60 Guyot on Carl Bitter. 



grand natural districts ; each has been described, and the mu- 

 tual dependence and subordination of each of these physical 

 regions, their arrangement into a grand organic structure, as 

 it were, is constantly kept in view. , 



Nor does even that organic division, if I may call it so, 

 stop with the larger geographical districts which correspond 

 to the chapter. In nearly each of them we find a series 

 of explanatory paragraphs, Erlauterungen, which make as 

 many minor groups, or treat of special subjects which belong 

 to regions described in the chapter. As an instance, we 

 find in the chapters treating of the Delta the following 

 Erlauterungen : on the two main arms of the Nile and the 

 history of their changes ; on the inundations of the Nile, its 

 freshets, its alluvial deposit, the foundation of cities on its 

 banks in ancient times ; the history of the formation of the 

 Delta of the Nile ; the valley of the Wandering, the Natron 

 Lakes ; and a retrospective view of the Nile stream and 

 its influence on history. Still more special discussions form 

 separate paragraphs under the name of " Kemarks," Anmer- 

 kungen. In all, the sources of information are carefully com- 

 pared, weighed, and referred to in numerous quotations. 



The same method of description, at once so exhaustive and 

 so thorough, has been followed in the two books and eighteen 

 volumes devoted to Asia. But here the extent of that mass 

 of land, the variety of the physical structure, the high histori- 

 cal importance of almost every spot of that old parent conti- 

 nent, explain the necessity for the distinction of a much larger 

 number of natural regions. It would be useless to mention 

 here more than the grand divisions and the order in which 

 they are treated. 



I have already said that Asia being, as it were, a double 

 continent with two central table-lands, forms two books. Af- 

 ter an admirable introduction which gives a general view of the 

 whole continent, Bitter begins with the central Highlands of 

 Eastern Asia. The East and North margin and the central re- 

 gions, the South borders, or the Himalaya system, are described 

 in as many sections. Next, the transition forms and the great 

 water-courses descending from the heights of the table-land, 

 are considered ; the Eastern group, or China and its mighty 

 streams ; the South-eastern, or Indo-Ohina ; the Southern, 

 or India proper, with the system of the Ganges, terminates 

 the second book. 



The third book, or "Western Asia, is far more voluminous. 

 Evidently when reaching the true historical regions, the work 



