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 CAUCASUS 619 and so on), inhabited by various branches of the Georgian stem. no summit rises above 9000 ft. ; the Alty-agach Pass is at an On the northern slope the side range (Bokovoi Khrebet) runs altitude ot only 4354 ft. ; the crest is devoid of perpetual snow, parallel to the main one, often exceeding it in altitude, but it is linally, the great ridge is lost in hills as it approaches the cut through by many rivers, which, as in the W. Caucasus, also Caspian, to be continued, however, under the sea as a submarine How for some distance in longitudinal valleys between the two swelling, and to reappear in the Transcaspian territory under the ridges, and then pierce it, to find an issue to the northern plains. name of Kopet-dagh. Many spurs also shoot off the main range, and it is usually on The high valleys of the Caucasus are populated by Cherkess these spurs that the highest peaks—some of them of volcanic (Adyghe) in the W., Svanetians, Ossets, Pshaves, and Khevzurs origin, as Elbruz and Kazbek—stand, covered with snow, and in the middle, and a variety of stems, of which the Lezghians and sending down mighty glaciers. The highest peaks of the Caucasus the Cherkess are the most numerous, in Daghestan. Every availare met with in this division, there being no fewer than 20 able patch in the mountain valleys is used for culture, the soil peaks higher than Mont Blanc. The chief are in close suc- having often to be carried on the shoulders to a great height, cession: Elbruz, or Minghi-tau (18,470 ft.), Ushba (15,445), and the villages (auls) are built house above house upon the steep Tikhtenghen, Gistola, Tetnuld (15,914), Adysh (16,291), Great mountain slopes. Unfortunately, the Cherkess having been driven Shkhara (17,049) and Little, Koshtan-tau (16,881), Janghi-tau out ol the country, their abodes in Western Caucasus remain un(16,564), Dykh-tau (17,054), Pasis-mta, Adai-khokh (15,244), occupied, while the various Georgian stems of the middle Caucasus,, Tepli (14,510), Himarai-khokh (15,673), and Kazbek (16,546). pressed by want of land available for culture, have had much to None of the passes in this portion of the Caucasus is below suffer from the feudal servitude under which they remained till J 12,000 ft., and only to the E. of Kazbek the Mamisson Pass, from 1863. Kutais to Vladikavkaz, known as the “Military Ossetian Road,” lies at an altitude of 9390 ft. Mighty snow-clad ridges—Svanetian, III. The Broad Valley which runs N.W. to S.E. Legchum, Rachinsky—shoot also to the W. and W.S.W. on the southern slope of the main chain, forming elevated longitudinal between the Great Caucasus and the escarpments of the Anti-Caucasus is the most fertile and the most valleys. As a rule, the snow-line lies at heights of from 11,000 to 12,000 populated portion of Caucasus. It broadly corresponds ft., and although it remains a fact that the Caucasus, taking into with the provinces of Kutais, Tiflis, Elisabethpol, and account its dimensions and altitude, has fewer glaciers in proportion Baku, and has a population of over 3,000,000. It is than the Alps, the excursions of Western European and Russian Alpinists, and especially the newest detailed survey, have disclosed watered in the W. by the Rion, affluent of the Black in this part of the Caucasus, between the main range and the Sea, and its tributaries, and in the E. by the Kura, secondary ones, wide areas covered with perpetual snow and affluent of the Caspian (with its two tributaries, Yora, feeding mighty glaciers, not second in size to those of the Alps. Alazan), and the lower Araxes. The Suram or Meskes It is estimated that there are in this region no fewer than 183 firstclass and 679 second-class glaciers,—the number of the latter in Mountains, 3000 to 5000 feet high, separate the two the whole chain probably being between 900 and 1000. However, drainage areas. This Broad Valley was peopled in a the Caucasian glaciers do not creep so low as those of the Alps. remote antiquity with Greek colonists, was later the seat The best known of them are: Bizinghi (Shkhara and Dykh-tau), of powerful Georgian kingdoms, and has been for centuries 11 miles long, reaching at its lower end the altitude of 6539 ft. ; Dykh-su, in the same locality, 7 m. long (6649 ft.); Karagom, the stronghold of Caucasia against invasions from the east m. long, flowing from the Adai-khokh and reaching the 5702 ft. and south. It is thickly peopled, chiefly with Georgian level (lowest in Caucasia); Tsanner, creeping from the Tetnuld, stems (Gurians, Imeretians, Mingrelians, Svanes) in the 7 m. long (6835 ft.); Devdorak, from the Kazbek, 21- m. long (? 