212 VREDENBURG: SKETCH OF BALCjCHISTAN DESERT. 



day pass without any transition from the condition of a mountain 

 torrent to that of a delta, the fan-talus being in fact nothing but a 

 small delta. This explains the enormous accumulation of talus in 

 the immediate vicinity of the mountains. But in former times it 

 is evident that the presence of such important sheets of water 

 induced a much more abundant rainfall and thus were the pebbles 

 distributed over the entire width of the desert. 



These lakes at length shared the fate of all inland drainage 

 areas. The water evaporated from their surface did not all return 

 in the shape of rain, a certain amount was always lost, and the 

 clouds originating from the evaporation of sea-water could not be 

 counted upon to make good the loss. It is one of the fundamental 

 facts in physical geography that the increased altitude of the land in 

 mountainous regions causing the vapour-laden atmosphere blown 

 from the sea to rise to higher and colder strata in the air, determines 

 the precipitation of rain on the slopes of the mountains turned to- 

 wards the sea. When the clouds reach the opposite slope they 

 descend once more to lower altitudes and the air is no longer satu- 

 rated. In this way the inland drainage area will never obtain 

 enough moisture from the sea to repair its own losses, and its 

 ultimate fate must in all cases become irrevocably its conversion into 

 a desert. 



These are of course well-known principles of physical geography, 

 but if I draw attention to them here it is on account of the wide- 

 spread notion that the decay of such countries as Baluchistan is 

 due to bad government and anarchy. This is a fallacy of a very 

 common type which consists in mistaking the cause for the effect. Of 

 course, there is no doubt that such an ill-advised policy as the dis- 

 afforesting of mountains may accelerate the ruin of the country. 

 But a country physically situated like Baluchistan, whether it be 

 well cr badly governed, is inevitably doomed to ruin. It is merely 

 a matter of time, but ultimately it must get beyond the scope of 

 human control, owing to the desert conditions which must of 

 necessity become more and more aggravated. There is plenty of 

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