Page:From Constantinople to the home of Omar Khayyam.djvu/241

 some generalship on the part of our drivers. The horses of both wagons splashed, plunged, and leaped wildly forward amid a chorus of frantic yells and fierce slashings, while we lurched and rolled helplessly until finally we drew up at the Aivan-i Kaif post-house — a poor sort of place at best.

The distance we had traveled in the eight hours since leav- ing Teheran (behind which we could still see the white cone of Damavand gleaming) was about fifty miles. ^ Deducting the six miles from Teheran to Rai, we have 44 miles, or ex- actly the distance given by Tomaschek (383 stadia = 7f kilometers = 44 miles) for Alexander's first day's march from Ragha (Rhagae, Rai) to the Caspian Gates with picked troops who had just rested five days.^ It is true that we made the distance in a wheeled vehicle, but it could be made as easily, or even more easily, on horseback, as I know from my own experience in cJidpdring and caravaning nearly three thousand miles in Persia, and especially from my careful records on a second and third journey over this same road.^ O'Donovan,

1 So Houtum-Schindler, Bouten in stations, and including at least an hour Chorassdn, in Zt. Gesellsch. f. Erd- or more for the excursion to the ruins kunde, 12. 218, Berlin, 1877 ; Toma- near Aivan-i Kaif, was nine hours and schek, Zur hist. Topographie von Per- a half (or deduct an hour from Rai), sien^ in Sh. kais. Akad. Wiss. zu as follows : Iv. Teheran, 6,25 a.m. ; Wien, 102. 221-233, Vienna, 1883. opposite Dakhmah at Rai, 7.15 ; Kha- Curzon, Persia^ 1. 256, gives 61 miles ; tunabad, 9.35 ; arr. Sharifabad, 11.35 ; Captain Clerk, Notes in Persia^ in near Aivan-i Kaif, 2.45 p.m. [excursion Journ. Boy. Geog. Soc. 31. 37-38, for an hour and a half to the ruins of gives only 42 miles, but a number of Kalah Mari and Kalah-i Kis] ; arr. his distances seem to be underesti- Aivan-i Kaif, 4.05 p.m. On the third mated ; the distance according to transit, a week later upon my return Holdich, Map of Persia, seems to be trip, the distance between Aivan-i about 50 miles, as I have given it. Kaif and Rai (with considerable loss A table of distances along the route of time) was covered in about eight will appear in my Caspiae Portae. hours : Iv. Aivan-i Kaif, 12.20 p.m. ;

2 Tomaschek, op. cit. p. 221, as arr. near Rai, about 8.30 p.m. ; arr. against Marquart, Untersuchungen, Teheran, 9.45 p.m. (deduct about one 2. 29, n. 1. hour from time between Aivan-i Kaif

3 The time in transit on my second and the vicinity of Rai, because of a journey over the route, with delays broken wheel, not counting the usual for changes of horses at the various normal stops and delays).

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