Ararat, Pisoti, and Jerusalem. 259 



surmount these Alps we reach the great desert wastes of Gobi, 

 which extend to the north of Pekin nearly as far as the Pacific. 



The superficial extent of these vast deserts is immense. 

 The Sahara alone, including its Oases, amounts to 324,000 

 square miles, which is six times larger than Germany. The 

 Indian Desert is about the same size as Germany. Gobi ex- 

 tends for 1800 miles in length, from W. SW. to E. NE., with 

 a breadth of from 135 to 450 miles *. The superficies of all 

 these deserts may exceed that of Europe. They have all essen- 

 tially the same character, principally sand and gravel, then clay, 

 here and there solid rock. Water fit for drinking is in these 

 desert expanses extremely rare; those lakes, morasses, and wells 

 which exist, are usually brackish and saline ; crusts of salt cover 

 the soil ; and rock-salt is found at a trifling depth. The desert 

 of Kerman (Persia) -f", seems to be the dried up bed of a Mediter- 

 ranean Sea like the Caspian. The lake of Zareh may be re- 

 garded as the remains of this ancient water which receives the 

 large river Hirmend. If the high desert of Gobi seems now 

 a great basin, surrounded by the highest mountains in the 

 world, from the walls of which flow the largest rivers into the 

 various quarters of the globe, in former times it may have been 

 a great inland sea, of which the lake Lop is still the remains, 

 which receives the large river Yerken, as well as several other 

 lakes of smaller importance. Besides which, there are 68 rivers 

 and streams delineated in the Jesuits' Map of Eastern Gobi, 

 which mostly lose themselves in shallow lakes on the sand, and 

 115 steppe streams on the southern boundaries of Tartary. 



Thus, all these wastes seem to be the bottom of a former salt 

 sea X- l^ut what opinion shall we form of this range of deserts ? 

 Let the reader take the compass, and he will find on the globe, 

 that Ararat is situate nearly in the midst of the range, at an 

 equal distance from the mouth of the Senegal, and the termina- 

 tion of the chain to the NE. of Pekin. 



3. Parallel to this chain of deserts, there ranges on the north 

 a chain of inland seas from W. SW. to E. NE., from the west 



• Humboldt calculates the extent of these deserts, without the Oases, the 

 liucharian or CobL deserts, at 504,000 square miles, 

 t Hitter, ii. C3. 

 :;: Hitter, i. 01.'), first edition. Humboldt MS. p. 20. 



