Art. IV. The Caucasian Mountains and their Inhabit- 

 ants. By G. L. Ditson, M.D. 



[Read before the Albany Institute, January, 1869.] 



The subject to which I wish to call your attention is 

 the Caucasian mountains and their inhabitants. You are 

 acquainted, doubtless, with the geographical position of 

 these fabled heights and their romantic valleys. Bounded 

 on the west by the Euxine or Black sea, on the east by 

 the Caspian ; lying between latitudes 40° and 45° north, 

 and having a climate, when relative elevations are con- 

 sidered, like our own ; attaining in some places a height 

 of eighteen thousand feet, and a breadth of one hundred 

 and fifty miles, with a direction through the isthmus 

 nearly northwest and southeast like the Andes and Hima- 

 layas, they are physically worthy of study. Formerly, 

 and as laid down in our old maps, they pertained wholly 

 to Asia; but since the Cossac put his iron heel upon their 

 borders, and broke a highway through their barriers, they 

 have become a part of the boundary line between Europe 

 and Asia. 



The perpetual snow range is between ten and eleven 

 thousand feet. Grain is grown on the plateaus at a very 

 great height — some seven or eight thousand feet — while 

 tobacco, rice, cotton and indigo are, to a limited extent, 

 produced on the southern slopes where they are sheltered 

 by the great range we are considering. Here, too, the 

 vine grows luxuriantly ; I have seen it in its wild state 

 festooning the trees for hundreds of feet; the trees them- 

 selves being such as we are familiar with, the oak, maple, 

 ash, walnut. The latter yield in abundance, those which 

 we call the English walnut. Game is plentiful, more 



