513 



ARMENIA. 



ARMENIA. 



614 



by numerous streams that run eastward into the Murad, which skirts 

 the plain on the north-east, are very productive. The products com- 

 prise all sorts of grain, but especially wheat (which yields twelve to 

 sixteenfold), grapes, of which good wine is made, oleaginous seeds, cotton, 

 lentils, beans, &c. The plain of Kharput is one of the best cultivated and 

 most populous districts in the Turkish empire. It is all under tillage ; 

 there are neither pastures nor waste lands in its whole extent. Cattle 

 are sent to the mountains to feed by day, where they obtain but 

 scanty fare chopped straw at home supplies the deficiency. The 

 heat in summer is intense ; the dust and the reflection of the heat 

 and light from the whitish soil are then very annoying. Harvest 

 commences about the middle of July. Besides the products above 

 mentioned are cotton, and the castor-oil plant. Each peasant 

 has a pair of oxen to plough his land, two or three cows, and 

 a few sheeep. The Kurds used often to plunder the dwellers oi 

 this plain ; of late years it is said that property is more secure, 

 owing to the vigorous exertions of the Turkish government to subject 

 these lawless hordes. The mountains crossed between Kharput and 

 Malatiyeh, on the Tokma-Su, are covered in parts with dwarf oaks, 

 which yield a considerable quantity of gall-nuts. 



The plain of Kharput is screened on the south by a very steep ridge 

 at the outhern base of which is the lake of Gdljik ; and a little to the 

 south-west of this is the source of the Tigris. Between the lake and the 

 eastern continuation of the Taurus Mountains are two small but 

 beautiful and fertile plains, abounding in cattle and inhabited chiefly 

 by stationary Kurds. The mountains are here of the same character 

 tat those near Keban-Maden steep, barren, and of difficult ascent ; 

 indeed they are part of the same range that skirts the left bank of 

 the Euphrates, and separates its basin from that of the Tigris. 

 Among these dreary mountains are the copper-mines of Arghana ; and 

 about 10 miles to the south is the town of Arghana, containing about 

 300 Armenian and 300 Mohammedan families, and situated under a 

 lofty peak sin-mounted by an Armenian convent, and overlooking a 

 vast plain. The slope between the town and the plain is laid out in 

 fields and gardens ; it is very fertile, yielding every sort of grain, 

 cotton, fruits, and very superior wine. AVheat here returns sixteen- 

 fold. The plain southward to within a short distance of Diyar- 

 Bekr has a very hot climate, and is very deficient in moisture 

 on the surface ; but good water is met with by sinking wells to a 

 moderate depth. Some wheat and millet, of which the return is very 

 light, is grown near the encampments of the Kurds, who appear 

 to be the only inhabitants of this part of the plain. The Tigris is 

 not navigable above Diyar-Bekr, but rafta of timber are floated down 

 it from the mountains. It is navigated between Diyar-Bekr and 

 Mosul by keleks, or rafts, composed of boughs and supported on 

 inflated skin.i. 



Satin of the Murad between the plaint of Kharput and Mush. To 

 the east of the plain of Kharput the mountains press close upon the 

 Murad ; the slopes in many places being laid out in gardens and 

 orchards. The width of the river at the eastern side of the plain, near 

 the junction of the Perez-Su, a considerable stream which comes 

 from the southern slopes of the Dujik-Dagh, is above 100 yards, and 

 the stream is very rapid ; but higher up the river is compressed in 

 parts to a breadth of about 30 yards, the mountains rising abruptly 

 from ita banks. Keleks, carrying stacks of charcoal, and guided by a 

 paddle at each end, are sent down the river to the mining districts 

 above mentioned. The Murad is crossed opposite Palu by a ricketty 

 old bridge, which is 2819 feet above the sea. The town of Palu is 

 situated at a short distance from the right bank of the river, at the 

 foot of a lofty peak crowned by an old castle at the height of 3292 

 feet. Palu contains 600 Mussulman and 400 Armenian families. The 

 Armenians are traders and manufacturers; they have 2QO looms 

 engaged in the manufacture of cloth from native cotton, a dyeing 

 establishment, and a tan-yard. They are allowed to possess a few 

 vineyards : the gardens and cultivated land near the town are all in 

 the hands of the Mohammedans. 



The mountains that skirt the Murad at Palu sink down on the 

 northern side into an extensive and well-cultivated plain studded with 

 villages, which are surrounded by orchards and vineyards. This plain 

 is bounded to the northward by a long hill-range, which runs along 

 the left bank of the Perez-Su. At the north-eastern extremity of the 

 plain the ground rises rapidly, and the village of Mezirah is 5245 feet 

 above the sea, commanding a view of the plain and the Dujik Moun- 

 tains. Eastward from Mezirah the mountains are in part strewed 

 with immense boulders, and on their summits are springs and pastures, 

 and on approaching C'hevli, a wooded region with frequent steep 

 ascents and descents succeeds. The mountain forests here consist 

 chiefly of the varieties of oak which yield manna and gall-nuts. A 

 crop of manna is yielded once in three years. The Armenians are 

 here the principal cultivators of the soil. The barley and corn grown 

 in not enough for the consumption ; hay and firewood are obtained in 

 abundance from the mountains. The villagers have cows, oxen, 

 buffaloes, sheep, goats, and a few horses. Qum-tragacanth is gathered 

 in the mountains ; this and goat's-wool are bought by petty traders for 

 export to Diyar-Bekr. Chevli is situated in a ravine watered by a 

 mall feeder of the Murad, from which it in distant about 10 miles to 

 the northward. It is the residence of a Kurdish Bey, who commands 

 60 small villages in the surrounding district. 



