DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5542#0160
Chap.
xxxix.]
KAPLAN ALAN.
149
After crossing a small alluvial plain we ascended a ridge
of wooded hills, capped in places with basaltic plateaux,
which increased in extent as we ascended, and were partly
covered with oak coppices and patches of corn. Our direc-
tion was S.S.E.: the lava became more porous and vesi-
cular, and at length red and scoriaceous; but the cone
or crater whence it had issued was not apparent, though
the ground was strewed with numerous cinders. Look-
ing back from a considerable elevation, it was evident
that the lower plateau of lava was a continuation of the
coulee, up which our road had led us, and which, after
flowing down the hill, had spread itself over the bottom of
a lacustrine basin, subsequently drained, and through which
the Hermus had worn itself a channel, leaving small por-
tions of a table-land resting against the hill-side, with per-
pendicular cliffs and a basaltic capping. This lava is evi-
dently of an older date than the three volcanic cones above
described, but not so old as the basaltic plateaux which
occur higher up the valley of the Hermus. I have no hesi-
tation in attributing it to the period to which the worn-
down cones in the neighbourhood of Koula, Sandal, and
Megne belong.
At eight we reached the summit of the narrow ridge of
horizontal lacustrine limestone, which forms the northern
limit of the plain of Kaplan Alan. In winding down from
this ridge amidst oak coppices, without a trace of a road, I
was much struck with the singular appearance of the cone
which I had had so much difficulty in finding, having been
constantly told there was not a third. The Euruques in the
neighbourhood call it Kaplan Devlit (the Tiger's Inkstand).
It stands in a plain two or three miles wide, and is com-
pletely surrounded by the black basalt, which has been
poured forth in every direction.
On reaching the edge of this rugged mass, I dismounted
and attempted to walk across it, but found it broken up into
fragments of such gigantic size, and intersected at almost
every step by such wide cracks and hollows, twenty and
thirty feet deep, the steep sides of which could not be scaled
xxxix.]
KAPLAN ALAN.
149
After crossing a small alluvial plain we ascended a ridge
of wooded hills, capped in places with basaltic plateaux,
which increased in extent as we ascended, and were partly
covered with oak coppices and patches of corn. Our direc-
tion was S.S.E.: the lava became more porous and vesi-
cular, and at length red and scoriaceous; but the cone
or crater whence it had issued was not apparent, though
the ground was strewed with numerous cinders. Look-
ing back from a considerable elevation, it was evident
that the lower plateau of lava was a continuation of the
coulee, up which our road had led us, and which, after
flowing down the hill, had spread itself over the bottom of
a lacustrine basin, subsequently drained, and through which
the Hermus had worn itself a channel, leaving small por-
tions of a table-land resting against the hill-side, with per-
pendicular cliffs and a basaltic capping. This lava is evi-
dently of an older date than the three volcanic cones above
described, but not so old as the basaltic plateaux which
occur higher up the valley of the Hermus. I have no hesi-
tation in attributing it to the period to which the worn-
down cones in the neighbourhood of Koula, Sandal, and
Megne belong.
At eight we reached the summit of the narrow ridge of
horizontal lacustrine limestone, which forms the northern
limit of the plain of Kaplan Alan. In winding down from
this ridge amidst oak coppices, without a trace of a road, I
was much struck with the singular appearance of the cone
which I had had so much difficulty in finding, having been
constantly told there was not a third. The Euruques in the
neighbourhood call it Kaplan Devlit (the Tiger's Inkstand).
It stands in a plain two or three miles wide, and is com-
pletely surrounded by the black basalt, which has been
poured forth in every direction.
On reaching the edge of this rugged mass, I dismounted
and attempted to walk across it, but found it broken up into
fragments of such gigantic size, and intersected at almost
every step by such wide cracks and hollows, twenty and
thirty feet deep, the steep sides of which could not be scaled