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summit of Mount Ararat, in Armenia, about fifty miles south of the Caucasian territory, which, intersected by its magnificent mountain-range, will then lie right before us, bounded on this, the southern side, by the ancient kingdom of Georgia, now a province of Russia; on the east, by the Caspian Sea, whose tideless waters lave the north of Persia; on the west, by the Euxine or Bad Black Sea (fanar gara denez) of the Turks, stretching northward to the Crimea and the Sea of Azov; and on the north itself, by the southern provinces of Russia Proper, in one of which the white stone obelisk erected by General Prestman, an English officer in the Russian service, over the grave of Howard the philanthropist, modestly uprears itself. The mountain-range, we perceive, commences by Anapa, a Russian settlement on the shore of the Black Sea, nearly opposite the Crimea, and in the northwest corner of the vast tract of territory thus shut in by Russia Proper, the Caspian and Black Seas, and Georgia, and the huge chain extends hitherward in a direction slanting towards the south of the Caspian on our right, leaving a gradually increasing margin between it and the Black Sea. At about midway, the range turns abruptly towards the east for some distance; then resumes and continues its south-easterly direction, till its termination at Cape Asheran, on the south-west shore of the Caspian. The length of this sinuous cordillera, from its northwestern point, in 44° 40′ north latitude and 37° 10' east longitude, to the south-eastern limit, in 40° 30′ of north latitude and 50° 20' east longitude, is estimated at 700 miles, and varies in breadth from 70 to 120 miles; an area of about 56,000 square miles, or pretty nearly the extent of England and Wales. The southern provinces of Russia Proper are separated from the Caucasian territory by the lower branch of the Kuban River, which, rising from near the centre of the mountains, flows in a northerly direction, till about the parallel of 44° north latitude, where it takes a direct westerly course, and reaches the Black Sea in the vicinity of Anapa, enclosing from its source to its outflow the plains of Abasia, and the Great and Little Kabardahs. The Terek breaks out of the mountains on the same side, but considerably to the south-east of the Kuban, and flows in a north-easterly direction towards the Caspian, forming with that sea and the south-eastern chain an irregular triangle, comprising the steppes or plains of Daghistan, and the country of the Tchetchentzes, separated from each other by the rapid Koisu, which takes its rise in the Lesghian or eastern part of the chain, and issues also in the Caspian. This roughly-drawn outline encircles a country of the most varied grandeur and beauty. The plains on the north of the chain enclosed by the fort-dotted Kuban and Terek, are for the most part the Kabardahs especially-of luxuriant fertility, carpeted with richest verdure, and strewed with woods and groves of level trees, odorous with the perfume of the myrtle and the rose, and vocal with the songs of innumerable nightingales. Georgia here

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in the south is of nearly equal beauty and fruitfulness; and the strip of gradually narrowing land bordering the Black Sea from Mingrelia-adjoining Georgia on the north-west-to Anapa, presents a charming aspect of oak-clad eminences, park-like pastures, and lofty trees festooned with gigantic vines. From this gorgeous parterre, the giant Alps shoot upwards to the heavens; and, monarch of them all, Elburz, at about the northern centre of the range, uplifts his crown of snow to the prodigious height of 17,700 feet above the Black Sea level-2000 feet higher than Mont Blanc! This name of Elburz, though usually confined to the loftiest of the Caucasian mountains, has, strictly speaking, a much wider application; meaning, as it does, all mountains above the line of eternal snow-10,500 feet. The native appellation is Mount Kav-the Mountain of the Blessed; or, more frequently, Djen Padischah-the King of Spirits; and superstitions in connection both with it and the Alquinvari Peak-the Kasbek, the next in altitude to the Elburz-are, as might be expected, rife throughout the Caucasus. According to one of these traditions, the guardian angels that keep eternal watch upon the sky-reaching summits of these mountains, will never permit them to be profaned by mortal footsteps-a belief, however, that has lately been irretrievably damaged by the successful ascent of the Kasbek by a Polish doctor of the name of Kalenati. Few of the mountains north-west of the Elburz reach the line of perpetual snow; and they gradually diminish in height as they approach the shore of the Black Sea at Anapa, where they rise boldly up to the elevation of about 120 feet only. In the south-eastern range, on the contrary, the glittering pinnacles soar far above the snow-line, till past the Lesghian portion of the chain, in which Chagh Dagh, another sacred mountain, attains a height approaching that of the Kasbek, which is 15,500 feet. Near the end of the south-eastern range, is the Holy Land of the Ghebers, or Fire-worshippers. The monastery of Mesch-Gah-Mother of Fire-tenanted by a few devotees of this faith, and sentinelled by pillars of the inexhaustible flame, which at the slightest puncture issues from the naphtha-teeming soil, still exists there." This was once the

