It was not only in Persia Proper that nature had bestowed this commodity with a lavish hand--there was scarcely a province of the Empire which did not possess it in superfluous abundance.

Large tracts were covered by it in North Africa, in Media, in Carmania, and in Lower Babylonia.

In Asia Minor, Armenia, Syria, Palestine, and other places, it could be obtained from lakes.

In Kerman, and again in Palestine, it showed itself in the shape of large masses, not inappropriately termed "mountains." Finally, in India it was the chief material of a long mountain-range, which is capable of supplying the whole world with salt for many ages.
Bitumen and naptha were also very widely diffused.

At the eastern foot of the Caucasus, where it subsides into the Caspian Sea, at various points in the great Mesopotamian plain, in the Deshtistan or low country of Persia Proper, in the Bakh-tiyari mountains, and again in the distant Jordan valley, these two inseparable products are to be found, generally united with indications of volcanic action, present or recent.