CEOO. DIV. vol.. I. 



From the ravine of Chevli, and the stony plain partly covered with 

 underwood into which it opens to the southward, the country rises 

 rapidly apparently to the culminating point of a secondary range, in 

 which rise the Gunluk-Su, and some other small feeders of the Murad, 

 while the drainage of the northern slopes of the mass most probably 

 flows into the Perez-Su. One of the summits to the south of the 

 village of Ashaghah or Lower Piikengog retains some snow all the 

 summer, and is probably not less than 10,000 feet high nbove the sea ; 

 but the height of the adjacent ranges is not above 6000 feet. Yokareh 

 or Upper Pakeugog, about 6 miles north-east of Ashaghah, stands at 

 the height of 5204 feet above the sea. These mountains are clothed 

 with oaks, and are furrowed by numerous glens and winding valleys, 

 with wood and rich meadows : walnut-treea attain an extraordinary 

 size in this district. The two villages just mentioned are inhabited by 

 Kurds, who are continually at war with each other. Between Yokareh 

 and the Takhtah-Kopri-Su, a feeder of the Murad, which skirts the 

 mountain mass on the east, there is evidence of volcanic agency. 

 On the top of one of the ranges are great quantities of obsidian, 

 lying in large blocks ; earth 'of a deep red colour covers the surface of 

 the ground on both sides of the stream and down to the plain to the 

 southward ; and among the low mountains bordering the plain is a 

 peak which appears in form like the crater of an extinct volcano. 

 The Takhtah-Kopri-Su before it reaches the plain runs in a ravine with 

 steep rocky sides, in a rapid current 30 yards wide, between banks 

 covered with trees ; after traversing the plain, which is fertile and 

 well cultivated, it joins the Murad about 1 2 miles to the southward. 

 Soon after it enters the plain the Takhtah-Kopri is joined from the 

 eastward by a feeder, which passes the Kurdish village of Boghlau, 

 and rises in the mountains that fill up the space between the Murud 

 and the Char-Bulur-Su before mentioned, and slopes down to the, 

 former river, on the northern side of the plain of Mush. Abont 10' 

 miles east from Boghlan is the Armenian monastery of Changeri, a 

 famous place of pilgrimage among the Armenians. It is dedicated to 

 St. John the Baptist, of whom a relic is preserved in the church. The 

 church, which is said to date from A.D. 304, is a massive stone 

 structure with a very gloomy interior, owing to the smallness of thu 

 windows. In the court around the church are numerous rooms and 

 stables for the accommodation of the monks and pilgrims. The 

 monastery buildings are girt with lofty and solidly-built walls, well 

 calculated to resist a hostile attack. In the Russian invasion of 1830 

 the Kurds held the monastery for several months, plundered it of itd 

 treasures, and burnt or otherwise destroyed all the books and manu- 

 scripts. Several Armenian bishops reside in the monastery, which is 

 supported in part by a revenue derived from two villages, but chiefly 

 from the offerings of pilgrims. Between this place and the plain of 

 Mush the villages are inhabited almost exclusively by Armenian 

 families, except in winter, when the ' kishlak ' brings about half as 

 many Kurdish families into each. 



Region between the Mush-Dcujh and the Tigra, from Sitlis to the source 

 of the river. From the eastern side of the cataracts formed by tho 

 Euphrates in its passage through the Taurus Mountains, the main 

 range continues to run in an easterly direction under the name of the 

 Mush-Dagh, which forms the watershed between the Murad and the 

 Tigris and joins the Nimrud-Dagh, the ancient Niphates, on the 

 western side of Lake Van. The Mush-Dagh is of considerable eleva- 

 tion, as many parts of it retain snow the greater part of the summer, 

 The southern slopes are fun-owed by numerous valleys, traversed by 

 rapid streams, feeders of the Tigris. The northern side descends rapidly 

 to the Murad, between the plain of Kharput and the plain of Muah. 



To the south of the plain of Mush the mountains consist of three 

 parallel ranges ; the most easterly of which, called Koshm-Dagh, is 

 about *>800 feet high : the central one, named Antogh- or Kaudush- 

 Dagh, is considerably higher, as it retains snow on its crest for the 

 greater part of the summer. Between the Antogh-Dagh and tho 

 western range called Darkush-Dagh, the pass over which is 6490 feet 

 above the sea level, lies the valley of Shin, which is partly cultivated and 

 partly grazed in summer by a Kurdish tribe which winters near the 

 Tigris. The descent of the Darkush-Dagh is very difficult and 

 dangerous ; the path sometimes leads round precipitous hollows in the 

 hills, and sometimes in a zigzag down the face of a nearly perpendicular 

 limestone rock, 1200 feet above the Kolb-Su, a considerable river, which 

 having traversed the valley of Shin in an easterly direction, here 

 sweeps round to the westward, after breaking through the mountains. 

 The passes of the Kharzau Mountains to the westward are still more 

 difficult : no loaded animal except a mule can traverse them. The 

 sides of these mountains are covered with dwarf oaks, and numerous 



and magnificent walnut-trees round the villages ; there is abundance 

 of pure water from the limestone glens. The ground, though rough 

 and stony, is cultivated where practicable, and made very productive 

 ay means of irrigation. The climate is hot iu summer, but tempered 

 sy a constant breeze ; the winter is short, not much snow falls, and that 

 does not lie long. Corn is reaped in the end of June; common 

 ruits are abundant; melons, carobs, and grapes are grown. The 

 louses on this side of the mountains are not built half underground, 

 rat in the ordinary Turkish manner with flat roofs. 



2 L 



