic Table-Land and its Mountains.
THE Dardanelles and the Sea of Marmora form but a small break in the
mighty girdle of the old continent, which again appears in immense
table-lands, passing through the centre of Asia, of such magnitude that
they occupy nearly two-fifths of the continent. Here everything is on a
much grander scale than in Europe: the table-lands rise above the mean
height of the European mountains, and the mountains themselves that gird
and traverse them surpass those of every other country in altitude. The
most barren deserts are here to be met with, as well as the most
luxuriant productions of animal and vegetable life. The earliest records
of the human race are found in this cradle of civilization, and
monuments still remain which show the skill and power of those nations
which have passed away, but whose moral influence is still visible in
their descendants. Customs, manners, and even prejudices, carry us back
to times beyond the record of history, or even of tradition; while the
magnitude with which the natural world is here developed evinces the
tremendous forces that must have been in action at epochs immeasurably
anterior to the existence of man.
The gigantic mass of high land which extends for 6000 miles between the
Mediterranean and the Pacific is 2000 miles broad at its eastern
extremity, 700 to 1000 in the middle, and somewhat less at its
termination. Colossal mountains and elevated terraces form the edges of
the lofty plains.
Between the 47th and 68th eastern meridians, where the low plains of
Hindostan and Bokara press upon the table-land and reduce its width to
700 or 1000 miles, it is divided into two parts by an enormous knot of
mountains formed by the meeting of the Hindoo Coosh, the Himalaya, the
Tsung-lin, and the transverse ranges of the Beloot Tagh, or Cloudy
Mountains: these two parts differ in height, form, and magnitude.
The western portion, which is the table-land of Persia or plateau of
Iran, is oblong, extending from the shores of Asia Minor to the Hindoo
Coosh and the Solimaun range, which skirts the right bank of the Indus.
It occupies an area of 1,700,000 square miles, generally about 4000 feet
above the sea, and in some places 7000. The Oriental plateau or
table-land of Tibet, much the largest, has an area of 7,600,000 square
miles, a mean altitude of 14,000 feet, and in some parts of Tibet an
absolute altitude of 17,000 feet.
As the table-lands extend from S.W. to N.E., so also do the principal
mountain-chains, as well those which bound the high lands as those which
traverse them. Remarkable exceptions to this equatorial direction of the
Asiatic mass, however, occur in a series of meridional chains, whose
axes extend from S.S.E. to N.N.W., between Cape Comoron, opposite to
Ceylon, and the Arctic Ocean, under the names of the Western Ghauts, the
Solimaun range (which forms the eastern boundary of the table-land of
Persia), the Beloot Tagh, or Bolor (which is the western limit of the
Oriental plateau), and the Ural Mountains. These chains, rich in gold,
lie in different longitudes, and so alternate among themselves that each
begins only in that latitude which has not yet been attained by the
preceding one. The Khinghan, in China, also extends from south to north
along the eastern slopes of the table-land, and forms its boundary at
that end.[26]
The lofty range of the Caucasus, which extends 700 miles between the
Black and Caspian Seas, is an outlying member of the Asiatic high lands.
Offsets diverge like ribs from each side of the central crest, which
penetrate the Russian Steppes on one hand, and on the other cross the
plains of Kara, or valley of the Kour and Rioni, and unite the Caucasus
to the table-land. Some parts of these mountains are very high; the
Elburz, on the western border of Georgia, is 17,796 feet. The central
part of the chain is full of glaciers, and the limit of perpetual snow
is at the altitude of 11,000 feet, which is higher than in any other
chain of the old continent, except the Himalaya.
Anatolia, the most western part of the table-land of Iran, 3000 feet
above the sea, is traversed by short chains and broken groups of
mountains, separated by fertile valleys, which sink rapidly towards the
Archipelago, and end in promontories and islands along the shores of
Asia Minor, which is a country abounding in vast, luxuriant, but
solitary plains, watered by broad rivers—in Alpine platforms and
mountain-ridges broken up by great valleys, opening seawards, with
meandering streams. Single mountains of volcanic formation are
conspicuous objects on the table-land of Anatolia, which is rich in
pasture, though much of the soil is saline and covered with lakes and
marshes. A triple range of limestone mountains, 6000 or 7000 feet high,
divided by narrow but beautiful valleys, is the limit of the Anatolian
table-land along the shores of the Black Sea. Two-thirds of their height
are covered with forests, and broken by wooded glens, leaving a narrow
coast, except near Trebizond, where it is broad and picturesque. The
high land is bounded on the south by the serrated snowy range of the
Taurus, which, beginning in Rhodes, Cos, and other islands in the
Mediterranean, fills the south-western parts of Asia Minor with
ramifications, and, after following the sinuosities of the iron-bound
coast of Karamania in a single lofty range, extends at Samisat, where
the Euphrates has pierced a way through this stony girdle.