Ateyshah, or sacred shrine the Mecca of the worshippers of fire -but mosques have long since usurped the places of the flametemples, and nowhere, perhaps, in Caucasia has the creed of Islam taken a firmer and deeper root than in the burning plains of Baku. The two passes or gates' which traverse the cordillera of the Caucasus, are those previously mentioned: the road leading by the fortress of Derbend on the Caspian shore-the Via Caspia of the ancients and the more important Pass of Dariel (Porta Caucasia), which connects Teflis in Russian Georgia by the Valley of the Terek, leading through a huge rift of the Kasbek, with the VladiKavkas-one of the strongest and most important fortresses possessed by the Russians at the northern base of the Caucasusand Mosdok, another Russian stronghold on the Terek. This road

is about 120 miles in length, and Strabo states, was accounted a four days' journey. Pliny says: Each narrow pass therein was closed by large beams of wood, pointed with iron. In the midst of the narrow valley flowed a river. The south extremity was protected by a castle on a high rock.' This description applies to the present condition of the Caucasian Gate, with this difference, that the large beams of wood, pointed with iron, have been superseded by forts, which command the narrow passes, and that the road has been much improved, although it still remains impassable during winter. Catherine II. was the first European sovereign whose troops marched through this dreary and dangerous defile, wherein the path is frequently but a few feet wide, shut in with precipitous walls of porphyry and schist, some 3000 or 4000 feet in height, and running along the edge of abysses as deep as the rock-walls are lofty. In some parts, especially in passing through the Kasbek, the road presents one or two aspects of a novel, imposing, and less terrific kind: huge columns of basalt hurled hither and thither, as if in Titanic sport, upon the surfaces of the mountain, or driven into its side-some erect, others more or less inclined, and suggesting, especially when the moon lends her giant shadows to aid the illusion, the ruined temples, towers, and palaces of an antediluvian city, interspersed here and there with patches of the fresh vegetation of a renewed world. The weekly Friday's post from Patigorsk to Teflis passes by this road, and escorted, as it always is, by two or three squadrons of Cossacks of the Line, and as many battalions of infantry, has generally a tolerable chance, according to Major Cameron, of reaching its destination. This road, it should be observed, has been in the military possession of Russia since the days of Catherine II.; and in 1830, the Persian embassy, with the aid of a small army, safely accomplished a passage through it in six days. Of the Eastern or Caspian Way, it is only necessary to remark, that it connects Baku with Derbend on the Caspian shore, and the latter place with Kizlar on the Terek. It is very little used; and in a military point of view, having reference to the subjugation of the Caucasus, of even less importance than the Dariel road. To this brief etching of a few of the chief features of the mountain Caucasus, we have to add, that the enormous range contains not only deep gorges, terrible abysses, impassable swamps, frightful rifts, and impetuous torrents, but extensive pastoral valleys, covered with flocks and herds, rich table-lands, numerous woods and forests, well-cultivated gardens and orchards, romantic glens, and pleasant and abundant streams. The lighting up of the Caucasian Alps, we may further remark, when seen from a favourable point of view, on a bright morning of summer, is a spectacle of singular and imposing beauty. The crystal pinnacles, domes, towers, piled multitudinously above each other, faintly pencilled by the earlier rays of the dawn in shadowy, gigantic outline upon the eastern sky, kindle, as the sun climbs the heavens, into indescribable

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splendour-first, innumerable snow-crowned summits sparkle with golden fire, and presently the entire scene is a magnificent fairy land, glittering with dazzling sheen, relieved by the shadows of the mountain-rifts, and the waving trees, and sparkling verdure of the parterre at its base. The Emperor Nicholas is said to have been greatly struck by the novel splendour of the sight, and to have remarked to one of his suite, that he had never beheld the sublime command, 'Let there be light, and there was light,' so impressively illustrated before.

The population of the Caucasus is as varied as its clime and physical aspect. There are Arabs, Mongols, Tatars, Turcomans, Georgians, and others; but for the purposes of this narrative, it is only necessary to particularise three of the principal groups into which its 3,000,000 or 4,000,000 of inhabitants are divided. These are the Circassians- -or Tcherkessi, as they are named by the Russians the Lesghians, and Tchetchentzes. The Circassians occupy the Caucasian range, from about Elburz to its north-west termination at Anapa-the strip of wedge-like country, from one to thirty miles in breadth, along the shore of the Black Sea-the south bank of the Kuban, the islets formed by that river and its confluents, and the Great and Little Kabardahs. The Lesghians are scattered over the south-eastern chain, from near Kasbek to Daghistan on the north, and Nucha on the south of the range. The Tchetchentzes dwell chiefly in the country enclosed by the Terek and Caspian, and divided by the Koisu from Daghistan. It was amongst the Circassians or Tcherkessi that Blumenbach sought his models of the human race, and, baseless as his theory may be, there can be no question that they are, physically at all events, a superior people. Pallas, indeed, asserts that the Kabardians, who differ in no perceptible degree from other Circassians, are descendants of the Teutonic knights. They are described as a faircomplexioned, auburn or chestnut haired race, of lofty stature, great width of chest and brawniness of shoulder, a small foot, and sparkling dark-blue eyes. The complexions, hair, and eyes of the female Circassians are usually of the same colour as those of the men, but more delicately tinted, of finer, glossier texture, and gentler expression. The figures of these ladies are, moreover, as exquisitely moulded as their features are delicately chiselled; and commanding, as they consequently do, a first-rate price in the Constantinople slave-market, it is not surprising that they are considered the most valuable property the head of a Caucasian family can possess. Both the Lesghians and Tchetchentzes have a tinge of the Tatar in their blood, and are comparatively darkcomplexioned races, with full black eyes, and bright hair of the same colour. They are for the most part fanatic Mussulmen; whilst the religion of the Circassians is of a very fugitive and doubtful kind, consisting chiefly of a few forms and observances relative to fasts and funeral ceremonies, compounded of Mohammedanism and the rites of the Greek Church. John de Luca, a

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