458 Journal of a Tour through Georgia, [Sept. 



The road continued over an uninterrupted succession of mountains, 

 and was almost impassable for loaded cattle. We continued ascending 

 until mid- day, when on arriving at the summit of the highest range 

 of hills, a most beautiful scene suddenly and unexpectedly burst upon 

 the view. The prospect was rendered doubly interesting from our 

 having so long traversed a barren waste. The sloping sides of the 

 mountains were thickly studded with the stunted oak. From this 

 point, on looking back, the eye reposed upon successive ranges of 

 mountainous ridges, which gradually decreased in height until they 

 marked the more level country on the banks of the Araxes. Upon the 

 extreme and broken line of the horizon, the lofty hills of the fruitful 

 province of Karabagh arose in towering grandeur ; while immense 

 piles of rock in the foreground, appearing as if thrown up from the 

 very bowels of the earth by some great convulsion of nature, completed 

 the sublimity of the scene. The general direction of these ranges 

 seemed nearly east and west, and they might extend from two hundred 

 and fifty to three hundred miles. Their outlines in Karadagh were 

 more even, and their summits less elevated than those of Karabagh> 

 as we saw no snow on the former, whereas the latter presented most 

 extensive patches of the purest white. The northern sides of both 

 these ranges might, however, be more thickly covered with snow, from 

 their being less exposed to the dissolving influence of the sun. The 

 great eastern plain of Mogaum presented an horizon like the sea, 

 broken only by small eminences, arising like cliffs and islets out of the 

 water. 



We still continued to ascend some barren hills, and felt the weather 

 excessively keen. The thermometer by dawn of day (February 19th) 

 sunk to 28°. Our beards were frozen, and the nostrils of the baggage 

 horses completely choked up with ice-balls, which made it necessary 

 to halt frequently and rub them off. We suffered most severely from 

 thirst and the dazzling reflection of the sun's rays upon the snow, 

 which tanned our faces to such a degree, that we could not wash with- 

 out suffering extreme pain. It was noon when we reached a small 

 village called Dombry, where we were served with lubbun, or curdled 

 sour milk. The elevation of this place above the level of the sea must 

 exceed five ? thousand feet, for the boiling point on a thermometer of 

 large dimensions varied from 207° to 203°, which, allowing five hun- 

 dred feet to each degree, gives an elevation of from two thousand five 

 hundred, to four thousand five hundred feet. In three hours from 

 Dombry we descended the rugged mountains which bound the northern 

 side of the plain of Ahar. These ranges appear to be a branch of 

 Mount Caucasus, which bound the territories of Irivan and Nacjiwan, 



