Chapter XI: Front Matter (11)

"The central chain of the Caucasus," writes Mr Douglas W.
Freshfield,[1] "consists of a number of short parallel or curved
horseshoe ridges, crowned with rocky peaks and enclosing basins filled
by the _neves_ of great glaciers.... On either side of the main chain
the same succession is repeated, with one important difference. On the
north the schists come first, sometimes rising into peaks and ridges
in a state of ruin ... but more often worn to rolling downs; then the
limestone range--writing-desk mountains that turn their steep fronts
to the central snows; lastly low Cretaceous foothills, that sink
softly into the steppe. But on the south side the crystalline rocks
are succeeded by a broad belt of slates, as to the age of which the
evidence is at present conflicting and the opinion of geologists
divided. East of Adai-khokh, by what seems a strange freak of nature,
the granitic [main] range is rent over and over again to its base by
gorges, the watershed being transferred to the parallel chain of clay
slates ... which has followed it from the Black Sea, attaining on its
way the height of 13,400 ft. in the Laila, and limiting the great
parallel basins of the Rion, Ingur and Skenis Shali
[= Tskhenis-Tskhali]...." "At the base of the central core of the chain
spread (to the north) broad, smooth, grassy downs, the pastures of the
Turk and the Ossete.... Their ridges attain to 9000 to 10,000 ft. They
are composed of friable crystalline schists.... Beyond these schists
rises a broken wall of limestone, cleft to the base by gorges, through
which flow the mountain torrents, and capped by pale precipitous
battlements, which face the central chain at a height of 11,000 to
12,000 ft. Beyond, again, lies a broad furrow, or 'longitudinal fold,'
as geologists call it, parallel to the ridges, and then rises the last
elevation, a belt of low calcareous hills, on which, here and there
among the waves of beech forest, purple or blue with distance, a white
cliff retains its local colour and shines like a patch of fresh snow.
Beyond, once more beyond, spreads the Scythian steppe, not the dead
level of Lombardy, but an expanse of long low modulations, which would
be reckoned hills in our home counties, seamed by long shining
ribbons, which mark the courses of the tributaries of the Terek....
Southwards too, immediately under the snows, we find 'crystalline
schists,' smooth grassy heights, separated by shallow trenches, which
form the lesser undulations of the three basins, the _drei
Langenhochthaler Imeritiens_ of Dr Radde. These basins or
'longitudinal folds' are enclosed on the south by the long high ridge
of dark slates, which extends parallel to the crystalline [main] chain
from the neighbourhood of Sukhum-Kale to the Krestovaya Gora [pass of
Darial.] Behind this slate crest spreads a confused multitude of
hills, Jurassic and Cretaceous in their formation.... Their outer
edge, distant some 30 to 40 m. from the snows, is marked by a
limestone belt, lower and less continuous than that on the north,
which frames the gorges of the Rion, and rises in the Kuamli (6352
ft.) and Nakarala (4774 ft.) near Kutais, its best known
elevations."[2] It may be added that, south of the central watershed,
the strata, both Mesozoic and Palaeozoic, are compressed, crumpled,
faulted and frequently overfolded, with their apices pointing to the
south.

_Glaciers._--As a rule the snow-line runs at 9500 to 10,000 ft. on the northern face and 1000 ft. higher on the southern face. It is estimated that there are in all over nine hundred glaciers in this section of the range, and although they often rival those of the Alps in size, they do not descend generally to such low altitudes as the latter. The best known are the Bezingi or Ullu, between Dykh-tau and Janga-tau, 10-1/2 m. long, covering an area of 31 sq.m., and descending to 6535 ft. above sea-level; Leksyr, situated south of Adyr-su-bashi, 7-1/2 m. long, 19 sq.m. in area, and creeping down to as low as 5690 ft., this being the lowest point to which any glacier descends on the south side of the range; Tseya or Zea, descending 6 m. from the Adai-khokh to an altitude of 6730 ft.; Karagom, from the same mountain, 9-1/2 m. long, 14 sq.m. in area and reaching down to 5790 ft., the lowest on the north side; Dyevdorak or Devdorak, from Kasbek, 2-1/2 m. long, its lower end at 7530 ft.; Khaldeh or Geresho 4-1/4 m. long, from Shkara and Janga-tau; Tuyber from Tetnuld, 6-1/2 m. long, area 21 sq.m., and reaching down to 6565 ft.; Tsanner or Zanner, the same length and the same area, but stopping short 240 ft. higher, likewise given off by Tetnuld; while between that peak, Adish and Gestola originates the Adish or Lardkhat glacier, 5 m. long and terminating at 7450 ft. The total area covered by glaciers in the central Caucasus is estimated at 625 to 650 sq.m., the longest being the Maliev on Kasbek, 36 m. long; but according to the investigations of M. Rossikov several of the largest glaciers are shrinking or retreating, the Tseya at the rate of something like 40-45 ft. per annum.

_Passes._--It is in this section that the entire mountain system is narrowest, and here it is that (apart from the "gate" at Derbent close beside the Caspian) the principal means of communication exist between north and south, between the steppes of southern Russia and the highlands of Armenia and Asia Minor. These means of communication are the passes of Darial and Mamison. Over the former, which lies immediately east of Kasbek, runs the Georgian military road (made 1811-1864) from Vladikavkaz to Tiflis, cutting through the mountains by a gorge (8 m. long) of singular beauty, shut in by precipitous mountain walls nearly 6000 ft. high, and so narrow that there is only just room for the carriage-road and the brawling river Terek side by side. The pass by which this road crosses the main range, farther south, is known as the Krestovaya Gora (Mountain of the Cross) and lies 7805 ft. above sea-level. The Mamison Pass, over which runs the Ossetic military road (made passable for vehicles in 1889) from the Terek (below Vladikavkaz) to Kutais in the valley of the Rion, skirting the eastern foot of the Adai-khokh, lies at an altitude of 9270 ft. and is situated a little south of the main range. Scarce any of the remaining passes in this west-central region are better than mountain paths; horses can traverse the best of them only during a few weeks in the height of summer. They mostly range at altitudes of 9000-12,500 ft., and between the pass of Nakhar in the west and that of Mamison in the east there is not a single pass below 10,000 ft. The best known in this section are the three Baksan passes of Chiper (10,800 and 10,720 ft.), Bassa (9950 ft.) and Donguz-orun (10,490 ft.), south of Elbruz; those of Becho (11,070 ft.), Akh-su (12,465 ft.), Bak (10,220 ft.), Adyr-su (12,305 ft.) and Bezingi (10,090 ft.), between Elbruz and Dykh-tau; and those of Shari-vizk (11,560 ft.), Edena, Pasis-mta or Godivizk (11,270 ft.), Shtulu-vizk (10,860 ft.), Fytnargyn (11,130 ft.), between Dykh-tau and Adai-khokh; the Bakh-fandak (9570 ft.), between Adai-khohk and Kasbek; and the two Karaul passes (11,680 and 11,270 ft.) and Gurdzi-vizk (10,970 ft.), connecting the valley of the Urukh with that of the Rion. The most frequented pass in Svanetia is that of Latpari (9260 ft.), situated in the first of the southern subsidiary ranges mentioned above, and thus connecting the valley of the Ingur with the valley of the Tskhenis-Tskhali.

