om
the foot of the mountains. A little east of the Gulf of Enzeli, which
resembles the Kara-boghaz, though on a much smaller scale, the Sefid-rud
pours into the Caspian the drainage of the western end of the Elburz
range, and several smaller streams bring down the precipitation that
falls on the northern face of the same range farther to the east. Near
its south-east corner the Caspian is entered by the Atrek, which drains
the mountain ranges of the Turkoman (N.E.) frontier of Persia. Farther
north, on the east coast, opposite to the Bay of Kizil-agach, comes the
Balkhan or Krasnovodsk Bay. In the summer of 1894 a subterranean volcano
was observed in this basin of the Caspian, in 38 deg. 10' N. lat. and 52
deg. 37' E. long. The depth in this section ranges from 300 to 500
fathoms, with a maximum of 602 fathoms.

_Drainage Area and Former Extent._--The catchment area from which the
Caspian is fed extends to a very much greater distance on the west and
north than it does on the south and east. From the former it is entered
by the Volga, which is estimated to drain an area of 560,000 sq. m., the
Ural 96,000 sq. m., the Terek 59,000 sq. m., the Sulak 7000 sq. m., the
Samur 4250 sq. m.; as compared with these, there comes from the south
and east the Kura and Aras, draining the south side of the Caucasus over
87,250 sq. m., and the Sefid-rud and the Atrek, both relatively short.
Altogether it is estimated (by von Dingelstedt) that the total discharge
of all the rivers emptying into the Caspian amounts annually to a volume
equal to 174.5 cub. m. Were there no evaporation, this would raise the
surface of the sea 5-1/2 ft. annually. In point of fact, however, the
entire volume of fresh water poured into the Caspian is only just
sufficient to compensate for the loss by evaporation. Indeed in recent
times the level appears to have undergone several oscillations. From the
researches of Philippov it appears that during the period 1851-1888 the
level reached a maximum on three separate occasions, namely in
1868-1869, 1882 and 1885, while in 1853 and 1873 it stood at a minimum;
the range of these oscillations did not, however, exceed 3 ft. 6-1/2 in.
The Russian expedition which investigated the Kara-boghaz in 1896
concluded that there is no permanent subsidence in the level of the sea.
In addition to these periodical fluctuations, there are also seasonal
oscillations, the level being lowest in January and highest in the
summer.

The