Page:Kéraban the Inflexible Part 1 (Jules Verne).djvu/151

Rh

The Caucasus is that part of Southern Russia composed of high mountains and extensive plains, of which the orographic system tends somewhat from vest to east for a distance of three hundred and fifty kilomètres. To the north extends the country of the Don Cossacks—the government of Stavropol, with the Steppes of the Kalmouk and Nogaïs tribes. In the south are the principalities of Tiflis, capital of Georgia, of Koutais, Bakou, Elisabethpol, Erivan, besides the provinces of Mingrelia, Imeritia, Abkasia, and Gouriel. To the west of the Caucasus is the Black Sea, to the east the Caspian.

The whole country to the south of the principal chain of the Caucasus is named Transcaucasia, and has no other frontiers than those of Turkey and Persia: at the point of contact is Mount Ararat, on which the Ark of Noah rested.

There are numerous tribes which inhabit or traverse this important region. These belong to the Kazteval, Armenian, Tscherkess, Tochetschine and Lesghian races. In the north are the Kalmouks, Nogaïs, Mongolian Tartars; in the south are the Tartars of Turkish descent; Kurds and Cossacks.

If savants are to be credited, it is from this semi-European, semi-Asiatic district that the white race emanated—the whites who now inhabit Asia and Europe. So they are by them called the "Caucasian Race."

Three main Russian roads traverse this enormous barrier, which comprises such mountains as Chat-Elbrouz, 4000 mètres; Kazbec, 4500 mètres; and Elbrouz, 5600 mètres high.

The first of these routes, of both strategical and commer-