Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 2.djvu/776

710 covered. The walnut is the most plentiful and conspicuous tree around the villages, while vineyards and tobacco fields yield rich produce. The high upland plains, on the con trary, are generally bare and treeless, but the villages are frequently surrounded with walnut trees, Lombardy poplars, apples, apricots, and willows. The vine is still grown in many spots in these elevated regions, though in others it will not thrive. Large tracts of the table-land of the interior, as has been already mentioned, are either quite barren and desolate, or open treeless downs, affording pasture only to sheep. But it is probable that they would be capable of producing abundant crops of corn (like the similar tracts of Central Spain) if properly cultivated, except in a few districts, such as the steppes of Lycaonia, where the soil is strongly impregnated with salt. The northern coast districts present a wholly different climate, and from the influence of the Black Sea and the cold of Russia, have much more of the character of the tem perate regions of Europe than of that of Rome or Naples which correspond to them in latitude. But the mountains are covered with extensive forests of oaks, chestnut, beech, box, and other trees, while the valleys produce fruit trees in extraordinary abundance and variety. This is the case especially in the province of Pontus, extending eastward from near Sinope to Trebizond, which is a country of singular beauty and great fertility, notwithstanding its mountainous character. This region is supposed to be the native land of many of our well-known fruits, especially cherries and apricots. The hills also are covered with medlars, apple, pear, and plum trees, all growing wild, but cultivated also with great success in the neighbourhood of the villages and towns. The olive also thrives in sheltered situations, though it is not found west of Sinope. At the same time, the luxuriant undergrowth of rhododendrons and azaleas, besides bay, myrtle, arbutus, and other flourish ing shrubs, gives a special charm to the scenery of this beautiful region. Among the vegetable productions that are of importance in a commercial point of view may be mentioned saffron, which is so largely cultivated at a town in Bithynia as to have given it the name of Safaranboli ; opium, which has in like manner given name to Afiom Kara Hissar ; madder, extensively grown at Ak Shehr ; the orchis called salep ; and cotton, of which considerable quantities are now produced in the warmer districts near the sea. Mulberries also are extensively cultivated, and large quantities of silk produced in the neighbourhood of Broussa, where there are now established large silk manufactories, as well as at Tokat, Amasia, and other places. The dried figs and raisins for which Smyrna is so celebrated are grown principally in the valley of the Mseander near A idin. The wild animals of Asia Minor are in general the same as are found in most parts of Europe, though a few mark its connection with the more eastern parts of Asia. Wolves, wild boars, bears, foxes, are abundant ; but with them is associated the jackal, which is found in large troops in all parts of the country. The lion, which was certainly an inhabitant of Asia Minor in ancient times, is no longer found in any part of the peninsula, and though the tiger is said to exist in the Cilician Taurus, the fact does not rest on any good authority. But leopards still occur not unfrequently in the mountain country of the Taurus, and from thence range along the mountains to the west, so that they have been occasionally shot even in the neighbourhood of Smyrna. The high mountains are frequented by the ibex and chamois, while the true wild goat (Capra ^/ayrus) is found on those of Cappadocia and Cilicia. The moufflon, also, is not uncommon in Cappadocia; but the wild ass, which existed there in the time of Strabo, is no longer found within the limits of the peninsula. The gazelle abounds in the plains of Cilicia, while both fallow and roe deer are found in the forests in large numbers. In regard to the domestic animals, the remark of Professor Forbes, that in Lycia the introduced camel and buffalo, both unknown to the country in ancient times, now play a more important part than the aboriginal quadrupeds, may be extended to the greater part of Asia Minor. Enormous numbers of sheep are, however, reared on the vast plains of the interior, as well as in the level parts of Cilicia, though they no longer retain the celebrity they enjoyed in antiquity for the fine quality of their wool. This, however, supplies the material for the celebrated Turkish carpets, the principal manufactory of which is at Ushak in Phrygia. Not less celebrated is the breed of goats peculiar to the neighbourhood of Angora, the hair of which is worked up into shawls but little inferior to those of Cashmere. No trace is found of the existence of any such peculiar race in ancient times, or even in the Middle Ages, and the period of its introduction is unknown. In comparison with the sheep and goats, cattle occupy but a subordinate position in Asia Minor ; and though the plains of the interior, and still more those of Cilicia, were cele brated in ancient times for the number and beauty of the horses reared on them, nothing of the kind is now to be found, and the horses of Asia Minor are generally of an inferior description. The geology of Asia Minor is still very imperfectly known, very few districts having been as yet examined in detail ; but the researches of Hamilton, Ainsworth, and Tchihatcheff, and of Edward Forbes in Lycia, have thrown much light on the subject, and enabled us to form a general notion of the structure of the country. The great mass of the chain of Mount Taurus, and of the subsidiary ranges connected with it, consists, as has been already noticed, of the formation known as Apennine limestone, which is generally referred by geologists to the Cretaceous period. No sedimentary formations of older date are known to exist in the southern parts of the peninsula, but in the northern districts this is replaced by saccharine limestones and mica schists, with other metamorphic rocks, which are probably to be assigned to a much earlier period. The great table-land of the interior is composed for the most part of a vast lacustrine or fresh water formation belonging to the Tertiary period ; and large portions of similar fresh water tertiaries, detached from the great central mass, are found scattered between its borders and the coasts, in some instances descending quite to the sea, as in the neighbourhood of Smyrna. But in the interior the lacustrine limestones and marls are frequently intermixed with extensive deposits of volcanic tuff s, the soft mate rials of which are rent by water-courses into deep and narrow glens, often studded with cones and pinnacles, presenting a great variety of picturesque and singular forms, and constituting one of the most peculiar fea tures of the scenery of Asia Minor. Igneous rocks are found scattered through almost all parts of the peninsula, and the remarkable chain of volcanic mountains extend ing from Mount Argseus to the Kara-dagh near Kara- man has been already noticed. All these mountains are of a trachytic character, and apparently belong to the Tertiary period; but there is a district on the borders of Phrygia and Lydia which presents volcanic phenomena of a much later date. It was known in ancient times as the Katakekaumene, or Burnt country, and its volcanic char acter was fully recognised by Strabo, though we may infer from his silence that there was no record of any eruption within the historical period. It has been fully described by Mr Hamilton, and presents three conical black hills of scoriae and ashes, with well-defined craters, from 