Khozapin, Khopchalu, Arpa, Toporavan and
Tabiztskhur, all situated between 6500 and 7000 ft. above sea-level.
The principal water-divide in this highland region is, however, the
range of Egri-dagh (Ararat), which just south of 40 deg. S. forms for
100 m. the boundary between Russian and Turkish Armenia, having Ararat
at its eastern extremity and the extinct volcano of Kessa-dagh (11,260
ft.) at its western. Its importance lies in the fact that it divides
the streams which flow into the Black Sea and Caspian from those which
make their way into the Persian Gulf. The Egri-dagh possesses a
sharply defined crest, ranges at a general elevation of 8000 ft., is
bare of timber, scantily supplied with water, and rugged and deeply
fissured.

The transverse water-parting between the Black Sea and the Caspian
begins on the south side of the main range of the Caucasus, at Mount
Zikara (12,560 ft.), a little south-west of Kasbek, and runs
south-west along the sinuous crests of the Racha, Suram or Meskes
(3000-5000 ft.), Vakhan (10,000-11,000 ft.), Arzyan (7000-10,000 ft.),
and its continuation the Soganluk, thus linking the Caucasus ranges
with those of the Armenian highlands. This line of heights separates
the basins of the Chorokh and the Rion (Black Sea) from those of the
Aras and the Kura (Caspian Sea). 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).

_Climate_.--Owing in part to the great differences in altitude in
different regions of Caucasia and in part to the directions in which the
mountain ranges run, and consequently the quarters towards which their
slopes face, the climate varies very greatly according to locality.
Generally speaking, it may be characterized as a climate of extremes on
the Armenian highlands, in the Kura valley and in northern Caucasia, and
as maritime and genial in Lenkoran, on the Black Sea coastlands, and in
the valley of the Rion. The greatest rec