Caucasus Mountains

“ Then, the Caucasus, like many mountain ranges of Asia, stretches in a straight line from the peninsula of Taman to the peninsula of Apsheron, famous for its abundance of petroleum.
The Caucasus is a plication-formed mountain range composed of folded crystalline and sedimentary rock of varying ages. Along huge ravines, the entire southern part of the range has sunk down, so that the highest crystalline central zone of the range declines directly and very steeply toward the south. The highest Caucasus peaks are old extinct volcanoes, set over the basic mountains ”

“ The valley, or gorge, above mentioned, appears to cut through the loftiest mountains and to reach the "coast," although it is so narrowed and broken among the greater peaks that its southern portion is almost lost before it actually reaches the Mare Imbrium. Opening wider again as it enters the Mare, it forms a deep bay among precipitous mountains.
The Caucasus Mountains are not so lofty nor so precipitous as the Alps, and consequently have less attraction for the observer. They border the dark, oval plain of the Mare Serenitatis on its northeastern side. ”

“ Then above me rose the majestic mountain to which in old time Prometheus, as the story goes, was bound, Mount Caucasus, the wonder of the way. Its high-born pinnacle of snow seemed to have riven the very sky itself, and was all glistering white, as if catching the radiance of another world. Mount Kazbek seemed a god; the other mountains were men. The other mountains were like grandfathers, hoary old men who wanted children playing at their knees. They enticed me. Grandfathers are very fond of their children’s children.
156 CHAPTER XVI
AT A MILL ON THE TEREK THE yard cocks are at feud. ”

“ When she was travelling to the Caucasus, it seemed that she would find here on the first day a cosy nook by the sea, a snug little garden with shade, with birds, with little brooks, where she could grow flowers and vegetables, rear ducks and hens, entertain her neighbours, doctor poor peasants and distribute little books amongst them. It had turned out that the Caucasus was nothing but bare mountains, forests, and huge valleys, where it took a long time and a great deal of effort to find anything and settle down ”

“ The two most remarkable ranges of Asia are, the Caucasus, extending seven hundred miles from west to east, with branches shooting north and south; and the Himalaya, a mountain chain of nearly three thousand miles in length, uniting with the Hindoo Coosh and the mountains of Assam. This range is probably the loftiest on the globe, averaging eighteen thousand feet—several of the summits rising above twenty-five thousand. Many of the passes are above the summit of Mont Blanc, and the whole constitutes a scene of indescribable grandeur, a throne of the solitary majesty of Nature. ”

“ On the other side, to the west of the Caspian Sea, is the Caucasus, the largest mountain range on the earth in the height and multitude of its mountains. This range is inhabited by many nations. Northwards of the Caucasus, and to the west as far as the northern point of the Mæotis, and to the Tanais (Don) , "a great river," which comes down from the north out of a large lake in the land of the Thyssagetæ, and ends in a still larger lake—the lake of Mæotis—dwelt the Sauromatæ (the Sarmatians) . ”

“ I have been over many thousands of miles of Russia afoot. The happiest times were in the Caucasus, by the Gorge of Dariel road, over the Cross Pass, or by the Rion valley over Mamison, or on the Caucasian shore of the Black Sea. When it is too hot to live in a house in a town, it is heaven on the mountains. Since the War, and the Revolution, the Caucasus has, unfortunately, become much more dangerous for travelers of all kinds. The tribes are warlike, and have been badly treated by Bolsheviks and Europeans in general. ”

“ The chief aim of the journey described in the present volume was to explore the interior of the chain and to effect the ascents of Kazbek and Elbruz. The Writer and his friends hoped by penetrating on foot the recesses of the mountains to learn the form of the peaks, the extent of the snow-fields and glaciers, and the character of the forest and flora, so as to be able to draw a general comparison between the Caucasus and the Alps. ”

