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NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

with that country was carried on in fmall vefTels which failedround every bay, p. 32. Ap. Iludf. Geogr. Alin. VefTelsof fuch light conftrudtion, and which followed this modeof failing, were ill fitted for a voyage fo diftant as thatround Cape Comorin , and up the bay of Ilengal, to Patna .It is not improbable, that the merchants whom Strabo mentions as having reached the Ganges, may have travelledthither by land, either from the countries towards themouth of the Indus, or from fome part of the Malabarcoaft, and that the navigation up the Ganges, of whichhe cafually takes notice, was performed by the natives invefTels of the country. This opinion derives fome con-firmation from his remarks upon the bad ftrudture of thevefTels which frequented that part of the Indian ocean . Fromhis defcription of them, p. 1012. C. it is evident that theywere vefTels of the country.

NOTE XVIII. Sect. I. p. 42.

The erroneous ideas of many intelligent writers of anti-quity with refpect to the Cafpian Sea , though well knownto every man of letters, are fo remarkable, and affordfuch a ftriking example of the imperfection of their geo-graphical knowledge, that a more full account of themmay not only be acceptable to fome of my readers , butin endeavouring to trace the various routes by which thecommodities of the Eaft were conveyed to the nations ofEurope , it becomes neceflary to enter into fome detailconcerning their various fentiments with refpect to thismatter. 1. According to Strabo , the Cafpian is a bay, thatcommunicates with the great Northern ocean , from whichit iffues atfirft, by a narrow ftrait, and then expandsinto a fea extending in breadth five hundred ftadia, lib. xi.p. ^73. A. With him Pomponius Mela agrees, and de-fcribes the ftrait by which the Cafpian is connected withthe ocean, as of confiderable length, and fo narrow tha.it had the appearance of a river, lib. iii. e.