March i i, 1909] 



NA TURE 



41 



Hotel Pension has no licence for alcoholic liquors. 

 " C'est I'equivalent," says M. Martel naively, " des 

 temperancc-hoteh d'Irlande. " 



Near Sotchi, stratified gravels are noted, at times 

 more than 25 metres above the shore, resting un- 

 conformablv on the shales, and probably indicative 

 of the former extension of the Black Sea in Pleistocene 

 times. Behind the town, gorges extend up into the 

 limestone hills, and here the conquered Tcherkesses 

 may still be found. In a cavern of the Matsesta 

 valiev, the author, who cannot keep above the earth 

 when there is a chance of descending into it, nearly 

 lost his life from asphyxia in a hollow filled with 

 sulphuretted hydrogen (p. 119). Only the prompt 

 action of his friends restored him to the scientific 

 world. But he writes of his experiences before faint- 

 ing' and during recovery with more interest in their 

 medical aspect than in his own imminent danger. 

 Rags are hung by the natives at the entrance to 



standard of living, may fortifv the coast-dwellers 

 against a disease primarily due to the mosquitoes 

 (p. 334). A fine new road already leads up from 

 Sotchi to Krasnaia-Poliana for those who would 



I prefer the mountains, and the Alpine climber may 

 use this village as a centre after passing through a 

 noble limestone gorge. 



In chapter xiv. we reach the Caucasus itself, and 

 the author's photographs of snowy ranges are worthy 



j of his fine views in the forests. He illustrates anti- 



I quities with equal interest, as his castle of Tiflis 

 (p. 243) and the pictures from Ani (p. 289, &-c.) show. 

 .\ni, a superb creation of Armenian kings in the tenth 



' century, is now within an hour or two of a railway 

 station on the way from Tiflis to Erivan. Ararat 

 rises snow-clad from a great plain on the south, and 

 the plateau on which Ani is built is formed of tuffs 

 and basaltic lavas. M. Martel found in this ruined 

 city, with its churches and mosques, its walls and 



I " La Cute tl'Az 



the mineral springs, just as at holy wells in Ireland ; 

 as the author points out, the cult of medicinal waters 

 probably goes back to prehistoric times. 



Travelling in these valleys must at present be done 

 on horseback up the w-aterways — that is, largely in 

 the streams themselves. Camping out in terrific 

 rains, sometimes lasting forty-eight hours, seems an 

 ordinary affair in .September. On the other hand, 

 June and July are not good months for this Riviera. 

 The fine days and the exquisitely varied landscapes 

 seem, however, to atone for everything, and M. 

 Martel gives a special chapter on malaria, so prevalent 

 in the low coastlands, in which he states that he 

 felt touches of fever when coming below an dltitude 

 of 200 metres. Yet he experienced no bites from 

 insects, and malaria does not seem to be serious in 

 August, September, and October. He is evidently of 

 opinion that a better water supply, on lines recom- 

 mended by him for various places, and a higher 



NO. 2054, ^'OL. 80] 



towers, a combination of Carcassonne, .Aigues-Mortes, 

 Pompeii, the Acropolis of Athens, and a good deal 

 else, while the desolate surroundings recalled to him 

 the solitude of the Gausses. How many of us know 

 that there is a miniature Ani, also walled and 

 towered, in the Gausses, which has survived almost 

 as many centuries — La Gouvertoirade, a hospice for 

 those who, like the Armenians, fought against the 

 Moslems in the east? 



The author brings his geological notes together in 

 chapter xxiv. ; but the value of his work lies mainly 

 in the breaking of new ground, on which others will 

 be glad to build. The book should be judged, in- 

 deed, as a contribution to social geographv, showing 

 how the arts of peace are now bent, under Russian 

 rule, on the completion of the conquest of the Caucasus. 

 It is worthy of a far better map, and surelv also of 

 an index. 



Grenville a. J. Cole. 



