The history of Persia - v. 1 Author:John Malcolm Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Oxus to the east and north-east, the Caspian Sea and Mount Caucasus to the north, and the River Euphrates to the west. The most striking features of this extensi... more »ve country, are deserts and mountains; amid which are interspersed beautiful valleys and rich pastures. From the mouths of the Indus, to those of the Karoon and the Euphrates, the narrow strip of arid and level country which lies between the mountains and the sea, bears a greater resemblance in soil and climate to Arabia, than to Persia. Although this tract extends in length for more than twenty degrees, it cannot boast of one riverc that is navigable above a few miles from the ocean. The appearance of this coast is almost everywhere the same, a succession of sandy plains; but the eye is occasionally relieved by large plantations of date- trees, and by patches of cultivation near the wells and freshwater rivulets, which are thinly scattered over this extensive barren region. Inland, from the chain of mountains nearest the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf, unto the Oxus in one direction and the Caspian Sea in another, the most marked features are nearly the same; a succession of mountains and valleys of different elevation and extent. There are only a few among the former of very extraordinary height, though many ranges have continual snow upon their summits. None of the valleys are broad; but some are of great length, often exceeding a hundred miles. The only tracts within this empire which spread wide, without the interruption of mountains, are salt deserts, of which there are several; one of the most remarkable is that extending from the banks of the Heirmund Riverd in Seistan, to the range of hills which dividethat province from lower Mekran, a distance of about four hundred miles. This may be deemed the extreme length of ...« less