river, and the other for the Caspian.  The latter owns six large steamers, with cargo capacity of from sixty to eighty thousand poods, liquid measurement, for oil-tank purposes, equalling nine hundred to twelve hundred tons.  They have German under-officers, and Russian captains.  It is likely that the German officers come from the German colonies on the Volga, and probably some of the capital also comes from that quarter.  This Volga Steam Navigation Company was established over fifty years ago by a Scotchman, named Anderson, and some of the vessels first built are still used on the river as cargo-boats.

Many of the best steamers on the Caspian are officered by Swedes and Finns, most of whom speak English, acquired whilst serving in English ships sailing to all parts of the globe.  The Mercury Company, which runs the superior steamers and carries the mails on the Caspian, has Swedish and Finn officers, but it is said that they are now to be replaced by Russian naval officers as vacancies occur.  This company’s vessels are well appointed, have good cabins, and are fitted with the electric light.  But the best of Caspian mail-boats are most uncomfortable in rough weather for all but those whom no motion whatever can affect.  Owing to the shoal water on all the coast circumference of this sea, the big boats are necessarily keelless, and may be described as but great barges with engines, and when at anchor in a rolling sea their movement is terribly disturbing.

We embarked in the Admiral Korneiloff, one of the Mercury Company’s best boats, on the night of September 17, and arrived at Enzelli on the morning of the 19th.  I was amused on the voyage to hear the sailors’ version of the story how the Caspian became a Russian sea, on which no armed Persian vessel can sail.  The sovereignty of this Persian sea was ceded to Russia by the Treaty of Gulistan in 1813, and the sailors say that on the Shah being pressed over and over again to consent, and desiring to find some good excuse to do so, a courtier, seeing the royal inclination, remarked that Persia suffered sorely from salt soil and water, which made land barren, and that sea-water was of no use for irrigation, nor any other good purpose.  The Shah on this asked if it were really true that the water of the Caspian was salt, and on being assured that it was, he said the Russians might have the whole of it.

We found an improvement at Enzelli in the form of a hotel kept by a Greek, with accommodation good enough to be very welcome.  We had excellent fresh salmon at breakfast, which reminded me of the doubt that has often been expressed of the true salmon being found in an inland sea.  The Caspian fish is a genuine salmon of the same habits as the marine species known in Europe, with the one sad exception that it will not look at nor touch fly or bait in any form or shape, and therefore gives no sport for the rod.  The trout in the upper waters of the streams that the