GEOGRAPHICAL
In the present chapter I shall invite my reader to make good his
advantage over the traveller, and to realise, before proceeding
further with the journey, the true meaning and wider connection of
those natural features which have composed the landscape day by day. At
the same time I shall endeavour to trace the limits of north-eastern or
Russian Armenia, extending our view for awhile to comprise the whole of
Armenia, and again narrowing it to the area of the Russian provinces.
But at the outset we are prompted to examine the conception so vaguely
expressed by the metaphors of tableland and frame of mountain ranges
which, with slight variations in the figure, have in the foregoing
pages so often been employed. The pursuit of this analysis carries us
beyond the sphere of our particular survey, compelling us to consider
the structure of Asia as a whole.
From the Mediterranean to the Pacific the Asiatic continent is
traversed by a zone of elevated country, which, flanked on the north
and south by great chains of mountains, breaks off on the west to the
Ægean Sea and to the lowlands of China on the east. Extensive areas
of land with considerably lesser altitude are outspread on either
side of this gigantic system: in the north the plains of Russia
and Siberia, in the south the peninsulas of Arabia and India. The
mountain chains which confine the zone of elevated country have been
reared during different geological periods; yet they are subject to
common laws. They are disposed in extensive arcs, of greater or lesser
curvature, which are festooned across the continent on either side
of the plateau region with a general direction from east to west. The
plateau region is in general synclinal or, in other words, of slightly
hollow surface, and, in comparison with the flanking ranges, is flat.
If we enquire of the geologist the origin of these phenomena,
we receive an answer which, while it leaves many points obscure
and doubtful, still enables us to trace the operation of fixed
principles in the mighty work unfolded before our eyes. Our globe
sails through the wan expanse of æther, diffusing the heat with which
it is charged. The cooling crust shrinks and gathers inwards towards
the centre; but the material of which it consists is inelastic and is
thrown into gigantic wrinkles or folds. Radial contraction induces
tangential stresses at the surface, colossal forces which bend over
and invert the folds, and even thrust the strata one beneath another,
causing them to be disposed like the tiles upon a roof. This lateral
tension finds most relief where the crust is weakest; and it is at
such points, or along such zones, that the process of mountain-making
has been developed on the largest scale. It is the tendency of such
folded ranges to form arcs of large curvature, which are drawn inwards,
where the lateral pressure meets with most resistance, and expand
outwards, where it is withstood in a lesser degree.
In Asia the operation of this process of mountain-making has been
accompanied by, or has produced, the elevation in mass of large
portions of the earth's crust. The intensely folded regions, or, in
other words, the great chains of mountains, are found along the inner
and the outer margins of the elevated mass. Between these zones the
stratified rocks have no doubt been subjected to the folding process;
yet they have escaped the immense contortions that have taken place
on either side.
Throughout the continent the lateral force which has been most
operative in mountain-making has proceeded from the north. The fact
may perhaps be explained by supposing that this force is the result
of the active pressure exerted by the hard, unyielding material of
which the steppes of Siberia and the basin of the Arctic Ocean are
composed. The great arcs which are described by the mountain ranges
are in general convex to the south. Thus in western Asia the chains
on the inner and outer margins of the elevated area are disposed in
two roughly parallel series of arcs bulging towards the south. Of
these series the inner arcs have less curvature than the outer,
to which they are roughly parallel.
The inner series may be traced with greatest singleness of feature on
the west of Hindu Kush--that natural centre of the mountain systems
of Asia which at once supplies the most convenient standpoint for a
general survey of the structure of the continent, and is placed at
the junction of the two great divisions, western and eastern, into
which geographers have partitioned this vast area. The Hindu Kush
inclines over into the Paropamisus; and the southern portion of the
latter range is continued, on the north of Persia, by the mountains
of Khorasan. A sharp bend in the belt, just east of the Caspian,
turns southwards into the Elburz range, and the beautiful curve
of the chain along the margin of the shore may be admired from the
waters of that inland sea. The line of Elburz is protracted across
the depression of the Araxes valley into the peaks of Karabagh; while
the Karabagh system unites with the bold and lofty ridges which in
full face of their gigantic neighbour, the Caucasus, overtower the
right bank of the Kur. These ridges again connect with the chain we
have ourselves crossed between Kutais and Akhaltsykh--a chain which
joins the mountains on the southern shore of the Black Sea. The Pontic
range forms a bow of wide span and gentle curvature, ending in the
hump of Anatolia, where it meets the arc of the Bithynian border hills.
The parallel series on the outer margin of the elevated area commences
with the outer arc of the Hindu Kush system, the severely bent and
S-shaped Salt Range. Thence it proceeds into the mountains which flank
Persia upon the east and belong to the outer Iranian arc. [411] The
bold sweep of this arc into the chain of Zagros may be recognised
by a glance at the map. We remark the greater protraction of the
north-western arm of the bow, a feature which may be traced in the
configuration of most of the great Asiatic chains. We admire the clean
and uniform outline of the curve, broken only by a slight indent
at the straits of Ormuz, which may be answered by the bend in the
inner system which we have already noticed on the east of the Caspian
Sea. The outer Iranian arc effects a junction with the Tauric ranges
along two parallel but fairly distinct orographical lines. Of these
the inner line crosses over from the Zagros to the Ararat system,
and assumes commanding orographical importance in the western arm of
that system, known as the Aghri or Shatin Dagh. It is in the Shatin
Dagh that the bend to the west-south-west is effected, which may be
followed through a series of volcanoes into the Anti-Taurus and the
Mediterranean range. The outer line is formed by the grand half-circle
of the Kurdish mountains; from the parched plains about Diarbekr you
see them, as from the well of an amphitheatre, covered or capped with
gleaming snow. This principal chain of Taurus extends to the coast
of Syria, and emerges from the sea in the island of Cyprus and in
many a headland and island of the Anatolian coast.
