NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

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Pliny likewise gives a similar description of it, Nat. Hist.lib. vi. c. iIn the age of Justinian, .this opinion con-cerning the communication of the Caspian Sea with theocean, was still prevalent; Cosm. Indicopl. Topog. Christ,lib. ii. p. 118. C. 2. Some early writers , by a mistakestill more singular, have supposed the Caspian Sea to beconnected with the Euxine. Quintus Curtius, whose igno-rance of geography is notorious, has adopted this error,lib. vii. c. 7. Arrian, though a much more ju-

dicious writer, and who by residing for some time in theRoman province of Cappadocia, of which he was go-vernor , might have obtained more accurate information ,declares in one place , the origin of the Caspian Sea to bestill unknown, and is.doubtful whether it was connectedwith the Euxine, or with the great Eastern ocean whichsurrounds India; lib. vii. c. 16. In another place he as-serts , that there was a communication between the Caspianand the Eastern ocean; lib. v. c. 26. These errors appearmore extraordinary, as a just description had been givenof the Caspian by Herodotus, near five hundred years beforethe age of Strabo, “ The Caspian, " fays he , “ is a sea byitself, unconnected with any other. Its length is as muchas a vessel with oars can fail in fifteen days, its greatest:breadth as much as it can fail in eight days ; ” lib. i. c 201*Aristetle describes it in the fame manner , and with hisusual precision contends that it ought to be called a greatlake not a sea; Meteorolog. lib. ii. Diodorus Siculusconcurs with them in opinion, vol. ii. lib. xviii. p. 261.None of those authors determine whether the greatest lengthof the Caspian was from North to South, or from East toWest. In the ancient maps which illustrate the geographyof Ptolemy, it is delineated, as if its greatest lengthextended from East to West. In modern times the firstinformation concerning the true form of the Caspian whichthe people of Europe received, was given by AnthonyJenkinfon, an English merchant, who with a caravan fromRussia travelled along a considerable part of its coast in theyear 1558; Hakluyt Collect, vol. i. p. 3 3 4. The accuracy

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