CATC RIDGE

[s. 153] : A settlement in the northern part of Cape Colony, S. Africa; station of the South African Wesley an Methodist Mi ionary Society, with 25 native workers, 6 places of wor2 common schools, 1 Young People’s Society, and 385 baptized Christians. Also station of the Netherlands Mi ionary Society, with 2 mi ionary women and 1 common school. ship, CAUCASIA: A province of southeastern Rusbounded on the north by the provinces of southern Ru ia and Astrakhan, on the east by the Caspian, on the south by Persia and Turkey, sia, Carls brook Ca^vnpur 136 on the west by the Black Sea and the Sea of Azof. It is divided into two sections by the Caucasus range of mountains, that on the north being called Northern Caucasia, and that on the south Trans-Caucasia. Area, North Caucasia, 86,658; Trans-Caucasia, 95,799; total, 182,457 square miles. The population in 1897 was 9,723,523. It is composed of very heterogeneous elements. The languages found in the Caucasus are also numerous. The Ru ian government is making efforts to increase the use of the Ru ian language. Ararat Armenian and Azerbaijan Turkish are extensively used in the southern part of the region. As to religion many di enters of the Ru ian (Greek) Church •are found in TransCaucasia, which has been used as a place of exile for such. The Armenian Church has a large body of adherents there, and there is also a large Mohammedan population. There are small Protestant congregations at several points in the southern province. Mi ion work has been attempted at various times in Trans-Caucasia by the Basel Mi ionary Society, the German -Baptists and the mi ionaries of the and PN, whose headquarters were in Persia and Turkey. Since the opening of railroads from Batum and Poti to Tiflis and the Caspian at Baku, mi ionaries have found that route most convenient for acce to Persia. They have thus come in contact with a Nestor i an colony at Tiflis, and the Armenians at Tiflis, ABCFM Erivan, Schema chi, Shusha and Baku. The British and Foreign, and American Bible Societies have done a good deal of Bible work from Tiflis as a center. Protestant influence has been most powerful among the Armenians. (J.), Transcaucasia and Ararat, London, and New York, 1878; Cunynghame (A. A. T.), Eastern Caucasus, Bryce London, 1872; Wolley (C. P.), Savage Svanetia, 2 vols., London, 1883. 153