_Flora._--In this section of the range again the southern slopes are clothed with vegetation of remarkable luxuriance and richness, more especially in the region of Svanetia (42 deg.-43 deg. E.). Not only are the plants bigger than they grow in the Alps, but the blossoms are more abundant. Here again forests of _Coniferae_ predominate, especially on the northern and eastern slopes; and the other distinguishing features of the flora are gigantic male ferns (_Aspidium filix-mas_), _Paris incompleta_ (a member of the Trilliaceae), _Usnea_ or tree-moss, box, holly (_Ilex aquifolium_), _Lilium monadelphum_ and many of the familiar herbaceous plants which flower in English gardens, though here they grow to an altogether extraordinary size--"monkshoods, _Cephalaria_, _Mulgedia_ and groundsels, among which men on horseback might play at hide and seek without stooping" (E. Levier). Other prominent species are _Campanula_, _Pyrethrum_, aconite, _Cephaelis_, speedwell, _Alchemilla sericea_, _Centaurea macrocephala_, _Primula grandis_ and a species of primrose. And the great height (13,000 ft.) at which the flowering plants blossom is not less remarkable than the great beauty and abundance of the flowers. Species which grow on both the northern and the southern slopes ascend 2000 ft. higher on the latter than on the former. Walnuts grow up to an altitude of 5400 ft., the vine and mulberry up to 3250 ft., the lime and ash to 4000 ft. The forests extend to the upper end of the limestone gorges. Above that the crystalline schists are bare of tree vegetation. The upper limit of arborescent vegetation is considered to run at 7000-7500 ft., of shrubs such as rhododendrons at 8500 ft., and of pasture-lands up to 9000 ft. The principal cultivated varieties of plants in this section are wheat, rye, oats, barley, beans, millet and tobacco.

3. MIDDLE CAUCASUS: (b) _Eastern Part._--In this sub-section, which stretches from Kasbek and the Darial gorge eastwards to the Baba-dagh in 48 deg. 25' E., a distance of 230 m., the Caucasus attains its greatest breadth. For the whole of that distance the main range keeps at an average elevation of 10,000 ft., though the peaks in many instances tower up 2000 to nearly 5000 ft. higher, the altitudes increasing towards the east. As the main range approaches the Caspian its granite core gradually disappears, giving place to Palaeozoic schists, which spread down both the northern and the southern slopes. The glaciers too decrease in the same proportion both in magnitude and in extent. Here the principal peaks, again found for the most part on the spurs and subsidiary ranges, are the Tsmiakom-khokh (13,570 ft.), Shan-tau (14,530 ft.), Kidenais-magali (13,840 ft.), Zilga-khokh (12,645 ft), Zikari (12,565 ft.), Choukhi (12,110 ft.), Julti-dagh (12,430 ft.), Alakhun-dagh (12,690 ft.) and Maghi-dagh (12,445 ft.). On the main range itself stand Borbalo (10,175 ft.), Great Shavi-kildeh (12,325 ft.), Murov (11,110 ft.), Ansal (11,740 ft.), Ginor-roso (11,120 ft), while farther east come Trfan-dagh (13,765 ft.) and Bazardyuz or Kichen (14,727 ft.). In the same direction, but again outside the main range, lie Shah-dagh (13,955 ft.), Shalbuz (13,675 ft.) and Malkamud (12,750 ft.).

But the most noteworthy feature of this section is the broad _highland region of Daghestan_, which flanks the main range on the north, and sinks down both eastwards to the Black Sea and northwards to the valley of the Terek. On the north-west this rugged highland region is well defined by the distinctive transverse ridge of Andi, which to the east of Kasbek strikes off from the Caucasus range almost at right angles. The rest of the Daghestan region consists of a series of roughly parallel folds, of Jurassic or Cretaceous age, ranging in altitudes from 7500 up to 12,500 ft., separated from one another by deep gorge-like river glens which cut it up into a number of arid, treeless plateaus which have something of the appearance of independent ranges, or rather elongated tablelands of a mountainous character. The most prominent of these tablelands is Bash-lam, which stretches east and west between the Chanti Argun and the Andian Koisu, both tributaries of the Terek. Upon it rise the conspicuous peaks of Tebulos-mta (14,775 ft.), Tugo-mta (13,795 ft.), Komito-tavi or Kachu (14,010 ft.), Donos-mta (13,560 ft.), Diklos-mta (13,740 ft.), Kvavlos-mta or Kolos-mta (13,080 ft.), Motshekh-tsferi (13,140 ft.) and Galavanas-tsferi (13,260 ft.). Farther east come the Bogos tableland, stretching from south-south-west to east-north-east between the Andian Koisu and the Avarian Koisu and rising to over 13,400 ft. in several peaks, e.g. Antshovala (13,440 ft.), Botshokh-meer (13,515 ft.), Kosara-ku (13,420 ft.) and Addala-shuogchol-meer (13,580 ft.); and the Dyulty tableland, reaching 12,400 ft. between the Kara Koisu and the Kazikumukh Koisu. On some of these peaks again there is a considerable amount of glaciation, more particularly on the slopes of Diklos-mta, where the glaciers descend to 7700 ft. on the north side and to 8350 ft. on the south side. In this section of the Caucasus the passes run somewhat lower than those between Elbruz and Kasbek, though still at appreciable heights, fully equal to those that lead up from the Black Sea to the valley of the Kuban in the western section of the range. The best known are the Krestovaya Gora (7805 ft.) on the Georgian military road, south of Darial; Kodor (9300 ft.) and Satskheni, leading up from Telav in the upper valley of the Alazan; and Gudur (10,120 ft.) and Salavat (9280 ft.), carrying the Akhty military road from the valley of the Samur up past the Shah-dagh and the Bazar-dyusi to the valley of the Alazan.

