14 THE CLOSING OF THE OLD TBADE PATHS traffic struggled onward to the Black Sea, due west by the Caspian, southward by Trebizond, northward by the Volga and the Don, as shown on my map. A route referred to somewhat obscurely by Strabo, but with a new interest in our days, seems to have crossed the southern basin of the Caspian. The galleys pro- ceeded up the twelve-mouthed Cyrus River, the modern Kura, as far as its channel allowed. Their cargoes were THE RIVEE KtTRA AT T1FLIS. then transported by a four or five days' land journey over the water-parting which separates the Caspian from the Black Sea, until they reached the point where the river Phasis became navigable. Its stream carried the precious freights down to the emporium of the same name at its mouth on the Black Sea: a Milesian settle- ment whence the pheasant is said to have been brought to Europe by the Argonauts the legendary pioneers of that branch of Eastern trade. The Russian railway from Baku on the Caspian to Batum on the Black Sea,
