DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5541#0198
170
REMARKABLE HILLOCKS.
[Chap. xi.
togine, the debris of which filled all the ravines, and formed
a sloping talus at the foot of the cliff. At half-past seven
we passed a group of remarkable conical hillocks, consisting
of thinly laminated calcareous sinter or travertine, and which
have been produced by the successive deposits of a calcare-
ous spring, still flowing, and in the act of forming another
cone in the immediate neighbourhood. It is probable that,
when the deposit from the water had raised the sediment-
ary tumulus to a certain height, the spring flowed with
less rapidity, and with so much less force that the old
vents became gradually choked up by fresh deposit, and
the water was forced to seek a new opening, where it con-
tinued to deposit its laminated matter as before, until a
fresh hillock was produced, and the same process again
renewed. The spring now rises about fifty yards to the east
of the old mounds, having commenced forming a new one.
The water which I tasted was not very cold, but strongly
chalybeate, and, in a civilized country, would probably be
turned to a better purpose than forming such gigantic mole-
hills. About a mile farther we passed a village situated on a
low hill of calcareous tuff, probably deposited by similar
mineral springs in former ages.
Near the eighth mile we halted to allow the baggage-
horses to come up with us at an Armenian blacksmith's forge.
I have seldom seen such a wild and savage-looking set of
beings. For some time we could not make out who or
what they were: by degrees, however, Ave learnt that they
were Christians, although they seemed afraid of confessing
their religion. The valley was still without trees, with
only a few occasional patches of cultivation, and gradually
becomin<r more contracted. At the eighth mile we crossed
another considerable stream, flowing from the N.E., and ten
miles farther on another from the S.W. Here began a
picturescpie and narrow passage between lofty limestone
rocks on either side; amongst which, in searching for fos-
sils, I could only find the fragment of a large ammonite.
From hence we emerged into a plain, surrounded by high
REMARKABLE HILLOCKS.
[Chap. xi.
togine, the debris of which filled all the ravines, and formed
a sloping talus at the foot of the cliff. At half-past seven
we passed a group of remarkable conical hillocks, consisting
of thinly laminated calcareous sinter or travertine, and which
have been produced by the successive deposits of a calcare-
ous spring, still flowing, and in the act of forming another
cone in the immediate neighbourhood. It is probable that,
when the deposit from the water had raised the sediment-
ary tumulus to a certain height, the spring flowed with
less rapidity, and with so much less force that the old
vents became gradually choked up by fresh deposit, and
the water was forced to seek a new opening, where it con-
tinued to deposit its laminated matter as before, until a
fresh hillock was produced, and the same process again
renewed. The spring now rises about fifty yards to the east
of the old mounds, having commenced forming a new one.
The water which I tasted was not very cold, but strongly
chalybeate, and, in a civilized country, would probably be
turned to a better purpose than forming such gigantic mole-
hills. About a mile farther we passed a village situated on a
low hill of calcareous tuff, probably deposited by similar
mineral springs in former ages.
Near the eighth mile we halted to allow the baggage-
horses to come up with us at an Armenian blacksmith's forge.
I have seldom seen such a wild and savage-looking set of
beings. For some time we could not make out who or
what they were: by degrees, however, Ave learnt that they
were Christians, although they seemed afraid of confessing
their religion. The valley was still without trees, with
only a few occasional patches of cultivation, and gradually
becomin<r more contracted. At the eighth mile we crossed
another considerable stream, flowing from the N.E., and ten
miles farther on another from the S.W. Here began a
picturescpie and narrow passage between lofty limestone
rocks on either side; amongst which, in searching for fos-
sils, I could only find the fragment of a large ammonite.
From hence we emerged into a plain, surrounded by high