Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 2.djvu/102

86 along the east of the Black Sea; the lower branches of great planes and oaks trail in the water, and make landing impossible, save for small boats. In fact, the whole region watered by the Sangarius and the Billæus, from Mysia, Paphlagonia, and the Pontus, as a rule, presents the same features, and one who was not pressed for time could almost go from Broussa to Trebizond under covert.

The southern group comprises the mighty Taurus range, which we, discarding the authority of the ancients, whose definition was vague in the extreme, will apply to the chain of mountains whose peaks are seen from Caria, and along the coast which faces Rhodes and Cyprus. Sometimes the broad masses increase in bulk along the sea shores, with lofty ridges and weird projections which support Lycia and Lower Cilicia; at other times, they open out into valleys, such as Pamphylia and Upper Cilicia; these again are succeeded by precipitous walls and alluvial plains, through which sluggish rivers meander ere they are lost in the sea; whilst to the east the plateau of Sivas and its snowy peaks serve as intermediaries between Anti Taurus, the Olympian range, and the high mountains of Armenia.

The development of the coast on the western side of the peninsula amounts to quadruple its extent in a straight line from north to south. Here are no chains of mountains parallel one to the other up to the very border of the sea. The latter has fashioned and dislocated the outward body into peninsulas, promontories, and islands, which run far out into the Ægean; such would be Samos, Chios, Lesbos, etc. The greatest variety of formation is to be found here—uplands well supplied with streams and pastures; mountains with snowy peaks; the Trojan Ida, the Tmolus, the Cadmus, and many more. Here, too, occurs a sudden transition from the uplands to the coast, as will be seen by reference to the annexed woodcut (Fig. 291).

The altitude of the table-land around Koutahia (Phrygia) is from 800 to 900 metres; and from 1000 to 1100 near Konieh; but Lycaonia and Cappadocia are far above this level, Kaisarieh, (Caesarea), the chief town of this province being 1320 metres above sea level. The elevation of the crest is regulated by that of the table-land; on the west and north the average is under and about