420 
NATURE 
[AucustT 28, 1902 
India would not prevent the rain of the south-west 
monsoon from falling, although it might somewhat 
dim nish the amount, and it would in other ways seriously 
affect the fertility of the country. It may fairly be 
doutted whether, at all events within the last three 
thousand years, anything deserving the name of forest 
existed in eastern Persia. 
The numerous illustrations in the present work, 
chiefly reproduced from photographs, convey an excellent 
idea of the barren Persian and Baluchistan hill scenery 
and of Persian towns and people. On the whole the 
scenery of Baluchistan, and especially of Makrdan, of 
which two examples are here given, is perhaps better 
depicted than are the plains of Persia. The enormous 
distances to which these plains extend probably pre- 
clude their effective representation by photographic 
means, but it is remarkable that none of the views, 
Elburz Mountains, to Quetta, where, east of the town, 
there is a well-marked glacis-like slope on a smaller 
scale. 
Major Sykes is no zoologist, and it is therefore not 
surprising that some of the names of animals to which 
he refers require alteration. It is not quite correct to 
call the Persian wild goat an ibex, a term belonging to 
goats with very different horns; but a greater mistake 
is made in the foot-note at p. 47, where it is stated that 
“the Jabal Bdriz range separates the habitat of the 
Gazella Benetii (it should be Bemneft2) from that of the 
Gazella fuscifrons of the plateau of Iran.” The gazelle 
of the “ plateau of Iran” is G. subgutturosa; G. fuscifrons 
is a variety of G. Bennefti. Again, on p. 289 an amusing 
account is given of the capture of a Aake at the island 
of Hormuz, in the Persian Gulf. The hake is a fish 
peculiar to the North Atlantic. 
Fic. 2.—Clay Formation, Makran. 
numerous and varied as they are, gives any idea of one | 
of the most striking characteristics of Persian scenery, 
the gravel slopes, often many miles wide, that surround 
nearly all the great plains and often occupy the broad 
valleys that extend from the plains far into the hills. 
the waterless plains themselves are often, in parts, 
occupied by “kavir” or salt marsh and in other parts by 
drifting sands, whilst the broken hill-ranges ‘that cross 
the country are only passable in places, it is on the 
gravel slopes that the principal trade routes run, and it 
the artificial subterranean channels from which the 
water-supply for towns and for irrigation is largely 
derived. Throughout the Persian plateau these slopes 
are a most striking feature ; they are seen from Teheran, 
north of which city one, on a large scale, extends to the | 
NO. 1713, VOL. 66] 
As | 
gra | | opportunities of forming an accurate judgment. 
is in them that are tunnelled the “kanauts” or ‘‘ karezes,” | 
But if Major Sykes’s pages add but little to our know- 
ledge of geology, botany or zoology, they abound in 
fresh information concerning the curious mixture of 
Asiatic races which inhabits the wilds of Baluchistan, on 
the physical geography of the eastern Persian area and 
on the history of the towns and provinces. The authors 
views as to the political relations existing between Persia 
and our Indian Empire are of importance as expressing 
the opinions of an officer who has had exceptional 
In one 
respect Major Sykes has proved himself a model diplo- ' 
matist, for he appears to have succeeded in establishing 
friendly relations with almost all the officers of the 
Persian Government with whom he came in contact. 
Weelarie 
