AucusT 28, 1902] 
of Lut by itself is that generally used in the region, and 
that this name is identical with the scriptural Lot. It 
may be remarked that in some cases the views put for- 
ward by Major Sykes as to the origin of geographical 
terms differ from those of his predecessors. This is 
especially noteworthy in the case of Makran, the well- 
known name for the Baluch seaboard. Instead of 
adopting Sir T. Holdich’s explanation that the term is 
derived from Mahi-Khuran, or fish-eaters, the Ichthyo- 
phagi, as the inhabitants were called in the days of | 
Alexander the Great, Major Sykes looks upon it as con- 
nected with the people once known as Maka, the 
Mykians or Myczeans of Herodotus. 
One of the most interesting tracts examined by Major 
Sykes is the Sarhad, or cold country, of Persian Baluchis- 
tan. A large portion of the population of Persia consists of 
NATURE 
419 
ascended and measured both the great peaks south 
pe Kerman, which rise to between 13,000 and 14,000 
eet. 
Amongst the principal historical questions on whicly 
fresh light is thrown by the present work are the travels 
of Marco Polo and the remarkable march of Alexander 
the Great, with an army, through Baluchistan, from the 
Indus to Persepolis. This march, one of the most 
extraordinary military enterprises ever undertaken, must 
always remain a puzzle to all who have any acquaintance 
with the country traversed, for a more hopeless desert 
than the greater part of Makrdn at the present day does 
not exist. In reference to this march, and to the remains 
of ancient cities and the evidence of abandoned cultiva- 
tion in so many parts of Persia, Major Sykes supports 
the view already adopted by many other travellers in 
Fic. 1.—Makran Scenery. 
wandering tribes, who pass the winter in a Garmsir or | Persia and in Central Asia generally, that the whole area 
warm tract, and drive their flocks.and herds in summer to 
a Sarhad or more elevated region. The Baluch Sarhad 
had only been visited_by one traveller before Major 
Sykes entered it, and it is remarkable for including 
within its limits two extinct and dormant volcanoes, the 
Kuh-i-Basman, 11,000 feet high, and the Kuh-i-Taftdn, 
more than 12,000 feet, both of which were ascended. 
There is a great area covered by volcanic formations in 
south-eastern Persia, the lofty peaks of Kuh-i-Hezar and 
Kuh-i-Shah, south of Kerman, consisting, in part at all 
events, of basalt and similar rocks, although these moun- 
tains are certainly not volcanoes of recent origin, like 
those of the Baluchistan Sarhad, some 200 miles further 
west. Major Sykes, however, is nota geologist, and adds 
but little to our information on this point, although he 
NO. 1713, VOL. 66] 
i} 
| an exaggerated view. 
is undergoing gradual desiccation, and that the rainfall) 
must have diminished considerably in the course of the 
last two or three thousand years. This view has recently 
been strongly.enforced by Mr. Vredenberg’s interesting 
| observations in Baluchistan, of which an account has 
appeared in the Memoirs of the Geological Survey of 
India (vol. xxxi. pt. 2). The diminution of the rainfal) 
may be connected with the disappearance of certain 
great Central Asiatic lakes, of which important remnants 
exist in the Caspian and Aral Seas. In one passage 
Major Sykes is inclined to attribute the diminished rain- 
fall,to the destruction of forests, and even appears to 
believe (p. 365) that India, if all the forests were swept 
away, would become as barren as Persia. This is rather 
The destruction of every tree in 
