68 ASIA 



reeds which mark the water-points are identical with 

 those of our own country. On the southern side of the 

 Han-hai, at the foot of the Nan-shan, plant life has some 

 distinct mediterranean features, both in the natural and 

 the cultivated vegetation. 



Apart from these concentric belts the various regions 

 of the Han-hai possess an individuality of their own. 

 The Tarim basin is related in some degree to the low- 

 lying deserts of Turan as regards its flora. The nucleus 

 of it is the deadly sea of shifting sands of the Takhla 

 Makan, while its margin is formed by a ring of swamps, 

 which mark the places where rivers lose themselves. 

 Extensive brushes, ranging from dense tangles to scat- 

 tered heaths, constitute a cheerless vegetation ; and bushy 

 poplars resembling straggling birch-bushes, small trees 

 such as tamarixes and saxauls, gnarled and stunted, 

 either leafless or with heath-like scales, alternate with 

 reeds, rushes, and coarse grass. This jungle also fringes 

 the uncertain course of the rivers, and is tenanted by 

 deer and tiger, but serves for winter grazing grounds. 



The alluvial tracts of the rivers make a chain of oases 

 round the desert outside the ring of marshes : groves of 

 tall poplars and willows occur at intervals and shelter 

 the villages, around which cultivation of cereals and 

 fruit-trees of a mediterranean type is carried on. This 

 forms the inner route of the caravans, continued along 

 the Nan-shan and the Tsin-ling-shan, to the Yellow 

 River. 



Beyond a belt of porous and arid gravel downs, one 

 reaches a broken line of loess terraces, which are more 

 or less planted with maize and fruit trees, and support 

 agricultural villages, joined by a second caravan route. 

 Ultimately among the mountains, the heads of the 

 valleys, thanks to fair summer rains, provide abundant 



