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ARMENIA AND THE NEAR EAST
140
side was also Armenian. A railway to the mines was
projected at that time, but the plan never materialized.
Near the bridge where we stopped the plain consists of a
layer of lava which overflowed in bygone days from Mount
Alagoz. The river has cut its channel through this layer,
and opposite the bridge we could see the perpendicular walls
of lava along the sides of the river-bed.
We drove along the river to a part higher up where it has
excavated a deep gorge, or canyon, down through the strata
of lava and basalt, with the topmost stratum looking like a
clean-cut horizontal layer on the brink of either side of the
canyon. Here is the intake of the Little Sardarabad Canal
which we saw farther down by the bridge, and which runs
beside the river for some way before turning in across the
plain.
Driving some way farther up the river, where there was no
road over the lava plain, we arrived at the head of the canyon,
where the course of the river opens out into a wider valley.
At this point the lava must have dammed up a large lake in
bygone days before the river cut the deep canyon through it.
Plans have been under consideration for building a dam across
the gorge here, thereby converting the wide valley above into
a lake again, and thus securing a large reservoir from which
to irrigate the Sardarabad plain. But the drawback would
be that this intake would be so low that the canal from it
could not reach the upper parts of the Sardarabad plain ;
and in that case the advantages of the project would hardly
justify the high cost of construction. Further, there is a fresh
consideration, inasmuch as the Arax now forms the frontier
towards Turkey ; if too much water were tåken from it for
irrigation purposes there would probably be disputes with
the Turks, although there is no population on the Turkish
side, at least at present, to make any appreciable use of the
water.
From where we stood at the edge of the canyon we could
see green, fertile lands on the other side of the river, and
several villages ; but there would not be many people in them
since the former Armenian inhabitants fled.
We returned homewards through the same wilderness.
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