salt, and one of the most exquisite of gems, the turquoise. This gem
does not appear to be mentioned by ancient writers; but it is so easily
obtainable that we can scarcely suppose it was not known from very
ancient times.

The severity of the climate of Parthia is strongly stated by Justin.
According to modern travellers, the winters, though protracted, are
not very inclement, the thermometer rarely sinking below ten or eleven
degrees of Fahrenheit during the nights, and during the daytime rising,
even in December and January, to 40° or 50°. The cold weather, however,
which commences about October, continues till nearly the end of March,
when storms of sleet and hail are common. Much snow falls in the earlier
portion of the winter, and the valleys are scarcely clear of it till
March. On the mountains it remains much longer, and forms the chief
source of supply to the rivers during the spring and the early summer
time. In summer the heat is considerable, more especially in the region
known as the "Atak;" and here, too, the unwholesome wind, which blows
from the southern desert, is felt from, time to time as a terrible
scourge. But in the upland country the heat is at no time very intense,
and the natives boast that they are not compelled by it to sleep on
their house-tops during more than one month in the year.

The countries by which Parthia Proper was bounded were the following:
Chorasmia, Margiana, Aria, Sarangia, Sagartia, and Hyrcania.

Chorasmia lay upon the north, consisting of the low tract between the
most northerly of the Parthian mountain chains and the old course of the
Oxus. This region, which is for the most part an arid and inhospitable
desert, can at no time have maintained more than a sparse and scanty
population. The Turkoman tribes which at the present day roam over the