128 THE DESICCATION OF LATER GEOLOGICAL TIMES. 



Closely adjacent to the Aralo-Caspian depression is the vast region known 

 to us by the name of Persia, — a country containing not less than 600,000 

 square miles of area, much the larger portion of which is a lofty table-land, 

 elevated from 3,000 to 4,000 feet above the sea-level. This table-land is 

 surrounded by a ring of mountain ranges, everywhere higher than the in- 

 terior, which forms a closed basin, or series of tliem, nearly the whole extent 

 of country thus enclosed being an absolute desert. As Mr. Blanford re- 

 marks : " Not only is there no constant stream flowing from the interior of 

 Persia, but no water-course communicates with the sea from the interior, 

 and every drop of rain which falls on the Persian plateau is evaporated 

 within its limits." * Of this vast region it can be said, with truth, that it is 

 so dry that its population is barely able to find the means of subsistence ; 

 that this population has, on account of the dryness, greatly diminished, and 

 is still diminishing in numbers ; and that, from time to time, the most fright- 

 ful famines sweep away hundreds of thousands of victims. 



These facts are so well known that it will not be necessary to do more 

 than to give one or two extracts, from thoroughly reliable sources, as illus- 

 trations of what could be furnished, in the way of evidence, in almost un- 

 limited amount. The following is quoted from the official report of the 

 Anglo-Persian Boundary Commission : " At every halting-place [on the 

 road from Bushahr to Shiraz] crowds of famished, half-naked men and boys 

 (the women and children were nearly all dead) thronged around our camp, 

 too weak to beg, but hoping, yet hardly expecting, succour from the bounty 



of the infidels On my return I took the unfrequented eastern road to 



Shiraz. Even here my servants buried three corpses on one day's march of 

 thirty-five miles, during which we did not meet a living soul." t 



The present population of Persia is unknown. It has been estimated at 

 from four to ten millions. Behm and Wagner jiut it at " about 7,000,000." :|: 

 I'he Boundary Commission estimate the loss of life by famine, — " actual 

 deaths from disease and starvation," — in 1870-71, " not to have exceeded 

 half a million ; though, from the disproportionate mortality of women and 

 children, the ultimate loss to the country will be far higher." 



According to Dr. Bellew,§ the loss of life by famine in the province of 



* Eastern Persia. An Account of the Journeys of the Eastern Boundary Commission. London, 1876. Vol. 

 II. p. 449. 



f 1. c, Voh I. pp. 95-97. 



* Die Bevolkerung der Erde, VI. Ergiinzungslieft, Peternianu's Mittheil. No. 62, 1880. 

 § Quoted in Behm and Wagner, VI. p. 30. 



