26 



CAUCASUS 



From the peninsula of Taman on the Black Sea, to 

 the peninsula of Apsheron on the Caspian, it has a 

 length of about 750 miles. The breadth, including 

 the secondary ranges and spurs, is about 150 miles, 

 but that of the higher Caucasus does not exceed 70 

 miles. This range is sometimes treated as part of 

 the boundary line between Europe and Asia, but 

 the region is really Asiatic in character ( see ASIA ). 

 The higher and central part of the range is formed 

 of parallel chains, not separated by deep and wide 

 valleys, but remarkably connected by elevated 

 plateaus, which are traversed by narrow fissures of 

 extreme depth. The highest peaks are in the most 

 central ridge or chain, at least six of them well 

 over 16,000 feet, much exceeding the highest Alps. 

 Mount Elburz attains an elevation of 18,540 feet 

 above the sea ; Kazbek reaches a height of more 

 than 16,500 feet ; and between these come Koshtan- 

 tau and Dikh-tau. Here the line of perpetual snow 

 is between 10,000 and 11,000 feet high ; but the 

 whole amount of perpetual snow is not great, nor 

 are the glaciers very large or numerous. For more 

 than 100 miles' length of the main ridge there are 

 no passes lower than 10,000 feet. The central 

 chain, in its highest part at least, is granitic or 

 even pure granite. On either side of the granitic 

 axis are metamorphic rocks, such as mica-schists 

 and talc-schists ; and beyond these, clay-slates and 

 schists. The secondary parallel chains on both 

 sides of the central ridge are of limestone. The 

 spurs and outlying mountains or hills are of less 

 extent and importance than those of almost any 

 other mountain-range of similar magnitude, sub- 

 siding as they do until they are only about 200 

 feet high along the shores of the Black Sea. Some 

 parts are entirely destitute of wood, but other parts 

 are very densely wooded, and the secondary ranges 

 near the Black Sea exhibit most magnificent forests 

 of oak, beech, ash, maple, and walnut ; grain is 

 cultivated in some parts to a height of 8000 feet, 

 while in the lower valleys rice, tobacco, cotton, 

 indigo, &c. are produced. As might be expected 

 from the geographical situation of the Caucasus, 

 the climate, though it is generally healthy, is very 

 different on the northern and southern sides, the 

 vine growing wild in great abundance on the south, 

 which is not the case on the north. The south 

 declivity of the mountains towards Georgia presents 

 much exceedingly beautiful and romantic scenery. 



There are no active volcanoes in Mount Caucasus, 

 but every evidence of volcanic action. Elburz and 

 Kazbek are both of volcanic origin. There are hot 

 springs and mud volcanoes at each end of the 

 range, and there are also famous petroleum wells 

 in the peninsula of Apsheron ( see BAKU ). Mineral 

 springs also occur in many places, notably at Vla- 

 dikavkaz. The bison, or aurochs, is found in the 

 mountains ; bears, wolves, and jackals are among 

 the carnivorous animals. Lead, iron, sulphur, 

 coal, and copper are found. 



The waters of the Caucasus flow into four prin- 

 cipal rivers the Kuban and the Kion or Faz ( the 

 Phasis of the ancients ), which flow into the Black 

 Sea ; and the Terek and the Kur, which flow into 

 the Caspian. Kuban and Terek are north, Rion 

 and Kur or Kura south of the mountains. The 

 Russians have with great labour carried a military 

 road through a valley somewhat wider than most 

 of the Caucasian valleys. This is the tremendous 

 fissure or ravine of the Dariel gorge about half- 

 way from the Black Sea to the Caspian. The road 

 passes over a height of about 8000 feet, and is 

 protected by many forts. The only other road is 

 by the Pass of Derbend, near the Caspian Sea. 

 There is a railway from Baku by Tiflis to Poti and 

 Batoum ; Vladikavkaz is the terminus of the rail- 

 way from the north. 



