56 ASIA 



deforested largely by incessant streams of immigration. 

 Their lower slopes are pretty bare, only supporting the 

 scattered maquis, but the upper slopes often shelter coni- 

 ferous forests. 



The country is rich in the valleys, where orchards and 

 gardens are found in abundance. In addition, the upper 

 valleys afford excellent summer pastures with all the 

 glory of our alpine swards, where the shepherds, and 

 part even of the agricultural population, migrate in 

 the hot weather. Although it is probable that climatic 

 changes have taken place in this region, the bulk of Asia 

 Minor, by reason of its aridity, could never become the 

 centre of an indigenous civilization, and of great empires, 

 like the valleys of Mesopotamia and Egypt. By contrast, 

 the fertile but hilly coast fringes permitted the develop- 

 ment of small separate nationalities, subsisting partly on 

 mediterranean agriculture, partly on sea-trade. Each of 

 these in turn rose to some degree of prosperity, and exer- 

 cised a real influence in history : each of them also 

 naturally expanded towards the hinterland, across the 

 mountains, and brought under their sway the adjacent 

 portions of the arid territories with their itinerant tribes. 

 Apart from the frequent passage of migrating nations, 

 the history of hilly Armenia is, in the main, a tale of 

 endless struggles between the settled agriculturists of 

 the lower terraces and plains, and the wild shepherds of 

 the upper valleys. 



Turan extends from the Kirghiz steppe to the moun- 

 tains of Khorassan, and from the Caspian to the Pamirs 

 and the Tian Shan. It is formed by the bottom of a 

 dried-up sea, a vestige of which remains as the Aral. 

 A low plateau, the Ust-Urt, separates it from the 

 Caspian. 



By reason of its feeble altitude as well as of its central 



