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"The water of the spring which issues from the rock at this place is very pure and of a pleasant flavor, which alone would render it an object of general estimation, as there are probably very few perpetual springs that rise from Mount Ararat; at least I never met with any in all my excursions on the mountain, neither did I hear of the existence of any other. It may have induced some pious monk of a former time to settle in this neighborhood as a hermit, whose fame for sanctity may have obtained for the spring the character of some miraculous virtues, till, in the course of centuries and amid the storm of political events, this lone hermit vanished, and only the miraculous spring was left, as an object of universal admiration and blind credulity among the Armenians. The tradition of the wonder-working power of this water is as follows:-the locusts, which sometimes traverse the countries on this and the other side of the Caucasus in incredible swarms, and sometimes in a single day lay waste a whole tract of land, can be neither destroyed nor dispersed, except by a certain bird, which, however, I never saw, but which, from the description given of it, may be a kind of thrush, though by the Russians who live here it is called a starling. It is not large, of a black color, and yellowish white on the breast and back; and, at the time the mulberries are ripe, large flocks of them arrive on the Araxes, the people know not whence, and by destroying all the mulberries, cause much injury to the country: its name in Armenian is Tarm, and likewise Tetagusch. Gusch is a bird ir Tartary, and tut is the Armenian for mulberry. If he appears in a neighborhood where the locusts abound, it may be considered safe, for he pursues them as an inveterate enemy. To entice this useful bird, it is necessary to have some water from this holy spring, and it is sufficient to fill a pitcher or a bottle with it, and carry it to the place which is visited by the locusts, but with the precaution not to set the vessel down by the way, as the water would immediately evaporate. When however it is put in the open air in the place of its destination, it is said never to have failed to attract large flocks of tetagusch, and by this means to rid the country of the locusts. Not only the common people and Armenians have endeavored to convince me of the truth of this tradition, but also persons of education, and who were not Armenians, and they even adduced as a proof that a few years ago, the district of Kislijar to the north of Caucasus being visited by the locusts, the country was cleared of them by means of a pitcher of this water, which was fetched in the greatest haste from the holy spring, and which instantly drew together large numbers of those birds. In Ararat and in Tiflis every one knows that the water was fetched, and in Kislijar a confirmation of the result may be obtained, and a portion of the miraculous water seen in a bottle in the church.

"From the chapel we crossed the grassy elevation which forms the right declivity of the cleft: we suffered so much from the heat of the day, that our Cossack, who would probably have much rather been seated on horseback and galloping about on the Steppes for three days than scrambling over the rocks for a couple of hours, was ready to sink from fatigue, and we were obliged to send him back. At about six o'clock in the evening, when we also

were much tired, and had almost reached the snowy region, we chose our night's lodging in the clefts of the rocks. We had attained a height of 11,675 Paris feet; in the sheltered places about us lay some new-fallen snow, and the temperature of the air was at the freezing point. Mr. Schiemann and I had provided ourselves tolerably well for such an undertaking; beside the pleasure of the expedition warmed us; but our athletic Jager, Schak of Arguri, (Isaac,) was quite dejected from the cold, for he had nothing but his summer clothing; his whole neck, and also his legs, from the knee to the sandal, were quite bare, and his head was only covered with an old handkerchief. I had neglected to think about his wardrobe before setting out, and, therefore, it was my duty to help him as well as I could: but, as neither of us had much clothing to spare, I wrapped up his neck and his bare limbs in sheets of blotting paper, which I had taken with me for drying plants, and this was a great relief to him. At daybreak we pursued our journey toward the eastern side of the mountain, and soon reached the declivity which runs immediately from the summit; it consists entirely of pointed rocky ridges coming down from above, and leaving between them ravines of considerable depth, in which the icy mantle of the summit loses itself, and glaciers of great extent. There were several of these rocky ridges and clefts of ice lying between us and the side of the mountain which we were endeavoring to reach. When we had happily surmounted the first crest and the adjoining beautiful glacier, and reached the second crest, Schak had no courage to proceed. His benumbed limbs had not yet recovered their warmth, and the icy region toward which he saw us hastening, did not hold out much prospect of relief; thus one remained behind from heat and another from cold-only Mr. Schiemann, though unaccustomed to these hardships, did not for an instant lose his courage or his desire to accompany me, but shared with alacrity and perseverance all the difficulties and dangers we had to encounter. Leaving the Jager behind us, we crossed the second glacier, and gained the third rocky ridge. Then, immediately turning off in an oblique direction, we reached the lower edge of the icy crest at a height of 13,180 Paris feet, and which from this place runs without interruption to the summit. We had now to ascend this declivity covered with perpetual snow. Though the inclination was barely 30 deg., this was a sheer impossibility for two men to accomplish in a direct line. We therefore determined to advance diagonally toward a long pointed ridge which runs far up toward the summit. We succeeded in this by making with our ice-poles deep holes in the ice of the glacier, which was covered with a thin layer of new-fallen snow, too slight to afford the requisite firmness to our steps. We thus reached the ridge, and advanced direct toward the summit by a track where the new snow was rather deeper. Though we might by great exertions have this time reached the goal of our wishes, yet the fatigue of the day had been considerable, and as it was already three o'clock in the afternoon, we were obliged to think of providing a lodging for the approaching night. We had attained the extreme upper ridge of the rocky crest, an elevation of 14,550 Paris feet above the level of the sea, (the height of the top of Mont Blanc,) and yet the summit of

