rivers, which are known respectively as the Tejend, or river of Meshed, the river of Nishapur, and the river of Miyanabad.1 The Tejend, which is the principal stream of the three, rises from several sources in the hills south of Kooshan, and flows with a south-easterly course down the valley of Meshed, receiving numerous tributaries from both sides,2 until it reaches that city, when it bends eastward, and finding a way through the Kurdish range, joins the course of the Heri-rud, about long. 61° 10′. Here its direction is completely changed. Turning at an angle, which is slightly acute, it proceeds to flow to the west of north, along the northern base of the Kurdish range, from which it receives numerous small streams, till it ends finally in a large swamp or marsh, in lat. 39°, long. 57°, nearly. The entire length of the stream, including only main windings, is about 475 miles. In its later course, however, it is often almost dry, the greater portion of the water being consumed in irrigation in the neighbourhood of Meshed. The river of Nishapur is formed by numerous small streams, which descend from the mountains that on three sides inclose that city. Its water is at times wholly consumed in the cultivation of the plain; but the natural course may be traced, running in a southerly and south-westerly direction, until it debouches from the hills in the vicinity of Tersheez. The Miyanabad stream is believed to be a tributary of the Gurghan. It rises from several sources in the 1 Fraser, Khorasan, p. 554. 2 One of the chief of these conveys to the Tejend the waters of the Tcheshma Gilass, a small lake beautifully clear, on the western side of the valley, about twentyfive miles above Meshed. 3 Vambéry, Travels in Central Asia, Map. transverse range joining the Alatagh to the Jaghetai, the streams from which all flow westward in narrow valleys, uniting about long. 57° 35'. The course of the river from this point to Piperne has not been traced, but it is believed to run in a general westerly direction along the southern base of the Alatagh, and to form a junction with the Gurghan a little below the ruins of the same name. Its length to this point is probably about 200 miles. The elevation of the mountain chains is not great. No very remarkable peaks occur in them; and it may be doubted whether they anywhere attain a height of above 6,000 feet. They are for the most part barren and rugged, very scantily supplied with timber,1 and only in places capable of furnishing a tolerable pasturage to flocks and herds. The valleys, on the other hand, are rich and fertile in the extreme; that of Meshed, which extends a distance of above a hundred miles from north-west to south-east, and is from twenty to thirty miles broad, has almost everywhere a good and deep soil,2 is abundantly supplied with water, and yields a plentiful return even to the simplest and most primitive cultivation. The plain about Nishapur, which is in length from eighty to ninety miles, and in width from forty to sixty, boasts a still greater fertility.3 The flat country along the southern base of the mountains, which ancient writers regard as Parthia In this respect the mountains of ancient Parthia present a strong contrast to those of the neighbouring Hyrcania. The banks of the Gurghan and Ettrek are richly wooded (Fraser, pp. 599-602; Arrian, Exp. Alex. iii. 23); while the mountains of eastern Khorasan are almost destitute of trees. (Fraser, pp. 407, 470, &c.) 2 Even where the surface was gravel, Mr. Fraser noticed a richer stratum beneath' (p. 550). 3 Kinneir, Persian Empire, pp. 185, 186; Fraser, Khorasan, pp. 405, 406. par excellence,1 is a strip of territory about 300 miles long, varying in width according to the labour and the skill applied by its inhabitants to the perfecting of a system of irrigation. At present the kanats, or underground water-courses, are seldom carried to a distance of more than a mile or two from the foot of the hills; but it is thought that anciently the cultivation was extended considerably further. Ruined cities dispersed throughout the tract sufficiently indicate its capabilities, and in the few places where much attention is paid to agriculture, the results are such as to imply that the soil is more than ordinarily productive.3 The salt desert lies, however, in most places within ten or fifteen miles of the hills; and beyond this distance it is obviously impossible that the Atak' or 'Skirt' should at any time have been habitable.4 It is evident that the entire tract above described must have been at all times a valuable and much coveted region. Compared with the arid and inhospitable deserts which adjoin it upon the north and south, Khorasan, the ancient Parthia and Hyrcania, is a terrestrial Paradise. Parthia, though scantily wooded," still produces in places the pine, the walnut, the sycamore, the ash, the poplar, the willow, the vine, the mulberry, the apricot, and numerous other fruit trees. Saffron, assa-fœtida, and the gum ammoniac plant, are indigenous in parts of it. Much of the soil is suited for 1 Plin. H. N. vi. 25. 