"بلاد فارس والشأن الفارسي من إعداد السيد المحترم جورج ناثانييل كورزون، عضو البرلمان." [‎٣‎٧‎١] (٧١٤/٤٢٤)

THE NORTHERN PROVINCES
371
the principal rivers, especially the Sefid Eud, and the marine
lagoons, swarm with a variety of fish, sturgeon, salmon, mnllet
r" cai - p - the m0Uth 0f the a ' 30ve " n amed river neari;
4,000 fish have sometimes been taken in the day at the height of the
season, whilst in the Enzeli lagoon 300,000 carp have been netted
m a single day. At the time of my visit the entire fisheries on
the south shore of the Caspian were leased to a Russian for 65,000
tonians (1 8,o00/.) a year; and from the export both of dried fish
and still more of caviar to Russia, he was said to make a lart
annual profit by the speculation. 8
The revenue of these two provinces has been peculiarly fluctua-
mg, according as it has followed the ups and downs of their
Revenue material progress or decline. Fraser in 1822 found the
200 000 STmnnf, Gilan ' fr0m CnSt0mS ana land - tax . to be
-00,000 to 210,000 tomans, or 110,000^. to 115,000/. Ten years
later Monteith returned it as 300,000 tomans, whilst, after a further
decade it had, according to Holmes, reverted to the original figure,
ii . Ooldsniid has given the revenue (in 1874) as 440 000-
tomans. ^ The 'Encyclopedia Britannica,' quoting from an obsolete
report, g.ves 105,000 tomans as the revenue of Mazanderan and
says that no surplus is left therefrom for the treasury, the entire
receipts being consumed in military and administrative expenses
1 do not find that tins is the case. In 1888-89 the revenue of
llazanderan was 139,850 tomans in cash, that of Gilan 345 000
tomans. The expenditure in the former province on government
rXoo 5 ', 0f C0lleCtin g' P uWic buildings, &c, was only returned
at 4,590 tomans ; in the latter it was 24,430 tomans. What
proportion actually reached the Royal Exchequer it is impossible
to determine.
Shut off by the mountains from the rest of Persia, and differing
therefrom m climate, character, and interests, the Caspian pro-
History vmces liave necessarily played a somewhat independent
part ln history. The imagination that finds both its
s imulus and satisfaction m the legendary period of a nation's life,
not unnaturally located the heroes of Persian myth in the sublime
uplands. There they fought their battles and triumphed, the very
beasts of the forest taking their side in the conflict; there Eustam
vanquished the Div Sefid, or White Demon; an inferior order of
men, predestined to a just servitude, inhabited the maleficent
regions below. The part played by these provinces in classical
K n 2