sent such serious structural and verbal differences from the common type that they seem to stand rather in the relation of sister tongues than of dialects to the Georgian proper. All derive obviously from a common source, but have been developed independently of each other. The Tush or Mosok appears to be fundamentally a Kistian or Tchetchenz idiom affected by Georgian influences.
The Bible is said to have been translated into Georgian as early as the 5th century. The extant version, however, dates only from the 8th century, and is attributed to St Euthymius. But even so, it is far the most ancient work known to exist in the language. Next in importance is, perhaps, the curious poem entitled The Amours of Turiel and Nestan Darejan, or The man clothed in the panther’s skin, attributed to Rustevel, who lived during the prosperous reign of Queen Thamar (11th century). Prince Leonidze of Akhmeti in Kakhetia showed Baron von Thielmann a rare and very old MS. of this poem, written on fine hemp paper in exquisite Mkhedruli characters, and embellished with arabesques and miniatures evidently the work of an eminent artist. Other noteworthy compositions are the national epics of the Baramiani and the Rostomiani, and the prose romances of Visramiani and Darejaniani, the former by Sarg of Thmogvi, the latter by Mosi of Khoni. Apart from these, the great bulk of Georgian literature consists of ecclesiastical writings, hymns sacred and profane, national codes, and chronicles.
See Baron Max von Thielmann’s Journey in the Caucasus, Persia, and Turkey in Asia, translated by Dr Charles Hemeage, London, 1875; Fr. Müller’s Ethnographie and Reise der Oestr. Fregatte Novarra, Vienna, 1865; Anton Schiefner and General P. V. Uslar, numerous papers in the Bulletins of the Academie Impériale des Sciences de Saint Petersbourg for 1859, &c.; M. Zagarelli’s Examen de la littérature relative à la grammaire Géorgienne, St Petersburg, 1873; Michel Smirnow’s paper in Revue d’Anthropologie, April 15, 1879.
GEORGIA, one of the thirteen original States of the American Union, has Tennessee and North Carolina on the N., South Carolina and the Atlantic Ocean on the E., Florida S., and Alabama W. The Savannah river separates the State on the E. from South Carolina; the St Mary’s, on the S., divides it in part from Florida; the Chattahoochee, on the W., flows between Georgia and Alabama for nearly half its course. Georgia lies between 30° 21′ 39″ and 35° N. lat., and between 81° and 85° 53′ 38″ W. long. It is 320 miles long from N. to S., and 256 miles in its greatest breadth from E. to W., with an area of 58,000 square miles.
Surface.—Georgia has three distinctly marked zones, varying in soil, climate, and productions. Her sea-coast is similar to that of the Carolinas, being skirted by fertile islands, separated from the mainland by narrow lagoons or by sounds. This section is essentially tropical. Beginning at the sea-coast, a gradually ascending sandy plain extends northward and westward as far as the head of navigation on the Savannah, Ogeechee, Oconee, and Ocmulgee rivers, where it meets a Primary formation. Augusta, Milledgeville, and Macon indicate the northern limit of this tract. Here begins the hilly and finally mountainous region, the most, extensive, fertile, and salubrious of the State. A second plateau, 60 or 70 miles broad, stretches above the falls of the rivers until it meets the southernmost ranges of the great Appalachian chain of mountains which traverses Virginia, North Carolina, and northern Georgia under the name of the Blue Ridge, and is finally lost in Alabama. This picturesque district extends in Georgia from Rabun county in the north-east corner of the State to Dade in the extreme north-west, where the summit of Lookout Mountain dominates the valley of the Tennessee. Here are the sources of the two principal rivers of the State; here is the gold-producing region; and here is also the theatre of some of the most sanguinary battles of the civil war. The elevations of the Blue Ridge vary from 1200 to 4000 feet. In the south-east of the State is the extensive Okefinokee swamp, which has an estimated circumference of 180 miles, is filled with pools and islands, and is the congenial home of alligators, lizards, and other reptiles.
