March 14, 1890.] 



SCIENCE. 



173 



institutions, and inaugurated a free national assembly, to meet 

 for the first time this year. 



The visit of Admiral Perry shortly after the deposition of the 

 Shoguns introduced Japan to the civilized world. Instructors 

 in the arts and sciences were obtained from America and Europe. 

 Their young men were sent to our institutions, and on their re- 

 turn replaced foreign teachers. Post-offices were established, 

 highways and railroads constructed. A new era, unlieard of in 

 the history of the world, has dawned upon Japan, and its prog- 

 ress is watched with the greatest interest. 



There are few domestic animals in Japan. The horse is little 

 known, and travelling for long or short distances is in a jinriki- 

 sha. This vehicle, introduced by the Americans within twenty 

 years, is di-awn by the natives forty or fifty miles a day. 



The beautiful art of Japan is well known to us. Its bronzes 

 and metal-work, its pottery and porcelain, are our admiration. 

 Unfortunately, to meet the demands of foreign markets, the art 

 of Japan is deteriorating, and the painstaking and loving labor 

 of past centuries is giving place to coarser and rapid work. 



The Peninsula of Indo-China and India. 



South of the Pamir, its south-eastern and south-western ranges 

 of mountains, the Himalayas and Hindu-Kush, Asia throws 

 out two great peninsulas — Indo-China or Malay, and India — ex- 

 tending south to the equator. Indo-China or Siam is about 1,800 

 miles long, 700 miles wide at the north, sloping away to a little 

 over 60 miles at the south. Through this peninsula four gi-eat 

 livers, rising in the northern part of Thibet, flow in long narrow 

 valleys between ranges of high mountains. The rainfall is from 

 60 to 300 inches, the rivers are ever full, the climate is moist 

 and unhealthy for foreigners. The soil is rich, producing abun- 

 dantly all tropical products. 



India. 



In India the great rivers that flow from the Himalayas, instead 

 of running the whole length of the peninsula as in Indo-China, 

 are turned to the east and west by ranges of mountains that cross 

 India near the central part. These ranges run to the ocean, and 

 then follow both the eastern and western shores into Ceylon. 

 The land is rich and fertile, the people industi'ious. The culti- 

 vation of tea and grain for export has recently been inti-oduced 

 into India, and now more tea is imported into England from 

 India than from China, while its grain competes with the grain 

 from America in the London markets. 



Nothing is more remarkable in the history of our race than the 

 manner in which the ancient civilization of India has maintained 

 itself. Before the time to which the annals of Europe go back, 

 India had made great material and intellectual advancement ; the 

 character of its inhabitants became fixed ; and, though subjected 

 to greater changes and vicissitudes than have happened to any 

 other country, they have remained substantially the same that 

 they were two thousand or three thousand years ago. They have 

 been under rulers of different races, though generally of the same 

 religion, with like customs and manners. The population of 

 India is 350, 000, 000, or about one-sixth of the population of the 

 world. 



While portions of Asia are among the driest regions of the 

 earth, the peninsulas of Indo-China and India are among the 

 wettest ; for in some parts of upper India the rainfall is from 400 

 to 600 inches a year, or from 33 feet to 50 feet. 



Afghanistan, Persia, and Arabia. 



South-east of the Pamir are Afghanistan, Persia, and Arabia. 

 I class them together for convenience, because they have several 

 physical features in common. Through Afghanistan, the Swit- 

 zerland of Asia, ranges of mountains run in different directions. 

 The counti'y is generally well watered with numerous rivers, 

 though not one of them empties into the ocean. The valleys are 

 lich and fertile. Its inhabitants, unlike those of India and 

 Persia, have rarely been conquered. They are free and inde- 

 pendent, robbing each other and the neighboring nations. 



In Persia, or (as it is called by the Persians) Iran, the Iranians 

 or Caucasians and Turcomans or Mongols met three thousand 



years ago, and the races to-day are as distinct as then. The 

 Iranians inhabit eastern Iran ; the Turcomans, western. 