The _flora_ of this section bears a general resemblance to that farther west. Ample details will be found in Dr G. Radde's (1831-1903) monographs on Daghestan, quoted at the end of the present article.

4. The EASTERN SECTION of the Caucasus gradually dies away east of Baba-dagh (11,930 ft.) towards the Caspian, terminating finally in the peninsula of Apsheron. It is, however, continued under the waters of the Caspian, as stated in the article on that sea, and reappears on its eastern side in the Kopet-dagh, which skirts the north-east frontier of Persia. In this section of the Caucasus no peak exceeds 9000 ft. in altitude and the crest of the main range retains no snow. The most frequented pass, that of Alty-agach, necessitates a climb of not more than 4355 ft.

_Slopes of Range._--Between the northern and the southern sides of the range there is quite as great a difference in climate, productions and scenery as there is between the Swiss and the Italian sides of the Alps. In the south-western valleys and on the south-western slopes of the Caucasus, where a heavy rainfall is combined with a warm temperature, magnificent forests clothe the mountain-sides and dip their skirts into the waters of the Black Sea. There not only the littoral from (say) Sukhum-Kaleh to Batum but the inland parts of the basin of the Rion will bear comparison with any of the provinces of Italy in point of fertility, and in richness and variety of products. But farther inland, upon proceeding eastwards towards Tiflis, a great change becomes noticeable on the other side of the transverse ridge of the Suram or Meskes mountains. Arid upland plains and parched hillsides take the place of the rich verdure and luxuriant arborescent growth of Imeretia, Svanetia and Mingrelia, the districts which occupy the valleys of the Ingur and Rion and the tributaries of the latter. A very similar change likewise becomes noticeable in the higher regions of the Caucasus Mountains upon proceeding north of the pass of Mamison, which separates the head-waters of the Rion from those of the Ardon, an important tributary of the Terek. The valleys of the two streams last mentioned, and of others that flow in the same direction, are almost wholly destitute of trees, but where the bare rock does not prevail, the mountain slopes are carpeted with grass. Freshfield's description of the valley of the Terek above Kasbek will apply pretty generally to all the valleys that descend on that face of the range: "treeless valleys, bold rocks, slopes of forbidding steepness (even to eyes accustomed to those of the Alps), and stonebuilt villages, scarcely distinguishable from the neighbouring crags." But, austere and unattractive though these valleys are, the same epithets cannot be applied to the deep gorges by which in most cases the streams make their escape through the northern subsidiary range. These defiles are declared to be superior in grandeur to anything of the kind in the Alps. That of Darial (the Terek) is fairly well known, but those of the Cherek and the Urukh, farther west, are stated to be still more magnificent. And not only do the snow-clad ranges and the ice-panoplied peaks which tower up above them surpass the loftiest summits of the Alps in altitude; they also in many cases excel them in boldness and picturesqueness of outline, and equal the most difficult of them in steepness and relative inaccessibility.

_Hydrography._--Nearly all the larger rivers of Caucasia have their sources in the central parts of the Caucasus range. The short, steep, torrential streams of Mdzimta, Pzou, Bzyb and Kodor drain the country west of Elbruz. The Ingur, Tskhenis-Tskhali, Rion and its tributaries (e.g. the Kvirila) are longer, but also in part torrential; they drain the great glacier region between Elbruz and Kasbek. The Rion is the _Phasis_ of the ancients and flows through the classic land of Colchis, associated with the legends of Medea and the Argonauts. The Lyakhva and Aragva, tributaries of the Kura, carry off the waters of the main range south of Kasbek, and other tributaries, such as the Yora and the Alazan, collect the surplus drainage of the main Caucasus range farther east. The other large river of this region, the Aras, has its sources, not in the Caucasus range, but on the Armenian highlands a long way south-west of Ararat. The rivers which go down from the central Caucasus northwards have considerably longer courses than those on the south side of the range, partly as a consequence of the gentler versant and partly also because of the great distances to which the steppes extend across which they make their way to the sea. The most important of these are the Kuban and the Terek; but it is the latter that picks up most of the streams which have their sources among the central glaciers, e.g. the Malka, Baksan, Chegem, Cherek, Urukh, Ardon, all confined to deep narrow glens until they quit the mountains. The Kuma, which alone pursues an independent course through the steppes, farther north than the Terek, has its sources, not in the main ranges of the Caucasus, but in an outlying group of mountains near Pyatigorsk, the highest summit of which, Besh-tau, does not exceed 4600 ft. But its waters become absorbed in the sands of the desert steppes before they reach the Caspian. Of the streams that carve into chequers the elevated plateau or highland region of Daghestan four are known by the common name of the Koisu, being distinguished _inter se_ as the Andian Koisu, the Avarian Koisu, the Kara Koisu and the Kazikumukh Koisu, which all unite to form the Sulak. The only other stream deserving of mention in this province is the Samur. Both rivers discharge their waters into the Caspian; as also does the Zumgail, a small stream which drains the eastern extremity of the Caucasus range in the government of Baku.

