and prosperity, did a province of the Empire retain the name of
Parthyene, or Parthia Proper; and here, also, in their palmiest days,
did the Parthian kings continue to have a capital and a residence.

Parthia Proper, however, was at no time coextensive with the region
described. A portion of that region formed the district called Hyrcania;
and it is not altogether easy to determine what were the limits between
the two. The evidence goes, on the whole, to show that, while Hyrcania
lay towards the west and north, the Parthian country was that towards
the south and east, the valleys of the Ettrek and Gurghan constituting
the main portions of the former, while the tracts east and south of
those valleys, as far as the sixty-first degree of E. longitude,
constituted the latter.

If the limits of Parthia Proper be thus defined, it will have nearly
corresponded to the modern Persian province of Khorasan. It will have
extended from about Damaghan (long. 54° 10') upon the west, to the
Heri-rud upon the east, and have comprised the modern districts of
Damaghan, Shah-rud, Sebzawar, Nishapur, Meshed, Shebri-No, and Tersheez.
Its length from east to west will have been about 300 miles, and its
average width about 100 or 120. It will have contained an area of about
33,000 square miles, being thus about equal in size to Ireland, Bavaria,
or St. Domingo.

The character of the district has been already stated in general terms;
but some further particulars may now be added. It consists, in the
first place, of a mountain and a plain region--the mountain region lying
towards the north and the plain region towards the south. The mountain
region is composed of three main ranges, the Daman-i-Koh, or Hills of
the Kurds, upon the north, skirting the great desert of Rharaem, the