370 ADDITIONAL NOTICES. [June 27, 1859. 



2. Journey in Asia Minor. By M. P. de Tchihatchef, Hon. f.r.g.s. 



Communicated by Sir R. I. Murchison, v.p.r.g.s., &c. &c. &c. 



Samsun, Sept. 15, 1858. 

 My deah Sir Roderick, — I am at last returned to Samsun, whence I started 

 four months ago in order to explore those tracts of Pontus and Armenia which 

 had not been visited before by any naturalist. My peculiar object was to fill 

 up those empty white patches which are very numerous and more or less ex- 

 tensive on the best maps. The first, which I met with almost at the doors 

 of Samsun, was the tract between the river Iris (hodie Yezil Irmal?) and 

 the line which marks the great road from Tokat to Amasia, and from tlie 

 last city to Samsun. After having explored this tract, which I found full 

 of lofty mountains, the passage of which was rather difficult at the end of 

 May, I went to Niksar, and followed the Germeli-tchai (Lycus of Strabo, a 

 large affluent of the Iris) to Chabhana-Karahissar, where I had an opportunity 

 of examining very interesting alum mines, which, were they worked in a less 

 barbarous way, and particularly on a larger scale, might provide Europe with 

 most valuable alum, for almost all the trachytic mountains of the country 

 (there is no trace of cretaceous deposits, as marked on your geological map of 

 Europe, and that of Dumont) are full of this useful mineral, which forms 

 nests or patches in the trachyte very easily to be worked without any com- 

 plicated subterraneous labour. 



As all the extensive country between Chabhana-Karahissar and the shore 

 of the Black Sea is left blank on the map of Mr. Kiepert, and was, in fact, 

 until my present exploration, a true terra-incognita where the geographers 

 place arbitrarily the chain of the Paryadres, mentioned by Strabo as being 

 situated somewhere between Trapezunt and Amisus (Samsun) ; in conse- 

 quence, I determined to march northward from Chabhana-Karahissar, and to 

 advance in that direction till I descried the sea. I spent ten days in crossing 

 the high trachytic mountains (between 9000 and 10,000 feet approximatively), 

 and I descended by rapid declivities to Kerasun. I shall be able to give the 

 true altitudes when my numerous hypsometrical measures are calculated. 

 From this city, the mother country of the cherry-tree, which Lucullus trans- 

 ported for the first time to Europe, I went to Tripolis (liodie Tireboli), 

 whence I ascended the river Marchottchai (which falls into the Black Sea 

 near Tripolis) to Gumuchhane, and pushed on to the south to the town of 

 Erzindjan (called equally Erzingian), situated on the Euphrates, in order to 

 get an uninterrupted section from that classic river to the Black Sea, a section 

 running almost from s. to n., and having a length of near two degrees. From 

 Erzindjan I ascended the Euphrates to its sources near Erzerum. After a stay 

 of ten days in the capital of Armenia, I undertook the exploration of the lofty 

 and perfectly unknown chain (at least to geologists, botanists, and zoolo- 

 gists) which borders to the south the valley of the Euphrates between the 

 meridians of Erzerum and Erzindjan. At any other time the visit to these 

 mountains would have been less difficult than at the present moment, on 

 account of the alarming progress which the predatory Knrdisch tribes are 

 making every day in the whole eastern part of the peninsula ; so that, if the 

 Turkish Government does not succeed in stopping their encroachments and in 

 checking their boldness, in a very short time the whole valley of the Euphrates 

 will be in the hands of those classic robbers whose undaunted spirit and 

 ferocity were experienced more than 2000 years ago by Xenophon, when, in 

 his famous retreat of the 10,000 Greeks, he had to cross the country of the 

 CardacM. There is no doubt that one of the reasons which favour their 

 extension and depredations is the increasing weakness of the sick man of the 