_Volcanic Evidences._--Ancient, but now extinct, volcanic upheavals are pretty common at the intersections of the main range with the transverse ranges; of these the most noteworthy are Elbruz and Kasbek. The town of Shemakha, near the eastern end of the system, was the scene of volcanic outbreaks as late as 1859, 1872 and 1902; while in the adjacent peninsula of Apsheron mud volcanoes exist in large numbers. All along the northern foot of the system hot mineral springs gush out at various places, such as Pyatigorsk, Zhelesnovodsk, Essentuki and Kislovodsk; and the series is continued along the north-eastern foot of the highlands of Daghestan, e.g. Isti-su, Eskiendery, Akhta. In this connexion it may also be mentioned that similar evidences of volcanic activity characterize the northern border of the Armenian highlands on the southern side of the Rion-Kura depression, in the mountains of Ararat, Alagoz, Akmangan, Samsar, Godoreby, Great and Little Abull, and in the mineral springs of Borzhom, Abbas-tuman, Sleptzov, Mikhailovsk and Tiflis. (J. T. Be.; P. A. K.)

_Geology._--The general structure of the Caucasus is comparatively
simple. The strata are folded so as to form a fan. In the centre of
the fan lies a band of crystalline rocks which disappears towards the
east. Beneath it, on both sides, plunge the strongly folded Palaeozoic
and Jurassic schists. On the northern flank the folded beds are
followed by a zone of Jurassic and Cretaceous beds which rapidly
assume a gentle inclination towards the plain. On the south the
corresponding zone is affected by numerous secondary folds which
involve the Sarmatian or Upper Miocene deposits. In the eastern part
of the chain the structure is somewhat modified. The crystalline band
is lost. The northern Mesozoic zone is very much broader, and is
thrown into simple folds like those of the Jura. The southern Mesozoic
zone is absent, and the Palaeozoic zone sinks abruptly in a series of
faulted steps to the plain of the Kura, beneath which no doubt the
continuation of the Mesozoic zone is concealed.

The geological sequence begins with the granite and schists of the
central zone, which form a band extending from Fisht on the west to a
point some distance beyond Kasbek on the east. Then follow the
Palaeozoic schists and slates. Fossils are extremely rare in these
beds; _Buthotrephis_ has long been known, and doubtful traces of
_Calamites_ and ferns have been found, but it was not until 1897 that
undoubted Palaeozoic fossils were obtained. They appear to indicate a
Devonian age. Upon the Palaeozoic beds rest a series of Mesozoic
deposits, beginning with the Lias and ending with the Upper
Cretaceous. Whether the series is continuous or not is a matter of
controversy. F. Loewinson-Lessing states that there is a more or less
marked discordance between the Lias and the Upper Jurassic and between
the latter and the Cretaceous; E. Fournier asserts that there exists a
very strongly marked unconformity at the base of the Tithonian, and
other writers have expressed other views. In general the Upper
ajurassic beds are much more calcareous on the north flank of the
chain than they are on the south. The Mesozoic beds are followed by
the Tertiary deposits, which on the north are nearly horizontal but on
the south are in part included in the folds--the Eocene and Miocene
being folded, while the later beds, though sometimes elevated, are not
affected by the folding. The final folding of the chain undoubtedly
occurred at the close of the Miocene period. That there were earlier
periods of folding is almost equally certain, but there is
considerable difference of opinion as to their dates. The difference
in character of the Jurassic beds on the two sides of the chain
appears to indicate that a ridge existed in that period. The last
phase in the history of the Caucasus was marked by the growth of the
great volcanoes of Elbruz and Kasbek, which stand upon the old rocks
of the central zone, and by the outflow of sheets of lava upon the
sides of the chain. The cones themselves are composed largely of acid
andesites, but many of the lavas are augite andesites and basalts.
There seem to have been two periods of eruption, and as some of the
lavas have flowed over Quaternary gravels, the latest outbursts must
have been of very recent date.

