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tists with the result that the theory of an ancient connexion between the Oxus and the Caspian has been displaced by the more recent hypothesis of an extension of the Caspian Sea eastwards into trans-Caspian territory within the post-Pleiocene age. The discovery of shells (now living in the Caspian) at a distance of about 100 miles inland, at an altitude of 140 to 280 feet above the present level of the Caspian, gives support to this hypothesis, which is further advanced by the ascertained nature of the Kaia-kum sands, which appear to be a purely marine formation exhibiting no traces of fluviatile deposits which might be considered as delta deposits of the Oxus. „ , , c it. In the discussion of this problem we find the names ot Kaulbars, Anneukoff, Lessar, and Konshin prominent. Further matter of interest in connexion with the Oxus basin was elucidated by the researches of Griesbach in connexion with the Russo-Afghan Boundary Commission. He reported the gradual formation of an anticlinal, or ridge, extending longitudinally through the gi'eat Balkh plain of Afghan Turkestan, which effectually shuts oft the northern affluents of that basin from actual junction with the river. This evidence of a gradual process of upheaval still in action may throw some light on the physical (especially the climatic) changes which must have passed over that part of Asia since Balkh was the “mother of cities,” the great trade centre of Asia, and the plains of Balkh were green with cultivation. In the restoration of the outlines of ancient and mediaeval geography in Asia Sven Hedin’s discoveries of the actual remains of cities which have long been buried under the advancing waves of sand in the Takla Makan desert, cities which flourished in the comparatively recent period of Buddhist ascendency in High Asia, is of the very highest interest, filling up a blank in the identification of sites mentioned by early geographers and illustrating more fully the course of old pilgrim routes. , ,. j i With the completion of the surveys of Baluchistan and Makran much light has also been thrown on the ancient connexion between east and west; and the final settlement of Baluchithe southern boundaries of Afghanistan has led to stan and the reopening of one at least ot the old trade routes Makrdn. between Sistan and India. (See Baluchistan.) Farther east no part of Asia has been brought under more careful investigation than the hydrography of the strange mountain wilderness that divides Tibet and Burma from China. Betweea In this field the researches of travellers already men- Burma tioned, combined with the more exact reconnaissance of an(1 c/,/na. native surveyors and of those exploring parties which . have recently been working in the interests of commercial projects, have left little to future inquiry. We know now for certain that the great Tsangpo of Tibet and the Brahmaputra are one and the same river ; that north of the point where the great countermarch of that river from east to west is effected are to be found the sources of the Salween, the Mekong, the Yang-tse-kiang and the Hoang-ho, or Yellow river, in order, from west to east; and that south” of it, thrust in between the extreme eastern edge of the Brahmaputra basin and the Salween, rise the dual sources of the Irrawaddy. From the water-divide which separates the most eastern amo of the Brahmaputra, eastwards to the deep gorges which Yisconte, Halevy and others, amongst foreign travellers. Doughty affluent enclose the most westerly branch of the upper Yang-tse-kiang (here and Blunt have visited and illustrated the district of Nejd, and running from north to south), is a short space of 100 miles and described the waning glories of the Wahabi empire. But extended within that space two mighty rivers, the Salween and the Mekong, geographical knowledge does not point to any great practical issue. send down their torrents to Burma and Siam. These three rivers Commercial relations with Arabia remain much as they were in flow parallel to each other for some 300 miles, deep hidden in 1875. (See Arabia.) . , . . ■. narrow and precipitous troughs, amidst some of the grandest In Asia Minor, Syria, and Mesopotamia there is little to record scenery of Asia ; spreading apart where the Yang-tse takes its of progress in material development beyond the promises held course eastwards, not far north of the parallel of 25 . ° out by the Euphrates Valley Railway concession to a As!a The comparatively restricted area which still remains for close company. The exact information obtained by Minor, &c. German the reSearches of English surveyors in Palestine and investigation includes the most easterly sources of the Brahmaputra, the most northerly sources of the Irrawaddy, and some 300 miles of beyond Jordan, or by the efforts of explorers in the regions that he the course of the Upper Salween. between the Mediterranean and the Caspian, have so far led rathei Ancient Trade Routes and Modern Railways. to the elucidation of history than to fresh commercial enterprise or the possible increase of material wealth. _ No branch of knowledge gained by the results of recent Asiatic Asiatic Russia, especially Eastern Siberia and Mongolia, hav research is more instructive than the comparison of ancient means been brought within