[96] The pearl oyster is found from Ras Musendom to the head of the Gulf. There are no famed banks on the Persian side, but near Bushire there are some good ones.
[97] Apostana was near a place now called Schevar. It is thought that the name may be traced in Dahra Ahbân, an adjacent mountain ridge of which Okhos was probably the southern extremity.
[98] This bay is that on which Naban or Nabend is now situated. It is not far from the river called by Ptolemy the Bagradas. The place abounds with palm-trees as of old.
[99] Gôgana is now Konkan or Konaun. The bay lacks depth of water; a stream still falls into it—the Areôn of the text. To the north-west of this place in the interior lay Pasargada, the ancient capital of Persia, and the burial-place of Kyros, in the neighbourhood of Murghâb, a place to the N. E. of Shiraz (30° 24´ N. 56° 29´ E.).
[100] The Sitakos has been identified with the Kara Agach, Mand, Mund or Kakee river, which has a course of 300 miles. Its source is near Kodiyan, which lies N. W. of Shiraz. At a part of its course it is called the Kewar River. The meaning of its name is black wood. In Pliny it appears as the Sitioganus. Sitakon was probably the name as Nearkhos heard it pronounced, as it frequently happens that when a Greek writer comes upon a name like an oblique case in Greek, he invents a nominative for it. With regard to the form of the name in Pliny, ‘g’ is but a phonetic change instead of ‘k’. The ‘i’ is probably an error in transcription for ‘t’. The Sitakos is probably the Brisoana of Ptolemy, which can have no connexion with the later-mentioned Brizana of our author. See Report on the Persian Gulf by Colonel Ross, lately issued. Pliny states that from the mouth of the Sitioganus an ascent could be made to Pasargada, in seven days; but this is manifestly an error.
[101] The changes which have taken place along the coast have been so considerable that it is difficult to explain this part of the narrative consistently with the now existing state of things.
[102] The peninsula, which is 10 miles in length and 3 in breadth, lies so low that at times of high tide it is all but submerged. The modern Abu-Shahr or Bushir is situated on it.
[103] Nearkhos, it is probable, put into the mouth of the river now called by some the Kisht, by others the Boshavir. A town exists in the neighbourhood called Gra or Gran, which may have received its name from the Granis. The royal city (or rather palace), 200 stadia distant from this river, is mentioned by Strabo, xv. 3, 3, as being situate on the coast. Ptolemy does not mention the Granis. He makes Taökê to be an inland town, and calls all the district in this part Taôkênê. Taokê may be the Touag mentioned by Idrisi, which is now represented by Konar Takhta near the Kisht.
[104] Rhogonis.—It is written Rhogomanis by Ammianus Marcellinus, who mentions it as one of the four largest rivers in Persia, the other three being the Vatrachitis, Brisoana, and Bagrada. It is the river at the mouth of which is Bender-Righ or Regh, which is considered now as in the days of Nearkhos to be a day’s sail from Bushire.
[105] “The measures here are neglected in the Journal, for we have only 800 stadia specified from Mesambria to Brizana, and none from Brizana to the Arosis; but 800 stadia are short of 50 miles, while the real distance from Mesambria (Bushir) to the Arosis with the winding of the coast is above 140. In these two points we cannot be mistaken, and therefore, besides the omission of the interval between Brizana and the Arosis, there must be some defect in the Journal for which it is impossible now to account.”—Vincent, 1. p. 405.