It can scarcely fail to impress the most casual of observers that
this double series of arcs, from Hindu Kush to Mediterranean, meet
or almost meet at three distinctly traceable and widely separated
points. Such approximations occur in Hindu Kush, in Armenia, and in the
mountainous districts which border the Ionian seaboard. We can scarcely
doubt that they are due to the incidence of a strong opposing force,
moving from the south and causing the arcs to be constricted, the
ranges to be piled up one behind another, and mountain development to
assume its grandest forms. It is probable that the resisting pressure
has been furnished in the first two cases by the Indian and Arabian
peninsulas. Another feature, less obvious but not less noteworthy,
is furnished by the fact that in Armenia and Asia Minor the arcs have
been fractured in the process of bending over at or near the points
where the approximations between the two series have taken place. The
closer the constriction, the sharper, of course, becomes the curve,
and the greater the tendency to split. In Asia Minor the union of
the series has resulted in complete fracture; the folded area sinks
beneath the waters of the Ægean to be represented by the islands
which stud the Archipelago, and, further west, by the mountains of
the Dalmatian coast.
On the east of Hindu Kush we are as yet in want of sufficient material
for so convincing an analysis as the researches of geologists have
rendered possible on the west. We know that in eastern Asia a vast
area of elevated land is bounded both along the inner and the outer
margins by mountain systems of wide extension and great height. Such
are the systems of Altai and Tian-shan upon the north, and the mighty
bow of the Himalayas on the south. Probably the Kuenlun range carries
over the inner series of western Asia, extending eastwards from the
Pamirs and serving as a buttress to the immensely elevated plateau
of Tibet. If this view be correct, then the Tian-shan and Altai
systems may perhaps be regarded as minor earth-waves, following close
upon the heels of the Kuenlun, and supporting the highlands of the
Tarim basin and the desert of Gobi, the Han-hai or Dry Sea of the
Chinese. The plain reader may be content to observe the echelon of
mountain ranges which extends from Hindu Kush towards Behring Sea;
to note the constant curvature of the arcs towards the south, until,
in the Altai group, the eastern arms of the bows are protracted ever
further towards the north; to contrast the low-lying plains along
the western ends of the echelon with the lofty highlands of Mongolia
on the east. The necks of the valleys issue upon the depression of
Siberia and the low country through which the Oxus and Jaxartes flow.
In western Asia the elevated area with its flanking ranges is
bordered on the north by the northern Paropamisus and further west
by the Caucasus chain. The Paropamisus may perhaps be regarded as
the most southerly of the many branches which belong to the system of
Tian-shan. [412] Geologists invite us to connect the Paropamisus with
the Caucasus, and trace the links of the broken chain to the mountains
of Krasnovodsk on the Caspian, whence a submarine ridge carries the
line into the mountains of Caucasus, to be protracted far to the west,
through the Crimea, and emerge from the waters of the Black Sea in
the Balkans, Carpathians and Alps. In this manner we see described on
the north of the Asiatic highlands, with their series of inner arcs,
a further arc of immense span and wide curvature, which is represented
on the east by the northern Paropamisus and by the Caucasus on the
west. Both these ranges may best be viewed as independent of the
inner series; but Paropamisus is closely adpressed to the inner arc
of Persia, and Caucasus is joined at a single point to the series,
namely by the Meschic linking chain. Lines of elevation, similar
to that which we have traced from Paropamisus, may be discovered,
although with less orographical distinction, proceeding westwards
and struggling over towards Europe from the more northerly branches
of Tian-shan; they are almost lost in the great depression of the
Turanian lowlands, but they follow arcs of increasing width of span.
This interesting study of the structure of Asia, which is due to the
researches of recent years, not only serves to explain the pronounced
features of Asiatic landscapes, as integral members of a vast design,
but also enables us to understand many of the movements of history and
many of the phenomena of the human world. [413] India is enclosed on
all sides by the sea or by the outer mountains, and appears reserved
by natural causes for herself. China, with her teeming millions,
is separated from western Asia by the whole bulk of the broadest
and least hospitable portion of the system of lofty plateaux with
peripheral ranges. The echelon of chains, which seam the continent
in a north-easterly direction, are the nurseries of the hardiest
tribes. The valleys which space these ranges are the arteries
of human movement, and they lead from west to east, from east to
west. Thus during the period of armed migrations which is represented
by the Tartar conquests, one division of the Tartar armies might be
fighting in China on the Yellow River while another was laying waste
Khorasan. The bend of the arcs towards the south places the framework
of Nature in harmony with the migrations of man. The tablelands of
Persia, Armenia and Asia Minor are members of a continuous system
of elevated plains at a temperate altitude, which extend like some
great causeway along the breadth of Asia, giving access from east to
west, from west to east. This causeway forms the natural avenue of
commerce and of conquest, by which the tide of war or of commercial
intercourse ebbs and flows between the remote recesses of Central Asia
and the Ionian shore of the Mediterranean Sea. Only on the east is
the causeway blocked by Nature to human traffic, by the constriction
of the arcs on the north of India, leading over by a gigantic knot of
mountains into the impassable plateau of Tibet. The stream is therefore
diverted from the highlands to the lowlands; great cities arise on
the lowlands, at the mouths of the Tian-shan valleys, Merv, Bokhara,
Samarkand. And when we contemplate and contrast the structure of Asia
and of Europe--the vast forces which have produced the stately body
of eastern Asia dying out towards the west in the insignificant but
widely ramified elevations of the European mountain chains--we may
readily understand how different has been the influence exercised by
structural features upon the peoples of either continent. In Asia such
features are a factor of the first importance, determining climate,
controlling migrations, setting barriers to intercourse or relentlessly
fixing the highways which it must pursue. In Europe, on the other
hand, they have done little more than diversify the scenery, and for
purposes of peaceful or hostile movements among the nations may with
some exceptions be almost left out of account. What are our European
mountains but arbitrary wrinkles on the face of the continent? One
valley leads over into another of much the same height above sea-level
by a pass which is not more lofty than the neighbouring ridges. One
plain is succeeded by a companion expanse of similar character, and
only some small diversity in the forms of the spires of the churches
tells the tale of national distinctions. Differentiation rather than
the presence of marked ethnological types is characteristic of the
peoples of Europe. But once the narrow strait is passed we may no
longer dally with our geography; and the further we proceed towards
the east and the inner sanctuaries of Nature the greater grows the
necessity of comprehending phenomena which must always exercise a
dominant influence upon human affairs. It will not suffice in Asia
to observe the latitude of a great plain in order to know beforehand
the degree of heat which it will support in summer, the rigour or
the suavity of the climate during winter. You will be freezing
in Erzerum while Erivan is relaxed in sunshine; yet both cities
are placed on the margins of level expanses, and the advantage of
latitude is in favour of the temperateness of that first named. Not
even the convenient distinction of highlands and lowlands will
carry us very far. We must enquire into the nature of the highlands;
are the mountains their prevailing feature, or are those mountains,
as we see them from the floor of the lowlands, a mere buttress to
a sequence of elevated plains? Penetrate the chain, and you rise by
successive steps from valley to valley, while each ridge is higher
than the last. Follow its extension upon the map and you will see it
rising from the Mediterranean and terminating in the knot of mountains
north of India. Mark the characteristics of the people who inhabit it,
be they Kurds or Lurs or Lazes, they will not offer much divergence
from a common standard. Yet what a gulf of human nature between these
and the inhabitants of the lowlands--a gulf which is scarcely spanned
by the equalising tendencies of a long spell of misgovernment! When
at length these alps expand, and you overlook a more level country,
everything--climate, the aspect of the sky as well as of the land,
people, language, cities, villages are new. And yet our diplomatists
who dwell on the Bosphorus, and ruminate Asiatic problems with the
aid of indifferent maps which they would not pretend to understand,
group the highlands and the lowlands, the shepherds of the mountains
and the cultivators of the plains, all together--a strange collection
of birds and beasts and fishes--in a single scheme of administrative
reforms. The Turk is little wiser; but we may perhaps view with a
large indifference his passive resistance to such reforms.
