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joins the main river at Malatie. I have not been able to discover
any map of Armenia of the XVth or XVIth century in which the course
of the Euphrates is laid down with any thing like the correctness
displayed in this sketch. The best I have seen is the Catalonian
Portulan of Olivez de Majorca, executed in 1584, and it is far
behind Leonardo's.]. This mountain, at its base, is inhabited by a
very rich population and is full of most beautiful springs and
rivers, and is fertile and abounding in all good produce,
particularly in those parts which face to the South. But after
mounting about three miles we begin to find forests of great fir
trees, and beech and other similar trees; after this, for a space of
three more miles, there are meadows and vast pastures; and all the
rest, as far as the beginning of the Taurus, is eternal snows which
never disappear at any time, and extend to a height of about
fourteen miles in all. From this beginning of the Taurus up to the
height of a mile the clouds never pass away; thus we have fifteen
miles, that is, a height of about five miles in a straight line; and
the summit of the peaks of the Taurus are as much, or about that.
There, half way up, we begin to find a scorching air and never feel
a breath of wind; but nothing can live long there; there nothing is
brought forth save a few birds of prey which breed in the high
fissures of Taurus and descend below the clouds to seek their prey.
Above the wooded hills all is bare rock, that is, from the clouds
upwards; and the rock is the purest white. And it is impossible to
walk to the high summit on account of the rough and perilous ascent.
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