CAS 



592 



CAS 



Cashmere, vernor of the district, resides here in a fortress, 

 'T* ' known by the name of Shere Ghur, occupying the 

 south-east quarter of the city, where most of his 

 officers and troops are also quartered. The streets of 

 this city are commonly narrow and confined, and 

 choked with the filth of the inhabitants, who are 

 proverbially unclean. Thus it is that natural advan- 

 tages are frequently counterbalanced, or, as may be 

 said, annihilated, through inattention or carelessness 

 of turning them to a proper account. One conve- 

 niency that is observed here, is deserving of notice, 



viz. those covered floating baths which are ranged Castiha 

 along the sides of the river, and which must be so 

 much wanted in a country and among a people where * 

 the climate and the religion alike concur to render ""V* 

 necessary frequent ablutions. See Thevenot's Tra- 

 vels, Rennel's Memoir, Forster's Journey, and Pen- 

 nant's Indian Zoology. (K) 



CASHNA. SeeKAs.mA. 



CASHOO. See MATERIA MEDICA. 



CASIMIR. See POLAND. 



CASOS. See CASSO. 



CASPIAN SEA, 



Caspian 

 Sea. 



Extent. 



Opinion of 

 the ao- 

 cients 



A DETACHED sea, or large lake of salt water in Asia. 

 It is bounded towards the north, by the Russian pro- 

 vince of Astracan and the Caucasus ; and on the 

 south, east, and west, by different provinces of Persia. 

 It extends in length from north to south about 680 

 miles. It is nowhere more than 260 miles in breadth, 

 varying between that and its smallest breadth of 

 about 100 miles. It is situated in latitude between 

 37 and 47 north, in longitude between about 50 

 and 56 east. Its superficial contents have been 

 estimated at somewhat above 36,000 square English 

 miles. This sea has at different periods, and among 

 different nations, been known by different names. By 

 the ancient Greeks, it was distinguished by the ap- 

 pellation of the Hyrcanian, i. e. the Persian Sea* By 

 the Tartars it is denominated Akdinghis, or the White 

 Sea. By the Georgians, it is termed the Kurtshen- 

 skian Sea ; and the Persians call it by the name of 

 Gursen, from the old Persian capital Gurgan, which 

 is said to have stood in the province of Astrabad, 

 only seven versts from the sea. 



We 'find the Caspian Sea noticed at a very early 

 period by ancient writers. Herodotus, who lived in 



the 5th century A. C., mentions it in his works, and 

 respecting , , J . . 



the Cas- g'ves such a description or it as corresponds pretty 



plan. nearly to what we know of its present state, particu- 



larly adverting to the circumstance of its having no 

 apparent outlet, nor any visible connection with any 

 of the great seas. " The Caspian," says he, " is a 

 sea by itself, unconnected with any other. Its length 

 is as much as a vessel can sail with oars in fifteen 

 days, and its greatest breadth as much as it dan sail 

 in eight days. It is bounded, he adds, on the west 

 by the Caucasus, and on the east by an immense plain, 

 which extends beyond the reach of the eye." Aris- 

 totle describes it in a manner similar to this, and 

 with his usual precision contends, that it ought to be 

 called a great lake, not a sea. With these writers 

 also concurs Diodorus Siculus. But others of the 

 ancient writers, and these commonly too of rather 

 later date than those who have been named, have ex- 

 pressed 'themselves with respect to this sea in such a 

 manner as would indicate, on their part, a more imper- 

 fect knowledge of it than had at periods so much 

 earlier been attained. Strabo speaks of the Caspian 

 as a bay that communicates with the great northern 

 ocean, from which it issues at first by a narrow strait, 

 and then expands into a sea, extending in breadth 

 500 stadia. With him Pomponius Mela agrees, and 



describes the strait by which the Caspian is connected 

 with the ocean, as considerable in length, and in 

 breadth so narrow, that it had the appearance of a v 

 river. Pliny gives a similar description of it. In the 

 age of Justinian, this opinion concerning the com- 

 munication of the Caspian Sea with the ocean, was 

 still prevalent. Some early writers, among whom is 

 Quintus Curtius, seem to have considered the Caspian 

 Sea to be connected with the Euxine, Arrian also, who, 

 from his residence for some time in the province of Cap- 

 padocia as governor, might certainly have obtained 

 more accurate information, declares in one place, that 

 the origin of the Caspian Sea was still unknown, and 

 expresses a doubt whether it was connected with the 

 Euxine or with the great eastern ocean which sur- 

 rounds India. Ptolemy maintains its communication 

 with the Euxine, but this by a subterraneous pas- 

 sage, conceiving it to be impossible, without some 

 supposition of this sort, to account for the flowing 

 of so many rivers into it, while on the one hand, there 

 is no appearance of any channel out from it, nor on the 

 other any perceptible swelling of its water, except in 

 the spring, when it is obviously occasioned only by the 

 melting of the snow at that season. Indeed it has in 

 all ages been found a problem of great difficulty to fur- 

 nish any tolerable solution of the phenomena connected 

 with the sea in question, both in respect to the cir- 

 cumstance just alluded to, and also as it appears in 

 the character of a large sheet of water, possessing the 

 distinguishing properties of sea-water, but dissevered 

 and insulated completely, so far, at least, as is per- 

 ceptible to any human eye, from all connection with 

 the other portions of that widely extended fluid. 

 The waters of the Volga, the Yaeik, the Yemba, the 

 Kur or Cyrus, the Araxes, the Bystraia, the Aksa, 

 the Koisa, the Terek, with many others generally of 

 considerable, some of them rivers of very great mag- 

 nitude, run into the Caspian Sea. What, it is rea- 

 sonable to inquire, becomes of all this water, which 

 certainly cannot be evaporated by the sun alone so 

 fast as it contributes to the enlargement of the body 

 of this sea, and for which, however, there is no other 

 apparent means of escape ? And how, moreover, is it 

 that we meet here, in an inland country, and even in 

 the midst of deserts, with a sea detached from all 

 others, yet possessing the same properties, and yield- 

 ing similar productions ? Perhaps the notion of e 

 subterraneous passage is one, which, amidst these dif- 

 ficulties, would occur as naturally, and which really 

 1 



