Note 1 — Chapter XXII · HOME ACROSS THE BORDER RANGES

My purpose in the present chapter is to collect the threads of that part of the narrative which was occupied with the natural features, and to endeavour to weave them together into a composite but single fabric, capable of being appreciated as a whole. In the pursuit of this object I shall postulate familiarity on the part of my reader with the contents of the companion chapter dealing with the same subject which belongs to my first volume; and it is not without misgiving that I compare the scantiness of my present material with the multitude of facts with which the researches of Hermann Abich have enriched our knowledge of the Russian provinces. I am dependent almost entirely upon the gleanings of my own journeys and of those accomplished by my friends within quite recent years; and it has been impossible to commence the writing of this chapter before the completion of the map embodying these results. What it may, perhaps, be hoped without excessive presumption is that the framework, at least, of our subject, the geography of South-Western or Turkish Armenia, can now be established with some degree of certainty; and that succeeding travellers may be enabled to recognise at a glance the more imperfect parts instead of losing themselves in the almost unknown or falsely known.1