The High Lands of the Great Continent (continued)—The Caucasus—The Western Asiatic Table-Land and its Mountains.

The Dardanelles and the Sea of Marmora form but a small break in the mighty girdle of the old continent, which again appears in immense table-lands, passing through the centre of Asia, of such magnitude that they occupy nearly two-fifths of the continent. Here everything is on a much grander scale than in Europe: the table-lands rise above the mean height of the European mountains, and the mountains themselves that gird and traverse them surpass those of every other country in altitude. The most barren deserts are here to be met with, as well as the most luxuriant productions of animal and vegetable life. The earliest records of the human race are found in this cradle of civilization, and monuments still remain which show the skill and power of those nations which have passed away, but whose moral influence is still visible in their descendants. Customs, manners, and even prejudices, carry us back to times beyond the record of history, or even of tradition; while the magnitude with which the natural world is here developed evinces the tremendous forces that must have been in action at epochs immeasurably anterior to the existence of man.

The gigantic mass of high land which extends for 6000 miles between the Mediterranean and the Pacific is 2000 miles broad at its eastern extremity, 700 to 1000 in the middle, and somewhat less at its termination. Colossal mountains and elevated terraces form the edges of the lofty plains.

Between the 47th and 68th eastern meridians, where the low plains of Hindostan and Bokara press upon the table-land and reduce its width to 700 or 1000 miles, it is divided into two parts by an enormous knot of mountains formed by the meeting of the Hindoo Coosh, the Himalaya, the Tsung-lin, and the transverse ranges of the Beloot Tagh, or Cloudy Mountains: these two parts differ in height, form, and magnitude.

The western portion, which is the table-land of Persia or plateau of Iran, is oblong, extending from the shores of Asia Minor to the Hindoo Coosh and the Solimaun range, which skirts the right bank of the Indus. It occupies an area of 1,700,000 square miles, generally about 4000 feet above the sea, and in some places 7000. The Oriental plateau or table-land of Tibet, much the largest, has an area of 7,600,000 square miles, a mean altitude of 14,000 feet, and in some parts of Tibet an absolute altitude of 17,000 feet.

As the table-lands extend from S.W. to N.E., so also do the principal mountain-chains, as well those which bound the high lands as those which traverse them. Remarkable exceptions to this equatorial direction of the Asiatic mass, however, occur in a series of meridional chains, whose axes extend from S.S.E. to N.N.W., between Cape Comoron, opposite to Ceylon, and the Arctic Ocean, under the names of the Western Ghauts, the Solimaun range (which forms the eastern boundary of the table-land of Persia), the Beloot Tagh, or Bolor (which is the western limit of the Oriental plateau), and the Ural Mountains. These chains, rich in gold, lie in different longitudes, and so alternate among themselves that each begins only in that latitude which has not yet been attained by the preceding one. The Khinghan, in China, also extends from south to north along the eastern slopes of the table-land, and forms its boundary at that end.^[26]

The lofty range of the Caucasus, which extends 700 miles between the Black and Caspian Seas, is an outlying member of the Asiatic high lands. Offsets diverge like ribs from each side of the central crest, which penetrate the Russian Steppes on one hand, and on the other cross the plains of Kara, or valley of the Kour and Rioni, and unite the Caucasus to the table-land. Some parts of these mountains are very high; the Elburz, on the western border of Georgia, is 17,796 feet. The central part of the chain is full of glaciers, and the limit of perpetual snow is at the altitude of 11,000 feet, which is higher than in any other chain of the old continent, except the Himalaya.

Anatolia, the most western part of the table-land of Iran, 3000 feet above the sea, is traversed by short chains and broken groups of mountains, separated by fertile valleys, which sink rapidly towards the Archipelago, and end in promontories and islands along the shores of Asia Minor, which is a country abounding in vast, luxuriant, but solitary plains, watered by broad rivers—in Alpine platforms and mountain-ridges broken up by great valleys, opening seawards, with meandering streams. Single mountains of volcanic formation are conspicuous objects on the table-land of Anatolia, which is rich in pasture, though much of the soil is saline and covered with lakes and marshes. A triple range of limestone mountains, 6000 or 7000 feet high, divided by narrow but beautiful valleys, is the limit of the Anatolian table-land along the shores of the Black Sea. Two-thirds of their height are covered with forests, and broken by wooded glens, leaving a narrow coast, except near Trebizond, where it is broad and picturesque. The high land is bounded on the south by the serrated snowy range of the Taurus, which, beginning in Rhodes, Cos, and other islands in the Mediterranean, fills the south-western parts of Asia Minor with ramifications, and, after following the sinuosities of the iron-bound coast of Karamania in a single lofty range, extends at Samisat, where the Euphrates has pierced a way through this stony girdle.

