[6] Markoff, Ascension du Grand Ararat, in Bulletin de la Soc. Roy. Belge de Géographie, Brussels, 1888, p. 579. [↑]
[7] Temperature at 8 P.M., 18° F., and next morning at 5.45 A.M., 28° F. [↑]
[8] See the photograph of the summit region (Fig. [36], p. 180), which clearly shows these various features. [↑]
[9] Yet it looks a mere streak in the illustration (Fig. [36]). The lower end of the snow slope was not well seen from the standpoint of that photograph. Actually it resembles a magnificent river. [↑]
[10] Abich (Geologische Forschungen in den kaukasischen Ländern, Vienna, 1882, part ii. p. 455) ascribes to it an elevation of 14,600 feet. [↑]
[11] The temperature of the air a few feet below the summit out of the gale was 20° F. The height of the north-western elevation of the south-eastern summit of Ararat is given by my Hicks mountain aneroid as 17,493 feet. The reading is no doubt too high by several hundred feet. The Carey aneroid gives a still higher figure, and the Boylean-Mariotti mercurial barometer entirely refused to work. [↑]
CHAPTER XIII
THE HEART OF ARARAT
Retracing our steps down the side of the cone, we soon regained the streaming sunlight. I called a halt, and we rested on some rocks, embedded in snow. Our next task was to search for Wesson; but he had left his sheltered cranny, and, as the day was warm, we concluded that he had returned to camp. The Swiss and myself determined to try a glissade down the snow slope; my cousin preferred to adhere to the rocks. I was aware of the danger of the glissade down Ararat, and we therefore planned our course with care. We broke the descent at several points, made errors on the side of caution, and glided safely into one of the inlets about the base of the cone. It was still some distance to the encampment; we proceeded with the utmost leisure across the boulder-strewn waste. At last we beheld the lake of snow, and our tiny tent beside it, and the gaunt figures of the Kurds. These also perceived us, and sent us a cry of greeting, which vibrated in the still air. Wesson and the dragoman were there to meet us; my cousin arrived almost at the same time. Our climb had been accomplished without a single mishap, and all except the dragoman, who pleaded that he had been half frozen in camp, were pleased with the day’s work. It was twenty minutes past six o’clock; yet I thought it best to strike our tent and seek a less exposed and less elevated spot. After a toilsome walk of about half an hour we found some grass in a little valley, and there composed ourselves for the night.