'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎365] (418/714)

THE NORTHERN PROVINCES 865
of East Khorasan. The entire outfit is said to cost from sixteen to
eighteen slulhngs. The men are frequently equipped with bill-
hooks to clear a way through the jungle.
To anyone who has been, as I have, in other parts of the Caspian
or who knows of the temperature that there prevails in the winter
Influence months, the eontrasts between the northern and central
SaSr- • ^ Shores ' as 1 k*™ here depicted them,
m climate, m flora, and in fauna, is so great as to be al
most amazing and far greater than can be accounted for by the mere
difference of latitude. Khanikoff well expressed the phenomenon
thus exhibited in the following terms, which I have translated
If we compare the arid and sorrowful uniformity of the saline
plains on the north shore of the Caspian with the luxuriant and almost
tropical vegetation on its southern coast, we are struck with the
n rast presented by the development of organic nature upon the
two borders of the same inland sea. In the north the donkev can
scarcely withstand the rigour of the climate ; in the south the tiger of
-bengal is a common animal. Near Astrakhan it is all that the grape
Potemk t7 ei1ln the Gul£ 0£ Astrabad > 0 » f'e semi-island of
cuhi™, ' M P alni - t '« ] f rowsw "d. and sugar-cane and cotton are
Sea ™ f tT T 0 ^ ■ llly ' eVery year the northem of the
sea are fast bound m ice; whilst, before they have had time to melt
everything is in full bloom on the coasts of Gilan and Mazanderan.' '
rln, ! Ihe of this seemingly strange phenomenon is, no
nbt, that the vapour-charged clouds arising from the Caspian,
and drifting southwards under the effect of the prevalent winds
Impinge against the crests and slopes of the Elburz, and descend
1 !"' : " | r: ' 1 '! on to the lowlands sloping below. Khanikoff
thinks that the dissolvent process is furthered by currents of hot air
owing in a north-westerly direction from the Great Central Desert
and that, when these meet the northern blasts, they melt in soft
rain. ertamly the rainfall in the Caspian provinces is as ten to
one compared with that in other parts of Persia ; and rain is liable to
all not at certain seasons of the year only, but almost at any time.
lie staple produce of Mazanderan is rice, cotton, and sugar,
lie staple produce of Gilan once was silk. As Richard Chenie,
Produce one l ' 1 '' factors ol the British Moscovy Company
wrote home in 1668, 'The King of Gillan, where as yet
yon ia\e had no traffique, liveth al by marchandise.' Since it
1 Memoire, etc., p. 71.