ABICh's geological sketches beyond the CAUCASUS. 45 



which is 32, and the circumference 180 or 190 wersts. The loftiest 

 plains of this elevated district are near Tik Pilakan ; their mean eleva- 

 tion is best decided by the level of the Alagoell, the surface of which 

 is 8492 French feet above the sea. From hence the mean inclination 

 of the whole plateau to the S.E., ha\'ing a fall of 47 feet to the werst, 

 is scarcely 1°, whilst on the N.W., from Alagoell down to the Goktschai, 

 there is a mean inclination of 157 French feet to the werst. 



The meteorological condition of the central table-land district exer- 

 cises an important influence on the climate of Karabag. The moist- 

 ure perpetually brought up by the E. and S.E. winds from the Cas- 

 pian Sea, is condensed under the cooling influences of the wooded 

 mountains of Karabag, and particularly over the extensile grassy vol- 

 canic uplands, and there falls in the form of fog and rain more fre- 

 quently than higher up in the districts of Erivan. Frequently during 

 summer, when the finest weather prevails for days in the plain of the 

 Araxes, and even on the Goktschai lake and on Agmangan, heavy 

 clouds from the neighbourhood of the lake are drawn up the valleys 

 of Karabag to the south, which settling on the table-lands, refresh 

 the vegetation and check its too rapid development. Thus the 

 botanist finds on these central highland districts, as well as in the 

 wooded valleys which descend from them, a rich harvest, when the 

 Flora of the plain of the Araxes and the surrounding hills has been 

 long dried up. 



On these same table-lands, and in the exact direction of their longer 

 axis, four great systems of volcanic eruption rise at almost equal inter- 

 vals from one another. At a distance of 32 wersts from the south 

 shore of the Goktschai, and 1 8 wersts from Tik Pilakan, the Carial or 

 Kissil-tappa* begins the remarkable series. This extensive system 

 consists of a group of romided hills, from the centre of which rises a 

 flat crater, and contains within its circumference the sources of the 

 three great rivers, the Arpatschai, the Bazartschai, and the Terter, 

 which flow from the Carial in opposite directions to the N.E. and S.W. 

 It is still more remarkable in a geological point of view, that the two 

 most important hot-springs of this great volcanic chain occur in the 

 bottoms of the valleys of the Arpatschai and the Terter. The hot- 

 spring in the Terter valley of 39° R. is 1 2 wersts distant from the Carial, 

 at an absolute heightof 6794 Frenchfeet; andthehot-springof 29°'5R., 

 which gives the name of Istissudaraf (Warm-water valley) to the upper 

 valley of the Arpatschai, rises at an absolute height of 6712 French 

 feet, and at nearly the same distance from the Carial. 



The system of the Baloglu or DawagoesuJ is 14 wersts to the S.E. 

 of the Carial ; it is a similar group with a flat erupted dome in the 

 middle, still furrowed by the lava-streams which poured down its sides. 

 Sixteen wersts beyond the Dawagoesu is the extensive system of the 

 Kizilboghasdag, with its broad crater called Maphrasch-tappa. The 

 broadest lava-streams which, with their rough and stony surfaces, 

 still cover a large portion of the table-land, have flowed from this 



* Kizil tepeh, or Red Hill. 



f Properly Issi su dereh. 



t Deve ghieuz, or Camel's Eyes. 



VOL. III. PART II. F 



