402 NOTES ON THE GEOLOGY 



I ought not, in this place, to omit a reference to the specimen 

 of obsidian. No. 219, picked up on the road from Erzeroum to 

 Georgia. Mr. Perkins states, that he found it on the table-land 

 north of Ararat, as he passed easterly over a space not less than 

 one hundred miles. This, among other facts, shows how exten- 

 sively the volcanic agency, which threw up that mountain, reached 

 ai'ound it. I would here suggest, although it may be mere con- 

 jecture, that, from an examination of the mountain ranges on the 

 besVmaps, I suspect Ararat to stand at the point of intersection 

 of two long lines of fracture, one running nearly north and south, 

 and the other east and west. At such a point we should expect, 

 if any where, the protrusion of melted matter. 



As we might expect, Ararat and the smTOunding country are 

 quite subject to earthquakes. Tabreez, it is said, was destroyed 

 some generations since ; but the most recent event of this Idnd at 

 Ararat possesses considerable geological interest. In a letter, 

 dated Oroomiah, November Gth, 1840, JNIi*. Perkins says : 



" We have had two earthquakes here in the course of the past 

 summer. The first was very severe, in the vicinity of Ararat. Some 

 parts of the towns of Erivan and Nakchevan were destroyed, and a 

 village immediately at the base of Ararat is said to have been nearly 

 buried by the masses of earth and rocks, that were shaken down 

 from the mountain. The vast accumulation of snow, which had 

 been increasing on the top of the mountain for so many generations, 

 was broken into pieces, and parts of it shaken down the sides of the 

 mountain, in such immense quantities, that, it being midsummer, 

 and the snow descending into the warm region, and suddenly 

 melting, ton-ents of water came rolling down the remainder of the 

 mountain, and flooded the plain at some distance from its base." 



An cxti'act from a Russian Gazette, prepared by an ofRccr in 

 the vicinity, confirms these statements, and adds many details. 

 The first shock occuiTcd June 20th, before sunset, and precipi- 

 tated an avalanche of snow, ice, and rocks, which " swept away 

 the monastery of St. James, and destroyed a village at the base 

 of the mountain. At seven o'clock, P. M. of the same day, three 

 thousand one hmidrcd and fifty-seven houses were destroyed by 

 an earthquake, and thirty-three men and two hundred and fifty- 



