its western shores, owing to numerous reefs and islands. Still, it is constantly navigated by vessels to and from Bombay and other Indian ports, and, with the development of the Karun River trade, it will be much more frequented. The Strait of Ormuz derives its name from the small island of Ormuz, which closely adjoins the Persian coast.

ISLANDS: The three principal islands are Ormuz, Kishm, and Karak, in the Persian Gulf. Ormuz is naturally a barren rock, but in the sixteenth and early part of the following century, when in the possession of the Portuguese, it was the chief emporium of the commerce of the East. Kishm, at the entrance to the Persian Gulf, is an island of much larger size, and lies to the west of Ormuz. The island of Karak, near the head of the Persian Gulf, is fertile, and will doubtless become an important station when the Euphrates-Valley route to India is opened.

SURFACE: The interior of Persia is a plateau, elevated from three to four thousand feet above the sea, and bordered on three sides the north, west, and south-by mountain-chains. These mountains divide the elevated interior from the low country which lies along the Caspian Sea, the Persian Gulf, and the banks of the Tigris.

In the north of Persia the Elburz Mountains skirt the southern shore of the Caspian Sea, and attain, in the volcanic Mount Demavend, an elevation of 18,470 feet. The Elburz range is continued into the lofty mountain-groups in the northwestern province, Azerbijan, one of which reaches, in the Savalan Dagh, a height of 14,000 feet. Azerbijan is the most rugged portion of Persia; it forms a succession of tablelands, mountain-peaks, and intervening valleys, and has a cooler temperature than other parts of the country. Near the western border lies the Pusht-i-Kuh, separating the basins of the Kerkha and the Tigris. There are also several ranges which extend parallel to, and at various distances from, the eastern shores of the Persian Gulf, of which the Kuh Dinar range, in the province of Fars, is estimated to attain an elevation of about 15.000 feet. Further inland runs the parallel chain of the Kuh Rud Mountains, which culminate in the north in the Kuh Darbish, 11,700 feet, and in the south in the Kuh-iHasar, 14,450 feet. The south coast is also skirted by several parallel but unimportant ranges, which are prolonged eastward into Baluchistan.

DESERTS: Part of the interior plateau is a region called the Great Salt Desert. This is an arid tract, the soil of which is largely impregnated with particles of salt. South-east of the Great Desert is a smaller arid and marshy tract called the Desert of Kerman.

The total area of absolute desert is probably upwards of 150,000 square miles, or more than two and a half times the size of England and Wales.

RIVERS: Persia, although its surface is broken by lofty mountain ranges, some of them crowned by glaciers, and although it rains and snows almost incessantly during the long winter, has but few large rivers, and only one of these-the Karun River—is navigable for sea-going vessels.

1. Milton thus refers to this island in Paradise | pied by the fire-worshippers. Some of their descendLost, Book ii. ants still exist in this province.

"High on a throne of royal state, which far Outshone the wealth of Ormus or of Ind."

3. The province of Fars was anciently called Persis, hence Persia. The Persians call their country

Azerbijan, "country of fire:" formerly occu-an; the Arabs call it Fars or Faristan,

4. About 35 miles north of Isahan,

The Aras forms part of its north-western frontier; the Shat el Arab, immediately above its entrance into the Persian Gulf (i.e., for the last 30 miles of its course), flows between Persia and Asiatic Turkey.'

The other rivers of Persia are the Kerkha (380 miles in length), the Karun (260 m.), and the Safed-Rud or Kizil Usen, the "golden stream" (800 m.). The two former join the Shat el Arab; the Safed-Rud flows into the Caspian Sea. The navigable Karun River has been thrown open to the ships of all nations, from its junction with the Shat el Arab at MOHAMMERAH to AHWAZ.1 The smaller rivers of Persia, flowing towards the interior, are either absorbed in its arid plains or are received into salt-water lakes.

LAKES: The largest lake is Urmia (1,735 square miles in extent), in the north-western province. It lies at an elevation of 4,000 feet above the sea, and its waters are intensely salt. Lake Bakhtegan or Niris, in the more southern interior, about 50 miles south-east of Shiraz, is also salt. West of the latter is the small Mahluja Lake near Shiraz. The Lake of Hamun in Seistan, on the eastern border of Persia, is in reality a vast fresh-water swamp, 160 miles in length, into which the River Halmand and other streams, which drain Southern Afghanistan, discharge their waters.