About the 50th meridian the table-land is compressed to nearly half its width, and there the lofty mountainous regions of Armenia, Kourdistan, and Azerbijan tower higher and higher between the Black Sea, the Caspian, and the Gulf of Scanderoon in the Mediterranean. Here the cold treeless plains of Armenia, the earliest abode of man, 7000 feet above the sea, bear no traces of the Garden of Eden; Mount Ararat, on which the Ark is said to have rested, stands a solitary majestic volcanic cone, 17,260 feet above the sea, shrouded in perpetual snow. Though high and cold, the soil of Armenia is richer than that of Anatolia, and is better cultivated. It shelves on the north in luxuriant and beautiful declivities to the low and undulating valley of Kara, south of the Caucasus; and, on the other hand, the broad and lofty belt of the Kourdistan mountains, rising abruptly in many parallel ranges from the plains of Mesopotamia, form its southern limit, and spread their ramifications wide over its surface. They are rent by deep ravines, and in many places are so rugged that communication between the villages is always difficult, and in winter impracticable from the depth of snow. The line of perpetual congelation is decided and even along their summit; their flanks are wooded, and the valleys populous and fertile.

A thousand square miles of Kourdistan is occupied by the brackish lake Van, which is seldom frozen, though 5467 feet above the sea, and surrounded by lofty mountains.

The Persian mountains, of which Elburz is the principal chain, extend along the northern brink of the plateau, from Armenia, almost parallel to the shores of the Caspian Sea, maintaining a considerable elevation up to the volcanic peak of Demavend, near TehrÂn, their culminating point, which, though 90 miles inland, is a landmark to sailors on the Caspian. Elevated offsets of these mountains cover the volcanic table-land of Azerbijan, the fire-country of Zoroaster, and one of the most fertile provinces of Persia; there the Koh Salavan elevates its volcanic cone. Beautiful plains, pure streams, and peaceful glades, interspersed with villages, lie among the mountains, and the Vale of Khosran Shah, a picture of sylvan beauty, is celebrated as one of the five paradises of Persian poetry. The vegetation at the foot of these mountains on the shores of the Caspian has all the exuberance of a tropical jungle. The Elburz loses its height to the east of Demavend, and then joins the mountains of Khorasan and the Paropamisan range, which appear to be chains of mountains when viewed from the low plains of Khorasan and Balkh, but on the table-land of Persia they merely form a broad hilly country of rich soil, till they join the Hindoo Coosh.

The table-land of Iran is bounded, for 1,000 miles along the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean, by a mountainous belt of from three to seven parallel ranges, having an average width of 200 miles, and extending from the extremity of the Kourdistan Mountains to the mouth of the Indus. The LasistÁn Mountains, which form the northern part of this belt, and bound the vast level plain of the Tigris, rise from it in a succession of high table-lands divided by very rugged mountains, the last ridge of which, mostly covered with snow, abuts on the table-land of Persia. Oaks clothe their flanks; the valleys are of generous soil, verdant, and cultivated; and many rivers flow through them to swell the stream of the Tigris. Insulated hill forts, from 2000 to 5000 feet high, occur in this country, with flat cultivated tops some miles in extent, accessible only by ladders, or holes cut in their precipitous sides. These countries are full of ancient inscriptions and remains of antiquity. The moisture decreases more and more south from Shiraz, and then the parallel ridges, repulsive in aspect and difficult to pass, are separated by arid longitudinal valleys, which ascend like steps from the narrow shores of the Persian Gulf to the table-land. The coasts of the gulf are burning hot sand solitudes, so completely barren, that the country from Bassora to the Indus, a distance of 1200 miles, is nearly a sterile waste. In the few favoured spots on the terraces where water occurs there is vegetation, and the beauty of these valleys is enhanced by surrounding sterility.^[27]

With the exception of Mazenderan and the other provinces bordering upon the Caspian, and in the Paropamisan range, Persia is arid, possessing few perennial springs, and not one great river; in fact, three-tenths of the country is a desert, and the table-land is nearly a wide scene of desolation. A great salt-desert occupies 27,000 square miles between Irak and Khorasan, of which the soil is a stiff clay, covered with efflorescence of common salt and nitre, often an inch thick, varied only by a few saline plants and patches of verdure in the hollows. This dreary waste joins the large sandy and equally dreary desert of Kerman. Kelat, the capital of Belochistan, is 7000 feet above the level of the sea: round it there is cultivation, but the greater part of that country is a lifeless plain, over which the brick-red sand is drifted by the north wind into ridges like the waves of the sea, often 12 feet high, without a vestige of vegetation. The blast of the desert, whose hot and pestilential breath is fatal to man and animals, renders these dismal sands impassable at certain seasons.

Barren lands or bleak downs prevail at the foot of the Lukee and Solimaun ranges, formed of bare porphyry and sandstone, which skirt the eastern edge of the table-land, and dip to the plains of the Indus. In Afghanistan there is little cultivation except on the banks of the streams that flow into the Lake Zerrah, but vitality returns towards the north-east. The plains and valleys among the offsets from the Hindoo Coosh are of surpassing loveliness, and combine the richest peaceful beauty with the majesty of the snow-capped mountains by which they are encircled.