596 



CASPIAN SEA. 



Caspian 

 Sea. 



Tartarian 

 ports. 



Naviga- 

 tion. 



Vessels, 



the Armenians were accustomed to bring their wares. 

 This traffic has suffered a diminution, in consequence 

 of the impositions of the khans of the province. Yet 

 the port continues to be in some degree frequented, as 

 well by the Russian merchants as by others from Kis- 

 kan, Ispahan, Scheeraz, Khorazan, &c. who bring 

 with them the Persian and Indian products* From 

 this province itself there is exported silk, much how- 

 ever inferior in quality to that of Ghilan ; also large 

 quantities of rice and cotton. 7. The bay of Astra- 

 bat, whence the Russians are accustomed to pro- 

 ceed in the prosecution of their mercantile business 

 to the capital town of the same name. The pro- 

 ducts of the province of Astrabat, with its exports 

 and imports, are nearly the same with those of 

 Mazanderan. Astrabat trades mostly with Canda- 

 har. As to the roads, generally of the southern 

 coast of the Caspian, it may be observed, that, though 

 they afford good clean anchoring ground, and in a 

 sufficient depth of water, yet they are in this respect 

 disagreeable, that they are so much exposed to heavy 

 swellings of the sea, occasioned chiefly by the preva- 

 lence of the westerly winds. Few, if any of the 

 ports of this sea, are altogether exempted from 

 the like inconveniences. The Tartarian ports are, 

 1. The Balkanskoi bay, and, 2. Mangushlak, both 

 of which are situated on the eastern part of the 

 Caspian, and which both, particularly the latter, 

 have pretty secure roadsteads. The Russians visit 

 the islands in the Balkanskoi bay, which are mostly 

 inhabited by pirates of the race of Turkoman Tar- 

 tars. They yield rice and cotton. One of them, al- 

 so named from that circumstance, Naphthonia, fur- 

 nishes a great quantity of naphtha. The commerce 

 of Mangushlak is more considerable. To it the 

 neighbouring Tartars bring the products of their 

 own country and also those of Bucharia, such as 

 cotton, yarn, stuffs, furs, hides, rhubarb, &c. 



In consequence of the manner in which the Cas- 

 pian Sea is inclosed on all sides by land, and its banks 

 being so much in the vicinity of very high mountains, 

 its navigation is, in some measure, necessarily of a 

 peculiar kind. Certain winds domineer over it with 

 such absolute sway, that vessels are often deprived 

 of every resource ; and of all the ports that have 

 been enumerated, or if there are any other that occur 

 throughout the whole extent of this sea, there is 

 among them all hardly one that can be called per- 

 fectly safe. There are no tides in the Caspian, but 

 strong currents prevail in it, which, uniting their in- 

 fluence with that of the violent storms of wind so 

 frequent here, and indeed common in some measure 

 to this, with all other inland seas, occasion not a lit- 

 tle difficulty and danger to the description of vessels 

 which . principally, frequent it, and perplex and in- 

 commode extremely the rude and \intutored sailors 

 of the countries to which it is principally useful as a 

 channel for their trade. These difficulties and in- 

 conveniences are farther increased, in consequence of 

 the incredible .numbers of shoals and small islands. 



The vessels which frequent this sea, are common- 

 ly of rude construction, without, decks, of such mag- 

 nitude only as to draw from 9 to 1.0 feet of water, 

 and carried iorward by means of a single square sail, 

 or by that with the addition sometimes of top sails. 



Caspian- 

 Sea. 



The long flat-bottomed craft which, among the Rus- 

 sians, have now taken place of the circular kind of 

 vessels, that, at an earlier period, navigated this sea, 

 are, in all their necessary appendages, more noted for 

 a clumsy strength, than for any ingenuity in the mode 

 of their formation. The vessels belonging to the 

 Persians are commonly made of elm, which abound' 

 in their provinces southward of the Caspian : the 

 sails are of cotton, the cables of flax, and some of the 

 bark of trees. They have others of a somewhat dif- 

 ferent structure, and of larger dimensions, of the bur- 

 den perhaps of from 30 to 40 tons, known by the 

 name of sandalls, but which, notwithstanding the 

 great attention directed in the manner of building 

 them to the points of long duration and usefulness, 

 are seldom in condition to keep the sea for more than 

 4 or 5 years. The most really serviceable, and indeed 

 the most esteemed part of the Persian marine in this 

 sea, seems to consist in the small boats called kirjiems, 

 with which their necessary business in the different 

 parts of the same, or in immediately contiguous dis- 

 tricts, but, as may be easily supposed, nothing requi- 

 ring a progress to any considerable distance, is con- 

 ducted with sufficient economy and dispatch. The 

 ship-builders of Persia are chiefly deserters from Rus- 

 sia ; and from the number of shipwrecks which take 

 place, as well as from the timidity and awkwardness 

 with which every thing relating to the management 

 of the vessels of this country while at sea is conducted, 

 it would be well, that, ..unskilful as the Russians 

 themselves are in this department, the navigation of 

 these vessels were also placed in the same hands. 



Of the provinces which surround and immediately Provinces 

 border upon the Caspian Sea, those most towards bordering 

 the north are the kingdom of Astracan, and the ter- 01 

 ritory of the Calmucks ; whence proceeding by the 

 west of it, round towards the same point, there oc- 

 cur the possessions of the Lesgee Tartars, Shirvan, 

 the Mogan plains, Talish, Ghilan, Mazanderan, As- 

 trabad, the Korgan desert, and other similar tracts, 

 occupied or frequented chiefly by the Turkomans, 

 or other tribes of independent Tartars, closing with 

 the territory of the Kharakhulpacks, and of the Ya- 

 ik Cossacs. The information obtained by travellers 

 respecting these districts of country, ib scanty and 

 uninteresting, and will be given in another part of our 

 work. On the banks of the Volga towards the north, 

 chiefly in the province of Casan, there are large tracts 

 of forest ground, which supply a sufficiency of oak and 

 other timber for the construction of vessels, as well to 

 be employed on that river itself, as to be engaged in 

 the commerce of the Caspian Sea. Good timber for 

 the same purpose is also found in Ghilan and the adja- 

 cent provinces subject to Persia ; and iron ore might 

 be obtained from Mazanderan. The country all 

 round this sea, where not in the state of a desert, is- 

 very fertile in grain, fruits, and other productions, 

 which are to the people dwelling in those parts the. 

 subjects of a lucrative commerce. 



The water in the vicinity of the Caspian is frequent- 

 ly brackish ; but here and there along its coasts, or in 

 the islands which rise out from it, the vessels, by which 

 it is frequented, may be supplied with water better 

 fitted for use. In Hanway's Account of the British 

 Trade over the Caspian, there will be found a jour-. 



