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NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

of Jenkinfon’s defcription was confirmed by an aCtual furveyof that fea made by order of Peter the Great , A. D. 1718,and it is now afcertained not only that the Cafpian isunconnected with any other fea , but that its length fromNorth to South is confiderably more than its greateft breadthfrom Eaft to Weft. From this detail, however, welearn how the ill-founded ideas concerning it, whichwere generally adopted, gave rife to various wild fchemesof conveying Indian commodities to Europe by means of itsfuppofed communication with the Euxine fea, or with theNorthern ocean. It is an additional proof of the attentionof Alexander the Great to every thing conducive to theimprovement of commerce, that a fhort time beforehis death he gave directions to fit out a fquadron in theCafpian, in order to furvey that fea, and to difcoverwhether it was connected either with the Euxine or Indian ocean ; Arrian , lib. vii. c. 16.

NOTE XIX. Sect. I. p. 91.

From this curious detail, we learn how imperfedt ancientnavigation was, even in its moil improved ftate. Thevoyage from Berenice to Ocelis, could not have takenthirty days, if any other courfe had been held than thatof fervilely following the windings of the coaft. The voyagefrom Ocelis to Muliris would be ( according to MajorRennet) a fifteen days run for an European fhip in themodern ftyle of navigation, being about feventeen hundredand fifty marine miles, on a {freight courfe; Introd. p. xxxvii.It is remarkable, that though the Periplus Maris Erythraei was written after the voyage of Hippalus, the chief objectof the author of it is to defcribe the ancient courfe alongthe coails of Arabia and Perfia, to the mouth of the Indus,and from thence down the vveftern fhore of the continent toMufiris. 1 can account for this, only by fuppofing, thatfrom the unwillingnefs of mankind to abandon old habits,the greater part of the traders from Berenice Hill continued