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even unoccupied ; so that were there not iome defect in the adminis- 

 tration the people need nofresort to emigration. Insecurity of life 

 Mid property on account of the Kurds, and the maintenance of the 

 ' kuhUk,' are caune sufficient to check the extension of agriculture 

 and make the people emigrate. 



1. tit l*<m or ll'im is of irregular shape. The southern and 

 principal part of it U a tolerably compact oval ; but from the centre 

 of the northern side of this a long narrow gulf projects for about 

 40 miles in a north-east direction. The extreme length of the oval 

 between Tadran and Van is about 67 miles, and the breadth about 

 25 miles. The north-eastern projection is 6 miles wide at its narrowest 

 part, but the, breadth increases south and north of this to about 

 12 miles. The whole area is not much short of 2000 square miles. 

 The surface is 407 feet above the sea. The waters of the lake are 

 clear, blue and salt, like the sea ; the degree of saltness is greater in 

 the southern part of the lake than in the projecting gulf, which 

 receives several fresh-water streams, the most considerable being the 

 Bendi-Mshi-Su, which fulls into the head of the gulf. There are 

 some small islands in the lake, the principal of which U Akhtamar, 

 opposite the mouth of the Anjel-Chai ; this island contains a large 

 Armenian monastery and church, and is the residence of at least one 

 bishop. The old Armenian name of the lake U also said to be 

 ^lrhtjTnar The lake is supposed to contain abundance of ruth, but 

 there is not a single small boat on the whole hike, nor has any attempt 

 been made to fish in deep water. Small fish resembling herring are 

 caught in immense quantities in spring, when they come up the 

 stream to spawn ; they are then taken with baskets. There are no 

 passage boats on the lake ; and places only a few houfp apart by water 

 are virtually several days' journey distant from aach other. Five or 

 six crazy barges convey cotton or cotton cloths from Van to Tadvan, 

 on their way to Bitlin, where they are dyed red ; the return freight is 

 grain or timber. The lake is generally shallow iu-shorc, and in parts 

 (especially on the northern shore of the gulf), between the mouth of the 

 ArjUh-Ch'ai and the BeuU-Miihi-Su, the deposits of which rivers are fast 

 filling it up. In ten years the plain of Arjish is said to have advanced 

 a mile on the lake. The winter of the basin of Lake Van is severe, 

 and a great deal of snow falls ; but the frost is less intense than in 

 the plain of Err.-rum. In severe winters the shallow parts of the lake 

 are frozen, and the people of Arjish can cross to the opposite shore 

 of the gulf on the ice. Oulla, cormorants, and other water-fowls 

 abound on the lake. About 20 miles north-west from Van is the lake of 

 r.rchek, a fine sheet of brackish water of an oval shape, about 10 miles 

 in length and 5 miles in breadth. It is surrounded by mountains on 

 all aides, except the east, in which direction the shore is flat. The 

 lake has no visible outlet ; but in the Kurdish district of Mukug or 

 Mukuxh, on the southern side of the Arjerosh Mountains, a river, one 

 of the tributaries of the Tigris, rises, which is said to have a subter- 

 ranean connection with Lake Von. 



To the north of the plain of Van there is an undulating country 

 with extensive vineyards, and a whitish clay soil, which produces 

 abundantly in wet seasons. This district is separated from the lake by a 

 low range of hills, which increase in height to the northward ; and a 

 parallel range runs at some distance inland. Between this wine 

 district and Merek, which is famous for its monasteries and iU 

 pilgrimages, there is little Ian- 1 under tillage. To the north of Merek 

 Is the district drained by the Bendi-Mahi-Su, which is frequented 

 only by Kurds, some of whom are settled in villages along the hike. 

 The Beodi-Mahi is broad, deep, and of a dark blue colour at its 

 mouth, where it flows between reedy banks. It rises near the source 

 of the Hurad, in the mountains south of Bayar.ii), of which it drains 

 the southern valleys ; its whole course is about 85 miles. Between 

 Bargir-Kalch, the scat of a Kurd Bey a few miles up the river, and 

 Bayazid the country is a mountain tract without a single village or 

 settlement of any kind, and frequented only by nomad Kurds. A 

 spring near the mouth of the river maintains a heat of 55 

 Fahrenheit, which is probably the mean heat of the climate. 



Westward from Amis, a Kurd settlement at the north-eastern 

 extremity of Lake Van, there is a rough country backed by moun- 

 tains, and terminating near the lake in flats, which in summer are 

 infested by innumerable swarms of small flies. In this district, which 

 is now altogether waste but bears evidence in the remains of field - 

 inclosurex, Tillages, and khans, of having been once occupied l.\ n 

 settled population there are numerous evidences of volcanic action ; 

 its rocks are a black bard honey-combed lava, and a stream a little 

 east of the Tillage of Haidar-Beg rolls over black lava boulders. Thin 

 rough country slopes down into a well-watered plain, terminating in 

 marshes and swamp* near the lake at the town and castle of Arjixh, 

 which retains the elements of the name Arsissa, by which Lake Van 

 was known to the ancient*. There are about twenty Urge village* in 

 this plain. The soil is deep and alluvial. The pastures are extensive 

 and fine, and the number of cattle, sheep, and mares very great The 

 Mil* of Arjish is in a ruinous condition ; the houses of the town, 

 which are inhabited by Musmilman Kurds and a very few Armeniann, 

 are built in the usual bullion, half underground. The Armenian 

 church of Arjuh is small but very ancient The Haideranlis Kur-l 

 pasture the mountains to the northward, and winter in the villages 

 of the plain >{ Arji-li. The character given of them is, "they rob 

 thi;y can, and by craft rather than by violence." At a village 



on the western bank of the Arjish-Chai is a stone building said to bo 

 the tomb of a Persian king. 



