out after it passes the south-eastern corner of the Caspian Sea till it
covers a space of nearly three degrees (more than 200 miles). Instead
of the single lofty ridge which separates the Salt Desert from the low
Caspian region, we find between the fifty-fourth and fifty-ninth degrees
of east longitude three or four distinct ranges, all nearly parallel to
one another, having a general direction of east and west. Broad and rich
valleys are enclosed between these latitudinal ranges which are watered
by rivers of a considerable size, as more especially the Ettrek and
the Gurgan. Thus a territory is formed capable of supporting a largish
population, a territory which possesses a natural unity, being shut in
on three sides by mountains, and on the fourth by the Caspian. Here in
Persian times was settled a people called Hyrcani; and from them the
tract derived the name of Hyrcania (Vehrkana), while the lake on which
it adjoined came to be known as "the Hyrcanian Sea." The fertility
of the region, its broad plains, shady woods and lofty mountains were
celebrated by the ancient writers.

Further to the east, beyond the low sandy plain, and beyond the
mountains in which its great rivers have their source--on the other
side of the "Roof of the World," as the natives name this elevated
region--lay a tract unimportant in itself, but valuable to the Persians
as the home of a people from whom they obtained excellent soldiers. The
plain of Chinese Tartary, the district about Kashgar and Yarkand, seems
to have been in possession of certain Sacans or Scythians, who in the
flourishing times of the empire acknowledged subjection to the Persian
crown. These Sacans, who call themselves Huma-varga or Amyrgians,
furnished some of the best and bravest of the Persian troops. Westward
they bordered on Sogdiana and Bactria; northward they extended probably
to the great mountain-chain of the Tien-chan; on the east they were shut
in by the vast desert of Gobi or Shamoo; while southward they must have