The houses nestle among lofty trees, on the left or western bank of a broad depression, which harbours in its deep and wooded recesses a scanty affluent of the Araxes. The soft tracery and mellow tints of the luxuriant foliage are backed by the rugged sides of the Ararat system; while, in the north, the eye follows the horizontal edge of the tableland, with the low volcanic eminences protruding above that outline, and robed, this morning, in fresh snow (Fig. [104]). The inhabitants of this little paradise are Armenians and Mohammedans, the latter of whom belong to the Sunni persuasion and are classed in the Russian census as Turks.[4] A strong detachment of Cossacks was quartered in the place—a significant outpost of the northern empire. I was anxious to cross the mountains on the following morning; and it was painful to realise that we were at the mercy of the civil authorities—of a sour-faced Nachalnik who had no doubt received his instructions, but in what sense remained to be seen. Had Fadéeff hardened his heart? Had the order come to arrest us? The question remained for some time in suspense. The route which we were taking excited suspicion; with what object were we pursuing this unbeaten track? There were not wanting practical difficulties which might excuse the authorities, should they decide to detain us at Kagyzman. We were in need of transport; to purchase suitable animals was next to impossible; and, as for hiring, the owners were not accustomed to cross the frontier, and might reasonably apprehend detention on the other side. Indeed we failed in all our efforts to induce them to make a contract; and we were brought to recognise that it would be necessary to abandon our intention, unless the Nachalnik would intervene. By dint of much persistence and some cajolery we were able to bring him round. He of course protested that Oriental methods were out of place in Russia; we approved the sentiment, and expressed the hope that something would be devised to take their place. The owners were given their orders to appear before dawn on the following day. I rose at four, certain that they would not obey. But there was still a hope that we might create the necessary quantity of initiative by rousing the Nachalnik from his sleep. This plan, based, as the reader knows, upon former experiences, was productive of instant success.
Fig. 104. Looking down the Valley of Kagyzman.
By half-past seven our tiny caravan was in motion, pointing along the base of the mountains a little south of west. We sank by a steep incline to a long valley which follows the Araxes in the relation, as it appeared to us, of a parallel trough. It was filled with hummocks of a red, sandy substance; the slopes on either side screened off the view. Those on our left hand were the more stony, and were tinged in places a greenish hue. In about an hour after starting we opened out the river, flowing at some little distance from the heights upon which we stood. A lateral depression afforded access to the principal valley, which we followed, keeping to the high ground. The Araxes was threading the narrow bottom of a fork, of which the arms rose to thousands of feet above its bed. Close up now, on our left hand, towered the escarpments of the range, fronting the opposite cliffs of the tableland. At a little before nine we turned our backs to the river and rose, on a southerly course, up the mountain side.
Fig. 106. A Rib or Buttress of Aghri Dagh.
We had reached an elevation of some 5500 feet, when a little village, with a few willows and the ruins of an ancient monastery, broke upon our view (Fig. [105]). It is inhabited by Armenians, and bears the name of Kara Vank (the black cloister). The even masonry of hewn stone which composed the crumbling edifice recalled the culture of a forgotten age. What a contrast it presented to the rude and featureless walls of the modern village church! We passed through this little settlement, which contains some thirty houses, and mounted the slopes on the further side. In a valley on our left hand we noticed some sparse brushwood, and bushes of wild rose here and there relieved the rock. We were nearing the level of the opposite edge of the tableland, of which the cliffs were seen descending to the narrow river valley with shelving sides of richly modelled marls. At a quarter before ten we made halt on the neck of a spur, whence we obtained a wide prospect over the more distant scene.
Fig. 105. Kara Vank on Aghri Dagh.
We overlooked the surface of the tableland. Towards the east, the mass of Alagöz could be distinguished from banks of cloud, which clung to the recent snows upon its slopes. Kagyzman was still visible in the trough of the landscape; the two low cones on the cliffs beyond the town were especially prominent, enveloped in a sheet of unbroken snow. Our people identified them with the great and the small Jagluya, and said they were famous for their rich pasture-land. From east to west, in a wide half-circle, land and cloud were woven together, the horizontal outlines always felt and sometimes seen. But in the west these nebulous shapes met the profile of the savage ridges which were seen descending from the range about us, almost at right angles, into the narrows through which the river flows.