Ararat lay far above us. I do not think that any surmountable obstacle could have impeded our farther progress, but to spend the few remaining hours of daylight in reaching this point would have been worse than madness, as we had not seen any rock on the summit which could have afforded us protection during the night; independently of which our stock of provisions was not calculated to last so long.

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"Having made our barometrical observations, we turned back, satisfied from the result that the mountain on this side was not inaccessible. In descending, however, we met with a danger which we had not anticipated; for if in the descent of every mountain tread less safely than in going up, it is still more difficult to tread firmly, when you look down upon such a surface of ice and snow as that over which we had to pass for more than a werst, and where, if we had slipped and fell, there was nothing to stop us but the sharp-pointed masses of stone in which the region of eternal ice loses itself. The danger here is perhaps rather in the want of habit than in real difficulties. My young friend, whose courage had probably been proof against severer trials, lost his presence of mind here-his foot slipped and he fell: but as he was about twenty paces behind me, I had time to thrust my pole firmly into the ice, to take a sure footing in my capital snow-shoes, and, while I held the pole in my right hand, to catch him in passing with my left. My position was well chosen, but the straps which fastened my ice-shoes broke, and, instead of being able to stop my friend I was carried with him in his fall. He was so fortunate as to be stopped by some stones, but I rolled on for half a werst, till I reached some fragments of lava near the lower glacier. The tube of my barometer was dashed to pieces-my chronometer burst open, and covered with blood-every thing had fallen out of my pockets, but I escaped without severe injury. As soon as we had recovered our fright, and thanked God for our providential escape, we collected the most important of our effects, and continued our journey. We were soon afterward delighted to hear the voice of our good Schak, who had very prudently waited for our return. Having made a fire, we passed the night in the grassy region, and on the third day reached the convent, where we were regaled with an excellent breakfast. We however took care not to tell the Armenians any thing about our accident, as they would certainly not have failed to ascribe it to a judgment from Heaven for our presumptuous attempt to reach the summit, which, they say, has been prohibited to mortals by a Divine decree since the time of Noah. All the Armenians are firmly persuaded that Noah's ark exists to the present day on the summit of Mount Ararat, and that, in order to preserve it, no person is permitted to approach it. We learn the grounds of this tradition from the Armenian chronicles in the legend of a monk of the name of James, who was afterward Patriarch of Nissibus, and a contemporary and relative of St. Gregory. It is said that this monk, in order to settle the disputes which had arisen respecting the credibility of the sacred books, especially with reference to their account of Noah, resolved to ascend to the top of Ararat to convince himself of the existence of the ark. At the declivity of the mountain, however, he had several times fallen VOL. VII.-April, 1836.

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asleep from exhaustion, and found on awaking that he had been unconsciously carried down to the point from which he first set out. God at length had compassion on his unwearied though fruitless exertions, and during his sleep sent an angel with the message, that his exertions were unavailing, as the summit was inaccessible, but as a reward for his indefatigable zeal, he sent him a piece of the ark, the very same which is now preserved as the most valuable relic in the cathedral of Etschmiadsin. The belief in the impossibility of ascending Mount Ararat has in consequence of this tradition, which is sanctioned by the Church, almost become an article of faith, which an Armenian would not renounce even if he were placed in his own proper person upon the summit of the mountain."

