So ester:Wm a portion of the earth's surface as Turkistan is, and which varies from an elevation of more than 18,000 feet above the lore* of the sea to about 82 feet below it, must necesserily present a variety of climate and geological structure, and, in consequence of that variety, an equal diversity of vegetable and animal life. So assail a portion of this region has however been hitherto accessible to wienutie research, and the investigations of the few scientific travellers who have visited it have been distracted by so many impactimente, that our information on these points is meagre in the extreme.
The line of perpetual snow in the neighbourhood of Sir-i-Kol appears to be above 17,000 feet. In Wakhan on the Amu (8000 to 10,000 feet above the see) the seed-time is in April, the harvest in Jnly. During winter and spring a strong wind blows steadily down the Talk, from the north-east, which is unfavourable to vegetation.
On the Gth of April, 1838, according to Lieutenant Wood, not a leaf of the mulberry-trees was open at Khulm ; the plum-trees had blos somed at Kunduz a month earlier. The harvest at Balkh is 50 days later than at and it is a fortnight later at Bokhara than at Balkh Between Balkh and Bokhnra, Burnes observed that the ther mometer in the latter half of June rose to 103° in the day and fell to 60" at night. Fruit-trees begin to blossom at Bokham about the middle of February; there are heavy rains in March ; the summer beet in overwhelming; there are two or three weeks of heavy rains in October ; in January the ice is sometimes three or four inches in thickness, and the snow sometimes lies fifteen days. The communi cation between Khiva and the Caspian is interrupted In summer by the great heats. Snow lies on the Ust-Urt in the winter; the And is frozen so that the Kirghiz can pass on the ice from the mouths of the Sir-Deria to the mouths of the Amu. The Amu too is some times frozen as high up as Charjui (west of Bokhara), so that cara vans can cross on the ice. Along the Russian frontier the weather is snore inclement than the latitude and elevation of the country would lead one to expect. The most violent storms come from the north-west.
The vegetation of the upper part of the valley of the Oxus is noticed under BADAKSUAS. Groves of tolerably-sized firs occur in the ravines of the Khulm River, south of Kuuduz ; but there are no Umber-trees on the Ilindu-Kush. The aesafeetida plant and the furze of Tartary are the characteristic plants of the mountains south of Balkh. The grass on the pastures around the Sir-i-Kol, and on
the high lands west of that lake and south of the Amu, is in general very luxuriant. Large quantities of wheat and other grains are reared round Buret Imam and Kunduz ; and apricots, plums, and other fruits in great abundance and of excellent quality at Kunduz, Kuhn, and Balkh. The almond and pistachio nut are natives of the secondary ranges on the north face of the Hindu-Kush. The great plain on both sides of the Amu is in most places a barren waste, or thinly covered with straggling furze. Wherever there is water how ever its clayey soil is easily rendered fertile by irrigation. lu the oases of Khulm, BnIkh, Sereukhs, Merve, Kurahi, Bokhara, and Khivn, and on the hanks of the Gurgan, most kinds of fruit, vegetables, and grain are brought to perfection. The mouths of the rivers which fall into the Caspian and Aral, and the borders of the salt lakes in the Kirghiz steppe, which receive considerable rivers, are choked up with gigantlo reeds and other aquatic plants. The characteristic plant of these steppes is the sachalut In the sands it is a shrub, in clayey soils it assumes the appearance of a tree. It is a dry desert plant, invaluable to the wanderers of the steppe on account of the slow neea with which it consumes, and tho length of time which it remains burning. On the Upper Ishim there is a considerable extent of forest land.
The most important animals on the highlands of Pamir are the yak, the argali, the markhor, a large species of goat, wolves, foxes, and hares. Eagles are numerous among the inferior ranges; largo flocks of the hooded crow frequent the hills in summer, and come down to the plains about Kunduz in winter. House-sparrows, part ridge*, and pheasants are found on the plains of the Amu, over which also deer and antelopes roam in considerable numbers. In the northern parts of the Kirghiz steppe are found the saiga, a kind of antelope, and a species of small eagle, called berkut, which is trained for the chase. Tha steppe would seem to be the native country of the ifuridrs, which are found there in almost every possible variety. The wild-boar inhabits the reedy margins of the lakes and rivers; and a tiger, supposed to be the eeme as that of Bengal, frequent. the delta of the Sir-Deria. The Upper Turgal swarms with snakes. There is an astonishing quantity of water-snakes in the lower delta of the Ural.