CHAP. II. 



TO THE EAST OF PERSIA. 31 



tribute imposed by Darius. These satrapies 

 comprehended the whole of that part of Asia 

 which is to the eastward of the Tigris, and, ex- 

 tending along the border of the Caspian sea, 

 contains within its boundaries Persia, Siberia, 

 Tartary, and whatever was known to the Per- 

 sians in the days of Darius of Thibet, China, and 

 India beyond the Ganges. They are now known 

 to contain veins of the precious metals, some few 

 of which still yield gold and silver, but which 

 were worked to a greater extent in former ages. 

 Herodotus 1 particularly notices those people as 

 employed in searching for gold who live in the 

 country of Pactijica, near the sources of the 

 Indus, and who are said by him to resemble the 

 Bactrians. This district, fertile in gold, is on 

 the eastern border of Great Bactriana, where the 

 chain of the Taurus mountains divides into two 

 ranges, which almost surround Little Bactriana 

 and the desert steppes of Cobbi. The rivers 

 which descend from these mountains give suffi- 

 cient evidence by their washings that gold was 

 abundant, some of which was procured partly 

 from washing the sand, more by digging, but 

 most by a fabulous mode of procuring it, which 

 may at least be amusing to relate 2 , though it 

 may not obtain much credit, even when sanc- 



1 Herodot. b. iii. cap. 102, and Abulgasi, Hist, des Tartares, 

 p. 388. 



2 Herodot. b. iii. cap. 106. 



