the district about Kashgar and Yarkand, seems
to have been in possession of certain Sacans or Scythians, who in the
flourishing times of the empire acknowledged subjection to the Persian
crown. These Sacans, who call themselves Huma-varga or Amyrgians,
furnished some of the best and bravest of the Persian troops. Westward
they bordered on Sogdiana and Bactria; northward they extended probably
to the great mountain-chain of the Tien-chan; on the east they were shut
in by the vast desert of Gobi or Shamoo; while southward they must have
touched Gandaria and perhaps India. A portion of this country--that
towards the north and west--was well watered and fairly productive; but
the southern and eastern part of it must have been arid and desert.

From this consideration of the Eastern provinces of the Empire, we pass
on naturally to those which lay towards the North-West. The Caspian Sea
alone intervened between these two groups, which thus approached each
other within a distance of some 250 or 260 miles.

Almost immediately to the west of the Caspian there rises a high
table-land diversified by mountains, which stretches eastward for more
than eighteen degrees between the 37th and 41st parallels. This highland
may properly be regarded as a continuation of the great Iranean plateau,
with which it is connected at its south-eastern corner. It comprises
a portion of the modern Persia, the whole of Armenia, and most of Asia
Minor. Its principal mountain-ranges are latitudinal or from west to
east, only the minor ones taking the opposite or longitudinal direction.
Of the latitudinal chains the most important is the Taurus, which,
commencing at the southwestern corner of Asia Minor in longitude 29 deg.
nearly, bounds the great table-land upon the south, running parallel
with the shore at the distance of sixty or seventy miles as far as
the Pylse Cilicise, near Tarsus, and then proceeding in a direction
decidedly north of east to the neighborhood of Lake Van, where it unites
with the line of Zagros. The elevation of this range, though not equal
to that of some in Asia, is considerable. In Asia Minor the loftiest of
the Taurus peaks seem to attain a height of about 9000 or 10,000 feet.
Further to the east the elevation appears to be even greater, the peaks
of Ala Dagh, Sapan, Nimrud, and Mut Khan in the tract about Lake Van
being all of them considerably above the line of perpetual snow, and
therefore probably 11,000 or 12,000 feet.