April 6, 191 1] 



NATURE 



181 



THROUGH PERSIAN DESERTS TO INDIAN 



DR. SVEN HEDIN'S latest book, describing the 

 first section of his famous last journey to Tibet, 

 in which he travelled overland to India, has at the 

 present moment a special political and economic in- 

 terest, in addition to its varied scientific contributions 

 to our knowledge. 



Fig. I, — Salt Crust in the Kavir. From " Overland to India." 



Deliberately avoiding the hackneyed caravan routes 

 through the famous centres of ancient Iran, Dr. Hedin 

 travelled from Teheran eastwards by way of the little 

 i;.\plored salt deserts (Kavir), and through Seistan 

 and Baluchistan, to Nuska, near Quetta, where he 

 struck the Indian system of railways. He thus 

 traversed a considerable part of the route 

 over which it has just been proposed, by a 

 group of Russian financiers, to construct a 

 railway to link up the Russian railway lines 

 with those of India, as an alternative, or 

 rather as a rival, to the Bagdad line through 

 Turkish territory to the Persian Gulf. By 

 the proposed line through Persia the journey 

 from London to Bombay is estimated to take 

 less than a week at a cost of 40/., as against 

 about 60Z. for the existing sea route via 

 Brindisi, occupying nearly twice that period, 

 whilst the route by Bagdad will not, it is 

 all(>ged, shorten the existing time very mate- 

 rially. Although Dr. Hedin does not refer to 

 the proposed Persian line, the project for 

 which has been put forward since his book 

 wont to the press, the country through which 

 the line is to pass, and the geographical 

 problems in regard to it, are graphically 

 described therein, 



Seistan, the most easterly province of 

 Persia, bordering on both Afghanistan and 

 Baluchistan, would be traversed by the line. 

 It has for many years been a territory of 

 great importance in Anglo-Russian politics, 

 owing to its position, standing as it does mid- 

 iway between the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf. 

 JAlthough, at present, it is for the most part an arid 

 land inhospitable desert, it is believed that the restora- 

 |tion of its former irrigation works will revive its 



"Overland to India." By Sven Heden Vol. i., pp. xix + 416+map ; 

 vol. ii., pp. xiv+357+map. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1910.) 

 Price, 3 vols., 30s. net. 



NO. 2162, VOL. 86] 



pristine productiveness, when it was "the granary of 

 mid-Asia " ; so that it is regarded as having the pos- 

 sibilities of becoming a second Egypt. Its recovery 

 from the clutches of the desert seems quite feasible. 

 In this connection the process by which the former 

 towns and villages, the traces of which are wide- 

 spread, have been engulfed by the desert, is considered 

 at some length. The chief factor appears to less 

 climatic change than the cessation of human 

 agency in staying the encroachments of the 

 deserts. The general process of dessication 

 which has been slowly going on in Asia 

 since the Glacial period has proceeded so 

 slowly that it appears to have advanced but 

 little since Alexander's day, subsequent to 

 which the country was much more populous 

 than at present. The early religion of the 

 country has been largely determined and 

 fashioned by what we may call the aggres- 

 siveness of the desert. The effect which this 

 has exercised on the minds of the inhabitants 

 finds expression in the old Iranian belief of 

 a beneficent creativ^e power personified in 

 the sun, and one hostile to mankind — 

 Ormuzd and Ahzimrud. As evil associates 

 of the latter are regarded the hot sand- 

 storms, the mirage of the desert, the winter 

 cold, miasmas, and noxious insects and 

 snakes, &c. Hence the practical religious 

 precepts ascribed to Zoroaster are the ex- 

 termination of those harmful creatures, and 

 especially to stay the ravages of the desert 

 by the planting of trees, constructing 

 water channels, sinking wells, and similar 

 acts. The depopulation of these regions 

 which has permitted the advance of the desert, 

 has obviously been effected mainly by the ravages 

 of devastating wars, intertribal blood- feuds, and 

 the murderous raids of robbers. Under a settled 

 and enlightened Government there seems a fair pros- 

 pect of these deserts being to a great extent re- 



FiG. 2. — Rush Boats on Lake Il.inuin. I' roin " Overl.uid to liuli.i.' 



claimed, and even the desert of Gobi is not altogether 

 hopeless. 



At Trebizond, on the Armenian coast of the Baltic, 

 the traveller falls again under the spell of the camel- 

 caravan bells. " I never weary of this same monotonous 

 sound, with its unchanging ryhthm, the ceaseless ding- 

 dong, ding-dong, which I have heard so many times 