But to return to our plains and mountains--the country which we
may still call Armenia takes its place as an integral member of the
system of tablelands, buttressed by mountain ranges, which extends
from the Hindu Kush to the Mediterranean Sea. It is not separated
by any important natural frontier from Persia on the east or from
Asia Minor on the west. Moreover most of the characteristics which
are found in either of these neighbours are prevalent in Armenia
to a greater or a lesser degree. The stratified rocks include the
later Palæozoic, the Cretaceous, Eocene and Miocene series; and
these extend across the whole system. The salt deposits of Miocene
age which are spread so widely over Persia are not among the least
remarkable of the surface features of Armenia; although they have
not produced that widespread devastation which attends the extension
of the great salt deserts over the Persian plateau. [414] In Armenia
they are friendly to man, providing him with one of his necessaries;
and the various salt works, known in Turkey under the name of tuzla
or salt pans, have been exploited from immemorial times. Considerable
depressions of the surface of the highlands are phenomena common to
all three countries; and the same may be said of the volcanoes which
are dominant in Armenian landscapes, but are not wholly absent from
the contiguous territories on either side. All participate in the
benefits of a southern climate, and are exempted by their elevation
above sea-level from the excesses of a southern sun. Slowly-flowing
rivers threading vast plains, mountains which determine districts
rather than states; a natural penury of vegetation, enhanced by the
depredations of countless goats, but perhaps balanced in the eyes of
the traveller by the beauty of the land-forms--such are some among
the many impressions which may be derived in various degrees from a
visit to any of the individual members of the group.
But, if Armenia be closely linked with her neighbours on the west and
east, she is divided by some of the most effective of natural barriers
and natural distinctions from the countries which lie to the north
and south. The zones of mountains which on the one side separate
her from the coast of the Black Sea and the Georgian depression,
and on the other from the lowlands of Mesopotamia, possess in an
equal degree the rugged character due to intense folding and are
both of considerable width. Sharp ridges with serrated outlines
rising one behind another, narrow valleys in which the shadows lie,
hissing rivers and bush-grown rocks, grassy uplands or stretches of
forest determine the scenery both of the northern and of the southern
zone. The alpine region has a breadth of some fifty miles more or
less in the direction of the Black Sea, while the corresponding zone,
facing the lowlands about Diarbekr, extends, on the whole, over a
smaller span. Both zones are practically unlimited in length. They have
been factors of paramount influence in the history of the peoples,
not only screening the territories they confine from those which lie
outside, but also investing them with distinct climatic conditions. For
these parallel belts of peripheral mountains do in fact perform the
function of supports or buttresses to a series of elevated plains;
the valleys in the alpine region are but the succession of terraces
which rise to the margin of a lofty platform. A difference in level
of several thousands of feet is productive of marked features in the
habits and character of the inhabitants; while the alps themselves must
necessarily determine the mode of life of the dwellers within them,
constraining them to follow the vocation of shepherds rather than that
of agriculturists. Thus along the section between Diarbekr and the
Armenian highlands three strongly-contrasted types of people will be
met. The nomad Arabs or Arabic-speaking cultivators of the lowlands
are succeeded by the pastoral Kurds with their tribal organisation,
and these again by the Armenian tillers of the soil.
I have already indicated the intimate connection of these peripheral
mountains with the structural system of the Asiatic continent. The
northerly belt belongs to the inner series of arcs, and that on
the south to the outer series. The compression of these arcs--a
phenomenon which has engaged our attention--has been effected in
the greatest degree within the section of country between Diarbekr
and Trebizond. You see the two opposite arcs, one bent to the south
and the other to the north, endeavouring to meet under the stress of
contending pressures; while on either side of the section the curves
diminish in intensity and the spines of the ranges have been allowed
to expand like the spokes of a wheel. The northern boundary of Armenia
is constituted by the mountains of the northern peripheral region,
which enter the country on the west in the Gumbet Dagh. The line may
be followed on the map on the north of Shabin Karahisar through the
Giaour Dagh and the Kuseh Dagh to the pass over the Vavuk Dagh, lying
to the north-west of the town of Baiburt. From the Vavuk pass the spine
of the chain confines the valley of the Chorokh by a well-defined and
regular parapet; until just east of the town of Ispir it commences
to lose this singleness of feature, and to favour a tendency towards
bifurcation and branching out. The ridges stretch across the valley in
an east-north-easterly direction, the direction which the spine has so
long pursued; and their course may be traced through the mountainous
country on the north of Olti until they become buried beneath the
volcanic accumulations of the plateau country in the districts of
Göleh and Ardahan. It is most interesting to trace their probable
emergence from this canopy on the further side of the tableland, and
to recognise in the elevations of Shishtapa (north of Alexandropol)
and of Madatapa ridges that have survived the splitting and fracture
of the Pontic chain. But this is a feature of greater interest to the
geologist than to the geographer; and the latter will follow the Black
Sea range through the heights of the Khachkar and Parkhal mountains
to the Kukurt Dagh on the west of Artvin. The ridge which stretches
thence in a north-north-easterly direction towards the seaboard,
giving passage to the Chorokh and determining the Russian frontier,
has been deflected by the mass of the Karchkhal mountains, the radial
system to the north-east of Artvin. It crosses the river close to the
coast behind Batum, and may be traced through the peaks of Taginaura,
Gotimeria and Nepiszkaro along the plains of Imeritia to the passage
of the Kur through the gorge of Borjom. These last-named peaks belong
to the Akhaltsykh-Imeritian border range, which my reader has crossed
with me by the pass of Zikar, and of which the direction is almost
due east and west.
