1834.] Persia, and Mesopotamia. 337 



them for upwards of a mile, and then came out on a small plain, which 

 appeared to be completely surrounded by mountains. Through an 

 immense chasm to the east, I had a beautifully distinct view of the 

 windings of the Araxes. Herds of antelopes were bounding over the 

 precipitous sides of the mountains, and pheasants, which are sel- 

 dom seen to the south of this river, were in great numbers. The 

 source of this celebrated stream, which is boldly described by 

 Virgil, " Pontem indignatus Araxes," is from the mountains a little to the 

 south of Erzeroum, (the Arze of the Byzantines,) whence it flows on- 

 wards in a serpentine course ; until in gliding through the plain of 

 Irivan, it sweeps to the southward, embracing the provinces of Irivan, 

 Nakshiwan and Karabagh; and finishes its impetuous course in the 

 north-east, near the castle of Kalagan, where it mingles its waters with 

 the Koor, when both these famous rivers roll into the Caspian. 



An hour more brought us to the margin of the Araxes, at which 

 point the power of Russia ceases — -for the present. How long this may 

 continue to be the boundary line, and whether it be politic for us to 

 remain inactive spectators of these rapid advances and encroach- 

 ments, requires' our most serious consideration. Be the intention 

 of the Government what it may, all Russian officers, during my 

 residence amongst them, spoke of the march against India as an 

 ultimate object of its policy ; and if we felt alarmed at the proposed 

 attempt of the French on our eastern possessions, we should have 

 far greater apprehensions from any similar designs of the Rus- 

 sians*. 



Through the kindness of Prince Khosrou's Russian Mehmandar, we 

 were accommodated in tents pitched upon the shores of the Araxes, as 

 on neither side were any villages situated. The surrounding scenery was 

 awfully wild. It was like a ruin of nature itself, as if the earth had 

 been convulsed to her very centre, and rocks and mountains had been 

 hurled from their foundations by the violence of her convulsive throes. 

 In the hollow of caverns formed by these grotesque combinations, the 

 shepherd and his flocks had taken up their residence, and secured to 

 themselves dwellings which nothing but a similar revolution could de- 

 stroy. From the verge of the stream I observed that its utmost velocity 

 in the most obstructed channels was about six miles per hour ; while 



* We are compelled to omit here our correspondent's observations on the subject 

 of a Russian invasion, as unconnected with the relation before us, and not adapted 

 for our pages, from which the discussion of political questions has hitherto been 

 scrupulously excluded. — Ed. 



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