From this point we continued during a considerable space of time to skirt these upper slopes. The keen air was full of sun; the prospect was inspiring; we loitered for an hour over our lunch. I focussed the camera upon one of the long meridional parapets which cleave the soft landscape of the west (Fig. [106]). I would ask my reader to observe the deep incision of its flanking valley; these valleys extend to the very spine of the mountain system, and, in some places, appear to break it through. We were obliged to descend to the bottom of this particular ravine; a slender stream was rustling over the boulders in the hollow, which had an elevation of some 5800 feet. The rocky escarpments of the opposite parapet were seen to consist of a compound diabase, veined in places with beautiful marbles. Of wood there was little, even within these recesses—a brushwood of beech and willow and fir. The rose bushes were still with us, and the yellow immortelles, which we had not seen since our sojourn on Ararat.
Beyond this valley we rose towards the summits of the chain and made our way through this winter’s snow. We were on the pass at four o’clock (Fig. [107]); a grass-grown eminence on our right hand was identified as the Akh Bulakh Dagh. The range was highest on our left; the saddle by which we crossed it has an elevation of some 8600 feet. Half an hour later we had passed into the opposite watershed, and planted our feet upon Turkish soil.
Fig. 107. Pass over Aghri Dagh.
Vast plains lay below us—dim tracts of even soil, broken in places by hummock shapes. The outline of an opposite chain was drawn across the horizon, loftier in the east, where it was crowned with snow, declining in the west to a range of blue-grey hills upon our right. It was the system of the Ala Dagh. Beyond this barrier, the harmonious shape of a single mountain formed a beautiful white presence in the sky. We could not doubt that it was Sipan, nearly seventy miles distant, the goal to which we were directing our steps. A thread of water on the plains reflected the blue heaven, and was recognised as the Murad. We had crossed the spine of Armenia, and were descending to the banks of the Euphrates, to the sources of the streams which issue into the Persian Gulf.
[1] Abich, Geologische Forschungen in kaukasischen Ländern, Vienna, 1882, vol. ii. p. 145, and Map I. He measures from the western foot of the Ala Dagh below the village of Kalabashi in an easterly direction. See also his various measurements (ibid. pp. 376, 377). [↑]
[2] By my own instruments. [↑]
[3] The bed of the river at the ford has an elevation of 3900 feet according to my barometers. Abich’s readings are as follows:—Bank of the river below the village of Changly, above Kagyzman, 3932 feet; below the village of Kers, below Kagyzman, 3671 feet. The elevation of Kagyzman is 4621 feet. Evliya, who travelled in the middle of the seventeenth century, furnishes the following account of the place:—
“The castle of Kaghzemán being situated on the Kiblah side of the Aras is reckoned to be on the frontier of Azerbeiján, but belongs to the Ottoman government of Karss. It is named after its builder, one of the daughters of Núshirván. It was taken out of the hands of Uzún Hassan by Sháh Ismail, and then submitted to Sultán Súleimán. It is the seat of a Sanjak Beg whose khass amounts to 200,000 aspers, 9 ziámets, 178 timárs: 900 feudal militia, a judge appointed with 150 aspers, and a garrison of 300 men, who are paid by the impost on salt; the salt mines, and a quarry of mill-stones, are on the west side of the castle. The mill-stones of Persia and Rúm come from Kaghzemán; the borax of the goldsmiths, barbers’ whetting-stones, and the common whetting-stones are extracted from the mines of Kaghzemán; in two places gold and silver are found, but as the product was exceeded by the expenses they were abandoned; there are altogether 11 mines. The castle is a square strong building standing on a hill on the bank of the Aras; there are 700 small houses; it is not a commercial town (Bender), but a frontier town (Serhadd). Mount Aghrí, which appears to the west, is one of the most praiseworthy mountains in the world; it is near the town, and is the summer abode (Yaila) of Turcomans. The air is temperate and allows of the cultivation of gardens on some spots; the inhabitants are mild and some of them fair. The Levend troops (irregular levies) sing Persian songs with harmonious voices. As soon as I entered the town the Diván assembled, and notwithstanding the repeated oaths of the members of it, that they had not molested the Persian caravan, but only taken their custom duties, I took seven Aghás of them with me to prove the truth of what they said, by their presence at Erzerúm, whereunto I returned” (The Travels of Evliya, translated from the Turkish by Von Hammer, London, 1850, vol. i. p. 183). [↑]