2 As Bostam (Fraser, p. 336), Khyzabad (Ibid. p. 359), and others. (Ibid. pp. 373, 374, 380, &c.) 3 Kinneir, p. 185; Fraser, pp. 343, 379, &c. The name Atak' is given to the skirts of the mountains both north and south of Parthia. It is the Turanian correspondent of the Arian daman, which has the same application and meaning. (Fraser, p. 245.) 5 See above, p. 6, note 1. Yet Strabo says (xi. 9, § 1) that it was 'thickly wooded' (dancia). Fraser, pp. 401, 405, 432, 433, 436, &c.; Kinneir, p. 175. Kinneir, p. 185; Fraser, Appendix, p. 25. the cultivation of wheat, barley, and cotton.1 The ordinary return upon wheat and barley is reckoned at ten for one.2 Game abounds in the mountains, and fish in the underground water-courses.3 Among the mineral treasures of the region may be enumerated copper, lead, iron, salt, and one of the most exquisite of gems, the turquoise. This gem does not appear to be mentioned by ancient writers; but it is so easily obtainable, that we can scarcely suppose it was not known from very ancient times. The severity of the climate of Parthia is strongly stated by Justin. According to modern travellers, the winters, though protracted, are not very inclement, the thermometer rarely sinking below ten or eleven degrees of Fahrenheit during the nights, and during the daytime rising, even in December and January,8 to 40° or 50°. The cold weather, however, which commences about October, continues till nearly the end of March, when storms of sleet and hail are common.9 Much snow falls in the earlier portion of the winter, and the valleys are scarcely clear of it till March. On the mountains it remains much longer, and forms the chief source of supply to the rivers during the spring and the early summer time. In summer the heat is considerable, more especially in the region known as the Atak; and here, too, the unwholesome wind, which blows from the southern desert, is felt from time 1 Fraser, pp. 319, 379, &c. 2 So Fraser, p. 335. Macdonald Kinneir, with unwonted extravagance, speaks of the return from dry grain being a hundred, and from rice four hundred fold! (Persian Empire, p. 178.) 3 Fraser, pp. 388 and 406. 4 Kinneir, p. 184; Fraser, pp. 367, 371, 413, 421, &c. On the turquoise mines of Nishapur, see Fraser, ch. xvi. pp. 407-417. See the passage quoted at the head of the chapter. 7 Fraser, Appendix, p. 134. to time as a terrible scourge.1 But in the upland country the heat is at no time very intense, and the natives boast that they are not compelled by it to sleep on their house-tops during more than one month in the year. The countries by which Parthia Proper was bounded were the following: Chorasmia, Margiana, Aria, Sarangia, Sagartia, and Hyrcania. Chorasmia lay upon the north, consisting of the low tract between the most northerly of the Parthian mountain chains and the old course of the Oxus. This region, which is for the most part an arid and inhospitable desert, can at no time have maintained more than a sparse and scanty population. The Turkoman tribes which at the present day roam over the waste, feeding their flocks and herds alternately on the banks of the Oxus and the Tejend, or finding a bare subsistence for them about the ponds and pools left by the winter rains, represent, it is probable, with sufficient faithfulness, the ancient inhabitants, who, whatever their race, must always have been nomads, and can never have exceeded a few hundred thousands. On this side Parthia must always have been tolerably safe from attacks, unless the Cis-Oxianian tribes were reinforced, as they sometimes were, by hordes from beyond the river. 1 Kinneir, p. 170. Fraser, p. 557. 3 Vambéry calls it 'that immense awful desert where the traveller may wander about for weeks and weeks without finding a drop of sweet water, or the shelter of a single tree' (Travels, p. 302). Mouravieff says: This country exhibits the image of death, or rather of the desolation left behind by a great convulsion of nature. Neither birds nor quadrupeds are found in it; no verdure nor vegetation cheers the sight, except here and there at long intervals some spots on which there grow a few stunted shrubs.' (See De Hell's Travels in the Steppes of the Caspian Sea, p. 326, E. T.) 4 M. Vambéry reckons the entire Turkoman population south of the Oxus from the Caspian to Balkh at 196,500 tents, or 982,500 souls. (Travels, p. 309.) Chorasmia was not more than about one-half of this region. |