It is impossible to delimit the northern frontier of Armenia by a
slavish insistence upon the boundary of the Black Sea range. That
system is the natural boundary for a distance of very many miles,
as it extends along the course first of the Kelkid Su, the ancient
Lycus, and then along that of the Chorokh. But the fracture of the arc
which has taken place in the country watered by the uppermost branches
of the Kur and Arpa Chai, and the eating back of the more easterly
affluents of the Chorokh, which have carved out the intricate country
in the neighbourhood of Olti, have resulted in the interruption of the
normal sequence until it is again resumed in the Akhaltsykh-Imeritian
range. It is consonant with the natural conditions to take the
frontier across the valley of the Chorokh in the vicinity of Ispir,
and to lead it by the heights which contain the sources of the Chorokh
and the Serchemeh Chai to the Dümlü Dagh, the parent mountain of the
Western Euphrates. It will then follow, first in an easterly and then
in a north-easterly direction, the elevated water-parting between
the basins of the Araxes and the Black Sea; and, after effecting
a union through the Chamar Dagh with the volcanoes of the Soghanlu
Dagh, will be protracted along the meridional and volcanic elevation
which confines the highlands of Göleh and Ardahan on the west. The
junction of these vaulted heights with the Akhaltsykh-Imeritian range
may be traced through the ridge of the Sakulaperdi Dagh to the peak
of Gotimeria. All the rivers on the northern slopes of this section
of the Armenian frontier drain into the Black Sea.
The passes across this zone are of considerable elevation, though
a good number are open all the year round. I have been unable
to ascertain the height of the pass over the Gumbet Dagh between
Karahisar and Kerasun. But the valleys of the Upper Kelkid and the
Upper Chorokh may be reached from Trebizond without encountering a
greater altitude than something less than 7000 feet. To this figure
must be added another 600 to 1000 feet before the traveller will
have crossed the block of elevated tableland interposed between those
valleys and the great Armenian cities, Erzinjan and Erzerum. East of
Baiburt the spine of the Pontic range becomes more lofty: and the track
which leads from Rizeh to Ispir in the Chorokh valley surmounts it at
a height which has been estimated at 9000 feet above the sea. Where
the frontier has become coterminous with the northern border heights
of Erzerum and Pasin the roads are taken by passes of over 7000 feet
(Erzerum-Bar-Olti) and 8500 feet (Hasan Kala-Olti) into the basin
of the Black Sea; while during its protraction northwards through
the Soghanlu Dagh to the Sakulaperdi Dagh it may be traversed by
well-beaten paths or tolerable roads at elevations which range between
6085 feet (Eshak-Meidan Pass) and about 7000 feet. The principal
avenues of communication across the mountainous region are those of
Erzinjan-Gümüshkhaneh, Baiburt-Gümüshkhaneh, Erzerum-Olti, Kars-Olti,
Ardahan-Olti and Ardahan-Ardanuch. A road has been constructed from
Kutais to Abastuman, and is gaining traffic every year.
Copious rainfall and abundant vegetation are characteristic of the
northern peripheral mountains. In some of the valleys the clouds
settle for several months in the year, seldom lifting to disclose a
view of the sun. It may often happen that during several weeks or even
months crests and depressions alike will be shrouded in mist. In summer
there is produced the likeness of a succession of forcing houses, the
slopes and hollows being covered with a bewildering tangle of trees
and creepers and scarcely passable undergrowth. From the branches
are festooned the lichens, grey-white streamers like human hair;
the crimson stools of a fungus shine out from the gloomy brakes,
and the pointed pink petals of the Kolchian crocus clothe each
respite of open ground. Such conditions are most prevalent in the
narrow valleys near the Pontic coast, while the slopes which face
the Rion and the opposite Caucasus are distinguished by magnificent
forests. Several peoples, distributed over fairly distinct zones,
inhabit these fastnesses. On the west we have the Greeks, inclined
to commerce and close to a seaboard; they may be found struggling
upwards to the spine of the range and even in a sporadic manner upon
its southern slopes. Further east dwell the Lazis, a wild people; and
their neighbours, the Ajars, in the mountains behind Batum. These are
succeeded by a population of Georgian shepherds and small cultivators,
whose picturesque chalets are surrounded with Indian corn.
It remains to follow the extension of the mountains of the northern
border during their progress eastwards from the Borjom gorge. The
comparative narrowness of the belt in the neighbourhood of that great
cleft is explained by the fracture of the arc to the south of this
region and the covering up of its more southerly members by volcanic
emissions. But this decrease in width is to some extent balanced
by the propinquity of the Caucasus. It is in this neighbourhood
that the single link connecting the belt with Caucasus stretches
across the Georgian depression, dividing the Rion from the Kur;
it may be known as the Meschic linking chain. East of this barrier
the vegetation diminishes in luxuriance. The Akhaltsykh-Imeritian
range is continued beyond the gorge by the latitudinal Trialethian
chain--a system of which the backbone is formed by the Arjevan ridge,
and which is bounded on three sides by the course of the Kur. A branch
of this system is seen to continue the direction of the Pontic range,
inclining off at a sharp angle from the principal elevation to form
the valley of the Gujaretis. It culminates in the peaks of the Sanislo
group at an extreme height of 9350 feet, and sinks beneath the lavas
of the plateau region. The Trialethian mountains have undergone a
process of uptilt, which has caused them to fall away abruptly towards
the north and to form terraces of plateau-like character on the south.
