CAS'PIAN SEA (translation of Lat. More raspinin, (7:k. Kaaria OciXacro-a, Kuspia thatasxa, Kciartov racoios, Fashion priagos). A tideless inland sea ur salt lake lying on the boundary between Europe and Asia, and bordered on the north by the Russian provinces of Astrakhan and Fralsk, on the east by Uralsk and Russian Turkestan. on the south by Persia, and on the west by Persia, Transcaucasia, northern Cauca sia, and Astrakhan. It extends about 700 miles in a north to south direction, and has a width varying from more than 100 to nearly 300 miles, and an area estimated at 170.000 square miles. The coast line is diversified by numerous capes, and by several bays or gulfs, of which the most prominent are C'zarevitsa Bay and Kara Bugaz Gulf, on the east coast. The depression occupied by the Caspian Sea is a part of a great basin which in recent geological times included the Aral Sea and the Black Sea, and probably con nected by an arm with the Arctic Ocean. The northern part of the Caspian depression is shal low, the depth of water being generally less than 75 feet, but in the southern part, where the shore line conforms to the slopes of the Great Balkan, the Elbnrz, and the Caucasus Mountains. the depth reaches 2000 feet, and in places even 3000 feet. According to recent measurements, the water-level is about 97 feet below that of the Black Sea, and while rising and falling period ically with the seasons, it experiences no ap preciable permanent change. The waters in the
southern part are saline, hut in the northern shallow portion they are sufficiently fresh to freeze over in winter. The Caspian Sea receives the drainage of the Volga, whose basin covers an area of 500,000 square miles: of the Ural, Emba, Kur, and of many less important rivers. Accord ing to historical records, the Amu Darya also has been a feeder of the Caspian Sea, although now it flows into the Aral Sea. The Caspian Sea is of great commercial importance to the Russian Empire, as it forms, with the Volga River, a natural waterway between the European and Asiatic provinces. Communication has been es tablished with the Baltic Sea by way of the Volga by means of canals. The great oil-fields on the Apsheron Peninsula, near Baku, thus find an outlet to northern Europe, while the crude and relined petroleum is also shipped by rail or transported through a pipe-line to Batum, on the Black Sea. The Caspian Sea has great sal mon and sturgeon fisheries. The presence of seals and herring is an interesting nomenon. The moat important Russian towns on the Caspian Sea are Astrakhan, at the em bouchure of the Volga, Baku, Petro•sk, and Krasnovodsk, the last mentioned being the west ern terminal of the Transcaspian railway. En zeli, Khorrema, and Aliabad are Persian ports.