.236 A Sketch of the present state of Georgia. [Mat> 



The same traveller characterises the country as flowing with milk and 

 honey, and it still answers to this description ; for it contains the rich- 

 est pasture lands, and the rocky portions are covered with aromatic 

 plants, yielding to the wild bees who hive in the crevices of hollow trees, 

 such an abundance of honey as to supply the poorer classes with an article of 

 food, and with wax to be exchanged for cloths and stuffs. Honey from 

 the rocks is repeatedly referred to in the Holy Scriptures, as a delicious 

 food, and an emblem of plenty. (1 Sam. xvi. 25 : Psalm lxxxi. 16.) 

 Guldenstaedt instances the growth of the date tree as a proof of the 

 mildness of the temperature, and when to these we add the oil extracted 

 from the almond (the amygdalus Persica) and olive, we shall be at no 

 loss to account for the ancient fertility of the most barren districts of 

 Georgia, or for the adequacy of the soil to the support of so numerous 

 a population, notwithstanding the comparatively small proportion of 

 arable land. Delicious wine is produced in the districts, and the valleys 

 bear plentiful crops of rice, wheat, millet, and barley ; while cotton, flax, 

 and hemp grow spontaneously on the plains bordering the Caspian. 



The streams are full of fish, but with the exception of the river Koor, are 

 all brooks or torrents, and therefore unfit for internal navigation. In 

 short, nature has rendered it one of the most beautiful and highly favored 

 countries in the world. Wild animals are not numerous ; for every man 

 being armed, they have ever met with constant enemies. On the plains 

 however, there are deer and antelopes ; and the pygarg (cervus pygar- 

 gus), or dishon of the Scriptures, called in Persia aha, bears, wolves, 

 wild boars, and the rock goat (capra Caucasia) delight in the rugged 

 summits of the schistose mountains. The chamois, on the contrary, pre- 

 fers the lower calcareous hills ; as also do the hare, fox, and jackal. In 

 ornithology I can enumerate from my own personal observation the 

 eagle, the falcon (falcotinnunculus), the pheasant, the jack-daw, in the 

 oak-woods; the bee-catcher (merops apiaster), the field lark, the red 

 partridge (petrao rvfus), the quail (tetrao coturnix), and the ring-dove. 

 Game is abundant, partridges in particular being found in large coveys, 

 so fat and heavy, that they may easily be knocked down with a stick. 

 The male species is a most beautiful bird. The females are not so pret- 

 tily marked. Wild-geese, ducks, snipe, and water-fowl of every descrip- 

 tion abound in some situations. I have seen several large snakes, but 

 the only one much dreaded is a small slender species, spotted black and 

 white, the bite of which is said to be instantly fatal. Flies of every 

 species are annoying in the hot-weather, and a species of ant (termes 

 fatalisj, is very numerous. 



Georgia was formerly celebrated for its mineral treasures, but its mines 

 have been neglected, and now produce but little. Gold, silver, and iron 