7531 ft.). Numerous traces of glaciation on a very large scale valley of the Rion, and Georgians mixed with Armenians in the valley of the Kura, while the steppes spreading are found in all the valleys. Farther eastwards the main range becomes much lower, and along the lower course of the latter river are occupied by the highest peaks are grouped in the side range. They are : various Turko-Tatars. In the agricultural region the Tsmiakom-khokh (13,567), Zilga-khokh (12,645 ft.), Zikari land is so well cultivated that it attains a fabulously (12,563), Choukhi (12,107), and Borbalo (10,807) in the main range. The rivers of the northern slope —the Ardon and the high selling value, increased now by the manganese and Terek—after short courses in longitudinal valleys, pierce the side copper mines of the Rion and the extremely rich naphtha range in most wild gorges. The whole chain narrows, however, wells of Baku. The drainage area of the Rion (province in the meridian of Vladikavkaz, and it is crossed there by the of Kutais), as well as the Sukhum-kale coast region and the well-known Cross Pass (Krestovaya ; also named Gudur and Kobi Pass), along which goes the military road to Georgia, following basin of the lower Chorokh (Batum district), is covered the famous Darial gorge, which is pierced by the Terek across the with spurs of the Caucasus, the Meskes Mountains and side range. the Wakhan ridge, with a broad triangular delta of the C. It appears very probable that to the east of this gorge the Rion between them. Its climate is extremely hot, and the Caucasus is crossed by other lines of upheaval which have a direction from S.W. to N.E. and may be considered as continua- amounts of rain are very considerable, so as to reach a tions of the Suram or Meskes Mountains and the Pontic Ridge. yearly average amount of 80 in. at Batum, from 80 to At any rate, from the Kazbek eastwards the Caucasus changes its 60 in. round Poti, and from 60 to 40 in. elsewhere. Farther character. It has to the N. of the main range a wide Alpine east, in the valley of the Kura, the climate is, however, land, Daghestan, composed of several ridges—Andi, Bozdagh, the averages for Tiflis and others—all running towards E.N.E., with many treeless much drier and more continental, 0 and dry plateaux between them, so that Daghestan may be being: year 55°, January 32 '5, July 77°, rainfall 20 in.; considered by the orographer as a fragment of the Transcaucasian and for Baku, year 59°, January 39°, July 80°, rainfall plateaux, separated from the main body by the broad valley of 10 in. The chief towns of Caucasia are situated in this the Kura, while the geologist sees in it a series of folds of Jurassic valley, namely, Batum (28,512 inhabitants) and Poti and Cretaceous deposits. As to the main range, it continues in the same south-easterly direction, but its granite axis disappears (7666), the two chief ports on the Black Sea; Kutais and Palaeozoic slates spread on both the southern and the northern (34,492), on the Rion; Tiflis (160,645); and Baku slopes. The crest of the main ridge becomes lower and has less (112,253). protruding peaks. Glaciers are scarce upon it, but attain a great IV. The Highlands of Transcaucasia present three development on the ridges lying to the north of the main one. The chief passes across the latter are Kodor (9300 ft.) and distinct regions: the plateaux of Asia Minor and of Satskheni, both leading from Tiflis to Daghestan. The chief Armenia, and the Lenkoran region on the Caspian. The peaks of the main ridge do not reach altitudes of 12,000 ft., and first-named plateau, intersected by the Pontic Ridge (from are, besides Borbalo, Antsal (11,742), and Shavi-kilde (11,314) ; while in the Andi ridge are Tebulos-mta (14,781), Donos-mta 10,000 to 12,152 ft. high), the Arjar and the Arsian ridges (10,000 to 11,000 ft.), and watered by the (13,736), Kachu (14,027), and Balakuri in the Bozdagh ridge. D. From the 47th degree of longitude (head of Samur) to the Chorokh, is chiefly inhabited by Mussulman Georgians Baba-dagh Peak the main range rises once more in altitude, (Lazes), who grow rice, millet, wheat, and all sorts of fruit. reaching 13,764 ft. in Thfan-dagh, 14,772 in Bazar-dyuz or The Armenian plateau, separated by the deep valley of Kichen-dagh, and 13,951 ft. in Shah-dagh, while the Gudur Pass lies at an altitude of 10,118 ft. and the Salavat Pass the Araxes from its continuation in Turkish Armenia, has (military road of Akhte) at 9283 ft. In this portion of the mostly altitudes of from 5000 to 6000 feet. It consists ‘Caucasus are the last glaciers. Beyond the Baba-dagh (11,934) of granites covered with Azoic, Devonian, Carboniferous,