CAUCASIAN was the name adopted by Blumen- 



bach (q.v.) for one of his main ethnological divisions 

 of mankind ; and as the Georgian skull he had was 

 the finest in his collection, the Caucasian was taken 

 as the finest type of the Indo-European stock. Sub- 

 sequent ethnologists have, mainly on philological 

 grounds, broken up the Caucasian variety of 

 Blumenbach into two well-marked philological 

 groups, the Aryan (q.v.) and the Semitic peoples 

 (q.v.). The name Caucasian was clearly a mis- 

 nomer when it suggested affinity in blood or in 

 language between the very various races of the 

 Caucasus, classified below, and Aryans or Semites ; 

 and Prichard and others proposed actually to 

 connect most of the Caucasus peoples with the 

 Mongolian races of Asia. Later anthropologists, 

 finding the word convenient, use Caucasian or 

 Caucasic for the Fair type of man as opposed to 

 the Mongolic or Yellow type. But they dis- 

 tinctly repudiate any suggestion of community 

 of race or of language between the peoples so 

 named ; and desire to indicate a physical fact and 

 an anthropological type. See ETHNOLOGY ; also 

 PHILOLOGY. 



The Caucasus has been called the Mountain of 

 Languages from the multiplicity of tongues spoken 

 in this narrow area tongues many of them totally 

 distinct from one another, and, with one exception, 

 apparently unconnected with the languages of any 

 other part of the globe, or race of men ; though 

 both Aryan and Turkoman affinities have been 

 alleged for Georgian, and Sayce has suggested 

 that the ancient Hittites (q.v.), whose empire in 

 Asia Minor rivalled that of the Assyrians, were 

 of the same stock. There are certain well-marked 

 groups amongst them, within which manifest 

 affinity prevails. ( 1 ) The Southern division or 

 Kartveli stock comprises the Georgians or Grusi- 

 ans, mainly in the upper and middle basin of the 

 Kur ; the Imeritians, west of the watershed be- 

 tween the Kur and Rion ; the Mingrelians, farther 

 west reaching to the Black Sea ; the Gurians, south 

 of the Rion ; the Laz, on the Turkish frontiers ; and 

 the Svans or Suanetians, between the Mingrelians 

 and the higher Caucasus. (2) The Western 

 division contains the Tcherkess or Circassian race, 

 formerly on the left bank of the Kuban, north of 

 Caucasus ; the Abkhasians in the narrow strip of 

 land between the Caucasus and the Black Sea on 

 the south ; and the Kabards, north and east of 

 Elburz. (3) The Eastern division contains the 

 Chechenz or Tchetchens on the northern slopes of 

 the Eastern Caucasus down to the Terek ; and the 

 Lesghians farther east and south. It is doubtful 

 Avhether the numerous small tribes called Lesghians 

 have any affinity with the Tchetchens, or how far 

 they are related to one another ; only one, the 

 Avars, have a written language, and they use 

 Arabic characters. ( 4 ) The Ossetes or Ossetians in 

 the centre of Caucasus, on both slopes about 

 Kazbek, are unquestionably a race of the Aryan 

 stock, and the language has affinity with the 

 Persian branch ; they call themselves Irun ( prob- 

 ably meaning Aryan). The Kartveli group may 

 contain 850,000 persons ; the Western group, 

 130,000; the Eastern, 520,000; the Ossetian, 

 120,000. All the Caucasian languages are ex- 

 tremely harsh. Some of them are partially in- 

 flectional ; all save the Ossetian are substantially 

 agglutinative. 



In various portions of this territory there are 

 of course other intrusive elements of population of 

 foreign race : Russian Slavs ; Tartars ; numerous 

 Armenians ; Kurds ; Greeks ; Tats and other 

 Iranians or Tajiks ; and a German colony from 

 Wiirtemberg, east of Tiflis. Not merely do the 

 inhabitants of the Caucasus differ widely in race, 

 but they represent great variety of stages of culture, 

 from the indolent, music-loving Georgians to the 



