June 27, 1859.] ADDITIONAL NOTICES. 371 



Emperor Nicholas ; a man so truly sick indeed that, according to all I had 

 opportunity of observing during ten years, he is certainly very near his last 

 moments, in spite of the galvanic skill of those who pretend to re-animate 

 dead bodies. Independently of this reason, there is at the present moment 

 another, which revealed itself during the last year by the unusual boldness 

 not only of the Kurds of Armenia, but also of their brothers and of the Arabs 

 of Mesopotamia, Bagdad, &c. I have the strongest reason to believe that the 

 Indian insurrection produced an electric impression upon the whole of the 

 Mahometan family ; so that, if this insurrection had really succeeded, the 

 consequences of this triumph over England would have been most alarming 

 to Christendom and to the future civilization of the whole continent of Asia. 

 Instead, therefore, of reducing the Indian catastrophe to the petty proportions 

 of the affair of a single nation, and looking at it with the eyes of national 

 jealousy and rivalry, if we consider this important event from a higher and 

 more philosophical point of view, we must necessarily come to the conclusion 

 that all civilized Europe is deeply interested in the success of the British 

 arms in India. 



In spite of the great difficulties which the Kurds opposed to my exploration 

 of the large chains of Bingoldagh (literally, " mountain of thousand lacks "), 

 I was, however, so fortunate as to succeed in my enterprise. Nevertheless, I 

 regret very much not to have been able to make the interesting researches you 

 pointed out to me in your last letter (six months ago) at the moment of my 

 departure from Paris for Constantinople, viz., the researches after the remnants 

 of fossil elephants in the country of Mush. When on the Bingoldagh I was 

 certainly very near Mush, and could have descended into that tract by 

 the direct road which goes from Erzerum through the Bingoldagh ; but, 

 according to my custom, I always avoid a public road, and prefer finding out 

 a new one for my private and exclusive use. Therefore I intended to turn 

 towards Mush by descending from the Dudjukdagh. Unfortunately, there 

 was no possibility of crossing the country in that direction, for two Kurdish 

 tribes were squabbling there, and waging one against the other a most bloody 

 war. Consequently I should have been obliged to return to the Bingoldagh 

 in order to take there the direct road to Mush. This would have caused me 

 a great loss of time, and, moreover, it would have forced me to cross twice 

 the same dangerous country ; whereas before me I had still a large tract of 

 terra-incognita. In consequence, I descended the northern declivity of the 

 lofty ridge which forms the southern boundary of the valley of Euphrates, 

 and returned to Erzindjan, which two months ago I had reached when coming 

 from the opposite side. From Erzindjan I turned eastward, in order to explore 

 the superior course of the river Iris (which, as a glance on my map or on that 

 of Mr. Kiepert will show you, is equally a perfectly unknown region) ; there, 

 also, I had the unexpected pleasure to meet large parties of my old friends 

 the Kurds. Their presence is by no means calculated to facilitate scientific 

 explorations, and explains the reason why a country situated not very far 

 from the town of Tokat, which is so frequently and so easily visited by 

 European travellers, should have remained till now almost entirely unknown. 

 The valley where the Iris has its sources, and which this river crosses from e. 

 to W.N.W., is one of the most picturesque and fertile tracts of Asia Minor — 

 beautiful forests of the rare species of Quercus aegilops covering a large part of 

 it. The number of villages, however, is very considerable (suffering more or 

 less from the depredations of the Kurds). The valley is bordered on both 

 sides by lofty trachytic mountains, except certain tracts where the declivities 

 of those ridges are covered by large masses of limestone charged with num- 

 mulites (generally stratified, arid having the strata more or less disturbed). I 

 followed the Iris to Tokat, after having examined the ruins of the celebrated 

 Camana Pontica (near the miserable village Gunck), and then proceeded by 