High ground bounded to the northward by mountains, and on the 

 south by a low range that skirts the lake, extends to the Armenian 

 village of Ashraf, which is situated in a ravine about 10 miles west 

 from Arjish. Below the village the ravine opens into a plain which 

 reaches to the lake, and contains many vineyard*. Beyond thi.s the 

 abrupt mountains recede, and the lake frontage widen*, so as to afford 

 a fine view of Sapan-Dagh from base to summit The shore is 

 bordered here by meadows containing dark pools of water, with a 

 strong sulphurous smell In the district south of the Sapan-Dagh, 

 between the village of Nurshin and the town of Ad-cl-Jivaz, the sandy 

 soil yields fine clean com crops ; the system of sowing corn in drills 

 has been practised here from time immemorial. Water-melons used 

 to be grown abundantly, but as they were always eaten by the passing 

 Kurds the peasants no longer cultivate them. The chief prop. 

 the peasantry U in their corn, cattle and mares, meadows and orchards. 

 Soda is collected on the shore and sold to the Kurds to make soap. 

 Cattle to be safe must all be housed at night The yield of wheat in 

 this district is stated to be twenty-fivefold, of rye fiftyfold, and of 

 barley fortyfold. The bread is most excellent Ad-elJivoz stands 

 in a well-watered valley ; it is open to Lake Van, but inclosed on the 

 other sides by walls, which run from the lake shore to the extremities 

 of the works of an old ruined castle built on a limestone rock above 

 the town. In this limestone valley, where the water is pure and so 

 abundant that the gardens are irrigated, common fruits ore very 

 plentiful ; water-melons and grapes thrive well. Some coarse cotton 

 cloths are woven in about twenty looms in the town ; both Turks and 

 Armenians here are weavers. 



The limestone district rises west of Ad-cl-Jivaz into high cliffs, 

 skirting steep rocky paths far above the level of the lake. To the 

 westward the limestone dips into a plain, and is succeeded by clay- 

 slate, followed by coarse conglomerate, the component parts of which 

 become gradually smaller to the westward, and terminate on the western 

 side of Lake Van in the fine grained light sandstone of the neighbour- 

 hood of Akhlat The old town of Akhlat, now in ruinx, is supposed 

 to have been taken by Timur in the 1 4th century. There is a cemetery 

 of great extent near it, with headstones of one piece 12 feet high ; this, 

 and several other smaller burying ground*, give evidence of the extent 

 of the population of the town. On all the tombs aud other buildings 

 ore Turkish and Arabic inscriptions. The town stood in a ravine, in 

 the centre of which there is a rock covered with ruins, probably of a 

 castle. On the opposite side of the ravine is a large tomb also in 

 nuns, which is said to contain the remains of a king. The natives 

 know nothing of the history of the place ; they say that it was the 

 residence of an ancient sovereign. The modern I\VM <( A khlat stands 

 on the lake shore at a little distance from the Nimrud-Dagh, and 

 25 miles east from Bitlis. It is a dull place, surrounded by a double 

 wall even towards the lake, the inner circuit being flanked by towers, 

 and a citadel on high ground commands the town. The houses are 

 built of square stones cemented with clay. 



J7 Saptm-Dagh, and the Country nurtliward to aya:id and Ike 

 Source of the Murad. The Sapan-Dagh, which forms a most con- 

 spicuous object in the region of Lake Van is about 10 miles distant 

 from the middle part of the northern shore. It is an extinct volcano 

 with crater and cone. The cone, which ia on the north-east side of 

 the crater, has a flat top surrounded by numerous peaks, nnd is com- 

 posed of loose fragments of calcined rock, gray or pale red in colour, 

 remarkably light, and easily displaced, the fractures displaying small 

 bright crystals. The ascent is painful, and attended with disagreeable 

 sensations, such as pains in the head and sickness at stomach, not 

 owing to the height (the highest peak does not exceed 10,000 feet 

 above the Block Sea), but caused it is supposed by the escape of some 

 gas from the crater. The view from the summit ia very extensive. 

 The two peaks of Ararat are distinctly visible, the Bingol range, 

 the conical peak of Koseh-Dagh in the plain of Arishkerd, Lake 1 '. 

 and Lake Nazuk, at the western base of the Nimrud-Dagh. A good 

 deal of snow lies in the hollows of the mountains, but the cone and 

 peaks are bare in summer ; and no glacier exists upon it The ascent 

 is practicable only between the middle of August and the second week 

 of September, on account of the snow which covers the summit all 

 the rest of the year. On a lower cone on the south side of the moun- 

 tain there is a small lake called Aghri-Gol. The whole mountain from 

 base to summit is composed of basalt, scoria, and other volcanic debris ; 

 lava-streams have burst from various parts of it besides the summit 

 Neither tree nor shrub is to be seen on the Snpau-Dogh ; there arc 

 some pastures, but they seem unfrequented, or perhaps u\ 

 There is no record or tradition of this mountain ever having been in 

 an active state. The principal rock at the base of the mount. > 

 kind of porphyry. 



From Lake Van and the Sapan-Dagh north-eastward an undulating 

 country with a light sandy soil, but thinly inhabited and exln 

 evidence of the emigration of the Armenians in deserted villages, rises 

 gradually to a high plain nmr the foot of the Ala-Dagh, in the ravines of 

 which are small trees, willows, alders, birch, wild apple and pear-trees, 

 and currant-bushes. The Ala-Dagh is about the same height OH the 

 .Sapan-Dagh ; on the northern faces of the I '-> * t he snow 



lies. From the summit of the mountain a deep valley culled - 



