et above sea-level), and the other
still smaller heights that dot the plain, only serve as a standard by
which to measure Ararat's immensity and grandeur.

Little Ararat is the meeting-point, or corner-stone, of three great
empires. On its conical peak converge the dominions of the Czar, the
Sultan, and the Shah. The Russian border-line runs from Little Ararat
along the high ridge which separates it from Great Ararat, through the
peak of the latter, and onward a short distance to the northwest, then
turns sharply to the west. On the Sardarbulakh pass, between Great and
Little Ararat, is stationed a handful of Russian Cossacks to remind
lawless tribes of the guardianship of the "White Sultan."

The two Ararats together form an elliptical mass, about twenty-five miles
in length, running northwest and southeast, and about half that in width.
Out of this massive base rise the two Ararat peaks, their bases being
contiguous up to 8800 feet and their tops about seven miles apart. Little
Ararat is an almost perfect truncated cone, while Great Ararat is more of
a broad-shouldered dome supported by strong, rough-ribbed buttresses. The
isolated position of Ararat, its structure of igneous rocks, the presence
of small craters and immense volcanic fissures on its slopes, and the
scoriae and ashes on the surrounding plain, establish beyond a doubt its
volcanic origin. But according to the upheaval theory of the eminent
geologist, Hermann Abich, who was among the few to make the ascent of the
mountain, there never was a great central crater in either Great or Little
Ararat. Certain it is that no craters or signs of craters now exist on the
summit of either mountain. But Mr. James Bryce, who made the last ascent,
in 1876, seems to think that there is no sufficient reason why craters
could not have previously existed, and been filled up by their own
irruptions. There is no record of any irruption in historical times. The
only thing approaching it was the earthquake which shook the mountain in
1840, accompanied by subterranean rumblings, and destructive blasts of
wind. The Tatar village of Arghuri and a Kurdish encampment on the
northeast slope were entirely destroyed by the precipitated rocks. Not a
man was left to tell the story. Mr. Bryce and others have spoken of the
astonishing height of the snow-line on Mount Ararat, which is placed at
14,000 feet; while in the Alps it is only about 9000 feet, and in the
Caucasus on an average 11,0