04 7% Caucasian Mountains and their Inhabitants. 



mander of the northern military district, a large pure 

 mass of this metal was brought in by a Russian miner 

 who had dug and smelted it in thai region. 



The population of the Caucasus is variously estimated 

 in numbers between one and two mil lions. They are 

 divided into a great many different tribes, belonging to 

 distinct races, and though the Turkish-Tartar language 

 is used as a general means of communication, they speak 

 collectively about a hundred different dialects. 



Ethnologically, this region opens a wide field for study, 

 for research, for speculation. The Caucasian variety of 

 mankind, a division adopted by Blumenback, "included 

 all the inhabitants, ancient and modern, of Europe (except 

 the Fins) ; in Asia, the higher class of Hindoos, the Per- 

 sians, Assyrians, Arabs," etc., and "the Caucasians." Later 

 writers have made very different divisions. Some from 

 features, classing them with the flat-faced Mongols, some 

 from the radical difference of language. Dr. Prichard 

 makes two varieties of the so-called Caucasian, the Syro- 

 Arabian or Semitic, and the Indo-European or Aryan. 



Whatever decision ethnologists may come to on this 

 subject, I am willing myself to believe that we have 

 descended from some of the fine manly races which dwell 

 in these mountains, and I am willing to take Blumcn- 

 bach's deductions derived from a well-shaped female 

 Georgian cranium in his possession, though it has been 

 facetiously said, that, " Never has a single head done more 

 harm to science, than was done in the way of posth union- 

 mischief by the head of this oriental lady." 



The term Circassian has in a wide sense been applied 

 to all the independent tribes within the limits of the lati- 

 tudes heretofore mentioned. This is not strictly proper. 

 The true Circassians inhabit only the northwestern wing 

 of the range, with the exclusion of the Abhazians. The 

 Turks and Russians call them the Tcherkess, but among 



