July 1 8, 1878] 



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form the fourth division, culminating in Mount Libanus [ 

 and terminating in the isolated mountain-mass of Sinai. 

 The -whole extent of Turkey-in-Asia is estimated at 

 660,000 square miles, and its population variously esti- 

 mated at from ten to twenty millions. 



The most extensive and altogether most remarkable 

 mountain-chain of Turkey-in-Asia is the Taurus, with its 

 offshoot the Anti-Taurus, belonging mainly to the division 

 of Anatolia. The Taurus begins on the east, by the 

 Euphrates, where one of its peaks rises to nearly 10,000 

 feet, and runs irregularly westwards not far from the 

 Mediterranean coast, through Caramenia and Lycia, end- 

 ing in the islands of the Greek Archipelago. Both to 

 the north and south it sends out shoots, the island of 

 Cyprus itself being really a spur of the great mountain- 

 mass. The northern arm, the Anti-Taurus, runs north- 

 east ; and at the Chain may be said to turn in a westerly 

 direction along and at no great distance from the Black 

 Sea to the Bosphorus, sending out a south-west spur 

 culminating in Mount Olympus, near Broussa, and further 

 south, on the Gulf of Adramyti, in Trojan Ida. 



The separate portions of the Taurus inclose many 

 plains and valleys, which lie terraced above each other in 

 the line of the meridian. On the south side of the moun- 

 tain lies the plain, formed from augitic rocks, of Diar- 

 bekr in Kurdistan, 1,800 feet above sea-level; in the 

 middle of the Taurus is the cultivated valley of Alendah, 

 and Lake Gorjik Gol, 4,000 feet high ; on the north side 

 is the plain of Liwas, 4,000 feet, and that of Baulus, 3,000 

 feet, above sea-level, from which the land sinks rapidly 

 to the Black Sea. In the south-east part of the peninsula 

 rises the isolated peak, having little connection with the 

 main range, the Erdjas Dag — the Mons Argaeus of the 

 ancients. It stands on the plain of Kassarieh (Caesarea), 

 its foot being 3,300 feet above sea-level, and its summit, 

 the culminating point of Anatolia, close on 13,000 feet 

 above the sea. It consists entirely of volcanic products, 

 and its summit contains two craters, long ago extinct. 

 The whole inner plateau, west to near Kutaya and thence 

 to the plain of Sardis and even to the west coast at 

 Smyrna, bears evident traces of volcanic activity. Ex- 

 tinct volcanic cones, often of considerable height, lava- 

 streams and other unmistakable signs of subterranean 

 activity, extend over a considerable space. Earthquakes 

 are of frequent occurrence, and warm sulphur springs are 

 numerous in Anatolia. 



In the Anatolian peninsula the rivers flow mostly 

 north-westwards into the Black Sea, though the courses 

 of not a few of them remain to be explored. The most 

 considerable of these is the Kisil-Irmik (the ancient 

 Halys), though one of the most interesting is the Men- 

 dereh (ancient Meander), celebrated for its luxurious 

 valley and winding corners, and for the fact that since 

 Homer sang of it, the action of its current, combined with 

 the action of the sea, has altered the whole aspect of the 

 coast about Besika Bay. 



The climate of Asiatic Turkey presents so many varia- 

 tions on account of the great inequalities of its surface, 

 that any general view of it is impossible. In one day the 

 traveller may go from the cold of winter to a heat almost 

 tropical, and vice versa. In the Mesopotamian and 

 Bagdad regions, at the head of the Persian Gulf, and 

 along the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates the heat in 

 summer is quite tropical. Sir Frederic Goldsmid in his 

 " Telegraph and Travel," a work which contains many 

 valuable notes on the features and condition of the 

 country in 1864, found it average 96° in the shade near 

 Mosul in the beginning of June. 



