S62 M. llaumer's Contribution to the Biblical Geography of' 



people the Caspian Sea is called by the Russians, " Clievalin 

 Skoye More."" 



Thus interpreters have pursued as far as possible the first 

 correct trace. Yet it is puzzling how the Bible should say, 

 the Pison encompasses the whole land of Hevilah. I shall en- 

 deavour to give an explanation of it. Ritter has depicted, in 

 the second part of his excellent Geography *, the deep basin 

 of Bucharia from the sources of the Oxus to the mouth of 

 the Don. The level of the Caspian appears, from the careful 

 measurements of Engelhardt and Parrot, to be from 300 to 

 350 feet lower than that of the Euxine, and about 380 lower 

 than the Red Sea. The surface of the Lake Aral is probably 

 quite as low as that of the Caspian. 



Now, thei-e are many proofs of the former union of the Cas- 

 pian Sea with the Aral^f-. The ancients gave a much wider 

 extent to the Caspian than what it now possesses. Pliny, for 

 example, makes it nearly twice as large. Herodotus and Strabo 

 both make the Oxus and laxartes fall into the Caspian j, not 

 as now into the Lake Aral, which was not then a distinct sea ; 

 they give a much greater extent to the Caspian from east to 

 west, than from north to south, which is exactly the reverse of 

 its modern dimensions. It is almost certain that, so late as the 

 year 1660, the Oxus sent a branch into the Caspian §, so that 

 there thus existed even then a distinct water communication be- 

 tween this sea and the Aral. 



To the north and east of the Aral are the great Kirghis 

 Steppes ||, which extend as far as Tobolsk, " without a single 

 relatively visible elevation." In these Steppes are inland ri- 

 vers, bitter wells, saline lakes, marshy lagunes ; no habitations 

 for several hundred miles, no grass or wood ; the horses soon 

 die from the bitterness of the water, and even the shrubs; every 

 where, on digging to the depth of two feet, we find a yellow 

 putrid water, full of the ova of worms. One hundred years ago 



* P. 470. 



-f- V. Hoff Geschichte der Veranderungen der Erd obcrflachc, Th. i. 

 p. 116, 117. Hitter, ii. 670. 



$ But Reichardt makes the laxartes sj'iionjnnous with the Aral, and the 

 Sithoii with the laxartes. 



g Ritter, ii. C67. \\ Ritter, ii. C48. 



