[5] W. Gifford Palgrave, in Nature, vol. v. 1871–72, p. 444; and vol. vi. 1872, pp. 536 seq. [↑]
[6] Strecker (op. cit. p. 515) states that he found a stone three feet long and two feet broad, inscribed with cuneiform characters, lying on the ground in a depression east of Kara Kala. It was surrounded by the gravestones of a little cemetery. For an account of the inscription on our stone see Ch. IV. p. 73. [↑]
[7] See Geologische Forschungen in den kaukasischen Ländern, Vienna, 1882, vol. ii. pp. 7, 85, and 89. [↑]
CHAPTER XXII
HOME ACROSS THE BORDER RANGES
August 24.—We found our camp a long distance south of the western summit, and, after a short sleep, resumed our journey. We simply followed a compass course to the head of that river valley along which the Bingöl plateau breaks off on the side of the west. The general flow of the lava over which we rode was towards north-west. We crossed the first zone of serpentine hills through a deep valley with heights on either side. Beyond the passage we issued upon a lower plain of lava, where the stream of molten matter had been diverted by the serpentines, and had circled round them, flooding down into the plain. In the section displayed by a river cliff within the limits of this region we observed a bed of columnar lava some twenty feet in thickness, overlying lavas to a depth of some eighty feet. Near this point we reached the first village, the Kurdish settlement of Bastok. It is placed upon one of the head streams of the Aras, which we forded, and, not long after, arrived on the banks of the main channel at the Kurdish hamlet of Shekan. The Aras had already become a little river, and was known to the villagers under that name. We crossed it, leaving it to flow off into an alluvial plain, along the marginal heights of which we rode. This is the first plain in the proper sense of the word through which the Araxes winds. It is situated at an altitude of about 7000 feet, and may be called, from a village on its northern confines, the plain of Altun.
We discovered a Kurdish village at the eastern foot of the hill which had been our landmark and point of course. It bears the name of Gugoghlan. It fronts the plain of the Aras, which, on the north of the hill, is only separated by a low lip of ground from the basin of the Murad. Such is the habit of these water-partings. I remained for two days in this village, drawing and mapping on the hill. Oswald preceded me to Erzerum. Our journey thither led us across the central tableland, a little west of the route pursued during our outward march. I have already dealt with the general characteristics of the region, and shall only add a short account of any fresh features.
Gugoghlan already belongs to the district of Shushar, while the villages on the further side of the Sheikhjik mountain are included in that of Kighi. The western and north-western sides of the Altun plain have been flooded by a lava which appears to have issued from the neighbourhood of Sheikhjik and also from the heights upon its northern margin. Our way to Erzerum took us over this sheet of lava. In a depression between two such flows we passed an extensive yaila, belonging to Zireki Kurds—a tribe of which the main body live about Diarbekr, and of whom these people are a colony. North of the yaila we commenced the ascent of that latitudinal wall of mountain which at once forms the limit of the plain of Altun, and sends the Araxes off towards the east.
It consists of lava overlying lacustrine deposits, and the summit is perfectly flat. You may ride in any direction until you are stopped by a river valley, which will be deeply cut and bordered by commanding heights. I had for guide an old and almost toothless Kurd, whom I had instructed, with some misgivings as to his knowledge, to lead a course as straight as possible to Erzerum. The usual route from Gugoghlan would be by way of Madrak, keeping to lower levels but rather longer.