NA TURE 



453 



THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 1 1, 1879 



OUR NEW PROTECTORATE 



Our New Protectorate, Turkey in Asia; its Geography, 

 Races, Resources, and Government. By J. Carlile 

 McCoan. 2 vols. (London : Chapman and Hall, 

 1879.) 



Narrative of a Journey through Khorassan and on the 

 North-west Frontier of Afghanistan in 1875. By 

 Col. C. M. MacGregor, C.S.I. Bengal Staff Corps. 

 2 vols. (London : Allen and Co., 1879.) 



WHATEVER other interests may have suffered 

 through the late convulsions in the East, those 

 of science, and especially of geography, have at all events 

 been largely benefited. The cession of Cyprus to Eng- 

 land and the Anglo- Turkish Convention, which brings a 

 large part of Western Asia within the British political 

 system, could not fail to direct general attention to those 

 regions, thus giving occasion to a number of more or less 

 comprehensive treatises on their physical conditions, 

 natural resources, ethnical, social, and political relations. 

 Of these works, those whose titles are here given, while 

 differing widely in their scope and treatment, are each in 

 its way very favourable specimens. Of the two, that of 

 Mr. McCoan is perhaps on the whole the most satisfac- 

 tory, as from its purpose and nature it is likely to prove 

 of the greatest permanent interest. Within the compass 

 of two moderately-sized octavo volumes it deals with an 

 immense variety of topics. Yet such is its admirable 

 arrangement, and so thoroughly master is the writer of 

 his subject, that there is nowhere any crowding or con- 

 fusion, and the result is a most convenient and reliable 

 handbook of " Our New Protectorate." Nothing is 

 omitted that comes fairly within the scope of such a 

 treatise, and a twenty years' personal experience of an 

 intelligent observer of men and things will be sufficient 

 guarantee of the accuracy of his statements, if not always 

 of the justness of his conclusions. In the first volume 

 separate chapters are devoted to each of the five great 

 divisions of Asiatic Turkey, whose orography, hydro- 

 graphy, climate, natural products, present economical 

 conditions, trade routes, political divisions, are treated in 

 detail. These are followed by more comprehensive chap- 

 ters on the history, races, religions, resources, and govern- 

 ment of this eastern section of the empire. The second 

 volume is occupied chiefly with questions of an economi- 

 cal and social character — public works, public instruction, 

 trade centres, agriculture, slavery, polygamy, the Ulema, 

 the capitulations, abuses, necessary reforms. 



The chapters on natural resources, products, and agri- 

 culture, convey a vivid picture of the inexhaustible latent 

 wealth of these regions. 



"On both sides of the Bosphorus Nature has fitted 

 Turkey to be a great agricultural country, but in Asia the 

 geological and climatic conditions of successful husbandry 

 combine in a degree seldom equalled in Europe. Hence 

 nearly every kind of agricultural produce known to 

 commerce may be raised on a scale of abundance limited 

 only by the labour and intelligence employed. The 

 present condition of the country, it need hardly be said, 

 supplies no measure of its full capabilities, but even as it 

 Vol. XX.— No. 515 



is, the merest bird's-eye glance at its chief products, under 

 all the existing disadvantages of gross fiscal abuses, the 

 most primitive rudeness of culture, and the want of outlets 

 for everything grown beyond the actual needs of local 

 consumption, will show how rich and wide is the field 

 awaiting only better government and a moderate infusion 

 of western skill and capital to become again one of the 

 most productive in the world" (vol. i. p. 203). Nothing, 

 perhaps, gives a better idea of the immense variety of these 

 products, than a glance at the export trade of Smyrna, 

 including, as it does, such varied items as rice, maize, and 

 other cereals, opium, tobacco, silk, and cocoons, valonea, 

 madder, gall nuts, yellow berries, mohair, sponges, besides 

 large quantities of dried figs and raisins of prime quality. 



Yet, boundless as they are, these surface-products are 

 represented as scarcely exceeding in importance the vast 

 mineral treasures that lie still almost untouched in the 

 bowels of the earth. " The soil of Anatolia, especially, 

 is largely composed of those earlier rocks which are 

 known to be the most rich in minerals, rocks, in fact, to 

 which some of the most valuable of these are altogether 

 confined. The country is said, indeed, to possess altnost 

 every sort of metal except platina. Not only, too, are 

 most of the mineral districts near either the sea or navi- 

 gable rivers, but — what is even of more importance — the 

 metaUic and carboniferous beds are found close to, or 

 within practical distance of, each other. We have thus, 

 in many instances, the proximity of coal and iron which 

 has made the fortune of Staffordshire, and the absence of 

 which in Spain has rendered the rich mines of the 

 Asturias nearly valueless. According to the official 

 records of the Porte, in all some 250 mines of various 

 ores hare been discovered throughout the Empire, three- 

 fourths of which are in Asia. Most of these latter were 

 formerly worked, but the great majority have been 

 abandoned through want of capital or for other reasons, 

 leaving only about thirty now at work, and not one of these 

 to the full limit of its producing capacity " (vol. i. p. 209). 

 Detailed accounts are given of some of the more valuable 

 of these deposits, including the famous coal-fields of 

 Erekli, which form part of the Sultan's private domain, 

 but which are so badly worked as to be almost un- 

 remunerative. 



The rival schemes of railway communication through 

 Turkey with India are briefly but clearly explained, and 

 their merits impartially balanced. In the large map of 

 Turkey in Asia accompanying the work the several routes 

 are laid down, together with the proposed extensions, and 

 all the highways actually completed. In future editions, 

 this map might be advantageously supplemented by 

 another, showing the administrative divisions, vilayets, 

 sanjaks, kazas, which are so necessary to a full compre- 

 hension of Turkish geography, and which are yet so diffi- 

 cult to procure. 



Col. MacGregor's work appears somewhat late in the 

 field, but is none the less welcome as a valuable contribu- 

 tion to our knowledge of a region still but little known, 

 notwithstanding its daily increasing political importance. 

 It is somewhat of the nature of an itinerary, in which the 

 towns, distances, elevations, water and mountain system.'!, 

 and all other points of interest along the route traversed 

 by the enterprising explorer are carefully described. From 

 the title it might be supposed that the ground thus sur- 



