CLIMATE AND HISTORY. 3 II 
The mistake of overestimating the possibilities of Persia is ven- common 
among travelers. For instance, O'Donovan (I, pp. 426-427) describes the country 
between Abasabad and Mazinan, a few miles west of Sabzawar, on the road from 
Meshed to Teheran, as "a dreary- flat, entirely uncultivated, though plentifully 
supplied with water from the Kal IMura River, which has left marks of extensive 
inundations in numerous white deposits of salt. This plain would undoubtedly 
produce abundant crops of rice if properly cultivated." After passing numerous 
ruins of fortifications, reservoirs, tanks, and other structures, " we crossed the Kal 
Mura, a river about 40 yards wide here and tolerably deep, though on the maps it 
is usually marked as dry in summer. The country around was once extensively 
cultivated, as the traces of the irrigating ditches show. . . . Nowadays, culti- 
vation is only attempted immediately around the towns, and even there . . . the 
crops are miserably poor." In June, 1880, when O'Donovan traversed this region, 
the Kal Mura River must have been phenomenally high, for when Smith (p. 376) 
passed this way in IMay, 1872, a year of ver}- fair rainfall, with unusually good crops, 
he foimd the Kal Mura at the same place " a narrow rivulet of salt water." Appar- 
ently it was lack of water, not lack of energy, which prevented the Persians from 
raising O'Donovan's " abundant crops of rice." 
Only a year previous to Smith's journey this ver^,- region suffered from a famine 
of such frightful severity that he found (p. 367ff.) skeletons of men along the road 
where they had died of hunger, skulls of children in the very houses, 450 out of 600 
shops in Nishapur closed and the others barely able to subsist. Sebzewar (p. 373) 
was reduced from a population of 30,000 to scarcely 10,000. Ever,-where death 
ran riot and frequently half the people of a village perished. The famine extended 
with great severity over all Persia except the northwest, and is described by 
Goldsmid, Bellew, Smith, and St. John. For six years the rainfall was scanty and 
there was much suffering. Then came a season when the crops in many places 
failed almost entirely, and thousands of people perished in ever)- province. In view 
of the periodic return of such famines it does not seem probable that Persia is capable 
of supporting permanently a population greatly in excess of that of to-day. 
(c) Independent evidence as to the climate 0/ antiijitity. — Independent evidence 
as to the climate of antiquity is hard to find. It must be looked for chiefly in the 
fonns of historical or written record, archeological record, legend, and plusiographic 
record. The written accounts which afford evidence as to the ancient climate are 
scattered in numerous inaccessible volumes and have not been investigated. A few 
of the more prominent, such as Alexander's march and the statement of Istakhri that 
in the tenth centurj- the God-i-Zirrah was 100 miles long, have been mentioned. In 
general it is well known that ancient authors down to Mohannnedan times speak 
of Persia in a way which implies a much greater productiveness and beauty and a 
much more abundant growth of trees than at present, but their statements lack the 
quantitative element which is necessary- for a convincing solution of the question. 
Archeological evidence is more abundant and exact. The dams of Baluchistan, the 
ancient fort of Shah Duzd, the oasis of Merv, and the village of Bal Kuwi are cases 
where it seems as though there had been more water in earlier times. Probably a 
more complete study of Persian archeolog}- will go far toward sohing the problem. 