CLIMATE: The climate of Persia exhibits great extremes. The interior plateaux are alternately parched by intense heat in summer and swept by cold winds in winter. The lower plains, along the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf, are extremely hot.

The dry and sterile shores of the Persian Gulf are, in fact, among the hottest regions in the world, and the power of the sun's rays, reflected from the arid surface of rock and sand, is, during some months of each year, scarcely endurable. The mountain-valleys, lying among the successive terraces by which the interior is reached from the coast, or from the plains of the Tigris, possess a delightful and equable climate, and are the most fertile portions of Persia. The Caspian coast belt is well wooded and has a hot and humid climate.

PRODUCTIONS: Besides the rarest and most valuable plantproducts, Persia is rich in minerals and precious stones.

In the higher valleys, which are watered by numerous running streams, such fruits as the vine, fig, water-melon, and peach abound. The olive flourishes in Northern Persia, especially in the districts between Resht and Teheran. A rich vegetation clothes the sides of the hills, and a carpet of wild flowers (many of them such as constitute the choicest ornaments of our gardens, as the narcissus, iris, and asphodel) covers the ground. Wheat, barley, and other cereals, cotton, sugar, rice, tobacco, and opium are largely grown in various parts of the country. The interior plains are arid and comparatively unproductive, yielding only saline plants and grasses. Among the minerals are the turquoise, found near Nishapur in the north-east, and the fine white marble of Maragha, in Azerbijan in the north-west. Coal, salt, iron, copper, lead, and sulphur are also found, nevertheless the rich and varied resources of the country are but little developed. *

1. The Shat el Arab is formed by the junction at Kurnal of the Euphrates and the Tigris, whose basins are entirely within Asiatic Turkey.

de Giographie Moderne-Hachette et Cie.) says that the air is marvellously pure, and that on the higher plateaux of Persia the satellites of Jupiter 2. This important waterway is also navigable for may be clearly seen by the naked eye, while the smaller vessels from Ahwaz to Shuster, but no for-planet itself shines so brilliantly that an opaque ob eign vessels are allowed to proceed beyond Ahwaz, ject, held exposed to its rays, throws a remarkably 3. Marcel Dieulafoy (Notes on Persia, in the At as clear shadow ou a sheet of paper. 4. An oil belt extends round the head of the Persian Gulf.

INHABITANTS: Persia has about 9 million inhabitants,1 nearly one half of whom are of pure Persian race, dwelling mostly in the towns. The rest are Turks, Kurds, Arabs, Baluchis, and other wandering tribes.

About a fourth of the population of Persia are nomads, whose habits are pastoral. They dwell principally in tents, finding summer pasture for their flocks upon the mountain-sides, and returning to the lower plains during the season of winter. Camels, horses, and sheep constitute their wealth.

The Persians are mostly Mohammedans' in religion, but are followers of the Shiite sect, on which account deep and mutual antipathy prevails between them and the Turks.

Throughout the country generally education is poor and unorganised, but in Teheran the public schools and colleges are supported by the State, and give advanced instruction in Oriental literature, and there is a Polytechnic School with European professors at Teheran, and military colleges at Teheran and Tabriz.

INDUSTRIES: Although a large portion of the country is an absolute desert, yet most of the people are engaged in agricultural and pastoral pursuits, and there are important manufactures of silks, carpets, shawls, and arms.

Rice, barley, wheat, and various fruits are largely grown, and the olive, mulberry, vine, and cotton plants are extensively cultivated. Carpets, shawls, embroidered silks, sabres and firearms, cotton and woollen fabrics, are also manufactured on a scale of some magnitude in the larger towns.

COMMERCE: The commerce, carried on chiefly by caravans, is considerable, native produce and manufactures being exchanged for Indian and European goods. The trade by the Caspian is mainly in the hands of the Russians; that by the Persian Gulf and the Karun River, mainly with British India, is carried on by British merchants.

