182 
ARARAT. 
rock, of a soft red stone, bearing likewise the marks of cal¬ 
cination. 
As the vale opened beneath us in our descent, my whole atten¬ 
tion became absorbed in the view before me. A vast plain, 
peopled with countless villages; the towers and spires of the 
churches of Eitch-mai-adzen, arising from amidst them; the glit¬ 
tering waters of the Araxes, flowing through the fresh green of 
the vale ; and the subordinate range of mountains skirting the 
base of the awful monument of the antediluvian world. It seemed 
to stand, a stupendous link in the history of man, uniting the two 
races of men before and after the flood. But it was not until 
we had arrived upon the flat plain, that I beheld Ararat in all 
its amplitude of grandeur. From the spot on which I stood, 
it appeared as if the hugest mountains of the world, had been 
piled upon each other to form this one sublime immensity of 
earth, and rock, and snow. The icy peaks of its double heads 
rose majestically into the clear and cloudless heavens; the 
sun blazed bright upon them ; and the reflection sent forth a 
dazzling radiance, equal to other suns. This point of the view 
united the utmost grandeur of plain and height. But the 
feelings I experienced, while looking on the mountain, are 
hardly to be described. My eye, not able to rest for any length 
of time upon the blinding glory of its summits, wandered down 
the apparently interminable sides, till I could no longer trace 
their vast lines in the mists of the horizon ; when an irrepres¬ 
sible impulse, immediately carrying my eye upwards again, 
refixed my gaze upon the awful glare of Ararat; and this 
bewildered sensibility of sight being answered by a similar feel¬ 
ing in the mind, for some moments I was lost in a strange 
suspension of the powers of thought. 