Near the northern foot of the Caucasus, especially in the
neighbourhood of the hot mineral springs of Pyatigorsk, a group of
hills of igneous rocks rises above the plain. They are laccolites of
trachytic rock, and raised the Tertiary beds above them in the form of
blisters. Subsequent denudation has removed the sedimentary covering
and exposed the igneous core. (P. La.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Of the older works the following are still useful: A.
von Haxthausen, _Transkaukasia_ (2 vols., Leipzig, 1856); A.
Petzholdt, _Der Kaukasus_ (2 vols., Leipzig, 1866-1867); M.G. von
Thielmann, _Travels in the Caucasus_ (Eng. trans., 2 vols., London,
1875); F.C. Grove, _The Frosty Caucasus_ (London, 1875); G. Radde,
_Reisen im mingrelischen Hochgebirge_ (Tiflis, 1866) and _Vier
Vortrage uber den Kaukasus_ (Gotha, 1874); E. Favre, _Recherches
geologiques dans la partie centrale de la chaine du Caucase_ (Geneva,
1875); Batsevich, Simonovich and others, _Mat. dlya geologiy Kavkaza_
(Tiflis, 1873 seq.); O. Schneider, _Naturwissenschaftliche Beitrage
zur Kenntnis der Kaukasuslander_ (Dresden, 1879), and J. Bryce,
_Transcaucasia_ (London, 1878). The more important amongst the more
recent books are D.W. Freshfield, _Exploration of the Caucasus_ (2nd
ed., 1902, 2 vols., London); A.F. Mummery, _My Climbs in the Alps and
Caucasus_ (London, 1895); H. Abich, _Geologische Forschungen in den
kaukasischen Landern_ (3 vols., Vienna, 1878-1887), _Aus kaukasischen
Landern_ (2 vols., Vienna, 1896), and "Vergleichende Grundzuge des
Kaukasus wie der armenischen und nordpersischen Gebirge," in _Mem.
Acad. Sc. St-Petersb._ (ser. 6, _Math. et Phys._, vii. 359-534); R.
von Erckert, _Der Kaukasus und seine Volker_ (Leipzig, 1887); E.
Chantre, _Recherches anthropologiques dans le Caucase_ (4 vols., Lyons
and Paris, 1885-1887); C. von Hahn, _Aus dem Kaukasus_ (Leipzig,
1892), _Kaukasische Reisen und Studien_ (Leipzig, 1896), and _Bilder
aus dem Kaukasus_ (Leipzig 1900); V. Sella and D. Vallino, _Nel
Caucaso Centrale_ (Turin, 1890); K. Koch, _Der Kaukasus_ (Berlin,
1882); C. Phillipps Woolley, _Savage Svanetia_ (2 vols., London,
1883); E. Levier, _A travers le Caucase_ (Paris, ed. 1905), especially
valuable for botany; G. Merzbacher, _Aus den Hochregionen des
Kaukasus_ (2 vols., Leipzig, 1901); A. Fischer, _Zwei Kaukasische
Expeditionen_ (Berne, 1891); E. Fournier, _Description geologique du
Caucase central_ (Marseilles, 1896); G. Radde, _Reisen an der
persisch-russischen Grenze. Talysch und seine Bewohner_ (Leipzig,
1886), _Die Fauna und Flora des sudwestlichen Kaspigebiets_ (Leipzig,
1886), _Karabagh_ (Gotha, 1890), and _Aus den daghestanischen
Hochalpen_ (Gotha, 1887); and Count J. Zichy, _Voyages au Caucase_ (2
vols., Budapest, 1897). F. Loewinson-Lessing has an account of the
geology of the district along the military road from Vladikavkaz to
Tiflis in the _Guide des Excursions du VII^e Congres geol. internat_.
(St Petersburg, 1897). N.Y. Dinnik writes on the fauna in _Bull. Soc.
Imperiale des Naturalistes de Moscou_ (1901); J. Mourier on the
folk-tales in _Contes et legendes du Caucase_ (1888); and on modern
history G. Baumgarten, _Sechzig Jahre des kaukasischen Krieges_
(Leipzig, 1861). But a very great amount of most valuable information
about the Caucasus is preserved in articles in encyclopaedias and
scientific periodicals, especially the _Izvestia_ and _Zapiski_ of the
Russian and Caucasian geographical societies, in P.P. Semenov's
_Geographical Dictionary_ (in Russian, 5 vols., St Petersburg,
1863-1884), and in the _Russkiy encyklopedicheskiy slovar_ (1894), and
in the _Kavkazskiy kalendar_ (annually at Tiflis). See also G. Radde
and E. Koenig, "Der Nordfuss des Daghestan und das vorlagernde
Tiefland bis zur Kuma" (Erganzungsheft No. 117 to _Petermanns
Mitteilungen_), and "Das Ostufer des Pontus und seine kulturelle
Entwickelung im Verlaufe der letzten 30 Jahre" (Erganzungsheft No. 112
of the same); by V. Dingelstedt in _Scot. Geog. Mag_.--"Geography of
the Caucasus" (July 1889); "The Caucasian Highlands" (June 1895); "The
Hydrography of the Caucasus" (June 1899); "The Riviera of Russia"
(June 1904), "The Small Trades of the Caucasus" (March 1892); and
"Caucasian Idioms" (June 1888). The best map is that of the Russian
General Staff on the scale of 1:210,000 (ed. 1895-1901).
(J. T. Be.; P. A. K.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] _Exploration of the Caucasus_ (2nd ed., 1902), i. 30-31.

[2] Op. cit. i. 35-36.

CAUCHOIS-LEMAIRE, LOUIS FRANCOIS AUGUSTE (1789-1861), French journalist, was born in Paris on the 28th of August 1789. Towards the end of the First Empire he was proprietor of the _Journal de la litterature et des arts_, which he transformed at the Restoration into a political journal of Liberal tendencies, the _Nain jaune_, in which Louis XVIII. himself had little satirical articles secretly inserted. After the return from Elba the _Nain jaune_ became Bonapartist and fell into discredit. It was suppressed at the second Restoration. Cauchois-Lemaire then threw himself impetuously into the Liberal agitation, and had to take refuge in Brussels in 1816, and in the following year at the Hague, whence he was expelled for publishing an _Appel a l'opinion publique et aux Etats Generaux en faveur des patriotes francais_. Returning to France in 1819, he resumed the struggle against the ultra-royalist party with such temerity that he was condemned to one year's imprisonment in 1821 and fifteen months' imprisonment in 1827. After the revolution of July 1830 he refused a pension of 6000 francs offered to him by King Louis Philippe, on the ground that he wished to retain his independence even in his relations with a government which he had helped to establish. He made a bitter attack upon the Perier ministry in his journal _Bon sens_, and in 1836 was one of the founders of a new opposition journal, the _Siecle_. He soon, however, abandoned journalism for history and, having no private means, in 1840 accepted the post of head of a department in the Royal Archives. Of a _Histoire de la Revolution de Juillet_, which he then undertook, he published only the first volume (1842), which contains a historical summary of the Restoration and a preliminary sketch of the democratic movement. He died in Paris on the 9th of August 1861.

CAUCHON, PIERRE (d. 1442), French bishop, was born near Reims in the latter half of the 14th century. We find him rector of the university of Paris in October 1397. In 1413 he joined the Burgundian faction, and was exiled by the parlement of Paris. But on the triumph of his party this decree was annulled, and Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy, gave him a canonry at Beauvais, sent him to the council of Constance, procured him the post of _maitre des requetes_ in 1418, and finally in 1420 had him made bishop of Beauvais. But the people were hostile to him, and he was driven from his bishopric in 1429; whereupon he attached himself to the English court, and in 1431 endeavoured to procure the surrender of Reims to the English, so that Henry VI. might be crowned there. In this he failed, and Henry was crowned in Paris on the 17th of December 1431 by Henry Beaufort, cardinal bishop of Winchester, assisted by the bishops of Beauvais and Noyon. On the 24th of May 1430, Joan of Arc having been taken prisoner at Compiegne, within the limits of his diocese, Cauchon acted as her accuser, and demanded the right of judging her. Joan was taken to Rouen, whither Cauchon followed her, having been driven from Beauvais. He conducted the trial with marked partiality and malevolence, condemned the maid to imprisonment for life, and then, under pressure from the populace and the English, had recourse to fresh perfidies, declared Joan a relapsed heretic, excommunicated her, and handed her over to the secular arm on the 30th of May 1431. As, in consequence of this, it was impossible for him to return to his own diocese, he obtained the bishopric of Lisieux in 1432 by favour of the king of England. He assisted at the council of Basel in 1435, and died suddenly on the 18th of December 1442. Excommunicated posthumously by Pope Calixtus IV., his body was exhumed and thrown in the common sewer.

