442 BUSSIA IN EUROPE. 



Geological Formation. 



The irregular and winding range of limestone mountains stretching from 

 Cape Khersonesus to the Bay of Kaffa seems a mere fragment of a former system. 

 It bears everywhere the traces of deep erosion, its rocks are but ruins, its moun- 

 tains the remains of a vast table-land sloping gently northwards, and gradually 

 disappearing beneath the arid surface of the steppe, but southwards falling in 

 abrupt escarpments to the sea. On this side alone the culminating points of 

 the ridge, runnnig from 4 to 8 miles from the coast, present the appearance of 

 mountains, seeming all the more elevated that they here rise directly above 

 the blue waters of the Euxine, which even close in shore reveal dejDths of 100 

 fathoms and upwards. 



The limestone rocks of this range alternate at several points with layers of clay 

 and argillaceous schists, a disposition of the strata which tends to accelerate the 

 disintegration of the slopes facing seawards. Some of the clay pits, gradually 

 wasted away by the springs, have left vast caverns in the hillside, while huge 

 masses have rolled down, still showing the sharp outlines of their breakage above 

 the surrounding chaos of débris. On the coast the argillaceous strata have every- 

 where been undermined by the waves, and many cliffs, thus deprived of their sup- 

 port, now hang threateningly over the waters, every torrential downpour sweeping 

 away large masses, and carrying farther seawards all the rocky fragments strewn 

 over the valleys. A detachment of Russian troops encamped in the bed of the 

 Alma was thus, on one occasion, carried away by the rush of water and débris. 

 At times, also, the upper cliff gives way, the landslips bearing with them houses and 

 garden plots, and building up fresh headlands in the sea. When Pallas visited 

 the peninsula in 1794 he was shown two promontories so formed some eight 

 years previously. 



The Chatîr Dagh, or " Tent " Mount, may be taken as a type of the general 

 formation of this crenellated limestone range. From a distance its white and 

 regular sides no doubt give it the appearance of a tent ; but viewed from the 

 summit it would deserve rather the name of " Table " Mount (Tmpczos) bestowed 

 upon it by the Greeks. Isolated on all sides, east and west by almost vertical 

 precipices, north and south by cirques and ravines produced by erosion, it 

 presents the form of a quadrangular mass elongated southwards, with a superficial 

 area of over 8 square miles. This huge mass, if not perfectly horizontal, is at all 

 events but very slightly inclined, as far as the neighbourhood of the crest towards 

 the south side of the " table," the surface being broken only by funnel-shaped 

 cavities, through which the rain-water flows off. The elevated pastures of the 

 Chatîr Dagh and its neighbours recall the alpages of the Swiss Jura ; but the 

 surface has here been more weathered than around Lake N euchâtel, and none of 

 the Jura summits have been denuded to the same extent as the " Tent." In the 

 Angar-Boghaz ravine, on its east side, rises the Salgir, an affluent of the Sivash, 

 and the largest river in the Crimea. The col, or summit of the pass, lower than any 

 of those crossing the range itself, and long traversed by a carriage road, has at all 