The foreign trade amounts to over 11 millions annually, of which 54 millions is with Russia and 2 millions with Great Britain. The internal trade centres at TABRIZ, where the productions of Northern India and Central Asia are exchanged for British and continental manufactures, brought by caravan from the Black Sea ports and from Russia through Caucasia.

Internal Communication: There are only two short railways (one 9 miles long, from Teheran to Shah Abdul Azim, and another 20 miles in length, from Barfrush or Balfrush, and the adjoining town of Amol, to Mahmudabad, a small port on the Caspian Sea), and till recently the only passable cart-roads in Persia were from Teheran to Kasvin (96 miles in length), Teheran to Kum (97 miles), and Mashad to Askabad, in Russian territory (150 miles). The Russians, however (whose trade with Persia has of late years greatly increased), completed a road in the autumn of 1899 from Resht to Teheran; and arrangements have recently been made by an English firm for the construction of a trade-route through the Bakhtiari country, from Shuster to Ispahan. are the descendants of the ancient fire-worship. pers.

The chief

1. According to an estimate made in 1881, the population numbers 7,653,600-4.2., inhabitants of cines, 1953.800; wandering tribes, 1,909,800; in- 3. The principal articles of import into Tabriz babitants of village and country districts, 3.780,000. are cotton goods from Great Britain. 2. The non-Mohammedan inhabitants do not ex-article exported is raw silk, ceed 115.000, and include about 43,000 Armenians, 32.000 Nestorian Christians and Chaldeans, 19,000 Jews, and atout 8,000 Guebres, or Parsis, who

4. "Both lines have been constructed entirely by Persians, no European being employed."Whitaker's Almanack.

This will ultimately form a portion of the projected road from Ahwaz, the head of foreign steamship navigation on the Karun River, to Teheran. There is also a route from Teheran by way of Tabriz, Erzerum, an I Trebizond. There is telegraphic communica tion between Bushire, on the Persian Gulf, and Ispahan, Teheran, and Tabriz; and lines also connect the rising ports on the Karun River with the capital, which is connected with the European system by a line through Caucasia, and with that of British India by the Persian Gulf submarine cables. There are about 6,000 miles of telegraph wire in operation, and the telegraph and postal services are conducted partly by Europeaus. PORTS: The chief ports are Bushire, Lingah, and Bandar Abbas, on the Persian Gulf; Mohammerah, on the Karun River; and Enzeli, Mashad-i-Sar, and Banbar-i-Gez, on the Caspian. Bushire is the principal port on the Persian Gulf. TABRIZ, in the north-western province, and SHIRAZ, 110 miles inland from Bushire (one of the Persian Gulf ports), are important entrepôts. GOVERNMENT: The government of Persia was formerly a despotic monarchy, whose sovereign, the Shah, possessed absolute power so long as he acted in accordance with the precepts of the Koran.

In 1906 the Shah granted a Constitution, with a National Assembly, elected by the Mullahs, merchants and land owners, and a Ministry formed on European lines.

The average annual Revenue, about one-fourth of which is collected in kind (wheat, barley, rice, silk, &c.) is about 11⁄2 millions sterling, and the Expendi ture about the same. There is a Public Debt of over 31⁄2 millions sterling.

The regular army is divided into 12 divisions, and numbers about 60,000 men, but there are also about 70,000 men in the militia. Non-Mohammedans are exempt from military service.

DIVISIONS: Persia is divided into thirty-three Provinces, which are ruled by Governors-General appointed by, and directly responsible to, the Shah.

The Persian provinces of Astrabad, Mazanderan, and Ghilan, lie along the Caspian Sea; the mountainous province of Azerbij an occupies the entire northwestern part of the country. Kurdistan, Luristan, and Khuzistan, in the west, intervene between the great central province of Irak-Ajemi and the Turkish frontier. Khuzistan and the southern provinces of Farsistan and Kerman border on the Persian Gulf. The province of Khorassan, in the north-east, marches with Trans-Caspia and Afghanistan ; Kuhistan or Persian Baluchistan, in the south-east, Lorders on the Gulf of Oman.