See Cerf, "Pierre Cauchon de Sommievre, chanoine de Reims et de
Beauvais, eveque de Beauvais et de Lisieux, son origine, ses dignites,
sa mort et sa sepulture," in the _Transactions_ of the Academy of
Reims (1896-1898).

CAUCHY, AUGUSTIN LOUIS, BARON (1789-1857), French mathematician, was born at Paris on the 21st of August 1789, and died at Sceaux (Seine) on the 23rd of May 1857. Having received his early education from his father Louis Francois Cauchy (1760-1848), who held several minor public appointments and counted Lagrange and Laplace among his friends, Cauchy entered Ecole Centrale du Pantheon in 1802, and proceeded to the Ecole Polytechnique in 1805, and to the Ecole des Ponts et Chaussees in 1807. Having adopted the profession of an engineer, he left Paris for Cherbourg in 1810, but returned in 1813 on account of his health, whereupon Lagrange and Laplace persuaded him to renounce engineering and to devote himself to mathematics. He obtained an appointment at the Ecole Polytechnique, which, however, he relinquished in 1830 on the accession of Louis Philippe, finding it impossible to take the necessary oaths. A short sojourn at Freiburg in Switzerland was followed by his appointment in 1831 to the newly-created chair of mathematical physics at the university of Turin. In 1833 the deposed king Charles X. summoned him to be tutor to his grandson, the duke of Bordeaux, an appointment which enabled Cauchy to travel and thereby become acquainted with the favourable impression which his investigations had made. Charles created him a baron in return for his services. Returning to Paris in 1838, he refused a proffered chair at the College de France, but in 1848, the oath having been suspended, he resumed his post at the Ecole Polytechnique, and when the oath was reinstituted after the _coup d'etat_ of 1851, Cauchy and Arago were exempted from it. A profound mathematician, Cauchy exercised by his perspicuous and rigorous methods a great influence over his contemporaries and successors. His writings cover the entire range of mathematics and mathematical physics.

Cauchy had two brothers: ALEXANDRE LAURENT (1792-1857), who became a president of a division of the court of appeal in 1847, and a judge of the court of cassation in 1849; and EUGENE FRANCOIS (1802-1877), a publicist who also wrote several mathematical works.

The genius of Cauchy was promised in his simple solution of the
problem of Apollonius, i.e. to describe a circle touching three given
circles, which he discovered in 1805, his generalization of Euler's
theorem on polyhedra in 1811, and in several other elegant problems.
More important is his memoir on wave-propagation which obtained the
_Grand Prix_ of the Institut in 1816. His greatest contributions to
mathematical science are enveloped in the rigorous methods which he
introduced. These are mainly embodied in his three great treatises,
_Cours d'analyse de l'Ecole Polytechnique_ (1821); _Le Calcul
infinitesimal_ (1823); _Lecons sur les applications du calcul
infinitesimal a la geometrie_ (1826-1828); and also in his courses of
mechanics (for the Ecole Polytechnique), higher algebra (for the
Faculte des Sciences), and of mathematical physics (for the College de
France). His treatises and contributions to scientific journals (to
the number of 789) contain investigations on the theory of series
(where he developed with perspicuous skill the notion of convergency),
on the theory of numbers and complex quantities, the theory of groups
and substitutions, the theory of functions, differential equations
and determinants. He clarified the principles of the calculus by
developing them with the aid of limits and continuity, and was the
first to prove Taylor's theorem rigorously, establishing his
well-known form of the remainder. In mechanics, he made many
researches, substituting the notion of the continuity of geometrical
displacements for the principle of the continuity of matter. In
optics, he developed the wave theory, and his name is associated with
the simple dispersion formula. In elasticity, he originated the theory
of stress, and his results are nearly as valuable as those of S.D.
Poisson. His collected works, _OEuvres completes d'Augustin Cauchy_,
have been published in 27 volumes.

See C.A. Valson, _Le Baron Augustin Cauchy: sa vie et ses travaux_
(Paris, 1868).

CAUCUS, a political term used in America of a special form of party meeting, and in Great Britain of a system of party organization. The word originated in Boston, Massachusetts, in the early part of the 18th century, when it was used as the name of a political club, the "Caucus" or "Caucas" club. Here public matters were discussed, and arrangements made for local elections and the choosing of candidates for offices. The first mention of the club in contemporary documents occurs in the diary of John Adams in 1763, but William Gordon (_History of the Independence of the United States of America_, 1788) speaks of the Caucus as having been in existence some fifty years before the time of writing (1774), and describes the methods used for securing the election of the candidates the club had selected. The derivation of the word has been much disputed. It was early connected with "caulkers," and it was supposed referred to meetings of the caulkers in the dockyard at Boston in 1770, to protest against the action of the British troops, or with a contemptuous allusion to the lower class of workmen frequenting the club. This is, however, a mere guess, and does not agree with the earlier date at which the club is known to have existed, nor with the accounts given of it. That it was a fanciful classical name for a convivial club, derived from the late Greek [Greek: kaukos], a cup, is far-fetched, and the most plausible origin is an Algonquin word _kaw-kaw-was_, meaning to talk. Indian words and names have been popular in America as titles for societies and clubs; cf. "Tammany" (see _Notes and Queries._ sixth series, vols. xi. and xii.). In the United States "caucus" is used strictly of a meeting either of party managers or of party voters. Such might be a "nominating caucus," either for nominating candidates for office or for selecting delegates for a nominating convention. The caucus of the party in Congress nominated the candidates for the offices of president and vice-president from 1800 till 1824, when the convention system was adopted, and the place of the local "nominating caucus" is taken by the "primaries" and conventions. The word is used in America of the meetings of a party in Congress and other legislative bodies and elsewhere which decide matters of policy and plan campaigns. "Caucus" came first into use in Great Britain in 1878. The Liberal Association of Birmingham (see LIBERAL PARTY) was organized by Mr Joseph Chamberlain and Mr F. Schnadhorst on strict disciplinary lines, more particularly with a view to election management and the control of voters on the principle of "vote as you are told." This managing body of the association, known locally as the "Six Hundred," became the model for other Liberal associations throughout the country, and the Federation of Liberal Associations was organized on the same plan. It was to this supposed imitation of the American political "machine" that Lord Beaconsfield gave the name "caucus," and the name came to be used, not in the American sense of a meeting, but of a closely disciplined system of party organization, chiefly used as a stock term of abuse applied by opponents to each other's party machinery.