Just as on the west we were constrained to draw the natural frontier
inwards from the spine of the Pontic range, so on the east the next
successors of the Trialethian ridges lie outside the proper boundary of
the Armenian plains. A glance at the map will show that a dislocation
of the natural features has taken place in this region. The inner arc,
so clearly defined on the one side by the Pontic chain and on the
other by the Shah Dagh, overlooking Lake Gökcheh, has snapped during
the process of bending over; and the survivors of the catastrophe,
the ridges which obstruct the Khram and the Somketian mountains,
are constrained to play a subordinate part. The water-parting and
principal elevation is composed of volcanoes, reared in a meridional
direction. What an impressive analogy to the phenomena on the side
of the Black Sea! These volcanoes pursue two lines, one line close
behind the other, and the outer or more easterly far the longer of the
two. It is the outer series, known as the Gori Mokri, or wet mountains,
that constitute the border of the Armenian highlands on this side. The
traveller who journeys westwards from the plateau of Zalka (5000 feet)
up the elevated valley of the river Kzia to the little upland plain
of the same name (7000 feet) [415] will be treading on the dividing
line between the folded mountains of the Trialethian system and the
meridional volcanic series. On his left hand he will admire the shapely
cone of Tawkoteli (9211 feet), which constitutes the most northerly
of these volcanic elevations. The barrier is continued southwards
through the Samsar Dagh (10,770 feet) to the Daly Dagh; and thence
along the eastern shore of the lonely lake of Toporovan (6875 feet)
to the dual crown of Agrikar (9765 feet) and to the conical summit
of the Emlekli Dagh (10,016 feet). The sequence ends in the heights
of Karakach (over 10,000 feet), of which the southerly extension is
interrupted by the latitudinal ridges of Aglagan and Shishtapa. But
the border is protracted along the parting of the waters into the
westerly extremities of the Pambak chain.
We may, perhaps, regard this chain as the most southerly
of the latitudinal ridges which begin on the north with the
Akhaltsykh-Imeritian and Trialethian systems. It extends the area
of the highlands for some distance towards the east, when, after
commencing to incline in an east-south-easterly direction, it effects a
junction with the Shah Dagh. This last-named ridge takes the frontier
along the eastern shore of Lake Gökcheh to the confines of Karabagh;
and the elevation may be traced through the spine of the northern
Karabagh mountains across the Kur to the range which faces the Caspian
Sea. But Karabagh may be regarded as a separate geographical unit,
combining in miniature many of the characteristics of the Armenian
highlands--an inner plateau region flanked by peripheral ranges. The
immemorial home of Armenian inhabitants, the seat of Tartar immigrants
and the happy hunting-ground of nomad Kurds, it constitutes a solid
outer buttress to Armenia on the side of the Caspian. [416] The true
boundary must be taken southwards from the Ginal Dagh (over 11,000
feet) to the Kety Dagh, where it forms a loop towards the west; and,
after almost encircling an upland sheet of water, called the Ala Göl,
is protracted through the heights of Sir-er-syrchaly (11,298 feet)
and Salvarty (10,422 feet) to the valley of the Araxes at Migry just
east of Ordubad. The Karadagh mountains on the southern bank of the
river continue the ridges of Karabagh; and the natural frontier is
pushed westwards up the course of the Araxes as far as the village
of Julfa. From this point you have the choice of two methods of
demarcation, both of which repose on geographical facts. The line may
be taken south-eastwards along the marginal ridge of the Karadagh to
the water-parting between the basin of the Araxes on the one side and
that of Lake Urmi on the other. This parting is of little orographical
relief, but it would conduct the frontier almost in a straight line
to the serried ridges of the southern peripheral zone on the south
of Lake Van. [417] Or the more pronounced bulwark between the Lake
Van and Lower Araxes basins may seem to constitute the true boundary
of the Armenian country. In this case an arbitrary line must be drawn
from behind Bayazid, leading from the crest of these mountains, which
at present constitute the Turko-Persian frontier to our original
starting-point, Julfa. My reader will observe that we have left the
barrier of the northern peripheral mountains, to explore the less
certain limits on the side of Persia.
We have now pursued the northern border of the Armenian highlands
from the coast of the Black Sea to that of the Caspian, where the
belt passes over into the mountains framing Persia upon the north to
be protracted into the Hindu Kush. The corresponding southern zone
is much more simple of feature; but it lies outside the province of
the present chapter, being included, throughout its entire extension
along these highlands, within Turkish territory. Between the northern
and southern zones of peripheral mountains several distinct but minor
members of the orographical system we have been examining furrow the
surface of the tableland. These will receive their proper attention
in the companion chapter of the second volume, situated as they are
for the most part beyond the limits of our present survey. But one
of them may be traced to the commanding elevation which determines
the valley of the Araxes during its passage through Chaldiran to the
confluence of the Arpa Chai; and it is this range--for it deserves
to be described as a range--that not only constitutes the present
frontier between the Russian and Turkish Empires, but in fact divides
the area of Armenia into two parts. You must either cross the spine of
this chain, which describes a symmetrical curve, or follow along the
plains at its northern or southern flanks, should you desire to pass
from the plateau region on the north and east to the corresponding
districts on the south and west. In the preceding chapter we have
become familiar with some of its interesting features; and we have
been introduced to it under the general name of the Ararat system
or Aghri Dagh. Shatin Dagh is another name under which its westerly
portion is designated by some writers, and which is scarcely less well
qualified to express its ruggedness. This range carries the natural
frontier between the two divisions from the Kuseh Dagh (11,262 feet)
in the west to Little Ararat (12,840 feet) in the east.
It will thus be seen that the present area of Russian Armenia
corresponds in a remarkable manner with the limits assigned by Nature
to the more north-easterly of the two extensive regions into which she
has parcelled Armenian soil. The Russian frontier is drawn from the
coast of the Black Sea along the water-parting of the tributaries to
the western bank of the Lower Chorokh through the peripheral region,
and west of the town of Olti, to the Armenian border at the Chakhar
Dagh. Thence it is taken across the Araxes to the spine of the Aghri
or Shatin Dagh just north-west of the dome of Kuseh Dagh. It follows
the spine of the range to the neighbourhood of Great Ararat, whose
hallowed summit it embraces within the dominions of the Tsar. From the
crest of the Little Ararat, whose south-eastern slopes are left to
Persia, it reaches across the plain to the right bank of the Araxes
a little below the famous monastery of Khor Virap. The Araxes forms
the boundary between the Russian and Persian Empires from this point
to near its confluence with the Kur.