“ Still the Caucasus boasts of more majestic woods and a more luxuriant flora than the Alps; and when to its scenery is added the coloring lent it by the rising and the setting sun, there can be no higher beauty in nature anywhere. Especially during the summer months travellers have noted a remarkable purity of atmosphere in these mountains, and represent them as being full of light a considerable time before the appearing of the sun on the horizon ”

“ Excluding the mountains of Central Asia, and the Andes of Bolivia and Peru, neither of which can be spoken of as mountain chains in the ordinary sense, the only considerable range surpassing the Atlas in height is the higher part of the Caucasus, between the peaks of Elbruz and Kasbek, whose mean height, for a distance exceeding 110 miles, must reach, if it does not surpass, the limit of 13,000 feet. ”

“ We learn that the chain of mountains which was originally known by the name of the Caucasus stretches, with a total length of 650 miles, from the Caspian to the Black Sea. Toward the north is a tract of dense forest, intersected by numerous streams flowing down from the mountains ”

“ A wonderful mountain railway now reaches to the summit, most of the line being through tunnels. Jungfrau is 13,670 feet high.
6. Mount Elburz is one of the loftiest and most impressive of all the Caucasian mountains. It is an extinct volcano with two peaks, the western peak 18,470 feet above sea-level, and the other 18,347 feet. It is covered with glaciers, and constitutes a watershed which divides Asia from Europe. The Caucasus gave its name to that great branch of the human race that has ruled the world for many generations. ”

“ The combined valleys of the Rion and the Kura, which intervene between the Caucasus and the Armenian highlands, and stretch their axes north-west and south-east respectively, embrace the most populous and most fertile parts of Caucasia. They correspond roughly with the governments of Kutais, Tiflis, Elisavetpol and Baku, and have a population of nearly 3,650,000. The two valleys are separated by the low ridge of the Suram or Meskes mountains. ”

“ North of the Caucasus ranges the water-divide between these two seas descends from Mount Elbruz along the Sadyrlar Mountains (11,000 ft.) , and finally sinks into the Stavropol “plateau” (1600 ft.) . But the main axis of the transverse upheavals would appear to be continued in a north-eastern direction in the Andi and other parallel ranges of Daghestan, as stated under Caucasus.
The population in this region consists principally of Armenians, Tatars, Turks, Kurds, Ossetes, Greeks, with Persians, Tates and a few Russians (see particulars below) . ”

“ In the Yaila Mountains, as a result of their small size and height, the characteristics of typical mountain climate are lacking, but in the Caucasus we find them in their highest development. The analogy to the Alps is perfect, but the influence of the continental steppe climate of the surrounding country is unmistakable, expressing itself in the position of the various climatic regions, in the height of the snow limit, in the development of the glacial covering, etc., very distinctly and very differently than in the Alps, which are surrounded by countries with a climate of a different kind. ”

“ From Anapa to Gagra, along the shores of the Black Sea, we observe a secondary chain composed of schistous mountains, seldom exceeding 1000 yards in height. But the nature of their soil, and of their rocks, would be enough to render them almost impracticable for European armies, even were they not covered with impenetrable forests. The inhabitants of this region, who are called Tcherkesses or Circassians, by the Russians, are entirely independent, and constitute one of the most warlike peoples of the Caucasus. ”

“ In 1835 a body of fifty horsemen entered the country of the Cossacks, and proceeded to a distance of 120 leagues, to plunder the German colony of Madjar and the important village of Vladimirofka, on the Kouma, and what is most remarkable, they got back to their mountains without being interrupted. The same year Kisliar on the Caspian was sacked by the Lesghis. These daring expeditions prove of themselves how insufficient is the armed line of the Caucasus, and to what dangers that part of southern Russia is exposed. ”

“ It is only in case our government, impelled by ill-directed vanity, should decide on the absolute conquest of the mountains of the Kabyles, that we might encounter in the country, and in the political constitution of those mountaineers, some of the obstacles that characterise the Caucasian regions. ”

