ARMENIA
TRAVELS AND STUDIES
VOL. I
Ararat from Aralykh.
Aralykh, 2750 feet; Ararat, 16,916 feet.
Nature’s vast frame,the web of human things.
Shelley, Alastor.
Who can foretell our future? Spare me the attempt. Weare like a harvest reaped by bad husbandmen amidst encircling gloom andcloud.
John Katholikos
Armenian historian of the Xth century Ch. CLXXXVII.
LONDON: 39 PATERNOSTER ROW
NEW YORK AND BOMBAY
1901
[v]
PREFACE
This book contains the account of two separatejourneys in Armenia, the first extending from August 1893 to March1894, and the second from May to September 1898. Before embarking uponthem, I was already familiar with the contiguous countries, havingspent a considerable portion of the years 1889 and 1890 in Mesopotamiaand Persia. The routes shown in my map from Aleppo to Diarbekr and downthe Tigris, and from Batum across Georgia and the Caspian to Resht,were taken during the course of th