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0133 The Pulse of Asia : vol.1
The Pulse of Asia : vol.1 / Page 133 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000233
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of such a route is probably due to the diverse physical con-
ditions of tropical India, on the one hand, which give rise
to vegetable products of tea, spices, and dress-fabrics, and
of temperate Turkestan, on the other, with hemp which
the Hindu smokes to while away the monotony of life, and
with various animal products of fine wool, felt, and skins.
These diverse products, acting on man's acquisitive nature,
induce him to keep open this worst of all roads. If the Kara-
korum plateau and its flanking ranges had extended north
and south as the Andes do, and had separated countries no
more different than Chinese and Russian Turkestan, there
would have been much less incentive to the establishment
of such a route, the products of the two regions not being
sufficiently diverse.

Chinese Turkestan is connected with the outside world,
other than China, by two routes, those of Karakorum and
Terek Davan. The latter runs westward from Kashgar,
at the western extremity of the country, to Osh and Andi-
zhan, the terminus of the Central Asian railroad in Russian
Turkestan. Since the completion of the railroad, it has
largely supplanted the Karakorum route as an avenue for
the importation of the manufactured products of Europe.
In every way it is an easier route than the other, for it rises
to an elevation of only about 12,000 feet, and the part at
a high altitude can be crossed in a day or two. In the past,
however, as now, communication with the west by this
route, more frequently than by the other, must have been
interrupted by wars, during which travelers and merchants
were forced to use the harder, but cheaper and more peace-
ful Karakorum route. Even lately, so remote a geographic