About the 50th meridian the table-land is compressed to nearly half its
width, and there the lofty mountainous regions of Armenia, Kourdistan,
and Azerbijan tower higher and higher between the Black Sea, the
Caspian, and the Gulf of Scanderoon in the Mediterranean. Here the cold
treeless plains of Armenia, the earliest abode of man, 7000 feet above
the sea, bear no traces of the Garden of Eden; Mount Ararat, on which
the Ark is said to have rested, stands a solitary majestic volcanic
cone, 17,260 feet above the sea, shrouded in perpetual snow. Though high
and cold, the soil of Armenia is richer than that of Anatolia, and is
better cultivated. It shelves on the north in luxuriant and beautiful
declivities to the low and undulating valley of Kara, south of the
Caucasus; and, on the other hand, the broad and lofty belt of the
Kourdistan mountains, rising abruptly in many parallel ranges from the
plains of Mesopotamia, form its southern limit, and spread their
ramifications wide over its surface. They are rent by deep ravines, and
in many places are so rugged that communication between the villages is
always difficult, and in winter impracticable from the depth of snow.
The line of perpetual congelation is decided and even along their
summit; their flanks are wooded, and the valleys populous and fertile.
A thousand square miles of Kourdistan is occupied by the brackish lake
Van, which is seldom frozen, though 5467 feet above the sea, and
surrounded by lofty mountains.
The Persian mountains, of which Elburz is the principal chain, extend
along the northern brink of the plateau, from Armenia, almost parallel
to the shores of the Caspian Sea, maintaining a considerable elevation
up to the volcanic peak of Demavend, near Tehrân, their culminating
point, which, though 90 miles inland, is a landmark to sailors on the
Caspian. Elevated offsets of these mountains cover the volcanic
table-land of Azerbijan, the fire-country of Zoroaster, and one of the
most fertile provinces of Persia; there the Koh Salavan elevates its
volcanic cone. Beautiful plains, pure streams, and peaceful glades,
interspersed with villages, lie among the mountains, and the Vale of
Khosran Shah, a picture of sylvan beauty, is celebrated as one of the
five paradises of Persian poetry. The vegetation at the foot of these
mountains on the shores of the Caspian has all the exuberance of a
tropical jungle. The Elburz loses its height to the east of Demavend,
and then joins the mountains of Khorasan and the Paropamisan range,
which appear to be chains of mountains when viewed from the low plains
of Khorasan and Balkh, but on the table-land of Persia they merely form
a broad hilly country of rich soil, till they join the Hindoo Coosh.
The table-land of Iran is bounded, for 1,000 miles along the Persian
Gulf and Indian Ocean, by a mountainous belt of from three to seven
parallel ranges, having an average width of 200 miles, and extending
from the extremity of the Kourdistan Mountains to the mouth of the
Indus. The Lasistán Mountains, which form the northern part of this
belt, and bound the vast level plain of the Tigris, rise from it in a
succession of high table-lands divided by very rugged mountains, the
last ridge of which, mostly covered with snow, abuts on the table-land
of Persia. Oaks clothe their flanks; the valleys are of generous soil,
verdant, and cultivated; and many rivers flow through them to swell the
stream of the Tigris. Insulated hill forts, from 2000 to 5000 feet high,
occur in this country, with flat cultivated tops some miles in extent,
accessible only by ladders, or holes cut in their precipitous sides.
These countries are full of ancient inscriptions and remains of
antiquity. The moisture decreases more and more south from Shiraz, and
then the parallel ridges, repulsive in aspect and difficult to pass, are
separated by arid longitudinal valleys, which ascend like steps from the
narrow shores of the Persian Gulf to the table-land. The coasts of the
gulf are burning hot sand solitudes, so completely barren, that the
country from Bassora to the Indus, a distance of 1200 miles, is nearly a
sterile waste. In the few favoured spots on the terraces where water
occurs there is vegetation, and the beauty of these valleys is enhanced
by surrounding sterility.[27]
With the exception of Mazenderan and the other provinces bordering upon
the Caspian, and in the Paropamisan range, Persia is arid, possessing
few perennial springs, and not one great river; in fact, three-tenths of
the country is a desert, and the table-land is nearly a wide scene of
desolation. A great salt-desert occupies 27,000 square miles between
Irak and Khorasan, of which the soil is a stiff clay, covered with
efflorescence of common salt and nitre, often an inch thick, varied only
by a few saline plants and patches of verdure in the hollows. This
dreary waste joins the large sandy and equally dreary desert of Kerman.
Kelat, the capital of Belochistan, is 7000 feet above the level of the
sea: round it there is cultivation, but the greater part of that country
is a lifeless plain, over which the brick-red sand is drifted by the
north wind into ridges like the waves of the sea, often 12 feet high,
without a vestige of vegetation. The blast of the desert, whose hot and
pestilential breath is fatal to man and animals, renders these dismal
sands impassable at certain seasons.
Barren lands or bleak downs prevail at the foot of the Lukee and
Solimaun ranges, formed of bare porphyry and sandstone, which skirt the
eastern edge of the table-land, and dip to the plains of the Indus. In
Afghanistan there is little cultivation except on the banks of the
streams that flow into the Lake Zerrah, but vitality returns towards the
north-east. The plains and valleys among the offsets from the Hindoo
Coosh are of surpassing loveliness, and combine the richest peaceful
beauty with the majesty of the snow-capped mountains by which they are
encircled.