353 Miscellanies. 



ine, has always been famous for workers in iron, which is both dug 

 from the mountain and imported from the Crimea. 



15. Copper, Lead, and Silver. — Tokat, (where Henry Martyn 

 died, south of the Euxiiie,) carries on a considerable trade in cups and 

 other utensils of its own manufacture; there being mines about 50 hours 

 distant, and 20 from Too-az ; besides copper they produce lead and 

 silver, and have 50 furnaces constantly at work ; they furnish most 

 of the silver for the mint at Constantinople. 



16. Iron Ore is found, equal to the Swedish, lat. 40° N. long. 40° 

 E., near Derband. 



17. Cherry Trees. — Lucullus took cherry trees from the vicinity 

 of Tokat, and in about one hundred years they were naturalized in 

 Great Britain. 



18. AltjM. — Great quantities are brought from the mountain chain 

 of Mousselim Ovedan. 



19. Avalanches of mud, stones, and mountains. — They are tre- 

 mendous from mount Mousselim, being the effects of frost, thaw, rain, 

 &c. ; masses measuring several hundred yards sometimes break away 

 and slide down into the valley, destroying men and cattle. A king of 

 Trebizond, marching along this pass during the marshy season, to in- 

 vade the country westward, is reported to have been suddenly buried 

 with his army, by the fall of half the mountain. 



20. Immense Block or Granite. — Near Hamadan, the ancient 

 Eabatana, is a block of fine grained red granite of the weight of many 

 thousand tons. Ten feet from the ground there are two square exca- 

 vations, about five feet square and one foot deep, each of which con- 

 tains three columns of engraved arrow-headed writing, in the most 

 excellent preservation ; hitherto they have never been decyphered. 

 There are granite mountains here, and Elwund is probably of that 

 rock: from its summit are seen the peculiarities of an Asiatic land- 

 scape — rock, mountain, desert, and a sky of fire. 



21. Nitrous Efflorescence — is found on the ruins of Babylon 

 and in many other places. 



22. Tower of Babel. — This is an immense pile of ruins, — at its 

 base it measures 3082 feet (in circuit,) — width 450 feet; it presents two 

 stages of hills ; the first about GO feet high, cloven into a deep ravine 

 by the rain, and intersected by the furrows of ages. To the base of 

 the second ascent is about 200 feet from the bottom of the entire pile, 

 and from the base of this ruin to the top is 35 feet. On the western 

 side, the entire mass rises at once from the plain in one stupendous 