It is a misleading, nay, a false conception of natural features
to distribute the surface of the plateau region into a number of
distinct geographical units. That is a method which is favoured by
Russian sciolists with political connections in their endeavour
to confuse the essential unity of a country which Russia has not
yet fully absorbed. Enter this region where you will and with the
eyes of any qualified traveller, the same or similar impressive
characteristics will at once appeal to the mind. The German scientist
Koch has well described these idiosyncrasies as they may be observed
from the marginal districts on the west. After a long and laborious
climb from the valley of Ardanuch (1800 feet) to the summit of the
pass which leads to Ardahan (at least 7000 feet), he was astonished
to observe that instead of a rounded ridge, descending with more or
less abruptness to lower levels on the further side, the elevation
upon which he stood was continued towards the east by the gentle
slope of a lofty plateau. "Here was the commencement," he says,
"of the plateau which slopes away from the pass, and which is
usually called the Armenian plateau." The same traveller journeyed
back into the Chorokh region from the highlands of Göleh on the
south of Ardahan. On this occasion he crossed the water-parting
at the Kanly Dagh between Ardahan and Olti. He tells us that it
consists of a narrow ridge with red, porphyritic rocks. He describes
the double prospect from the summit, with its contrast of forms and
impressions. On the one side, towards the Kur, a scarcely perceptible
incline, forming upland valleys after a descent of only some 1500
feet, and leading over to vague and vaulted heights. On the other,
in the direction of Olti, rent mountains, gaping ravines--nowhere a
gentle, convex shape. Where he was placed the climate was raw, even
in early September, and scarcely tempered by a southern sun. Deep
down, and far away, they could see the river of Olti, winding like
a snake through a maze of sheltered valleys. [418] The language in
which Herrmann Abich describes his impressions, coming from the side
of Georgia up the valley of the Akstafa, and reaching the pass (7355
feet) over the eastern marginal heights between the village of Bekant
and the town of Alexandropol, is not dissimilar to that of Koch. He
speaks of the strong contrast between the physical characteristics of
the plateau region before him and those of the peripheral mountains he
was leaving behind. He describes the prevailing horizontality of the
land-forms which he overlooked, extending to the limits of sight. In
another place he alludes to the lofty, rim-like elevation with which
"the Armenian plateau breaks away to the valleys of Ajara." [419]
I might multiply the instances in which the most competent observers
have at the same time recognised the unity of the plateau region and
its sharp distinction from the peripheral mountains.
My reader has journeyed with me from the Zikar Pass to Akhaltsykh and
Akhalkalaki; from the cañon of the Toporovan river and the basin of
the Kur to the streams which constitute the most northerly sources of
the Araxes. We have crossed the country from Alexandropol to Erivan,
from Erivan to Kars, from Kars to Kagyzman. What an impressive unity
underlies the pleasing diversity of the landscapes, which melt into one
another as you pass! The partings of the waters are formed by slopes
which you perceive with difficulty, so gradual has been the rise and
the decline. The territories of Akhaltsykh, Akhalkalaki, Alexandropol,
Kars and Ardahan are all bound up together in the distribution of the
space, and share features in common to a much greater extent than they
are distinguished by local idiosyncrasies. The mountains, of which
the outlines are never absent from the landscape--soft, long-drawn,
convex shapes--stand on the floor of the tableland, like pieces upon
a chessboard, which one may move from square to square. Such are
the radial mass of Dochus Punar near Akhaltsykh (over 9500 feet),
the two considerable elevations which enclose Lake Chaldir (Akhbaba
Dagh, 9973 feet; Kisir Dagh, 10,472 feet), and even the colossal
Alagöz (13,436 feet). All are due to volcanic action, quite recent
in geological time; and a similar origin belongs to the minor shapes
which stud the country like bubbles upon a cooling body. Mountains
of this character perform the function of boundary columns between
the various districts, great and small. They determine but do not
separate. How different in form and function from the folded ridges
of the peripheral region, among which a single example of such recent
volcanic fabrics could seldom be observed.
If we desire for convenience to partition the plateau region which
is Russian Armenia, it falls most naturally into two spheres. The
one will comprise a rectangular area, of which the limits on the
west and east are the meridional volcanic water-partings from the
Soghanlu Dagh to the heights of Sakulaperdi on one side and from
the Karakach Dagh to Tawkoteli on the other. The southern boundary
of this area will be the cañon of the Araxes from its entrance into
Russian territory to below the confluence of the Arpa Chai. Towards the
north it includes the districts as far as the Sanislo extension of the
Trialethian mountains and the Akhaltsykh-Imeritian border chain. The
vast circumference of Alagöz is placed on its south-eastern confines,
sending out long feelers towards the left bank of the Arpa Chai,
pushing back the mountains of the eastern border and, as it were,
propping up the highlands on the north-west. This volcano may be said
to lead over to the second sphere, which is for a great part an area
of considerable depression, and, as compared with the longitudinal
axis and symmetrical shape of its companion, is of irregular form with
the greatest length from north-west to south-east. These two spheres
are distinguished by features which are sufficiently contrasted to
suggest a double image to the mind.
I. I have invited attention to the characteristics which Armenia
shares in common with her neighbours in the series of the Asiatic
tablelands, Persia on the east and Asia Minor on the west. In the
brief survey to which I proceed of the plateau region within the
Russian frontier it is necessary at the outset to remark upon some
of the idiosyncrasies which distinguish Armenia as a whole from the
other members of the series. There is in the first place the far
greater elevation, investing her territory with the attributes of a
roof to the adjacent countries, from which the waters gather to be
precipitated in different directions, and to find their way not only
to the Black Sea and the Caspian but also by almost endless stages to
the Persian Gulf. The prominent part which has been played by recent
volcanic action is another and not less impressive phenomenon. Which
of her neighbours could compete with her in this respect? Where could
one meet with an Ararat, a Sipan and a Nimrud, to say nothing of an
Alagöz and a Bingöl? Both these manifestations are exemplified in a
striking manner by the surface features of the rectangular area of
the more northerly sphere.
