It was towards those dividing heights that we set out on the 9th of February from the lonely station of Khadrak in the valley of Balakhor. The stream which waters this valley and finds its way to the plain of Varzahan was buried beneath a continuous canopy of snow. The heights on either side were of insignificant elevation, relative to the general level of the ground. In half an hour a way diverged, well beaten by traffic, leading to Kelkid and Erzinjan. It branched off on the left hand; we were at the head of the valley, surrounded by an amphitheatre of hills. Our course was directed to the wall upon our right; and in another ten minutes we had gained the eminence. We were standing not exactly on a ridge, but on the face of an upland, over which the winds sweep in stormy weather with considerable force. Yet another half-hour brought us to an elevation of 6468 feet, the saddle of the Vavuk Pass. We had arrived upon the boundary line between two vilayets, of Erzerum and of Trebizond.
I was informed that quite recently a Tartar horseman had met his death while carrying the post across this pass. He was overtaken and overwhelmed by a tipe or blizzard before he could reach the shelter of the valleys on either side. Indeed the loss of life to beasts of burden is considerable along this road. No more eloquent evidence could be furnished of the want of humanity in the natives than the callous indifference to the sufferings of dumb animals which day by day is displayed upon these passes. Such a habit of cruelty at once argues a lapse into barbarism, and explains the perpetration of the nameless horrors which so often shock the conscience of the West. We kept passing strings of heavily-laden quadrupeds, which with their dull eyes, drooping heads, and fleshless bodies, covered with sores, had lost the distinctive qualities of the horse. None of them had any thighs to enable them to breast the ascents, and most were incurably lame. Their hocks were bent with curbs or swollen by spavins; one poor beast was dragging his hind legs behind him, and another had one of his forelegs bent almost double. Neither—it could not be doubted—were destined to reach Trebizond. So they crawl over the ground, from year’s end to year’s end, until they close their miserable existence by sinking exhausted on a pass. Even at the moment of liberation they are doomed to a prolonged agony; and, having been martyred all their life by the barbarity of the human animal, they become victims of his perverse humanity in their death. You will see them prone upon the road, where their drivers have abandoned them to kick out their life in the snow. Religious scruples prevent these misguided monsters from giving them the despatch. We were sickened on one occasion by the spectacle of a wretched horse which, with glazed eyes, continued to paw in a convulsive manner a space of ground which in his agony he had cleared of ice. At the end of my revolver I compelled one of the drivers to sever his jugular vein.
Fig. 174. Castle of Kalajik, Upper Kharshut.
From such scenes the traveller turns to the contemplation of Nature, not only with a sense of relief, but under an added consciousness of her sublimity, the high exponent of the harmony of things. The pass of Vavuk divides two landscapes of exactly opposite nature, and leads over into a new climate and a new world. The opposite wall of rock is dotted with low fir trees, which, as you proceed, increase in height and shade. The opposite valley to which you descend is already warm by comparison with the bleak highlands from which you have come. By the time the river is approached, the winding reaches of the Kharshut, free, even at this season, of ice, great rolling masses of cloud are sailing over the mountains, distilling into mingled snow and rain. Even at this distance the senses recognise the sea. All the characteristics of the border ranges, aligned in a deep belt upon the coast, are displayed during the successive stages of a ride of two and a half days. If the forests are less luxuriant than on the side of the Rion, the view in places recalls, even during this season, those tree-clad parapets. Valleys of immense depth are overtowered by rocky precipices; it is essentially a land of crest and trough. And just as the scene contrasts with the Armenian landscapes, so the people and the types are new. The familiar features of the Greek take the place of the Armenians, and the ear is greeted by the language of the Greeks.[7] Yet another pass must be traversed, the wintry pass of Zigana (6640 feet), and from its further slopes expands a vista of the distant sea. The thermometer has risen to 62° by the time the seaboard is reached. And there, at Trebizond, the roses blossom in the gardens while the Armenian rivers are buried beneath the ice.
[1] Since writing this description, General Sir Charles Wilson’s most admirable Handbook for Asia Minor (London, Murray, 1895) has come into my hands. He gives the distance between Erzerum and Trebizond, measured in miles along the chaussée, at 199¼ miles. Another account makes the total 196½ miles. I enquired in official circles at Erzerum whether there were extant any exact record of the distance; a search was made in the archives with a negative result. A certain proportion of the milestones are still erect; but many have disappeared, the course of the road has been changed in places, and the milestones have been replaced, probably in an arbitrary manner. My own record, which is based on careful estimates of pace and time, is as follows:—Erzerum—Ashkala, 33 miles; Ashkala—Pirnakapan, 10 miles; Pirnakapan—Southern Kop Khan, 2 miles; Southern Kop Khan—Kop Pass, 5½ miles; Kop Pass—Northern Kop Khan, 5⅓ miles; Northern Kop Khan—Maden Khan, 6½ miles; Maden Khan—Baiburt, 10¾ miles; Baiburt (bridge)—Varzahan, 6 miles; Varzahan—Osluk Khan, 6 miles; Osluk Khan—Khadrak, 8 miles; Khadrak—Vavuk Pass, 4½ miles; Vavuk Pass—Murad Khan, 10⅓ miles; Murad Khan—Lower Gümüshkhaneh, 16¼ miles; Lower Gümüshkhaneh—Ardasa, 16½ miles; Ardasa—Southern Zigana hamlet, 9½ miles; Southern Zigana village—Zigana Pass, 4½ miles; Zigana Pass—Upper Hamsi Keui, 10⅛ miles; Upper Hamsi Keui—Jevizlik, 15¼ miles; Jevizlik—Trebizond, 20 miles. Total, 199¾ miles. A carriage (victoria) can be obtained in Trebizond. Such a vehicle, drawn by two horses, together with a cart for the luggage with a team of three, costs for the whole journey £13 : 10s. But, if I may offer a recommendation to the traveller, it is to render himself independent of the chaussée by purchasing horses and riding. Large deductions from the mileage may be made in this way, and the jolting avoided which is inseparable from a metalled road kept in bad repair. Indeed wheeled traffic is as yet quite an anomaly both in Turkey and in Persia. On the other hand, it is extremely difficult to buy good horses in Trebizond, although they may be readily purchased in Erzerum. [↑]
[2] According to Strecker (Zeit. Erdk. Berlin, 1869, vol. iv. p. 147) the Serchemeh Chai has a shorter course and brings less water than the Kara Su. I should consider that of these two uppermost constituents of the Frat, the former has the greater average volume. [↑]
[3] The basin of Ashkala has been treated in its geological aspects by Abich in his usually masterly manner (Geologische Forschungen in den kaukasischen Ländern, Vienna, 1882, pt. ii. sect. 1, pp. 100 seq.). [↑]
[4] Macdonald Kinneir (Journey through Asia Minor, etc., London, 1818, p. 358) seems to have mistaken this Terjan range for that on the south of the Murad. He is respectfully followed by the laborious Ritter (Erdkunde, vol. x. p. 743). But that erudite geographer, to whom we owe so much, should have been more careful to qualify the statement (p. 741) that the range which is crossed by the Kop Pass constitutes the “Nordbegrenzung des armenischen Plateaulandes.” A few months’ personal travel would have stood him in good stead after all his minute analysis of the works of travellers. [↑]