Note 5 — Chapter XX · BACK TO THE CENTRAL TABLELAND

On the left bank a new feature came into prominence: a long and fairly lofty ridge, with perfectly horizontal outline, many miles away on the south. But the slope of this broad mass was continuous to the brink of the river, where it was broken by the stream into cliffs. Its gentle gradient and almost level surface somewhat softened the rigour of the landscape. It was seen to consist of a sheet of lava, which had covered up the marls, and which must have issued in a very liquid condition. The heights upon which it is built are the northern border heights of Mush plain; and this block of heights approaches closer and closer to the Murad, as it eats its way through the district on a westerly course. Such was the character of the country beyond the winding, hissing river throughout the whole stage. Villages there were none, and hamlets few. A single oasis of any importance was observed high-seated upon the slope in the south, near the break in the outline where the Murad pierces through the block. We should have been pleased to spend the night in that extensive and leafy grove, which belongs to a village called Ali Gedik. But we were assured that the river was not passable, and we were obliged to push on to Charbahur. After following a romantic gorge where the Murad has again been wayward, and has preferred to saw a passage through a towering parapet of lava rather than to follow easier ground upon the south, we rode for some distance along a wide stretch of alluvial soil in which the river at length reposes from its arduous labours. The Circassian village of Charbahur is placed at some distance from the waters, on the northern margin of the broad strip of willow-grown land.5