538 



NATURE 



{Oct. 31, 1872 



on its way to join the Araxes, and enter witli it the Caspian 

 Sea. 



The height of the Ardahan plain is 6,500 feet ; it is, 

 but for a very gentle easterly slope, an absolute water-like 

 level ; the bottom of this lake basin, for such it certainly 

 was, consists of deep alluvial soil, mixed with detritus and 

 larfre boulders ; the sides are all rounded and smoothed 

 off in gentle slopes, and bear every mark of having been 

 long ice-covered. They are of various altitudes, but all 

 alike. I climbed one of the lateral plateaus, at the north- 

 eastern corner of the plain, till I had reached 3,000 feet 

 above the Kur stream ; boulders everywhere. 



These plateaus stretch east to the Russo-Georgian 

 frontier, about twenty-five miles distant. They contain 

 many notable lakes, some of which I visited ; that called 

 Childer, in particular, is about ten miles in extreme 

 length by eight in breadth. Its surface is 6,700 feet 

 above the sea, and it is encased in mounded hills, like 

 those already described. The natives declare its depth 

 to be unfathomable, and, somewhat inconsistently, affirm 

 that a submerged city exists below. But a clever Beg, or 

 Chief of the neighljourhood, a friend of mine, had the 

 curiosity to sail across it in every direction, sounding the 

 bottom, and assured me that its greatest depth, near the 

 northern extremity, did not exceed twenty-two fathoms, 

 while he added, laughing, that of the buried city his line 

 had discovered for him no trace. Karzach lake, not far 

 off, a square-shaped sheet of water about four miles in 

 extent each way, seems to be stilU shallower ; while Teh 

 Lake, as it is called, close by which my road passed, is 

 now a mere marsh, though of considerable dimensions. 

 Like the other two it has left, however, on its banks the 

 marks of having been once much deeper and wider than 

 at present. The plateau on which these lakes are situated 

 continues, with .ilternate elevations and depressions, but 

 always bearing the features already described, for about 

 thirty miles to the north, till, having reached its greatest 

 altitude in Kel Dagh, a mountain about 11,000 feet high, 

 it begins to descend step by step to the plains of Georgia 

 and the Black Sea. From this point its whole character 

 changes, rifts, abrupt precipices, and narrow gorges 

 taking the place of the rounded undulating outlines it 

 bore farther inland. Nor is any further trace of boulders 

 or moraines to be seen, at least below an elevation of 

 nearly 8,000 feet. 



It is 10 be remarked that this entire range, like the 

 central Anatolian watershed, is almost uniform in its 

 geological composition ; Jurassic on its lower slopes ; 

 granite above. One only exception here occurs, and that 

 is along the deep and rapidly descending chasm through 

 which the torrent Kur finds its way ; a chasm traversing 

 the plateau in its greater width, from the basin of Ardahan 

 to the Russian frontier. Its sides, and the rock in its 

 neighbourhood to, in some places, a considerable extent, 

 are volcanic. 



My return route, from the Russian frontier near the 

 well-known river Phasis, now the Rion, to Trebizond, lay 

 along the coast ; thus affording me excellent opportunities 

 for studying on the northern or sea-side the same Lazistan 

 mountain-chain, which I had already, in some measure, 

 examined on its mainland or inner slope. Rarely stratified, 

 its formations are most often volcanic, or metamorphic, 

 gneiss and shale, with granite above. But if the inner 

 and sheltered side had shown, as I have already noticed, 

 no direct trace of glacial action, still less could I expect 

 to discover any such on the outer or sea slope. However 

 this generahsation was interrupted by one remarkable 

 exception. 



High up in the Lazistan mountains, about half way be- 

 tween Trebizond and Batoom, is perched the almost 

 inaccessible district of Hamshun, a highland region 

 tenanted by a colony of wholly different origin from^the 

 Mmgrelian population around them, namely Armenian, 

 though now all professing, not over-zealously, the 



Mahometan system. How or when they came there, no 

 record tells. This district I resolved to visit ; and three 

 days of such breakneck scramble as even Turkish moun- 

 tain-tracks had never before afforded me, brought me into 

 the very centre of Hamshun. 



