| Fig. 83.—Routes of Explorers in the Aralo-Caspian Basin. |
| Scale 17 : 400,000. |
|
 300 Miles.
|
Such a region is necessarily but thinly inhabited, the average being rather less than four persons to the square mile, or six or seven times less than in Caucasia, notwithstanding its vast extent of waste lands. But the local traditions, historical records, and the ruins of numerous cities leave no doubt that the country was formerly far more densely peopled. The inhabitants have disappeared with the running waters. The powerful empires of the Oxus and Sogdiana basins have vanished; the great centres of Eastern civilisation have become eclipsed; many cultured peoples have reverted to barbarism; and the nomad has triumphed over the agricultural state. Even the ruling race has changed, the original Aryan element having been largely replaced by Turkomans, Kirghiz, and other Tûrki peoples.* The upland Pamir valleys from Karateghin to Wakhan are still occupied by Aryan agricultural tribes, some probably autochthonous, others driven to the highlands when the plains were overrun by the nomads from the north-east. The ethnical evolution begun by climatic changes was hastened by wars and massacres. But the urban populations were rendered partly independent of the changed outward conditions by trade and industry, so that the original stock, diversely intermingled with the intruders, has here held its ground to the present time. Aryan and Tûrki peoples thus continue to dwell in the same towns, forming distinct communities, which adapt themselves to the surroundings according to their respective temperaments and hereditary habits. Hence, in a political sense alone, the Oxus has for ages served as the limit between Iran and Turan. North of this river Iran has at all times maintained a footing in the midst of the Turanian peoples.
* Throughout this work the term Tûrki is to be taken as practically synonymous with the popular but less accurate Tatar, or "Tartar." Farther on occurs the expression "Turanian," used in a very vague way by most ethnologists. Here it will be strictly limited to the Tûrki nomad as opposed to the Iranian settled population.—Ed.