Rivers and Harbours.—There are many fine rivers in Georgia. A north and south line passing through Macon would nearly divide the streams flowing into the Atlantic from those discharging into the Gulf of Mexico. The Savannah, Ogeechee, Altamaha, Santilla, and St Mary’s fall into the Atlantic, and the Chattahoochee, Flint, and tributaries of the Suwanee flow to the Gulf coast. The rivers are generally navigable for steamboats to the falls which occur on the great central plateau of the State—that is to say, the Savannah to Augusta, the Oconee and Ocmulgee (confluents of the Altamaha) to Milledgeville and Macon, and the Chattahoochee to Columbus. Besides their ordinary purposes as avenues of travel and commerce, her rivers have given to Georgia the character of a manufacturing State, and she is developing and increasing their abundant water-powers with energy and success.
The Savannah is formed of two small streams which rise near the North Carolina line, and unite on the boundary between S. Carolina and Georgia in Hart county. Flowing thence in a nearly S.S.E. direction for 450 miles, it enters the Atlantic near 32° N. lat. The Savannah is navigable from November to June. Ships ascend it 18 miles to the city of Savannah, steamboats to Augusta, 230 miles, and by means of a canal around the falls there, constructed in 1845, light draught vessels navigate it 150 miles higher. This canal, 9 miles long, furnishes the water-power of Augusta. The river is here about 300 yards wide. From Augusta the traveller descends the Savannah through the cotton-fields of the table-lands, and the long reaches of semi-tropical vegetation dominated by groves of live oak, to the rich rice plantations of the seaboard.
The Chattahoochee is one of the largest and most interesting rivers of Georgia. It rises on the declivity of the Blue Ridge, in Habersham county, in the N.E. of the State, pursues a devious S.W. course through the gold region of upper Georgia until it reaches West Point, on the Alabama frontier. It then flows nearly south to the Florida State line, where it is joined by the Flint, when the two streams flow on through Florida to the Gulf under the name of the Appalachicola. Large steamboats ascend the Chattahoochee in the season of navigation to Columbus, 350 miles from the Gulf. The whole estimated length of the river is 550 miles. The falls at Columbus create a valuable water-power, constituting that city one of the three important manufacturing centres of the State. Just above Columbus the Chattahoochee is broken in picturesque rapids, overlooked by a rocky cliff called the “Lover’s Leap,” which is the subject of an interesting legend. Besides Columbus, the towns of West Point and Fort Gaines are the most important on the Chattahoochee in Georgia; Appalachicola at its embouchure on the Gulf is its shipping and distributing port, but is decreasing in importance since the railway system of the State has assumed a large share of the traffic once confined to the navigable streams.
The Oconee and Ocmulgee rise near each other, in the N. of the State, flow through its centre to within 100 miles of the sea, when their united streams pass on S.E. to the Atlantic under the name of the Altamaha. Milledgeville, the former capital of Georgia, is on the Oconee, and Macon on the Ocmulgee. Darien on the Altamaha is reached by vessels drawing 11 to 14 feet of water. The Ogeechee, rising also in the north, is about 200 miles long. It drains the country between the Savannakh and Altamaha, entering the Atlantic a few miles south of the Savannah. The Ogeechee is navigable for light vessels 30 or 40 miles, and for keel-boats to Louisville. The Santilla and St Mary’s drain the south-eastern counties, and are each navigable 30 or 40 miles for sloops. The Flint, Ockloconee, and Suwanee drain the south-western counties; the Flint is navigable to Albany, 250 miles from the Gulf, for steamboats. The Tallapoosa and Coosa, head-waters of the Alabama, and the Hiawassee, one of the sources of the Tennessee, rise in the mountains of Georgia—the last, however, finding its way to the Gulf of Mexico by the Ohio and Mississippi valleys.
- ↑ This is reprinted here, with the consent of Messrs Charles Scribner’s Sons, of New York, from their work entitled Georgia: its History, Condition, and Resources, by Samuel A. Drake. With Map. New York, 1879. Copyright, 1879, by Charles Scribner’s Sons.
