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0397 The Pulse of Asia : vol.1
アジアの鼓動 : vol.1
The Pulse of Asia : vol.1 / 397 ページ(カラー画像)

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doi: 10.20676/00000233
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none of our animals would even touch it." Sykes describes
the same route in equally uncomplimentary terms:—

"Gurz, the first stopping-place, is generally considered
to be the worst stage in this part of the desert, the pools of
water being quite undrinkable. . . . In summer, owing to the
heat, Gurz is little better than a death-trap, and here, more
than elsewhere, the abomination of desolation is realized. . . .
At Shurgaz [the next stage] the water was just a little better,
but so scanty that there was none for the camels." At the
end of the third day, after marching over a hundred miles
through the worst part of the desert, a better region was
reached. "A day's halt was imperative, as our camels could
hardly move." That a large army could cross such a desert
is hardly credible; that such an army should have no hard-
ships worthy of mention by the historian is less credible;
and that they could bring elephants with them is least
credible.

The elephants of Krateros are not the only ones men-
tioned in Persian history. Malcolm speaks of them as abun-
dant in antiquity in the kingdom of Persia, as is shown both
by the ancient records and by the sculpture of the country.
Mazanderan, the rainy province immediately south of the
Caspian, is the only part of the country that could now
support them, but they are spoken of in other places.

Another interesting commentary on the climate of an-
tiquity is afforded by a comparison of a description of the
province of Kirman as it is to-day, by Sykes, and as it was
in the past, by Strabo. The modern description runs: "The
whole province can best be described as partly desert, pure
and simple, and partly desert tempered by oases. . . . As