478 THE STEPPE REGION OF CENTRAL ASIA. 



According to Michelet the steppes of Central Asia 

 have an estimated area of about 4 x /2 millions of square 

 miles, and are mostly elevated table-lands raised high 

 above the sea-level, and drained by means of ravines, 

 cut by the streams in time of flood. These ravines, 

 according to Kohl, are seldom less than from 100 to 

 150 feet in depth, with precipitous banks; they there- 

 fore form great obstructions to travel; moreover in 

 winter time, these places fill with the drifting snows, 

 and then become exceedingly dangerous to anyone 

 who is not intimately acquainted with the country, 

 men and cattle being often buried by falling into 

 them, and their fate only ascertained when the melt- 

 ing of the snows leaves their bodies exposed. * The 

 monotonous character of these boundless plains far 

 exceeds that of the Indian plain, which is almost 

 always adorned by clumps of fine trees and dotted 

 over with native farms and villages, or other objects 

 to attract the eye, whereas on the steppes, there is 

 " not a tree, not a hill, to break the monotony of the 

 landscape, through which a well-mounted rider may 

 gallop for hundreds of leagues, and scarcely see an 

 object to make him conscious that he has quitted the 

 spot from whence he started." f 



When our Indian friends therefore enlarge upon the 

 vastness and monotony of the plains of Hindustan, 

 let them bear in mind that they are as nothing com- 

 pared with the still greater plain which occupies the 

 heart of Central Asia. Here the wilderness claims as 

 her own a mighty expanse nine or ten times as large, 

 upon which there is hardly a single object to attract 



* Rtissia, by J. G. Kohl. 

 f Ibid. 



