Page:History of Art in Persia.djvu/22

 The Countrv. 7 Shiraz, all the fruits of Europe, of excellent quality, are found in great abundance. No system or science of forestry exists, yet the humid valleys of Mazanderan and the Caspian belt produce timbers of great variety and value, many of which are well adapted for shipbuilding'. In more than one place, even where the summits of extinct volcanoes do not rise, as in the Elburz range, above the calcareous masses, igneous rocks, gneiss and granites, porphyry and trachyte, have pierced the thick sedimen- tary formations, and by decomposition greatly add to the fertility of the soil. Rich seams of the precious or useful metals are not rare in the volcanic regions; they formerly were a source of revenue, but are now suffered to lie undeveloped beneath the surface. Considered as a whole, Iran can never have had a population in ratio to its extent, in that too large a proportion of its surface has never been and never will be brought under cultivation ; yet its stony wildernesses, though w^ell-nigh inaccessible, were on that very account a safeguard to the groups settled in the north and west of the plateau. Secured in their rear against surprise, they could increase and multiply at their own sweet will, in a territory rich in natural resources, provided they were willing to face the hardships consequent on the development of this natural endow- ment. The only peoples whose hostilities they had to fear were their powerful western neighbours of Mesoi)otamia ; but the chain of Zagros was a formidable rampart not easily got over, and a king of Nineveh or Babylon would think twice before he ventured on an undertaking which, under the most favourable circumstances, would be of doubtful advantage to him, since he could never hope to rule with a strong hand tribes separated from the base of operations by mountain ranges, amidst which a day's march covers very little ground even when the passes are undefended, but where a handful of men suffice to keep in check a whole host in defiles, such as those of the Zagros, found at an altitude of some 2800 m. The mountains that interpose between Persia and Susiana are inhabited by the warlike Bakthiyari tribes, to whom the Achaemenidse, in the zenith of their power, were content to pay a passage fee whenever circumstances obliged them to cross these mountains as they moved from Ecbatana or Persepolis to Susa. At the present hour the Bakthiyarls are practically as independent of the Shah as they once were of the Great King/ Digitized by Google
 * Stmbo (after Nourchns), XI. xiiL 6. Cf. Arriav, Angsts, vii. 15.