nly from sixty
to seventy miles in width) is formed of parallel ridges, not separated
by deep and wide valleys, but remarkably connected by elevated plateaus,
which are traversed by narrow fissures of extreme depth. The highest
peaks are in the most central chain; Mt. Elburz, attaining an elevation
of 18,000 feet above the sea, while Mt. Kasbeck reaches a height of more
than 16,000 feet, and several other peaks rise above the line of
perpetual snow. The outlying spurs and foothills of this chain of lofty
mountains are of less extent and importance than those of almost any
other mountain range of similar magnitude, subsiding, as they do, until
they are only 200 feet high along the shores of the Black Sea. Some
parts are almost entirely bare, but other parts are densely wooded and
the secondary ranges near the Black Sea are covered by magnificent
forests of oak, beech, ash, maple, and walnut.

This range is an almost impassable wall across the narrow isthmus which
joins Europe and Asia, and the Gorge of Dariel is the gateway in this
wall through which have come almost all the migrating races that have
peopled the continent of Europe. As is well known, the white peoples of
Europe have been classified as the Caucasian race, because they were all
supposed to have passed through this gateway originally. Apparently each
of these oncoming waves of barbaric humanity, bursting through the great
gateway, must have left behind some few remnants of their volume, for
nowhere in the world, in so limited an area, is there such a diversity
and mixture of peoples. In the words of one writer, who speaks with
authority on this region, the Caucasus is "an ethnological museum where
the invaders of Europe, as they traveled westward to be manufactured
into nations, left behind samples of themselves in their raw condition."

Here may be found the Georgians, who so long championed the Cross
against the Crescent, the wild Lesghians from the highlands of
Daghestan; the Circassians, famed for the beauty of their women;
Suanetians, Ossets, Abkhasians, Mingrelians, not to enumerate dozens of
other tribes and races, each speaking its own tongue. It is said that
over a hundred languages are spoken throughout this region; seventy in
the city of Tiflis alone.

The scenery of the mountains themselves is unparalleled in grandeur
except by the Himalayas and offers many a virgin peak to the ambitious
mountain climber. Here may be found the ibex, the stag,