Geography Of The Caucasus

Abstract

OF the several branches of the Russian Geographical Society, the Caucasian and the East Siberian are well known for the amount of valuable geographical work they have done during the thirty years or so of their existence. The high scientific interest connected with the exploration of the Caucasus is obvious. The scientific exploration of the Alps has revealed to us a new world; but the highlands of the Caucasus, with the high plateaux of Trauscaucasia, afford a still greater variety of geological and physico-geographical features than the Alps; besides, situated as they are no the boundary between the moist climate of the west and the dry one of the east, between the deeply-indented coasts of Europe and the deserts and plateaux of Asia, between the young civilisations of the west and the old civilisations of the east, the Caucasian highlands afford such a variety of climatic, botanical, zoological, and ethnological features as hardly can be met with in any other country of the world. Very much remains to be done to bring these highlands within the domain of scientific knowledge. In what has been done up to the present, the Caucasian branch of the Russian Geographical Society has always had a good share, either by direct exploration, or by bringing to the knowledge of the scientific world such explorations as otherwise would have remained unknown in the archives of different Government offices, or by giving a scientific character to such explorations as were made for military or diplomatic purposes. Besides, the activity of the Caucasian Geographical Society is not limited to the Caucasus. Closely connected with the General Staff of Tiflis, it extends its explora-tions to the Trans-Caspian region, to Asia Minor, and to Persia; and closely follows the Russian military expeditions, surveyors, and diplomatista who eagerly visit these countries.