'A second journey through Persia, Armenia, and Asia Minor, to Constantinople, between the years 1810 and 1816. With a journal of the voyage by the Brazils and Bombay to the Persian Gulf. Together with an account of the proceedings of His Majesty's embassy under Sir Gore Ouseley, Bart. K.L.S. With two maps, and engravings from the designs of the author.' [‎365] (431/516)

THE PYLiE CASPIiE.
365
we may fairly calculate the distance at about forty miles. At about
six miles from Firouz Koh, the Mazanderan road leads over the moun
tains, to the left, and that of Khorassan, to the right. Nearly at their
separation, is a stupendous pass, formed by two masses of rock, rising
opposite to each other, about one hundred and fifty to two hundred
feet in height, with a narrow channel at their bases about twenty or
thirty paces in breadth, part of which is occupied by a stream and part
by the road. The pass in its various turns may be about three hundred
paces in length; but it is neither so narrow nor so remarkable, con
sidered as a natural curiosity, as those of Sawachi. On its eastermost
gorge are the remains of a castle on a hill, consisting of one large
round tower, but intitled to no greater antiquity than the age of Ti-
mour, or Jenghiz Khan. It is called Caleh Surkh, or the Red Castle,
from its being situated on a red hill. The pass is known to the people
of the country by the name of Teng Ser enza, a Mazanderan appel
lation, of which we could not discover the meaning. Having passed
it, a high road, which may be called the road into Parthia, strikes oft
on a direction almost due east to Semnan, whilst ours, which has only
become a high road from the recent passage of the King and his army,
took a N. E. direction.
I was at first inclined to suppose that this pass and those of Sawachi
might be the Pylce Caspice, but on referring to Pliny, and to the dis
tances given by Arrian of Alexander's march in pursuit of Darius, I
found that it could not be. The former writer The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping. says that they are eight
miles in length, and that the tract which encompasses them is without
fresh water for a space of thirty-eight miles. ' r> The latter, that Alex
ander reached the Pylse in one day from Ragis. •f* The passes which I
have described are short, and the distance from Key (supposing Key to
be the ancient Ragis) to Firouz Koh, at the nearest is twenty fui-
sungs, which even with light troops, such as accompanied Alexander,
would be almost impossible to travel in one day. Those which best
aoree with Alexander's march, and with Pliny s description, are, I should
&
* Pliny, lib. vi. chap. 14. f Arrian, Expedition of Alexander, lib. lii. chap 7-