next veers to antiquity, and we tell him that the Caspian, now eighty-four feet below the ocean level, used to be known by the Persians and Arabs as the Sea of the Khazars, from the Scythian tribes on its northern borders, and it may have been the Zrayah Vourukasha, 'Sea of Wide Bays,' or 'Wide Shores,' in the an- cient time of Zoroaster. The Avesta speaks of it as ' the gath- ering of waters ' and ' beyond all waters,' for it was the largest body of water known to the early Iranians.^ The fact that its extent was considerably greater in that age than now may account for some of the mythical traits in the description of it.* The kara fish of the ancient texts may have been the prototype of the modern sturgeon of the Caspian, grown to the legendary proportions that are typical of fish stories. ^ The captain is equally versed in the various species of sturgeon — flat-nosed, long-nosed, and medium-nosed — describes how they are caught, and presents a large sturgeon hook as a souvenir of the dinner. The caviar (deliciously fresh from Astrakhan) carries the dis- cussion further to the Caspian fisheries in general. Persia is largely interested in these and annually exports more than three million dollars' worth of fish from her own shores alone.* The evening rapidly wears on, till the late eight bells give the signal for retiring. Next morning a glimpse is had of Lankuran,^ the border customs port, and here the Russian troops disembark for their frontier garrison ; while in the afternoon, from the cap- tain's bridge, we have a view of Persian Astara, with cloud- capped Savalan in the distance.
1 See Avesta, Vd. 21. 4 ; 5. 19-23, « See Avesta, Vd. 19. 42 ; Yt. 14. and compare other passages in Bar- 29 ; Pahlavi, Bd. 14. 12 ; 24. 13 ; 18. tholomae, Altiramsches Worterbuch, 3 ; Zsp. 22. 4 ; and cf. Jackson, Per- s.v. Vouru-kasa, col. 1429, Strassburg, sm, p. 9.
1904. 4 See, for example, Wishard, Twenty
2 On the earlier extent of the Cas- Years in Persia, pp. 262-263, New plan Sea, cf. Huntington, Pulse of York, 1904.
Asia, pp. 327-368, N.Y., 1907; and the ^ At Lankuran is laid the scene of
same author's article, The Historic the Persian play 'Vizier of Lankuran,'
Fluctuations of the Caspian Sea, in translated by Haggard and Le Strange
Anier. Geog. Soc. Bull. 39. 577-596. (London, 1882).
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