[1] The following are the stages:—Jevizlik—Sumelas, 10½ miles; Sumelas across the Kazikly Dagh to Tashköpri, 11 miles; Tashköpri viâ Tshörak Khan and across the Kitowa Dagh to Mezere Khan, 18¼ miles; Mezere Khan to Baiburt, 17½ miles. From Baiburt the summer road to Erzerum viâ the Khosabpunar Pass may be taken, the stages being:—Baiburt—Maden Khan, 10¾ miles; Maden Khan to Khosabpunar village on the south side of the pass (8600 feet), 28 miles; Khosabpunar village viâ Maimansur to Erzerum, 29 miles. Total distance from Trebizond by this route, 145 miles, as against the 199 miles of the chaussée. See Ch. X. p. 225. [↑]
CHAPTER XII
ACROSS THE CENTRAL TABLELAND TO KHINIS
The site of Erzerum is already familiar to my reader; he sees her towers and minarets on the southern margin of a lake-like plain, and raised on the daïs of a fan of detritus from the southern line of heights. He knows the large surroundings of that city of inspiring prospects: the long and regular line of the block of mountains in the north, with their Sheikhjik, their Akhbaba, Jejen and Kop; the vague and gloomy passage of the Gurgi Boghaz through those mountains; and in the east the transverse parapet which interrupts the issue eastwards, that freak of Nature, the Deveh Boyun. The southern barrier, which rises in the peak of Palandöken to a height of 4500 feet above the town, would appear to constitute an impassable obstacle to traffic; and in fact precludes it during the winter months. Yet there are several natural openings in the steep slopes of that barrier, leading to the uplands of Tekman on its further side. Of these the principal passage is that of Palandöken, crossing the so-called crater of the Palandöken—Eyerli Dagh.
June 20.—Our course was directed up the fan of detritus to this Palandöken Pass.[1] Our little horses, full of corn, curveted along the path through the dreary waste of water-worn stones. Erzerum was soon behind us, lost already in the expanse. What a contrast between these cities of Asia and those of Europe with their suburbs and villas! These repose upon their plains like a ship upon the ocean, which you speak, and all is soon again blank. In half-an-hour from the enceinte we gained a metalled road, which follows the course of a torrent of some size. It leads to two modern forts, planted high on the southern slope, on either side of the pass. The pass itself is placed beneath the peak of Palandöken, upon its western flank. The road goes winding up the gorge, and along the eastern side of the so-called crater, crossing and re-crossing the torrent by a number of bridges.
A nameless and minor mountain of symmetrical proportions and vaulted form rises on the northern margin of the cirque. We passed between it and the slopes of Palandöken, supported by the outworks of the larger mass. Patches of snow lay on the grass at this increased altitude, their melting remnants fringed by bright fieldflowers. On the banks were pulsatillas, with their drooping bells and scent of wine; buttercups and marsh marigolds in the beds of the runnels; forget-me-nots in profusion on every side. Still the scene was bleak in character; and the sailing cumulus clouds sent their shadows over a surface which has been worn by ice and snow and water, and seems alien even to the hardiest plants. Such was the appearance of the irregular caldron on our right hand—a yawning hollow sapping the bases of the adjacent peaks. Closed on the south, it sends its drainage through deep valleys to the plain. The white face of a limestone rock interrupts the more grassy spaces, and is varied by the darker serpentines. The soaring heights around the cirque are of eruptive volcanic origin, and display the lava flows. After a sharp ascent, the chaussée reaches the standing southern wall of this caldron, and is taken, in a fine gallery, for some distance along its northern slope. Its cliff-like outline extends from the heights of Palandöken to those of Eyerli in the west. A turn of the road conducts us to the pass (9780 feet).
It was three o’clock; but the snow lay in sheets over the hollows, and the temperature was only 46° Fahrenheit. Grey clouds veiled the sky in the northern landscape, and were collected in inky masses about the snowy peaks of the Chorokh region. The view in that direction, and along the two parallel lines of heights which border the course of the Frat, impressed us in a double sense. On the one hand it was the great height of the summits in the north, which now showed up behind the cone of Sheikhjik; we concluded that they must belong to the group of mountains in which the Chorokh has its source. The other fact which appeared plain was the rising and massing of both lines of heights in the far west. Following the chain upon which we stood across the slopes of the Eyerli Dagh, or pursuing the outline of the opposite barrier across the plain, the long perspective westwards met in shining masses of mountain, covered with snow and with precipitous sides. In the case of the opposite barrier, Kop and Jejen and Akhbaba were dwarfed and humbled by those Georgian heights upon the one side, and, on the other, by those giants in the west.
A soldier, muffled in an overcoat, descends upon us from the nearest fort, and bids us to desist from our investigations.—The tripod had been erected: and they could see us taking bearings, which in this country, devoid of maps, is regarded as spying. But the bearings had been taken, and we were not loth to leave. The road becomes a track as you descend the southern slopes; we might say farewell to roads for many weeks.