[146] The fisheries of the Black Sea were also particularly famous in ancient times, the brackish waters of the Sea of Azov providing excellent breeding grounds. Plin. ix. 15. Ælian. De Animal, xv. 5. Athen. vii. p. 303. Polyb. iv. c. 5. [147] Herod. iv. 24. [148] Some of the names of the tribes near the Caspian, as the Arimaspi, bear names which are compounded of the Sanscrit word for “horse.” [149] Herod. i. 203. [150] Heeren’s “Asiatic Nations,” vol. ii. p. 32. [151] There seems reason to doubt whether the Oxus ever flowed into the Caspian Sea—it now flows into the Aral. (See Alex. Burnes’s “Journey to Bokhara,” ii. p. 188.) On the other hand, Conolly believed he crossed the bed of the river which did formerly flow by one branch into the Caspian. (“Travels,” i. p. 50.) Dr. Vincent goes so far as to express his belief that communication between the west and east, by one of the routes specified above, was even more ancient than that by the Red Sea. (“Commerce of the Euxine,” p. 113.) CHAPTER III. Egypt—Commerce—Sesostris—Naucratis—The Nile—Sailors of Egypt—Their boats—How navigated—Mode of building them—Cargo barges—Their rig—Steering—Passage and cargo boats—Boat for the conveyance of the dead—Variety of boats, and their superiority—Prosperity of Egypt under the Ptolemies, B.C. 283—Canal over the Isthmus—Ptolemy’s great ship—Analysis of her dimensions—The Thalamegus, her size and splendour—Great size of other Egyptian monuments—Probability of such vessels having been constructed—Hiero’s great ship—Not unlike a modern inland American steamer—Details of her construction, accommodation, outfit, and decorations—Greek ships—Habits of piracy—Corinth—Athens—The size of her ships as described by Herodotus—Discrepancy between the different accounts. [Sidenote: Egypt.] The ancient history of Egypt is to be found almost exclusively in the works of Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus; but it has been materially supplemented, and in many respects confirmed by the researches of modern scholars. Moreover, from the time when Young[152] discovered the key to the hieroglyphical writings, a flood of light has been thrown upon it by the labours of Champollion, Lepsius, Bunsen, Birch, De Rougé, Chabas, Goodwin and Wilkinson; the works of the last-named writer being especially full of information with reference to its ships and commerce.