After recovering in some measure from the effects of his fall and an attack of fever which ensued, the professor set out on the 18th September to make a second attempt to gain the summit, taking with him a cross ten feet high, which it was proposed to set up on the top of the mountain, with an inscription in honor of Field Marshall Paskewitsch, by whose victories the Russian dominions had been extended to this point. They chose this time the north-east side of the mountain, by which the way was much longer, but not so steep. But as this second attempt also failed, we pass over the account of it, and proceed without farther preface to the third, which succeeded. They however erected the cross on an almost horizontal surface covered with snow, at the height of 15,138 Paris feet above the level of the Euxine, or about 350 feet higher than the summit of Mont Blanc.

"In the mean time the sky cleared up, the air became serene and calm, the mountain too was more quiet, the noise occasioned by the falling of the masses of ice and snow grew less frequent-in short, every thing seemed to indicate that a favorable turn was about to take place in the weather, and I hastened to embrace it for a third attempt to ascend the mountain. On the 25th of September I sent to ask Stepan whether he would join us, but ⚫he declined, saying that he had suffered too much from the former excursion to venture again so soon; he however promised to send four stout peasants with three oxen and a driver. Early the next morning, four peasants made their appearance at the camp to join our expedition, and soon after a fifth, who offered himself voluntarily. To them I added two of our soldiers. The deacon again accompanied us, as well as Mr. Hehn, who wished to explore the vegetation at a greater elevation; but he did not intend to proceed beyond the line of snow. The experience of the preceding attempt had convinced me that every thing depended on our passing the first night as closely as possible to this boundary, in order to be able to ascend and return from the summit in one day, and to confine our baggage to what was absolutely necessary. We therefore took with us only three oxen laden with the clothing, wood, and provisions. I also took a small cross carved in oak .... We chose our route toward the same side as before, and, in order to spare ourselves, Abowian and I rode on horseback, wherever the rocky nature of the soil permitted it, as far as the grassy plain Kip-Ghioll, whence we sent

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the horses back. Here Mr. Hehn parted from us. scarcely twelve o'clock when we reached this point, and, after taking our breakfast, we proceeded in a direction rather more oblique than on our former attempt. The cattle were however unable to follow us so quickly. We therefore halted at some rocks which it would be impossible for them to pass-took each our own share of clothing and wood, and sent back the oxen. At half-past five in the evening we were not far from the snowline, and considerably higher than the place where we passed the night on our previous excursion. The elevation of this point was 13,036 Paris feet above the level of the sea, and the large masses of rock determined me to take up our quarters here. A fire was soon made, and a warm supper prepared. I had some onion broth, a dish which I would recommend to all mountain travellers, in preference to meat broth, as being extremely warm and invigorating. This being a fast day, poor Abowian was not able to enjoy it. The other Armenians, who strictly adhered to their rules of fasting, contented themselves with bread and the brandy which I distributed among them in a limited quantity, as this cordial must be taken with great caution, especially where the strength has been previously much tried, as it otherwise produces a sense of exhaustion and inclination to sleep. It was a magnificent evening, and, with my eye fixed on the clear sky and the lofty summit which projected against it, and then again on the dark night which was gathering far below and around me, I experienced all those delightful sensations of tranquillity, love, and devotion, that silent reminiscence of the past, that subdued glance into the future, which a traveller never fails to experience when on lofty elevations and under pleasing circumstances. I laid myself down under an overhanging rock of lava, the temperature of the air at four and a half deg., which was tolerably warm, considering our great height.

"At daybreak we rose, and began our journey at half past six. We crossed the last broken declivities in half an hour, and entered the boundary of eternal snow nearly at the same place as in our preceding ascent. In consequence of the increased warmth of the weather, the new-fallen snow, which had facilitated our progress on our previous ascent, had melted away, and again frozen, so that, in spite of the still inconsiderable slope, we were compelled to cut steps in the ice. This very much embarrassed our advance, and added greatly to our fatigue. One of the peasants had remained behind in our resting place, as he felt unwell; two others became exhausted in ascending the side of the glacier. They at first lay down, but soon retreated to our quarters. Without being disheartened by these difficulties, we proceeded, and soon reached the great cleft which marks the upper edge of the declivity of the large glacier, and at ten o'clock we arrived at the great plain of snow which marks the first break on the icy head of Ararat. At the distance of a werst, we saw the cross which we had reared on the 19th of September, but it appeared to me so extremely small, probably on account of its black color, that I almost doubted whether I should be able to find it again with an

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