THE MEDITEHKANEAN DUEINa THE PLEISTOCENE AGE. 165 
are invariably rounded and smoothed oiBf, and the sides are 
scooped too widely for the depressions to have been caused by 
water. “ Low down in the valley the slopes terminate in rifted 
precipices.” 
That these moraines were posterior to the volcanic action in 
the district is evident from the examination of a broad stone 
Tidge near the highest point, to the east of Erzeroum, where 
at a height of 7,000 feet the Jurassic limestone was interrupted 
by a volcanic outbreak of several miles in extent. Traces of a 
crater were visible. Above, the granite peaks rose to a height 
of 9,000 feet ; below, a wide moraine crossed the road, com- 
posed of volcanic fragments mixed with granite. Consequently, 
it must have been formed after the volcano had become ex- 
tinct. Similar traces are to be found at Keskeem Boughaz. 
Mr. Palgrave concludes that “ the ice-cap of the north-easterly 
Anatolian watershed, in post-pliocene (Pleistocene) times, must 
have reached downwards, on the northern side of the range, to 
7,000 feet above the present sea-level, while some of the glaciers 
issuing from it descended to about 4,500 of the same measure- 
ment.” Striated and ice-worn boulders, and especially of granite, 
were very abundant. This region, it must be observed, is 
within sight of the lofty granite range of Tortoom, which is 
“ streaked with perpetual snow.” 
On leaving the Chorok valley and getting on to the water- 
shed, at a distance of fifty miles to the north-east comes the 
main ridge or backbone of the land. Here, among the limestone 
ledges, about 6,400 feet above the sea, is a colossal moraine, 
formed of worn granite blocks, partly overgrown with forest, 
and descending from a height of over 8,000 feet. It is divided 
by a valley from a lofty undulating granite plateau that is scooped 
out here and there into deep little oval lakes, always full of blue 
water. The sides of the plateau are strewn with boulders of 
granite, brought from the higher peaks about five miles off. 
These boulders occur in greater or less abundance down to the 
basin of the Ardahan, near the sources of the Kur or Cyras, 
which joins the Araxes before flowing into the Caspian. The 
height of this Ardahan basin is about 6,500 feet : it is, but for 
a slight easterly slope, a water-level. The bottom consists of 
deep alluvial soil mixed with detritus and boulders ; the sides 
are rounded and smoothed, and bear every mark of long ice- 
covering. Plateaux stretch east to Kusso-Greorgia, all contain- 
ing lakes, till their greatest height is gained at Kel Dagh, a 
mountain about 11,000 feet, then descending to the plains of 
Greorgia and the Black Sea ; but from this point the character 
changes, rifts, precipices, and narrow gorges taking the place 
of the rounded undulating outlines further inland. Nor is there 
any further trace of boulders or moraines. 
