300 THE ARYAN QUESTION. vi 



Eecent by geologists set in — we have to reckon 

 with, a distribution of land and water, not only 

 very different from that which at present obtains 

 in northern Eurasia, but of such a nature that it 

 can hardly fail to have exerted a great influence 

 on the development and the distribution of the 

 races of mankind. (See page 250, note f.) 



At the present time, four great separate bodies 

 of water, the Black Sea, the Caspian, the Sea of 

 Aral, and Lake Balkash, occupy the southern end 

 of the vast plains which extend from the Arctic 

 Sea to the highlands of the Balkan peninsula, of 

 Asia Minor, of Persia, of Afghanistan, and of the 

 high plateaus of central Asia as far as the Altai. 

 They lie for the most part between the parallels 

 of 40° and 50° N. and are separated by wide 

 stretches of barren and salt-laden wastes. The 

 surface of Balkash is 514 feet, that of the Aral 

 158 feet above the Mediterranean, that of the Cas- 

 pian eighty-five feet below it. The Black Sea is in 

 free communication with the Mediterranean by the 

 Bosphorus and the Dardanelles; but the others, in 

 historical times, have been, at most, temporarily 

 connected with it and with one another, by rela- 

 tively insignificant channels. This state of things, 

 however, is comparatively modern. At no very dis- 

 tant period, the land of Asia Minor was continu- 

 ous with that of Europe, across the present site of 

 the Bosphorus, forming a barrier several hundred 

 feet high, which dammed up the waters of the 



