M. Abich on Fulgurites in the Andesite of the Lesser Ararat. 437 



posed andesite, or in obtuse pyramidal massifs, on the margin of 

 a fault across the mountain, thus constituting its extreme top, 

 12,106 feet above the sea-level, according to the measurements 

 taken by M. Abich in 18|4. When ascending the moun- 

 tain from its easier, north-west side, M. Abich saw on the 

 upper slope some dark stripes on the light-brown rock, whose 

 vitrified aspect was evidently due to the action of lightning. 

 The path of the electrical discharge was constantly traced in the 

 form of a narrow tube,in the form of a thick goose-quill, traversing 

 the rock, and lined on its inside with a dark green vitreous slag. 

 These tubes increase in number towards the top, and have 

 modified a portion of the top itself into a variety of andesite, 

 which may properly be called " fulguritic." The originally 

 compact rock of microcrystalline texture, traversed in every di- 

 rection by vermiform fulgurites bearing evident marks of igneous 

 fusion, has taken a cavernous aspect not unlike wood completely 

 disaggregated by the borings of Teredines. The depth to which 

 the rock had been attacked by lightning could not be sufficiently 

 ascertained. M. Abich' s laborious examinations of the top of 

 the Great Ararat could not discover there any traces of fulgurites, 

 either on the cliffs of black trachytic porphyry on the steep 

 south-east slope of the upper cone, reaching an absolute altitude 

 of 13,000 to 14,000 Paris feet, or on the reddish-brown scori- 

 aceous rocks rising above the snow on the margins of the flattened 

 top. An investigation of the north-west side of the Ararat, be- 

 tween the Kipp-Goll and Professor Parrot's encampment, 12,954 

 Paris feet above the sea-level, led to the same negative result. 

 The investigation of the upper region of the south slope proved 

 more satisfactory. The first fulgurites were observed on the 

 massive trachyte cliffs at the mouth of a deep-cut glacier-ravine, 

 the only real valley on the south side of the Ararat, exactly co- 

 inciding in longitudinal direction with the Valley of St. Jacob on 

 the north-west side. The slight depression of the top line of 

 Ararat, as its projection appears when seen from the north, would 

 coincide with the defile between these two valleys running in 

 opposite directions. The absolute altitude of the glacier's termi- 

 nation in the first-mentioned ravine is 11,200 feet according to 

 M. Abich's statements, based on corresponding barometrical 

 observations made at Erivan and Nachitshevan. 



Another trace of fulgurites has been noticed in the Goell-Dag, 

 as the Jessidian Kurds call a conspicuous conical eminence visible 

 from Bajazid, on the same apparent level as the south-west side 

 of the Ararat. This eminence is about 1-^ hour's march distant 

 from the flatly vaulted plateau of the Kipp-Goll (10,648 Paris 

 feet above the sea-level). The Goell-Dag is the highest point 

 of a rocky ridge diverging from the main mass of Ararat nearly 



