ON THE ARAS, OR ARAXES. 
641 
the area of the city ; while some of the towers, and those of 
prodigious magnitude, exhibit the finest specimens of the an¬ 
cient high-finished Armenian masonry; being composed of white 
and reddish stones, joined in alternate lines with the nicest art. 
In traversing the ruins, we found about forty Mahomedan fa¬ 
milies, belonging to a neighbouring tribe, living amongst the 
most habitable parts ; while their sort of chief held his superior 
residence within a tower of the broken angle of the walls, which 
in former times constituted part of the old fortress ; most of its 
mouldering foundations now overhung the river. No other kind 
of large buildings remain. Below, where the waters roll through 
the narrow valley, the high buttresses which once formed a fine 
bridge, still stand in proud contradiction to Virgil’s assertion — 
<s Pontem indignatus Araxes !” — and casting their long shadows 
across the subjected stream. At present it was low ; but when 
at fullest flood, I should doubt its height having ever been suf¬ 
ficiently powerful to have carried away the arches, either of this 
bridge or that of Julfa. The depredations of both, I date to the 
hand of man. 
On leaving the ruins, our course lay through a burying- 
ground, but I did not perceive amongst its tombs, any of anti¬ 
quity. Thence we rode forward for about two miles along a 
very wild and picturesque tract, till we descended into the valley 
of the Araxes, opening into spacious scenes of cultivation; the 
chief produce of which was corn and cotton. We crossed a 
small and rapid current called the Augi; one of the tributaries 
to the great stream of the valley. It rises amongst the hills 
which possess the famous salt-mine, now producing to the 
governor of Erivan an annual revenue of 10,000 tomauns, about 
50001. sterling. Besides the immediate neighbourhood, Turks 
4 N 
VOL. II. 
