The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

442 RUSSIA IN EUROPE.Geological Formation.The irregular and winding range of limestone mountains stretching fromCape Khersonesus to the Bay of Kaffa seems a mere fragment of a former system.It bears everywhere the traces of deep erosion, its rocks are but ruins, its mountainsthe remains of a vast table-land sloping gently northwards, and graduallydisappearing beneath the arid surface of the steppe, but southwards falling inabrupt escarpments to the sea. On this side alone the culminating points ofthe ridge, running from 4 to 8 miles from the coast, present the appearance ofmountains, seeming all the more elevated that they here rise directly abovethe blue waters of the Euxine, which even close in shore reveal depths of 100fathoms and upwards.The limestone rocks of this range alternate at several points with layers of clayand argillaceous schists, a disposition of the strata which tends to accelerate thedisintegration of the slopes facing seawards. Some of the clay pits, graduallywasted away by the springs, have left vast caverns in the hillside, while hugemasses have rolled down, still showing the sharp outlines of their breakage abovethe surrounding chaos of debris. On the coast the argillaceous strata have everywherebeen undermined by the waves, and many cliffs,thus deprived of their support,now hang threateningly over the waters, every torrential downpour sweepingaway large masses, and carrying farther seawards all the rocky fragments strewnover the valleys. A detachment of Russian troops encamped in the bed of theAlma was thus, on one occasion, carried away by the rush of water and debris.At times, also, the upper cliff gives way, the landslips bearing with them houses andgarden plots, and building up fresh headlands in the sea. When Pallas visitedthe peninsula in 179-1 he was shown two promontories so formed some eightyears previously.The Chatir Dagh, or " Tent " Mount, may be taken as a type of the generalformation of this crenellated limestone range. From a distance its white andregular sides no doubt give it the appearance of a tent ; but viewed from the.summit it would deserve rather the name of " Table " Mount (Trapezos) bestowedupon it by the Greeks. Isolated on all sides, east and west by almost verticalprecipices, north and south by cirques and ravines produced by erosion, itpresents the form of a quadrangular mass elongated southwards, with a superficialarea of over 8 square miles. This huge mass, if not perfectly horizontal, is at allevents but very slightly inclined, as far as the neighbourhood of the crest towardsthe south side of the "table," the surface being broken only by funnel-shapedcavities, through which the rain-water flows off. The elevated pastures of theChatir Dagh and its neighbours recall the alpages of the Swiss Jura ; but thesurface has here been more weathered than aroundLake Neuchatel, and none ofthe Jura summits have been denuded to the same extent as the " Tent." In theAngar-Boghaz ravine, on its east side, rises the Salgir, an affluent of the Sivash,and the largest river in the Crimea.The col, or summit of the pass, lower than anyof those crossing the range itself, and long traversed by a carriage road, has at all