the sphere of Russian exploration, with results of trade communication with modern, the directions along which surprising as to form an epoch m the histoiy o wealth of East and West has been interchanged at various Russia in so Asia Here there has been a development of the the in the world’s history, and the means and methods of its Asia. resources of the Old World which parallels the best epochs propulsion. “The struggle for these trade routes forms a- key to records of the New. Further references to the results of recent the policy and the wars of many nations” ; and even if the command Russian enterprise will be made when considering the general of them was “the expression rather than the cause of the aggranquestion of Asiatic progress. . i ,., , disement of a nation,” examples in which “the possession of The great central depression of the continent which reaches from Asiatic trade1 has marked high water in the history of empire thee foot of the Pamir plateau on the west through the lanm desert and its loss marked the ebb of the tide ” are so frequent and so to Lob andof the is still under examination. Chinese This vastNor area low Gobi elevation centres about Lob -Nor, conspicuous in the world’s great chronicle that no general conof the physiography of the continent of Asia^ can be Turkestan where i em (the full details of which we find) in a ake syst n where we nnu, m a iaKe sy&teui --- sideration regarded as complete without a reference to them. The two 30(1 Oxus are not yet• fully 11 iknown, although i i-i- U much l-ii-io Ivnnn T»ppr»rnpfi has been recorded civilized communities that created a demand for trade basin. of them by Prjevalski and Sven Hedin), the last sur- earliest were, undoubtedly, Egypt on the west and China on the east ; and viving- evidences of a great inland sea. The depression westward ot 1 the Caspian and Aral basins, and the original connexion of these Hunter, Hist, of India, vol. i. seas has also come under the close investigation of Russian scien-
From the same point the Muztagh mountains stretch eastwards and southwards, separating the sources of the Zarafshan, or .. J river the gigantic of i Hindu — - of Yarkand, — ’ fromMuch ’ glacier j— region •towards •*Kashmir. has been done Kush and Northern elucidating the exact configuration of both of these imMuztagh portant ranges. The Hindu Kush has been crossed at ranges. several points, and it is only where it passes through the unexplored wilderness of Kaiiristan that the position of the main water-divide is at all doubtful. The Muztagh has been crossed once (by Younghusband) at a point where its passage may be considered to be ordinarily impracticable, not far from the gigantic peak Godwin Austen, which ranks as second only to Everest in the scale of Himalayan altitudes. Much practical gain (political and military) has been derived from a better appreciation of the physical characteristics of the mass of mountainous country which intervenes between the north of India and the southern borders of Asiatic Russia ; and much has been attained in the more western regions, which include Northern Afghanistan and Persia. In Western Asia we have learned the exact value of the mountain barrier which lies between Merv and Herat, and have mapped its connexion with the the Elburz We can now Indian fupy appreciate factor ofinPersia. practical politics frontiers— ^hat definite but somewhat irregular mountain Afghan- SyStem represents which connects the water-divide istan, &c. of Herat with tpe southern abutment of the Hindu Kush, near Bamian. Every pass of importance is known and recorded; every route of significance has been explored and mapped ; Afghanistan has assumed a new political entity by the demarcation of a boundary ; the value of Herat and of the Pamirs as bases of aggression has been assessed, and the whole intervening space of mountain and plain thoroughly examined. Although within the limits of Western Asiatic states, still under Asiatic government and beyond the active influence of European materialstationary, progress ofyet thelarge Eastern world has Persia. ° interests, appeared the to remain accessions to geographical knowledge have at least been made, and in some instances a deeper knowledge of the surface of the country and modern conditions of life has led to the straightening of many crooked paths in history, and a better appreciation of the slow processes of advancing civilization. The steady advance of scientific inquiry into every corner of Persia, backed by the unceasing efforts of a new school of geographical explorers, has left nothing unexammed that can be subjected to superficial observation. The geographical map of the country is fairly complete, and with it much detailed information is now accessible regarding the coast and harbours ot the Persian Gulf, the routes and passes of the interior, and the possibilities of commercial development by the construction of trade roads uniting the Caspian, the Karun, the Persian Gulf, and India, vid Sistan. Persia has assumed a comprehensible position as a factor in future Eastern politics. (See Persia.) _ In Arabia progress has been slower. Little more is known ot the wide spaces of interior desert than has already been given to the ngst world in the works ofand Burton, Palgrave, and Pelly Arabia. Englishmen, Niebuhr, Burckhardt,
