Hadji Birami, July 2, 1857I have been here three days, having finished my examination of the frontier for sixty versts in five days in extremely hot weather. The first day from Gumri we passed Baiandoor, where the Turks and Russians had a small battle in 1853, and where the former lost a splendid opportunity of taking Gumri, which was nearly denuded of troops. My Turkish colleague, who is delegated to verify the frontier with me, was present, and got into Gumri as a spy disguised in the character of a servant. The Russian army avenged the slight check they received from the Turks by taking all their artillery of the right wing soon after, and with this affair the campaign of 1853 ended. At the place from which I am writing there are seltzer water springs, which I took care not to drink. My Russian colleague is a very good fellow as far as I can make out, not being able to speak to him. The third day of our tour we passed through Ani the ancient capital of Armenia. This city is completely deserted, and has splendid churches still standing in it. These churches are capitally built and preserved. Some coloured drawings on their walls are to be seen even now. I have obtained some views for you from this interesting place. The towers and walls are almost intact; but the most extraordinary thing about so large a place is the singular quietness. The country around is perfectly barren, very mountainous, and quite destitute of trees. There are many ruined cities in the neighbourhood, and all dating from about the eleventh century. At that period Ani itself contained 100,000 inhabitants and 500 churches, which shows that more people went to church among them than with us. Before the end of that century it passed into the hands of the Greeks and Saracens. Afterwards the Mongols took it, and at last an earth-quake drove out the remaining inhabitants in 1339; since which time it has been perfectly deserted. I leave tomorrow for another sixty versts of examination of the frontier. I think there is no doubt of our being able to ascend Ararat, which is eighty versts distant. The Russian engineers, when they triangulated the Caucasus, lived there for a week. Ararat is 16,953 feet high: The weather is very hot, and the mosquitoes extremely venomous. The conspicuous feature of the country is beautiful mountain scenery, but for villages and trees one must look in vain. It is quite a desert. The churches of Ani were built with lava, and crosses of black lava were let in very curiously into the red lava. With the exception of the churches and king's palace, the city is level with the ground; the foundations of the houses being alone discernible. These churches were covered with Armenian inscriptions cut on the walls. I feel myself unable to describe this extraordinary place as it ought to be done. We should have a photographic machine for it.
I do not think we shall be very long about the commission, as we have already done a quarter of the whole frontier, 100 versts. The work here is mostly done by us, the Turks looking on. Colonel Simmons does not anticipate being longer than this summer, and I hope it will so turn out. We are now in the province of Erivan, which you remember was taken from Persia in 1829 by Paskievitch. The inhabitants are Persian. We met on our road a great number of Kurds, who live as their fathers did, by travelling about robbing, etc., with their flocks. Their children are short of clothing. In spite of the Cossacks, etc., they are as lawless as ever, and go from Turkey to Russia and back again as they like. They are fine-looking people, armed to the teeth, but are decreasing in numbers. They never live in houses, but prefer tents and caves. The number of foxes in these regions is enormous. At Ani itself there are great numbers, and not very wild. There are roebucks also in the mountains. The Russian subjects here are not half so abject as the Moojik or Russian peasant - all of the former carry arms, for instance - and the Government is not so strong as in other parts in putting down robbery, etc. We camp here also, as there are no houses fit to go into, and every day is taken up in surveying and drawing plans without any circumstance occurring worth mentioning. I was never better in health, in spite of mosquitoes, heat, etc. We get up very early, and go to bed the same. We are now on the Aras - a large river that flows into the Caspian sea. I hope to get a very good map of this country.
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