'Central Asia. Part V. A contribution towards the better knowledge of the History, Ethnography, Topography, and resources of part of Asiatic Turkey and Caucasia' [‎97] (112/360)

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beginning of last century, when the first Russian settlements in these
regions were established, otherwise we should have had authentic records of
such a visitation.
The notices of early commerce upon or by way of the Caspian are few
and uncertain. Even for several centuries after the Christian era, its
authentic trading records are nearly a blank. The chief portion of the
commerce between West Europe and India was carried on partly by its
waters, about the middle of the 13th century, Astrakhan, on the upper
Caspian, and Soldaia, nearly in the same latitude, on the Black Sea, forming
the chief entrepots till 1280, when the latter was superseded through the
exertions of the Genoese, for their own establishment at Kaffa, which
then became the transit station for the Asiatic European trade, and so con
tinued till 1453, when the Turks having seized Constantinople, and barred
the Bosphorus, the accustomed trade was forced into other channels, and
the Caspian deserted, except by the few vessels which carried on a small
local trade between Muscovy, Persia, and Central Asia. About 1560 an
English Trading Company endeavoured to open up connections, by way of
the Caspian Sea, with Persia and Turkomania, but with no good results.
From that time till late in the 17th century, the annals of navigation give
few notices of this sea. At the latter period Peter the Great, partly in
the hope of diverting the Indian trade into the direction of his south domi
nions, caused the coasts of the Caspian to be explored by Dutch naviga
tors in his pay. His intention was, as one means to his end, to found trad
ing stations on ground ceded by treaty or taken by force, on the Persian
seaboard. But this he delayed to do; and when he died, his project lay dor
mant, and the Russians made no encroachment beyond what Peter had
already effected, till the reign of Catherine II., whose conquests in its south
region were not secured till our own times.
The Caspian is called by the Persians sometimes Daria Kulzum, sometimes
Daria Hashtakhan, Daria Khizzur; by the Russians the sea of Gualenskoi
or that of Gevalienske; by the Georgians, Sgwa; and Suf by the
Armenians.
The east coast of the Caspian, says Eichwald, with the exception of the
projecting promontory of Tuk-Karagan and a few gulfs, extends nearly in a
direct line more than 10° in length from north to south, between the parallels
of 37° and 47° nearly. The small gulf of Astrabad forms its southern
limit, whilst its northern boundary is marked by a very large bight at its
north-east extremity, which receives the waters of the Emba. The principal
branch of this river expands before it reaches the sea, into a great many
shallow basins, like lakes, the northern branch of it being nearly choked up
with sand. All this part of the coast, as well as that adjoining to the north
and north-west, is extremely flat and shallow; as the large rivers, namely,
the Aral, the Volga, and the Tuck, which here empty themselves into the
sea, are constantly bringing along with them a quantity of sand which is
accumulated on the shores; consequently the whole of the northern part of
the Caspian Sea, which is exceedingly low, together with the adjoining
eastern coast, is so shallow, that for the distance of several miles from the
shore there is only a few feet depth of water, and an immense number of
small sand-hills and banks of sand make it difficult to land on any part of
1 t. Similar sand-hills occupy also the shore itself, which extend to a consi
derable distance inland among the steppes; but it cannot be said that they
form any connecting chains of hills.
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