THE CASPIAN SEA. 



371 



light navigation would be a comparatively easy undertaking, if advantage be 

 taken, not only of tbo IvcilaCisand Kuraa, but also of the Terek and Kuban. Dani- 

 lov's plans, estimated to cost from forty to fifty millions of roubles, would enable 

 the Astrakhan steamers to avoid the Yolga delta, passing by a lateral canal into 

 the Manîch, then rounding the Taman peninsula, and thus arriving directly in the 

 Black Sea. 



The area of the Caspian at the time of its separation from the Euxine com- 

 prised in Europe and Asia the entire region of lakes, marshes, and steppes which 

 stretches to the foot of the table-lands. South of Tzaritzin are yet visible the 



Fig. 196.-— East Maxîch and Lower Kcima Rivers. 



Scale 1 : 1,200,000. 



9 Miles. 



steep cliffs skirting the ancient sea, and which would still form a continuation of 

 the high or right bank of the Volga, if the bed of that river had not been 

 gradually shifted westwards. A chain of lakes and ponds running a little in 

 advance of the southern cliffs, and evidently forming the bed of a river, is per- 

 haps a continuation of the ancient Volga when it discharged into the Manîch 

 Strait. But the slow process of evaporation has reduced the area of the Caspian 

 to 176,000 square miles, or about three-fifths of the surfiice of France. Owing to 

 the sedimentary deposits of the rivers, this area is still diminishing, although the 

 volume of water seems to remain much the same, an equilibrium having apparentlj^ 

 been established between the inflow and the loss by evaporation. 



