THE GREAT GOBI. 97 



submerged the low-lying lands, which probably united the Canaries and 

 Madeira to the mainland." To a similar cause must be attributed the 

 existence of the subterranean waters, springs-, ponds, and salt lakes, of 

 which I have already spoken, and of the inland seas the Caspian, the 

 Sea of Aral, and the Dead Sea ; while the Black Sea and its offshoots, 

 the Sea of Azov and the Sea of Marmora, must have had the same origin. 

 I shall discuss this subject further when describing the Great Sahara. 



In Eastern and Central Asia, the Sandy or Salt Deserts alternate 

 with the Steppes, and with lands susceptible of a certain amount of 

 cultivation. The vast region which geographers designate the Great 

 Gobi, or the Shamo, is intersected by many grassy Steppes and even 

 by fertile fields, where the sedentary Mongols, and especially the 

 Artons, yearly sow and gather hemp, millet, and buckwheat. The 

 sombre picture of " a barren plain of shifting sand blown into high 

 ridges where the summer sun is scorching, no rain falls, and when 

 thick fog occurs it is only the precursor of fierce winds,"* is true only 

 of special districts, such as the Han-hai, or "Dry Sea/' or the Desert 

 of Sarkha. There, for instance, we meet with no other vegetable 

 than the salsolje, or salt-worts, which flourish around the small saline 

 pools. Of these pools, when seen from a distance, Mr. Atkinson 

 notices a remarkable characteristic : the salt crystals which accrete 

 upon their banks frequently reflect the orange or crimson hues of 

 flowers, and resemble glowing rubies set in a rich mounting. 



As we advance in a south-easterly direction, we find the features 

 of the desert region more prominently marked. 



Immense plains of sand, with a bare and brackish surface, called 

 IJejaban, traverse the whole of Persia, from the Caspian Sea to 

 the Indus. They comprise the Deserts of Kerusan, Seistan, Beloo- 

 chistan, and Mekran, rich in salts with a basis of soda. "The 

 coasts of the Persian Gulf," as Mrs. Somerville remarks, " are 

 burning hot sandy solitudes, so completely barren, that the country 

 from Bassora to the Indus, a distance of 1200 miles, is nearly a 

 sterile waste. Three-tenths of Persia is a desert, and the table- 



* Mrs. Somerville, ' Physical Geography," vol. i., p. 105. 



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