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The National Geographic Magazine 



aridity in the interior Asia was ever 

 forcing emigration outward, displacing 

 other peoples, and thus working against 

 the establishment of a stable equilibrium 

 of population. Asia is thus the field for 

 applying all the comparative sciences 

 that relate to the history of man — the 

 materials that lie in cave deposits, in 

 rock pictographs, in tumuli, dolmens, 



records buried in ashes and earth ; but 

 the fertility of the soil produced wealth, 

 and the position kept it ever a commer- 

 cial center. 



So far as our problems of archeology 

 and physical geography are concerned, 

 Turkestan is practically a virgin field. 

 In geology and cartography the Russians 

 have done a surprising amount of ex- 



From Ellsworth Huntington, Carnegie Institution 



Folds in the Iyimestone in the Sugun Valley west of Shor Kul, looking west 



and ruined towns, in languages, cus- 

 toms, religions, design patterns, and 

 anthropological measurements. 



Turkestan, from its geographical po- 

 sition, must have been the stage on 

 which the drama of Asiatic life was 

 epitomized through all these ages of 

 ferment. Peoples and civilizations ap- 

 peared and disappeared, leaving their 



cellent work ; but the modern methods 

 of physico- geographic study have been 

 only begun to be applied, and the little 

 archeological work done there has been 

 mostly in the nature of hunting curios 

 and treasure, chiefly by foreigners, and 

 in so destructive a manner that the 

 Russian government has till now wisely 

 prohibited excavations. 