TOWNS: Only two towns in Persia-Teheran and Tabriz-have as many as 200,000 inhabitants. Four towns-Ispahan, Mashad, Kerman and Bai frush have a population of between 50,000 and 60,000, and eight other towns contain over 25,000 people,

TEHERAN, 4 in the northern part of the country, 70 miles south of the Caspian, is the modern capital of Persia, and now contains nearly a quarter of a million inhabitants. Ispahan has declined from the splendour which it once possessed. Hamadan represents the Achmetha of the Bible, and is the distributing centre for the whole of N. W. Persia.

The important commercial emporium of Tabriz, the chief city of Azerbijan, lies not far distant from the shores of the salt lake of Urumiah. The province of Azerbijan was the original seat of the ancient fire-worshippers of Persia, and

1. The Shah is officially styled "Sith-in-Shah," or King of Kings.

2. The Revenue generally exceeds the Expenditure. The annual surplus is paid into the Shah's priva e treasury.

2. The monetary unit of Persia is the Krán, the

va ue of which varies In 1905, it was equal to 4d., or 60 krans sterling.

4. Teheran was made the capital in 1794. 5. 77.000 persons perished, in the earthquake of 1727, at Tabriz alone.

it still exhibits numerous remains of the early fire-temples. The towns of Resht, Barfrush, and Astrabad, in the hot and low plains that border on the Caspian, command the chief commerce of that sea through their ports-Enzeli, the port of Resht, Mashad-i-Sar, the port of Barfrush, and Bandar-i-Gez, the port of Astrabad. The holy city of Mashad, in the north-east of Khorassan near the Russian and Afghan frontiers, is an important commercial centre and a great resort of Mohammedan pilgrims.

Shiraz' is the chief city of Fars, the most fertile province of Persia, and the original seat of the Persian monarchy. Shiraz enjoys a delightful climate, and is the centre of considerable trade. Bushire on the Persian Gulf, and Lingah and Bandar Abbas or Gombrun, near the entrance of the Gulf, on its northern shore, are the chief seats of the foreign commerce of Persia.

Shuster and Dizful, the chief cities of Khuzistan, the south-western province of Persia, are of some commercial importance. Shuster stands on the Karun River, Dizful on a tributary of that stream. The rising port of Ahwaz is on the Karun River about half-way between Shuster and Mohammerah. Mohammerah, at the junction of the Karun with the Shat el Arab, has been growing in commercial importance since the Karun River was opened to foreign navigation. The Bombay Gazette reports that what was only recently an inconsiderable town, has now become a thriving and populous port, at which the steamers of the British India Company and the Persian Gulf Steam Navigation Company make regular calls. Grain is now shipped from the port direct for Europe, and the Euphrates and Tigris Steam Navigation Companies run their steamers up the river to Ahwaz, conjunction with the boats under the Persian flag running from that town to Shuster.

ASIATIC TURKEY.

The Turkish Dominions in Europe, formerly extensive, but now comparatively small, have been already described. The Sultan's Asiatic Empire is much larger, including, as it does, vast territories in Western Asia, which together form a continuous region stretching from the Ægean Sea to the head of the Persian Gulf, and from the Black Sea to the Strait of Bab el Mandeb.

Asiatic Turkey has for its northern boundary the Black Sea, the Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmara, and the Dardanelles. The boundaries on the west are the Ægean Sea, the Mediterranean, Arabia Petræa, and the Red Sea; on the south it is limited by Central Arabia; and on the east it is bounded by the Persian Gulf, Persia, and Trans-Caucasia.

This vast territory measures about 2,000 miles from the Black Sea on the north to the Strait of Bab el Mandeb on the south, and about 1,200 miles from Cape Baba on the west to the mouth of the Shat el Arab on the east. The total area is estimated at 693,000 square miles, or 12 times greater than the area of England and Wales.

1. Shiraz was nearly destroyed by an earthquake | In Apr, 1853 Not far distant from Shiraz are the remains of the ancient Persepolts, the capital of the Persian Monarchy in the time of Alexander the Great. These remains now bear the name of lata kr.

A few miles to the south-west of Dizful is the

mound of Sus, which marks the site of the ancient city of Susa, the Shushan of Scripture (Dan. viii. 2). Hige mounds and other remains of the works of man in a former age, situated in the midst of tracts now desolate, are found in various parts of Khuzistan, and reveal the same picture of decay which characterises almost every part of Western Asia.