eeds and rushes, in the delta of the Kuban. In the north and
east they give place, as the Manych and the coasts of the Caspian are
approached, to arid, sandy, stony steppes. The soil of these plains is
generally very fertile and they support a population of nearly
2,800,000 Russians, composed of Cossacks and peasant immigrants,
settled chiefly along the rivers and grouped in large, wealthy
villages. They carry on agriculture--wheat-growing on a large
scale--with the aid of modern agricultural machines, and breed cattle
and horses. Vines are extensively cultivated on the low levels, and a
variety of domestic trades are prosecuted in the villages. The higher
parts of the plains, which are deeply trenched by the upper
tributaries of the rivers, are inhabited by various Caucasian
races--Kabardians and Cherkesses (Circassians) in the west, Ossetes in
the middle, and several tribal elements from Daghestan, described
under the general name of Chechens, in the east; while nomadic Nogai
Tatars and Turkomans occupy the steppes.

(ii.) The _Caucasus range_ runs from north-west to south-east from the
Strait of Kerch to the Caspian Sea for a length of 900 m., with a
varying breadth of 30 to 140 m., and covers a surface of 12,000 sq. m.
The orographical characteristics of the Caucasus are described in
detail under that heading.

(iii.) 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.

Spurs from the Caucasus and from the Armenian highlands fill up the
broad latitudinal depression between them. Above (i.e. west of) Tiflis
these spurs so far intrude into the valley that it is reduced to a
narrow strip in breadth. But below that city it suddenly widens out,
and the width gradually increases through the stretch of 350 m. to the
Caspian, until in the Mugan steppe along that sea it measures 100 m.
in width. The snow-clad peaks of the main Caucasus, descending by
short, steep slopes, fringe the valley on the north, while an abrupt
escarpment, having the characteristics of a b