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Central Asia forms a natural centre for the diffusion of population over the Globe, as will appear from the following passages from an authority by whom Adelung's views have been adopted:6

“Asia, exhibiting such characteristics in its outline, is no less remarkable for the form of its surface, on which the climate, and consequently the vegetation and animal kingdom, of its different parts must chiefly depend. In examining the other divisions of the globe, we find that Australia exhibits level and comparatively low countries without many high mountain-ranges, as far as we yet know. Africa is divided into two nearly equal parts, the southern of which forms an almost uniform table-land, whilst the northern, with the exception of the Atlas region, may be considered as a lowland. Europe contains plains of small extent lying between dispersed mountain-groups and ridges; but these plains are not confined to any particular parts. In America the highest land lies on one side, occupying its western coast from the extreme north to the south; it forms the most extensive system of mountain-chains on the globe, which inclose within their arms elevated plateaus, but of comparatively small extent. Asia exhibits different features. The whole mass of the interior continent rises to a considerable [pg xix] elevation above the sea, and this elevated mass, of which the high table-lands occupy by far the greatest extent, is not placed at one of the extremities of the whole mass, but occupies its centre.

“From these table-lands, which occupy the centre of Asia, the surface descends in gradual and diversified terraces and slopes to the lowlands which surround them.”

After stating that these table-lands consist of two terraces, (viz. an Eastern system, composed of Tibet and the Great Desert, called Gobi, and a Western terrace, including Iran or Persia,) which unite where the ranges of the Himalaya, Hindu-Kuh, Thsungling, and Belur Tagh meet, the same writer thus alludes to the regions which form the point of junction:

“Such a juxta-position of all the great features which nature exhibits on the surface of the globe, on such a colossal scale, and in so limited a space, makes this one of the most remarkable spots on the face of our planet. This maximum of the contrasts of natural features, placed in the centre of the continent, is the principal characteristic which distinguishes Asia. By drawing a circle with a radius of a few hundred miles round this common centre, we comprehend in it the countries of Cashmere, Sogdiana, and Cabulistan, the ancient empires of Bactria, Delhi, and Samarcand, the cold table-lands of Tibet, of Khotan, and of Kashgar, up to the ancient Seres and Paropamisadæ.”

Further, the same writer, after describing the immense variety of climate that occurs within this limited space, adds:

“From the extremity of these table-lands, especially on the south-east and north-east, south-west and north-west, there issue several separate mountain-chains, not connected with one another, but which form more or less a part of the table-lands themselves.

[pg xx]

“The valleys, which are produced by this indentation on the borders of the table-lands, offer peculiar advantages for the progress of civilization. For, as we have already observed, the highland of Asia does not sink on one side only, but on all sides and towards every point of the compass; it also sinks towards different oceans, which are separated from the highland by extensive plains, varying greatly in magnitude and form. This circumstance, added to the valleys formed by the indentations in the exterior margins of the highlands, has given rise to numerous and most extensive river systems, which, descending through the intervening terraces, direct their winding course towards the north, south, west, and east, and thus give to the distant internal countries of this continent the advantage of an easy communication with the ocean.”