CASPIAN SEA (ancient Mare Hyrcanum), a great salt lake on the boundary of Europe and Asia, wholly in closed, having no outlet whatever to the ocean, and surrounded by Persia, the Azerbaijan republic, the Caucasian coun tries, the Russian governments of Oren burg and Astrakhan, and the Siberian provinces of Uralsk and Transcaspia. Its greatest length from N. to S. is 760 miles; average breadth, 200; area, about 150,000 square miles. The waters of this inland sea are less salty than those of the ocean. The water has a bitter taste, ascribed by some to the great quantities of naphtha with which the surrounding soil abounds, but by others to the pres ence of Glauber salts, among the sub stances held in solution. The fish are principally salmon, sturgeons, and ster lets ; a kind of herring is also found, and there are porpoises and seals. One of the most important industries of its shore towns is the manufacture and ex port of caviar. The Caspian Sea has no tides, but its navigation is dangerous because of violent storms, especially from the S. E., by which its waters are some times driven for many miles over the adjacent plains. The depth near the S.
end is about 600 feet; and in some places near the center it attains a depth of nearly 3,000 feet; but near the coast it is very shallow, seldom reaching a depth of more than 3 feet at 100 yards from the shore, and in many places a depth of 12 feet is not reached within several miles of the beach. On the N. E. and E. it is especially shallow. The water level of the Caspian Sea is about 85 feet below that of the Black Sea. It receives the waters of a number of large rivers, of which the greatest is the Volga. The Ural, the Tereh, and the Kur also fall into it. The most important towns on its shores are Baku in the Azerbaijan republic, Astrakhan, Petrovsk, and Krasnovodsk in Russia, and Enzeli and Resht in Persia. Communication with the Baltic Sea is possible by way of the Volga and various canals. Baku is the eastern terminal of two railways, and Krasnovodsk the western terminal of the Transcaspian railway.