'The Expedition for the survey of the rivers Euphrates and Tigris, carried on by order of the British government, in the years 1835, 1836, and 1837; preceded by geographical and historical notices of the regions situated between the rivers Nile and Indus. In four volumes. With fourteen maps and charts, and embellished with ninety-seven plates, besides numerous wood-cuts. Volume the first.' [‎150] (205/905)

150
COLCHIS.
[CHAP. VII.
of the Greek church; and the classes of people are princes,
nobles, and peasants. The sovereigns of this principality are
descendants of the Georgian dynasty, and they remained
vassals to the Ottoman Porte from the sixteenth century to
the treaty of Adrianople. Previously to that treaty being
made, the finest timber of the country was floated along the
Black Sea in rafts, to supply the arsenal at Constantinople.
Ancient These provinces formed part of ancient Colchis, which was
peopled by one section of the Moschi, the supposed Meshech
of Scripture. 1 From Casluchim, Cumberland derived the
name of Colchians, 2 whose position was along the Phasis and
Euxine Sea, near the Sarapani. 3 Their country was famous
for its flax and manufactures of fine linens; 4 and it was a
kingdom before the Argonautic expedition. 5 Colchis has
always been celebrated for its fine timber and productive
mines of silver, gold, and precious stones ; and its honey still
produces the effects experienced by the Greeks ; 6 this seems
to be accounted for by the abundance of hellebore, on the
flower of which the bees delight to feed.
Having traced the principal divisions of the trans-Caucasian
territory, the smaller districts lying in the basin of the Kur
remain to be noticed ; and, in describing them, we shall pro
ceed from east to west, both northward and southward of
that river.
EHzabethpoL Elizabethpol is on the latter side, between Karabagh on
the east, Erivan on the south, and Shamshadil on the west.
It contains nearly 1650 7 square miles of surface, consisting
in part of the mountainous tract near Gandja; this is followed
by hilly slopes, and these terminate in plains. It is well
watered by the Chamkhor, Kotchkar, the Ghandjan, and other
tributaries of the Kur. The soil varies, being in places sandy,
or stony, but it is more generally of black earth.
itg climate, The climate varies between the extreme cold of the moun-
1 Genesis x. 10.—Turner's Sacred History, Vol. II., p. 489.
1 Cumberland's Times of first planting Nations, p. 50.
3 Herod., lib. IV., p. 37. 4 Ibid., II., p. 105.
5 Strabo, lib. XL, p. 99. s Anab., IV., s. 20.
7 Apercju, &c., Tome II., p. 322.