eitrage zur Einleitung in
Jesaja_ (1848), and _Alte und neue Quellen zur Geschichte des
Taufsymbols und der Glaubensregel_ (1879).

CASPIAN SEA (anc. _Mare Caspium_ or _Mare Hyrcanium_; Russian,
_Kaspiyskoe More_, formerly _Hvalynskoe More_; Persian, _Darya-i-Khyzyr_
or _Gurzem_; Tatar, _Ak-denghiz_; the _Sikim_ and _Jurjan_ of the
ancient Eastern geographers), an inland sea between Europe and Asia,
extending from 36 deg. 40' to 47 deg. 20' N. lat., and from 46 deg. 50'
to 55 deg. 10' E. long. Its length is 760 m. from N. to S., and its
breadth 100 to 280 m., and its area reaches 169,330 sq. m., of which 865
sq. m. belong to its islands. It fills the deepest part of a vast
depression, sometimes known as the Aralo-Caspian depression, once an
inland sea, the Eurasian Mediterranean or Sarmatian Ocean. At the
present time its surface lies 86 ft. below the level of the ocean, or
96.7 ft. according to the Aral-Caspian levelling[1] and 242.7 ft. below
the level of the Aral.

_Hydrography and Shores._--The hydrography of the Caspian Sea has been
studied by von Baer, by N. Ivashintsev (1819-1871) in 1862-1870, by O.
Grimm, N.I. Andrusov (1895), and by J.B. Spindler (1897), N. von
Seidlitz and N. Knipovich (1904) since the last quoted date. Its basin
is divided naturally into three sections--(1) A northern, forming in the
east the Gulf of Mortvyi Kultuk or Tsarevich Bay. This is the shallowest
part, barely reaching a depth of 20 fathoms. It is being gradually
silted up by the sedimentary deposits brought down by the rivers Volga,
Ural and Terek. The western shore, from the delta of the Volga to the
mouth of the Kuma, a distance of 170 m., is gashed by thousands of
narrow channels or lagoons, termed _limans_, from 12 to 30 m. in length,
and separated in some cases by chains of hillocks, called _bugors_, in
others by sandbanks. These channels are filled, sometimes with
sea-water, sometimes with overflow water from the Volga and the Kuma.
The coast-line of the Gulf of Mortvyi Kultuk on the north-east is, on
the other hand, formed by a range of low calcareous hills, constituting
the rampart of the Ust-Urt plateau, which intervenes between the Caspian
and the Sea of Aral. On the south this gulf is backed by the conjoined
peninsulas of Busachi and Manghishlak, into which penetrates the long,
narrow, curving bay or fjord of Kaidak or Kara-su. (2) South of the line
joining the Bay of Kuma with the Manghishlak peninsula, in 44 deg.