The higher levels of this region are situated at an altitude of some
7000 feet above the sea. I am speaking not of the mountains but of
the plains. The uplands which give rise to the Kur in the district of
Göleh must come very near to this level. The parting of the waters of
the Kur and Araxes near the village of Shishtapa, in an open landscape
which may be compared to rolling downs, lies at about 7000 feet. Lake
Chaldir has an elevation of 6522 feet; while of the smaller sheets of
water Lake Toporovan, with 6876 feet, and the Arpa Göl, with 6706 feet,
slightly better this already considerable figure. Where the plateau
falls away to the abysmal cañon of the Araxes its edge is nearly 6500
feet high. The town of Ardahan stands at a level of 5840 feet and Kars
of 5700 feet. Alexandropol, the principal city, occupies the hollow of
a vast basin-like plain; yet it is over 5000 feet above the sea. These
elevations are much greater than the average even in Persia, though
they are to a certain extent maintained in the frontier province of
Azerbaijan and along the edge of the southern peripheral mountains
(Tabriz, 4650 feet; but Tehran, 3800 feet; Ispahan, 5070 feet).
The process of gradual uplift of the region by earth movements has been
attended by eruptive action, flooding the country with volcanic matter,
levelling inequalities of the ground and adding to the height. It has
been estimated that the volcanic deposits laid bare in the ravines of
the streams which descend from the radial Dochus Punar attain a depth
of hundreds of yards. [420] A similar phenomenon is made manifest
in the cañon of the Araxes--a cleft which in the neighbourhood of
the village of Armutli, west of Kagyzman, has a depth of about 2000
feet and a width on top of at least a mile. [421] There the Miocene
sedimentary deposits are overlaid with tuffs and lavas in a belt over
300 yards deep. [422] The points of emission of volcanic matter are
in some cases true volcanoes, in others mere pustules or fissures
of varying extent. One or other of these features is never absent
from the landscape. But the fires are extinct; the viscous seas have
long been solid; not a breath of smoke rises from the stark summits
which erewhile were wreathed with vapours reflecting the glow of the
flames beneath.
The distribution of such shapes due to volcanic agency may often appear
arbitrary to an unpractised traveller. Here a group of stately forms
resembling the giants of a forest, there a number of insignificant
eminences representing the small fry. All will be found to be subject
to definite and ascertainable principles, the nature of which becomes
clearer at each step forward of scientific research. Perhaps the
most interesting principle which we see operative in this region is
the outcrop of volcanoes along meridional lines. Such groups pursue
a course at right angles to the strike of the rocks within the area
of the peripheral mountains. In this connection we may recall the
fact that the plateau region with which we are dealing occupies the
apex of the bend over of the inner arc. Lines of fracture have been
thrown out at right angles to the folding, and eruptive agency has
fastened upon these weakened zones of the earth's crust. Not only may
these lines be traced on the west and east of the plateau, of which,
indeed, they have largely determined the shape, but also well inside
of the marginal districts. In the west we have the Soghanlu group
stretching north to Allah Akbar (10,218 feet), whence the direction
is continued through the Ueurli Dagh (9055 feet) and the Arzian Dagh
to the Chibukh-Naryn-Bashi Dagh. There the volcanic water-parting
effects a junction with the Akhaltsykh-Imeritian chain in the ridge of
the Sakulaperdi Dagh. In the east we have already followed the row of
marginal volcanoes from Tawkoteli to Karakach. Inside these series we
recognise this same north-south direction in the Abul-Samsar system,
in the mountains on either side of Lake Chaldir, and, lastly, in the
connection which we can scarcely err in assuming between the Kisir
Dagh, overlooking the westerly shore of this lake, and its neighbour
on the north, the Dochus Punar.
Compared with Alagöz and Ararat even the absolute height of these
mountains may be termed insignificant. The lofty level of the
plains from which their slopes gather robs them of several thousand
feet. Great Abul, with an altitude of nearly 11,000 feet, rises from a
plain which itself lies at an elevation of 5500 feet. The dome-shaped
vaultings of the Soghanlu Dagh near some of the sources of the Kars
river are almost entirely shorn of their considerable stature by
the height of the adjacent downs. In such surroundings the mountains
appear to the eye as little more than hills.
The rivers as a rule flow in deep cañons which they have eroded in the
volcanic soil. Their head waters meander over grassy downs. Temperately
they thread their way over the uplands or in the cañons, except where
blocks of lava may have tumbled into the trough, causing the stream
to wreathe and hiss. You pass from district to district either along
such natural avenues, with the towering cliffs, for the most part
bare, on either hand; or, emerging from the weird scene within the
hollow, over the surface of almost limitless plains. Not a tree in the
landscape, and only patches of fallow and stubble, without a boundary,
with rarely a village discernible from afar.
From time to time you may obtain a glimpse of the peripheral
mountains--serrated summits, bush-grown slopes. These contrast to
the soft convexities of the forms about you and the vaultings of
the volcanic eminences. The surface of the friable soil is devoid of
wood and almost of vegetation; and the volcanic matter of which it is
composed produces tints of pink and ochre upon which the shadows lie
transparent and thin. The rarefied atmosphere of these high regions
braces the faculties and sharpens the senses; and whatever clouds may
have climbed the barrier of the peripheral ranges are suspended high
in the heaven, seldom obscuring the brilliant sun. During winter the
land is covered with snow.
It is a country admirably adapted to grow cereals. The plains
through which the Arpa Chai (grain river) eats its way to the
Araxes constituted one of the granaries of Armenia in historical
times. [423] At the present day they have not recovered from the
devastations of the Mussulman peoples, and the Russians are jealous
of allowing the Armenians a free hand. Extraordinary fertility is
induced by the intermixture of the lavas with alluvial or lacustrine
deposits. The black earth of the plains about Akhalkalaki is famous
[424]; and the soil in the neighbourhood of Alexandropol derives its
richness from the incidence of a peculiar kind of lava side by side
with the sediment of a former lake. The southerly extension of these
vanished waters is marked by the belt of high ground extending from
Alagöz across the plains to the Arpa Chai. The river has forced its
way through this elevation between Ani and Magaspert. [425]
Other effects of the violent disturbance to which the region has been
subjected are manifest on a large scale. Thus all the way from the
Soghanlu Dagh on the south to the neighbourhood of the mountains of
the Ajars on the north the ground has fallen away to the labyrinth
of valleys which feed the Chorokh by what geologists would call an
extensive fault. The edge of the plateau region stands up boldly upon
that side from the levels adjacent on the west. A still more recent
earth movement may be represented by the uptilt towards the north-east
of a considerable block of country lying between Kars and the junction
of the Arpa with the Araxes. This phenomenon, which recalls a similar
occurrence in the Trialethian district, has occasioned the curious
course of the stream of Kars, which, rising in close vicinity to the
flood of the same river to which ultimately it becomes tributary,
pursues a course almost at right angles to that of the Araxes for
a distance of thirty miles. To the same cause is in part due the
extraordinary elevation of the levels along the left bank of the
Araxes between Armutli and the confluence of the Arpa Chai.
