Excerpt from The Pulse of Asia: A Journey in Central Asia Illustrating, the Geographic Basis of History
This book is primarily the record of a journey of exploration in a remote and unique region - the heart of Asia. It is more than that, however, for scattered through the narrative there runs a description of the physical features of the great central basin of Asia and a discussion of their effect upon the life and habits of two contrasted types of people. One type lives in the mountains around the basin. It is nomadic and obtains its support chiefly from sheep, horses, and cattle, and its life is full of movement and excitement. The other type lives in the oases of the basin itself amid vast desert wastes of sand, gravel, clay, and salt. Its life is hemmed in by the narrow circle of the irrigated land and of the reedy poplar brakes roundabout, and so it is monotonous, unstimulating, and yet to the traveler most fascinating. Shot through the narrative and the description of the land and people there is yet another phase of this book. It takes the form of an attempt to state clearly and impartially the evidence which ultimately led to what I have called the hypothesis of pulsatory climatic changes. Among the mountains as well as in the deserts there are abundant indications that at some time the climate was different from now, the country more densely populated, and the civilization higher.
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