Iran was formerly much larger than at present, and was 

 bounded on the north by the Caspian Sea, by the Indian Cau- 

 casus, Paropamis separating it from Scythia or Turkestan; 

 on the east by the Indus ; south by the Indian Ocean ; and west 

 by the Persian Gulf. It included Mesopotamia, Persia, Afgha- 

 nistan, and Beloochistan. 



The whole of Iran is either mountainous or a high plateau, ex- 

 cepting Mesopotamia, the coast of the Caspian Sea, and a few of 

 the valleys of the interior basins, which are very rich and fer- 

 tile. The rainfall is very slight, not over ten inches. There are a 

 few great salt deserts, ' 'covered in winter with brine, and in the 

 summer with a thick coat of salt. ' ' The country has been de- 

 scribed as either a ' 'salt waste or a saltless waste. ' ' One-half 

 the entire drainage is into the salt basins. 



There is but one considerable river east of Mesopotamia that 

 empties into the ocean. A few run into the basins, and empty 

 into the salt lakes. 



From Karachi, on the Persian Gulf near the mouth of the 

 Indus, to Teheran in the northern part of Persia, nearly one 

 thousand miles, there is not a single stream more than two feet 

 deep. 



Persia, even when densely populated, was no better watered 

 than now, for a comparison of the ancient and modern maps does 

 not show any change in the river system. The sand has in many 

 places drifted over land formerly highly cultivated. A perpet- 

 ual struggle for the mastery seems to be going on between the 

 arable ti'acts and shifting sands, and the country is changing 

 from a series of rocky ridges to one of undulating sandy wastes. 

 There are only one or two- good roads of short length in Iran. 

 The whole trafiic is carried on by mules in the mountains, and 

 camels on the plains, ' 'no wheeled carriages existing. ' ' 



The higher plateaus are barren, but Mesopotamia and the shores 

 of the Caspian are very fertile; and near here, on the southern 

 coast of the Caspian Sea, was the geographical centre of the east- 

 em continent. It was formerly the centre of population; but, 

 after the destruction of the Medes and Persians, the geographical 

 centre moved eastward to the southern plateau of Thibet; but 

 with the growth of Europe, the centre of population is moving 

 westward. 



Persia was for centuries the centre of civilization and the great 

 power of the world. During a period of two thousand years be- 

 fore the Cteistian era, its great cities of Babylon, Nineveh, Ec- 

 batana, Pei-sepolis, and Susa rose, flourished, and fell. These 

 cities were the wonder of the Old World, and their i-uins are 

 still the wonder of the New. In vast extent, in the magnificence 

 of their temples and palaces, in the strength of their walls, in 

 their gi-eat water-supplies, they have never been equalled. 



This mighty empire was composed of many tribes and many 

 races, held together for centuries by the power of its rulers, Cy- 

 rus, Darius, Xerxes, and others. At the time of its conquest by 

 Alexander the Great, it stretched fi'om the Desert of Sahara to 

 the movmtains of the Pamir ; but under his successors it fell into 

 pieces, and was never again united under one rule ; and for two 

 thousand years Persia has been gi-adually declining in power, in- 

 fluence, and population. It has lost Mesopotamia on the west, 

 Afghanistan and Beloochistan on the east, and a part of Turkestan 

 on the north. The present Shah of Persia has tlu-ee times visited 

 Europe. Since his last visit he has determined to inaugurate re- 

 forms in his government. His power over his people is absolute; 

 but, should his desired reforms seem inconsistent with the sacred 

 laws of the Koran, he may be at any time deposed. 



He has gi'anted a charter to Englishmen for an imperial bank, 

 giving not only banking privileges, including the right to issue 

 paper money as a legal tender, but also the monopoly of all 

 mines save those of gold and silver. 



The Persians are by nature traders and artists. Persian mer- 

 chants are met with everywhei-e in the Old World, — in the 

 bazaars of Cairo, Constantinople, and Damascus; at the fair of 

 Nijni Novgorod; in Rome and Paris. The Parsees, the leading 

 merchants of Bombay, are the descendants of the ancient Perses, 

 and are still worshippers of fire. 



