[39] It appears to be the Earless Marmot of Pennant, p. 135; the Arctomys of Linnæus, p. 145.
[40] In Grant’s fine and characteristic sketch of the conquests of Nadir, he is led to
——“Media’s vales,
Where Health on Tabriz breathes with all her gales.”
Restoration of Learning in the East, 1805, p. 87.
The same derivation of the name from the qualities of the situation is given by Sir William Jones—“Tab signifies a fever, and riz is the participle of rêkhten to disperse. There was an ancient city which stood nearly in the same place, and is called Ταβρὶς by Ptolemy.”—Description of Asia subjoined to the “Histoire de Nader Chah:” Works, Vol. V. p. 570.
[41] “The sea of Kulzum,” is more appropriated by the generality of Eastern authors to the Arabian Gulph, to which, indeed, it is said to be attached, from the place of the same name on the shores; yet it is applied to the Caspian in a Persian map copied in the Oriental Collections, Vol. III. p. 76: and Khojeh Abdulkurreem, while he states that “the proper sea of Kulzum is in the Turkish empire,” admits that “the people of Ashreff” affix the name to the Caspian, p. 94. London Edit. 1793: and in a note to Abulghazi Khan’s History of the Tartars, the French Editor mentions it as the general designation among the Persians. p. 645.
[42] See before p. 317. The same name seems to be applied to the sources of the Euphrates and of the Araxes; which both rise on opposite directions from the same mountains.
[43] It is the ancient Lycus.
[44] The Turks in their way have retained so many ancient names, that Neocæsarea may be easily recognised under the name of Niksar.—D’Anville, Geogr. Anc. tom. ii. p. 34. It is interesting as the city and bishoprick of St. Gregory Thaumaturgus; who found there but seventeen Christians, and left there but seventeen Pagans. He resolved to build a church in his city:—“Ce qui n’estoit pas extraordinaire en ce temps la, et on avoit toute liberté d’en bastir sous Philippe, qui commença a regner en 241. Mais celle ci est la premiere dont l’histoire nous donne une connaissance certaine et expresse.”—Tillemont, Memoires Eccles: de VI. Premiers Siecles. Vol. III. p. 329-30.