S74 
ILLUSTRATION OF POLYBIUS. 
are looked upon as a sufficient number to guard this pass. Here we 
entered the great mass of wood, extending to the plain of Asterabad, and 
began to descend the great range of mountains which forms the bound¬ 
aries between the Caspian, the Turcomans, and Khorassan. The trees 
in these forests grow to the most stupenduous sizes. Oak, elm, beach, 
ash, alder, larch, maple, and all forest trees, are here to be seen in their 
greatest beauty. Every precipice is clothed, except two conspicuous 
abrupt peaks of the highest summits, where a white soil intervenes be¬ 
tween the wood. The road is the most difficult over which I ever tra¬ 
velled, being composed of a soil constantly moist, in some places deep 
in mud, in others broken with slippery rocks and loose stones. Not 
very far from the Derwazeh is a second pass, called the Sanduk or the 
trunk, which gives its name to the whole mountains, and is indeed the 
very worst of bad roads. It consists of a succession of slippery and 
shagged rocks, over which there is a path, but so narrow, that a loaded 
beast can scarcely pass it, and none but the horses of the country tread 
it with safety, for all others run the greatest hazard of breaking their 
limbs. Similar passes, but neither so long nor so dangerous, inter¬ 
vene on the descent, at each of which the passenger must from neces¬ 
sity get off his beast: it took us near four hours to reach the plain of 
Asterabad. 
The whole account of the march of Antiochus from Hecatompylos 
into Hyrcania as described by Polybius, is so exactly descriptive of the 
country over which we travelled, and particularly of our descent to 
Asterabad, that there is reason to suppose, that we pursued the same 
route. The mountain of the Sanduk will then be the Labutas of 
that historian, Asterabad, the site of the ancient Tambracus, and the 
country of Gurgan, situated close to Asterabad, will be Hyrcania of the 
Greeks. ^ 
Although the mist was very thick on the tops of the mountain, 
yet we were fortunate enough to get an extensive view of part of the 
* See Polybius, lib. x. 24. 