Besides the last-named stream this lofty stage of the Armenian
tableland gives birth to one of the great rivers of western Asia. The
Kur rises from the highlands on the south of Ardahan, between the wall
of mountain which overlooks Lake Chaldir on the west and the rim of the
plateau region. In Turkish times this district constituted a separate
fief, and was governed by a hereditary prince of Georgian origin who
resided at Urut. The name of the district, Göleh, still figures on
the Russian maps. It is subject to a rigorous climate, the snow lying
during eight months in some years. Only the hardiest of the cereals
come to maturity; yet the olive and the pomegranate flourish in the
valley of Artvin, but thirty miles distant, and even at this altitude
and during winter the rays of a southern sun temper the cold. One of
the principal arms of the river comes from the south-west, and is named
the river of Ardahan; it is joined by four considerable tributaries,
of which the most easterly is said by Koch to have been known to the
inhabitants under the name of Kyürr. [426] Even at the present day the
Kur is called the river of Ardahan until its entry into the passage of
Borjom. The basin from within which these various branches gather has
a length which may be computed at eight hours' journey on horseback
and a breadth equivalent to about six hours. It abounds in springs,
and marshes cover its floor. Below Ardahan, where it skirts the base
of the Dochus Punar system, the Kur threads a narrow valley, deeply
buried in the volcanic soil. So it flows past the grottoes of Vardzia
and the Devil's City at Zeda Tmogvi, augmented by small affluents of
which the largest is the Karri Chai. At Khertvis it is joined by the
Toporovan river, bringing the drainage of the districts on the east,
and swirling into the channel with foam-shot waves. The united volume
dwells for a short space in wider landscapes, until it pierces the
extreme base of the Sanislo branch of the Trialethian mountains,
and is again confined in a narrow valley. Thence it issues upon the
plains about Akhaltsykh, receives assembled tributaries from the
northern border range, and disappears into the gorge of Borjom.
II. A traveller coming from Alexandropol down the stream of the Arpa
or along the valley of the Abaran, further east, can scarcely fail to
become sensible of an appreciable change in climate and scenery by the
time he shall have rounded the colossal pile of Alagöz. It is not,
indeed, a new country or a new clime. The shapes which rise on the
skyline are due to the same volcanic agency which has imprinted its
character upon the northern landscapes. The shelving away of the ground
to the basin-like depression which receives the Araxes recalls similar
surface features in the northern districts. The rays of the sun fall
from a heaven which remains blue. Clouds are still floating upon the
azure, or are suspended upon the higher outlines. What has changed is
the scale and intensity of the phenomena. The hills have given place
to great mountains, the down-like expanses to one vast area of sloping
ground. Into those dreamy spaces sweep the forms of the landscape,
circled round them for a visible distance of some sixty miles.
The valley of the Araxes from the neighbourhood of Sardarabad to that
of Julfa--a space of over a hundred miles--composes nearly one-half
of the more southerly sphere of north-eastern Armenia. We are already
so familiar with its overpowering individuality that it would be
turning finished ground to describe it anew. For many a mile it is
only confined at an immense interval by the fabric of Ararat and the
pile of Alagöz. But, even when the river--a ribbon in the expanse--has
already distanced the Little Ararat, the folds of the landscape are
ample into which it descends. Volcanoes on such a huge scale as these
two Armenian giants could scarcely be expected to rise save on the
margins of a great depression, whether subsidence may have been the
cause or the effect. To the 7000 feet of the plateau region on the
north this basin-like plain opposes a maximum elevation of 3000 feet
and a minimum of something over 2000 feet.
The vine flourishes and is cultivated in these plains of the Araxes,
and fields of castor-oil plant grace the ground. Such oases with
thriving villages soften the lap of the landscape, and diversify the
wide stretches of rich but idle soil which the network of trenches
with their fertilising waters have not yet reached. Irrigation rather
than rainfall is here the productive agency; and, indeed, this valley,
with a yearly rainfall of only about six inches, is probably the driest
throughout Russian Transcaucasia. The storms of the Pontic region
spend themselves before reaching this haven; but they beat against
the volcanoes of the meridional water-parting on the easterly margin
of the more northerly sphere. Even at Alexandropol the yearly rainfall
is almost three times as great as in the neighbourhood of Ararat. And
while the climate of the city on the Arpa may compare with St. Lawrence
in North America, that of Erivan resembles Palermo or Barcelona. [427]
On the north of this most extensive depression of the surface of
Armenia lies the plateau region supporting Lake Gökcheh. The axis or
greatest length of that expanse of sweet water lies about parallel
to the course of the Araxes, to which it sends a tributary varying
in volume with the season of the year through a trench-like passage
at its south-westerly extremity. [428] On the north the lake is
confined by a long ridge of the peripheral mountains, and its lofty
level (6340 feet) is held up by the volcanic plateau of Akhmangan,
acting as a dam on the side of the low-lying plains. The Akhmangan
region consists of a gently vaulted platform, interrupted by a series
of volcanic eminences extending over a distance of nearly thirty
miles. Several of their cone-shaped summits attain a height of nearly
11,000 feet, and one, the Akh Dagh, of close upon 12,000 feet above
sea-level. An absence of springs, due to the nature of the volcanic
rock, is characteristic not only of this region but also of that part
of the neighbouring Karabagh country which lies within the embrace of
the two mountainous zones. [429] In this respect it contrasts to the
well-watered and wooded retreats of the district of Darachichak to
the west of the lake. The wealthier citizens of Erivan take refuge
in those pleasant upland valleys when the plain of the Araxes has
become a furnace under the rays of a midsummer sun.
The area of the country comprised within the two spheres of which I
have been speaking is about 20,587 square miles. With the exception
of a narrow strip on the right bank of the Araxes, measuring 1518
square miles, the entire territory--more than commensurate with that
of Servia--lies within the dominions of the Tsar.