Here, at the modest height of 6,900 feet above the sea, 

 I stood on a granite-strewn plateau, thinly green with 

 grass, sheltered from the sea by a tolerably lofty series ot 

 peaks on the N.W. ; and backed to the S.E. by the 

 tremendous jagged cliffs, blackish granite dashed with 

 white snow streaks, else naked in all their savagcness, but 

 known by the uncouth names of Onoot Dagh, Alti Par- 

 mak Dagh, Jamookh Dagh ; and, towering over all in 

 startling resemblance to the Alpine Matterhorn, only more 

 fantastic if possible, in its precipitous isolation of peak, 

 Verehembek Dagh, rising full 12,500 feet above the sea, 

 from which it is visible at a distance of about a hundred 

 miles ; a natural and unmistakeable beacon to the sailor. 

 The plateau itself was about forty miles in length ; and 

 irregular in breadth ; its surface too mounded, and often 

 jotted over with boulders. But just as my track led near 

 under the base of Verehembek, at an altitude of 8,300 feet, 

 it crossed a large broad moraine, descending from the 

 higher slope, and having its base in a broad bare valley 

 not far below ; thus indicating that here too, at the highest 

 and widest part of the Lazistan chain, perpetual ice had 

 once existed in sufficient quantity to furnish at least one 

 glacier. But, if warrantable conclusions can be drawn 

 from a single instance, the limited ice-cap of the Hamshun 

 highlands extended no farther down than 8,500 feet at 

 most, perhaps 9,000 ; thus differing by a Une of one to 

 two thousand feet from the glacial covering of the inland 

 range. 



What correctness there may be in this as in my other 

 conjectures, I, of course, cannot well estimate : but I have 

 now recorded the chief phenomena of this nature noted 

 by me in these regions ; it is for those raore versed in such 

 matters than myself to read their meaning aright. 



Of the volcanic phenomena in the Lazistan or coast- 

 chain, 1 shall say nothing here ; that subject requiring, 

 from its very copiousness, to be treated apart. But there 

 is one fact connected with it worth noticing, as a corollary 

 to what I have written ; though a mere notice is all that 

 can be given it for the present. It is, the elevation or 

 depression of the south-east of the Black Sea coast. 



In a former paper I remember having remarked that, 

 judging by the actual position of an old river bar, as also 

 by the height of certain cavernous excavations in the 

 neighbouring cliffs, I am inclined to think that the coast 

 near Trebizond itself has been raised to an elevation of 

 about twelve, perhaps fifteen feet in post-glacial times. 

 Having now ridden along the entire shore up to the mouth 

 of the Phasis, I remark that the traces of similar uprising 

 during, certainly not earlier than, the same period, as 

 written on cliffs now a considerable way inland, on 

 estuaries evidently prolonged, and on crags, still as 

 before, coming sheer down into the se.i, but wave-marked 

 higher up than the possibility of the most violent storm 

 could now effect ; all these would seem to indicate that 

 the same rising has been continued along the entire 

 easterly line of coast, though not to an equal degree ; the 

 greatest elevation appearing to have taken place exactly 

 at the south-eastern angle of the Euxine, near Batoom, 

 from which point east and north it would gradually have 

 diminished. West of Trebizond again it distinctly, — if 

 traces of the kind mentioned be not misleading, — 

 diminishes ; till at, and to some distance west of Cape 

 Jason it not only ceases, but is exchanged for a depres- 

 sion of the coast several feet, eight or ten seemingly, below 

 i-ts former level. Farther west again a slight rise would 

 appear to have taken place ; but allowance must be made 

 for the effects of currents, which arc very strong all along 

 the coast. 

 'I'rebizond, Oct. 3 W. Gifford Palgravk 



