Note 100 — THE VOYAGE OF NEARKHOS.

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.