CAUDEBEC-EN-CAUX, a town of France, in the department of Seine-Inferieure, 27 m. W.N.W. of Rouen by the Ouest-Etat railway. Pop. (1906) 2141. It is situated on the right bank of the Seine, the tidal wave of which (_mascaret_) can be well seen at this point. The chief interest of the town lies in its church, a building of the 15th and the early 16th centuries. Round its top run balustrades formed of Gothic letters, which read as part of the Magnificat. Its west portal, the decoration of the spire of the tower, and its stained glass are among the features which make it one of the finest churches of the Rouen diocese. The town also possesses several old houses. Its industries include tanning and leather-currying, and there is trade in grain. The port has a small trade in coal, live-stock and farm produce.

CAUDINE FORKS (_Furculae Caudinae_), a pass in Samnium, famous for the disaster which befell the Roman army in the second Samnite War (321 B.C.). Livy (ix, 2) describes it as formed by two narrow wooded gorges, between which lay a plain, grassy and well-watered, but entirely enclosed by mountains. Through this plain the road (later the Via Appia) led. The Romans, marching from Calatia to the relief of Luceria, entered the valley unopposed, but found the exit blocked by the enemy; on marching back they saw that the entrance and the hills surrounding the plain were also occupied, and there was no way of escape. The plain which lies west of Caudium (Montesarchio) seems, despite the older views, to be the only possible site for such a disaster to an army of as many as 40,000 men; and there is no doubt that the Romans wished to leave it by the defile on the east, through which later ran the Via Appia to Beneventum. The existence of three ancient bridges on the line of the modern road renders it impossible to suppose that its course can be essentially different from that of the ancient, though Hulsen makes the two diverge considerably after passing Montesarchio. There are, however, two possible entrances--one on the north by Moiano, and one on the west by Arpaia; the former seems to answer better to Livy's description (_via alia per cavam rupem_), while the latter is the shortest route, having been, later on, followed by the Via Appia, and bore the name Furculae Caudinae in the middle ages.

See C. Hulsen in Pauly-Wissowa, _Realencyclopadie_, iii. (1802).
(T. As.)

CAUDLE (through the O. Fr. _caudel_, from the Med. Lat. _caldellum_, a diminutive of _caldum_, a warm drink, from _calidus_, hot), a drink of warm gruel, mixed with spice and wine, formerly given to women in childbed.

CAUL (from O. Eng. _calle_, Fr. _cale_, a cap), a close-fitting woman's cap, especially one made of network worn in the 16th and 17th centuries; hence the membranous covering to the heart or brain, the _omentum_, or the similar covering to the intestines, and particularly, a portion of the _amnion_, which is sometimes found remaining round the head of a child after birth. To this, called in Scotland "sely how," holy or lucky hood, many superstitions have been attached; it was looked on as a sign of good luck, and when preserved, was kept as a protection against drowning.

CAULAINCOURT, ARMAND AUGUSTIN LOUIS, MARQUIS DE (1773-1827), French general and diplomatist, was born of a noble family. He early entered the army, did not emigrate in the revolution, but was deprived of his grade as captain in 1793 and served in the ranks. In 1795, through the protection of L. Hoche, he became captain again, was colonel in the Army of the Rhine in 1799-1800, and after the peace of Luneville (1801) was sent to St Petersburg to negotiate an understanding between Russia and France. On his return he was named aide-de-camp of the First Consul. He was employed to seize some agents of the English government in Baden in 1804, which led to the accusation that he was concerned in the arrest of the due d'Enghien, an accusation against which he never ceased to protest. After the establishment of the empire he received various honours and the title of duke of Vicenza (1808). Napoleon sent him in 1807 as ambassador to St Petersburg, where Caulaincourt tried to maintain the alliance of Tilsit, and although Napoleon's ambition made the task a difficult one, Caulaincourt succeeded in it for some years. In 1811 he strongly advised Napoleon to renounce his proposed expedition to Russia. During the war he accompanied the emperor, and was one of those whom Napoleon took along with him when he suddenly abandoned his army in Poland to return to Paris (December 1812). During the last years of the empire, Caulaincourt was charged with all the diplomatic negotiations. He signed the armistice of Pleswitz, June 1813, represented France at the congress of Prague, in August 1813, at the congress of Chatillon, in February 1814, and concluded the treaty of Fontainebleau on the 10th of April 1814. During the first Restoration, Caulaincourt lived in obscure retirement. When Napoleon returned from Elba, he became minister of foreign affairs, and tried to persuade Europe of the emperor's peaceful intentions. After the second Restoration, Caulaincourt's name was on the list of those proscribed, but it was erased on the personal intervention of Alexander I. with Louis XVIII.

Caulaincourt's memoirs appeared under the title _Souvenirs du duc de
Vicence_ in 1837-1840. See A. Vandal, _Napoleon et Alexandre_ (Paris,
1891-1895); Tatischeff, _Alexandre I^er et Napoleon_ (Paris, 1892); H.
Houssaye, 1814 (Paris, 1888), and 1815 (Paris, 1893).

CAULICULUS (from Lat. _caulis_, a stalk), in architecture, the Stalks (eight in number) with two leaves from which rise the helices or spiral scrolls of the Corinthian capital to support the abacus.

CAULON (Gr. [Greek: Kaulonia]), a town of the district of the Bruttii, Italy, on the east coast. Its exact site is uncertain (though the name has been given to a modern village), and depends on the identification of the river Sagras. It was the southernmost of the Achaean colonies, founded either by Croton or direct from Greece itself. In the 7th century it was allied with Croton and Sybaris, and its coins, which go back to 550 B.C., prove its importance. It took the side of Athens in the Peloponnesian War. In 388 B.C. it was destroyed by Dionysius, but soon afterwards restored. It was captured during the invasion of Pyrrhus by Campanian troops. Strabo speaks of it as deserted in his time. The erection of the lighthouse at Capo Stilo, on the site of one of the medieval guard towers of the coast, led to the discovery of a wall of Greek origin, and close by of a number of terra-cottas, belonging perhaps to a temple erected in honour of the deities of the sea. Other remains were found at Fontanelle, 2-1/2 m. away, including the fragment of a capital of an archaic Greek temple (P. Orsi in _Notizie degli Scavi_, 1891, 61). These buildings may be connected with the Caulon or a village dependent on it. (T. As.)