“ Even now and then there was snow on the road. But we were protected from snow slides by covered ways at the most important points. The chief feature of the landscape were the cascades. Narrow silvery waterfalls dropped from ledge to ledge 278of the red porphyry rock. They are the prettiest things I have seen in the Caucasus, for these mountains are the places of the sublime rather than of the charming.
At six versts the Armenian collapsed backward into the cart and then woke up. The horse immediately changed speed to five miles an hour ”

“ We return to the Caucasus region. These mountains front the Mare Imbrium along the upper part of their course with sharp slopes and cliffs. In the ‘sea,’ nearly opposite the deep, broad valley which I pointed out as dividing the range completely across, stands a triangular-shaped 225ring plain dark with shadow on one of its sides. This is Theætetus, interesting as the scene of an alleged display of ‘smoke,’ reported to have been witnessed by a French observer with his telescope a few years ago. ”

“ After leaving the station of the vultures we drove day and night, sleeping in the cart whenever nature asserted her need of rest, through a plain bounded on the right by mountains, and on the left by a scanty line of trees, which marks the course of the Kûr. All along the route road repairs were going on, bringing together gangs of the most villanous-looking scoundrels the various nationalities of the Caucasus can produce. ”

“ An idea is current that the Crusaders used to go to the Holy Land by the old Georgian road, which for two thousand years has been the one recognised road over the Caucasus. A number of English were converted to Mahommedanism and settled in the mountains and took Caucasian women to wife. ”

“ Of all the peoples of the Caucasus, none more fully realise than the Circassians those heroic qualities with which imagination delights to invest the tribes of these mountains. Courage, intelligence, and remarkable beauty, have been liberally bestowed on them by nature ”

“ The peaks are too big and too high for real hard climbing, and as for storms, there are none in these regions, not the symptom or ghost of one.
No driving snow on the ridges, no thunder-clouds, no fresh snow (other than the merest shatter) .
I think we are bound to have the summit, as it is merely a matter of steady training to get our wind into order. We are having a real good time, and even if we fail on Nanga I shall not regret having seen these gigantic peaks and looked at the great mountains beyond Hunza and the Russian frontier. ”

“ The most striking natural feature of this region is the great chain of the Caucasus, the most stupendous mountain mass of Western Eurasia. It strikes from north-west to south-east right across the country like a huge frowning wall, and in this respect resembles the Pyrenees, though its peaks are vastly higher and much of it is crowned with perpetual snow. So formidable and complete is this great natural barrier that no railway crosses it, and only two main roads have been constructed over its passes. ”

“ The true mountaineer is a wanderer, and by a wanderer I do not mean a man who expends his whole time in travelling to and fro in the mountains on the exact tracks of his predecessors—much as a bicyclist rushes along the turnpike roads of England—but I mean a man who loves to be where no human being has been before, who delights in gripping rocks that have previously never felt the touch of human fingers, or in hewing his way up ice-filled gullies whose grim shadows have been sacred to the mists and avalanches since "Earth rose out of chaos." ”

“ Where a broad, complex mountain system contracts to narrow compass, or is cut by deep reentrant valleys leading up to a single pass, the transmontane route here made by nature assumes great historical importance. The double chain of the mighty Caucasus, from 120 to 150 miles wide and 750 miles long, stretches an almost insuperable barrier between the Black Sea and the Caspian. ”

“ The plains of Northern Caucasia, which include most of the provinces of Kubañ and Terek and of the government of Stavropol, slope gently downwards from the foot of the Caucasus range towards the Kuma-Manych depression. It is only in their centre that they reach altitudes of as much as 2000–2500 ft. ”

“ The Caucasus is suited for general travelers, for lovers of the picturesque, whether or not they are painters, as well as for peak-hunters. If above its snow level its granite crests, its icy hollows, its hanging glaciers, and fluted snow slopes impress the intruder with a sublimity beyond that of the Alps, its high valleys have attractions for men of the most various pursuits and hobbies. The physical geographer will find materials for a contrast between the features of the Caucasus and those of better-known ranges. ”