The Anatolian peninsula gradually blends eastwards 

 into the highlands of Armenia, which unite the moun- 

 tains of Asia Minor with the great system of Central 

 Asia, and give rise to the two great rivers of Asiatic 

 Turkey, the Euphrates and the Tigris. Armenia is a 

 land of terraces. Between the rivers rise dividing moun- 



tain-ranges ; within and between these ranges are wide, 

 mostly level, steppe-like plateaux of various heights, which 

 lie like terraces over each other ; deep-cut valleys, gloomy, 

 towering mountain masses ; extreme climate, with severe 

 winter and dry hot summer ; in the valleys and on the 

 mountain-slopes luxurious vegetation, but scanty on the 

 plateaux ; on the eastern border the landscape is Alpine, 

 and forms the immediate connection between Armenia and 

 the great table-land of Iran. The Armenian mountains 

 are continued southwards into Kurdistan, gradually shad- 

 ing off into the great plain of Mesopotam.ia. In the 

 north of Kurdistan lies the romantic salt lake Van, 1,200 

 square miles in area, at a height of 4,000 feet above sea- 

 level. The two streams which water Mesopotamia, 

 the Euphrates and Tigris, have a generally parallel 

 course, sometimes approaching and sometimes receding 

 from each other. At Bagdad they approach most closely 

 before uniting, not far above the outlet in the Persian 

 Gulf, giving the included land the shape of an hour-glass. 

 It was this included land which the ancients appropriately 

 named Mesopotamia, the northern half being now known 

 as El Jesireh, or the island, and the southern Irak Arabi, 

 or the Arab Irak, to distinguish it from the neighbouring 

 Persia, or Irak Ajemi. The delta of the united stream 

 begins about forty miles above its outlet, and there is 

 evidence that since the time of Alexander the Great, the 

 land must have encroached considerably on the Gulf. 

 Lying between Mesopotamia and the coast region of 

 Syria, and its southern part, Palestine, is the great 

 Syrian desert, a chalk plateau of about 1,800 feet above 

 the sea, bound on the west side by a great depression. 



The flora of Asiatic Turkey, as might be expected, is 

 very varied, partaking of a combined temperate and 

 sub-tropical character. As to its fauna, the lion has 

 disappeared from the countries west of the Euphrates, 

 while in Mesopotamia are found the hyaena, panther, 

 buffalo, and wild boar ; jackals, bears, wolves, and wild 

 hogs are met with in Asia Minor. The leopard is still 

 found in the interior of Palestine, the Syrian bear in 

 Lebanon, while European animals are found nearly 

 everywhere. The whole territory is included in the 

 Mediterranean sub-region of the Palasarctic Zoological 

 region. (See Wallace's " Distribution of Animals.") 



With regard to Cyprus a volume might be written on its 

 history, from the time of the Phoenicians (it is supposed to 

 be the Chittim of the Old Testament) till now, and we quite 

 recently noticed Gen. Cesnola's remarkable work on the 

 antiquities of the island. The ancients appropriately 

 compared the shape of the island to that of a deer's skin 

 or a fleece spread out. In length it is about 140 miles, 

 and about 45 in breadth, much about the size of Skye 

 and the Long Island from Barra Head to the Butt 

 of Lewis together. The centre of the island is a 

 plain or table land, while mountain-ranges occupy the 

 west and south-west, and the northern coast is moun- 

 tainous along its whole extent. In the northern 

 range the highest summit does not exceed 3,340 

 feet, while among the southern masses. Mount Olympus 

 (Trodos or Troodos) reaches a height of 6,590 feet. 

 Other summits range from 2,000 to 5,000 feet. In the 

 time of Titus a volcanic outburst from the northern 

 range did great damage, and destructive earthquakes 

 seem to have been at one time frequent. The streams 

 are few and small ; rain is almost unknown from May to 

 October ; the heat of summer is excessive on the plains, 

 though the winter is mild, and the climate on the whole 

 may be regarded as healthy. At one time the island 

 appears to have been thickly wooded and to hare yielded 

 valuable mineral and vegetable products. The island is 

 said to have then sustained a population of a million, but 

 now the inhabitants do not exceed 180,000. Speaking 

 of the flora of the island Drs. Unger and Kotschy in their 

 work "Die Insel Cypern," say : — 



" In Cyprus prairie or meadow land does not exist ; the 