CAUSATION or CAUSALITY (Lat. _causa_, derived perhaps from the root _cav-_, as in _caveo_, and meaning something taken care of; corresponding to Gr. [Greek: aitia]), a philosophical term for the operation of causes and for the mental conception of cause as operative throughout the universe. The word "cause" is correlative to "effect." Thus when one thing B is regarded as taking place in consequence of the action of another thing A, then A is said to be the cause of B, and B the effect of A. The philosophical problems connected with causation are both metaphysical and psychological. The metaphysical problem is part of the whole theory of existence. If everything is to be regarded as causally related with simultaneous and prior things or actions, it follows logically that the investigation of existence must, by hypothesis, be a regress to infinity, i.e. that we cannot conceive a beginning to existence. This explanation has led to the postulate of a First Cause, the nature of which is variously explained. The empirical school sees no difficulty in assuming a single event; but such a theory seems to deny the validity of the original hypothesis. Theologians assert a divine origin in the form of a personal self-existent creator, while some metaphysical schools, preferring an impersonal First Cause, substitute the doctrine of the Absolute (q.v.). All the explanations are alike in this respect, that at a certain point they pass from the sphere of the senses, the physical world, to a metaphysical sphere in which the data and the intellectual operation of cognizing them are of a totally different quality. For example, the causal connexion between drunkenness and alcohol is not of the same observable character as that which is inferred between the infinite First Cause and the whole domain of sense-given phenomena.

A second metaphysical problem connected with causation arises when we consider the nature of necessity. It is generally assumed when two things are spoken of as cause and effect that their relation is a necessary one, or, in other words, that given the cause the effect must follow. The arguments connected with this problem belong to psychological discussions of causation. It is sufficient here to state that, in so far as causation is regarded as necessary connexion, it can form no part of a purely empirical theory of existence. The senses can say only that in all observed cases B has followed A, and this does not establish necessary connexion. The idea of causation is a purely intellectual (a priori) one.

The psychological problems connected with causation refer (1) to the origin of the conception in our minds; (2) to the validity of the conception. As regards the origin of the conception modern psychological analysis does not carry us beyond the doctrine of Locke contained in his chapter on "Power" (_Essay_, bk. ii. ch. 21), wherein he shows that the idea of power is got from the knowledge of our own activity. "Bodies by their causes," he says, "do not afford us so clear and distinct an idea of active power as we have from reflection on the operation of our minds." Putting Locke's doctrine into modern language, we may say that a man has the conception of cause primarily because he himself is a cause. The conception thus obtained we "project," that is, transfer to external objects, so far as we may find it useful to do so. Thus it is by a sort of analogy that we say that the sun is the "cause" of daylight. The rival theory to Locke's is that of Hume (_Treatise_, bk. i.), who derives the conception from the unaided operation of custom. When one object, A, has been noticed frequently to precede another object, B, an association between A and B is generated; and by virtue of this association, according to Hume, we say that A is the cause of B. The weakness of this account is that many invariable successions, such as day and night, do not make us regard the earlier members of the successions as causing the later; while in numberless cases we assert a causal connexion between two objects from a single experience of them.

We may proceed now to consider the validity of the conception of causation, which has been attacked from two sides. From the side of absolute idealism it is argued that the conception of cause, as involving a transition in time, cannot be ultimately valid, since the time-relation is not ultimately real. Upon this view (ably stated in Professor Bosanquet's _Logic_, bk. i. ch. 6) the more we know of causes and effects the less relevant becomes the time-relation and the nearer does the conception of cause and effect approach to another conception which is truly valid, the conception of ground and consequence. This means that, viewed from the standpoint of science, a draught of alcohol _causes_ intoxication in no other sense than the triangularity of a triangle causes the interior angles to be equal to two right angles. This argument ceases to have cogency so soon as we deny its fundamental proposition that the time-relation is not ultimately real, but is irrelevant from the standpoint of science. This is a sheer assertion, contrary to all ordinary experience, which we have as much right to deny as the absolute idealists to affirm. It is only plausible to those who are committed to the Hegelian view of reality as consisting of a static system of universals, a view which has long been discredited in Germany, its native land, and is fast losing ground in England. Against the Hegelians we must maintain that the common distinction between "ground" and "cause" is perfectly justifiable. Whereas "ground" is an appropriate term for the relations within a static, simultaneous system, "cause" is appropriate to the relations within a dynamic, successive system.

From the other side the validity of causation has been attacked in the interests of the naturalism of the mechanical sciences. J.S. Mill argues that, scientifically, the cause of anything is the total assemblage of the conditions that precede its appearance, and that we have no right to give the name of cause to one of them exclusively of the others. The answer to this is that Mill fails to recognize that cause is a conception which we find useful in our dealings with nature, and that whatever conceptions we find useful we are justified in using. Among the conditions of an event there are always one or two that stand in specially close relation to it from our point of view; e.g. the draught of alcoholic liquor is more closely related to the man's drunkenness than is the attraction of the earth's gravity, though that also must co-operate in producing the effect. Such closely related conditions we find it convenient to single out by a term which expresses their analogy to the cause of causes, human volition.

These are the questions respecting causation which are matters of present controversy; there are in addition many other points which belong to the controversies of the past. Among the most important are Aristotle's classification of causes into material, formal, efficient and final, set forth in his _Physics_ and elsewhere, and known as his doctrine of the Four Causes; Geulincx's Occasional Causes, meant as a solution of certain difficulties in the cosmology of Descartes; Leibnitz's law of Sufficient Reason; and Kant's explanation of cause and effect as an a priori category of the understanding, intended as an answer to Hume's scepticism, but very much less effective than the line of explanation suggested by Locke.

The following is a list of the various technical terms connected with causation which have been distinguished by logicians and psychologists.