Sykes' History of Persia - Heritage Institute

8 HISTORY OF PERSIA CHAP.
although the variations in elevation are stupendous,
ranging from the Caspian Sea and the basin of Turfan,
which lie below sea-level, to the Pamirs and Tibet, where
the traveller is seldom below 10,000 feet, yet everywhere,
except in the actual is
ranges, aridity the marked feature
common to all countries alike, whether Turkestan, Persia,
Afghanistan, Tibet, or Baluchistan. TJiis^aridity, which
results in rivers of such weak
is due, jbcMireriscanty rainfall,
volume that they fail to reach the sea. From this cause
the whole enormous area, stretching
for some three
thousand miles from east to west, is composed of basins,
none of which
^scanty rainfall,
have any
there are
outlets. Again, owing to
immense desiccated areas,
the
and
the whole region may be described as
consisting partly
of desert pure and simple, and partly of desert tempered
by oases. In other words, we are dealing with a vast area
In which cultivated districts capable of sustaining population
are rare and far
apart. To it put another way, if the desert
tracts could be removed, the cultivable districts would
I
lay considerable
together make up a very small country.
stress on this fact ; for dwellers in Europe, where almost
the whole of the land is valuable owing mainly to abundant
rainfall, can with difficulty realize the utterly different conditions
which prevail in Central Asia.-^
The Climate of Persia.—The marked feature therefore
of Persia and of Central Asia generally is aridity.
The Rainfall.—The amount of rainfall on the plateau
is now observed, mainly at the offices of the Indo-
European Telegraph Department, and, thanks to the
courtesy of Mr. Gilbert Walker, Director - General of
Observatories in India, I am able to give the following table,
which is based on observations taken for a period of ten
years :—
Jask . . . .4.17
Bushire
Isfahan
Teheran
Meshed
11.07
4.74
9-30
9-37
inches annual rainfall.
1 This question has been dealt with in a remarkable book termed The Pulse of Asia,
written by Elsworthy Huntington.