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0141 The Pulse of Asia : vol.1
The Pulse of Asia : vol.1 / Page 141 (Color Image)

New!Citation Information

doi: 10.20676/00000233
Citation Format: Chicago | APA | Harvard | IEEE

OCR Text

reported to have fallen in mid-December. There are said
to be usually two or three slight falls of snow each winter.
In summer, from June to August, more or less rain falls.
At Khotan, in July, 1905, we had some severe showers, but
commonly the amount of rain is very slight. It increases
rapidly, however, as one approaches the high mountains;
and among or close to the main ranges, at an elevation of
10,000 feet or more, there is an abundant fall of rain and
snow. The results of the unequal distribution of rainfall
are brought forcibly to the traveler's notice as he descends
from the plateaus to the basin floor. At an elevation of from
10,000 to 14,000 feet, he is among pasture lands where the
grass is thick and even turfy, but lower down, at a height
of from 5000 to 10,000 feet, he encounters only sparse
vegetation of the xerophilous or drought-loving kind, like
the sage-brush found in the deserts of Utah and Arizona.
The change from this poor growth to the almost complete
absence of vegetable life in the main floor of the basin, at
an elevation of from 3000 to 5000 feet, is equally significant,
though less marked. Certain parts of the basin floor are
well covered with plants, which, however, are supported by
rivers, or by underground waters from the mountains, and
rarely or never by rain. It is probable that in the centre
of the basin the annual precipitation does not amount to
more than an inch or two; although on the high mountains
a hundred miles away it may amount to twenty-five or thirty
inches. This fact must be kept in mind, for upon it depend
the marked contrasts in the vegetation of the contiguous
concentric zones of the Lop basin; and these, in turn,
determine the distribution and many of the habits of man.