152 ANDREW JACKSON HOWE. 



its contributions of salt to the needs of commerce 

 amounting to thousands of tons annually. 



An arid area reaching from Persia through Tur- 

 kistan to the eastern confines of the great desert of 

 Gobi, a distance of 3,000 miles, embraces a vast inland 

 depression in Asia which is growing in interest, though 

 still an inhospitable region, with only here and there 

 an oasis or habitable locality. Spurs of mountain 

 chains extend into the desert waste and contribute 

 supplies of fresh water, yet the rivers are not large 

 enough to push their way to the ocean, they dwindle 

 as they flow, and at length end in a brackish marsh or 

 a saline basin having no outlet. Irrigation is carried 

 on in districts where the contents of streams can bo 

 utilized for such purposes, yet a fixed population can 

 barely obtain a sustenance. This barren belt consti- 

 tutes a formidable barrier between Russia and the 

 government of India, yet both powers seem to be pro- 

 jecting railways into the uninviting waste, probably 

 for political purposes. 



The deepest depression in the earth's surface, ex- 

 cept ocean beds, is " the Valley of the Jordan." It ex- 

 tends from defiles on the borders of Palestine and Syria, 

 and nominally ends in the Dead Sea, but really extends, 

 to Akaba Gulf, an arm of the Red Sea. The low-lying 

 ravine may have been produced by volcanic action. 



The River Jordan, an historic feature of the fa- 

 mous valley, rises in the Lebanon Mountains near 

 Mount Hermon, sharing a division of the waters of 

 the range with the classical Orontes, a wild stream 

 which empties into the Mediterranean. 



The Jordan begins in rills and rivulets, as other 

 rivers do, gathering contributions as it proceeds on its 

 rapidly descending course; and after attaining the size 



