“In the ancient days when the Oxus River entered the Scythian Gulf of the expanded Caspian Sea, and Lake Gyoljuk discharged permanently to the Tigris, the lake of Seyistan had not been converted into dry land by the giants. Kashmir was so cold and snowy that agriculture was impossible.... In the Lop basin the rivers were full of water; Lop-Nor was the “Great Salt Lake”; the desert was comparatively small and the zone of vegetation extensive; and on all sides there was a density of population and a degree of prosperity far beyond those of to-day. And in the Turfan basin the same was probably true. “A great change took place throughout the six basins during the early centuries of the Christian era. The lakes of Gyoljuk, Seyistan, the Caspian, Lop-Nor and presumably Turfan were greatly reduced in size. In the case of the first three, parts of the old lake-beds were used as sites for villages. Except in Kashmir, the change of climate appears to have brought disaster.... “Again there came a change (about A.D. 700). The process of desiccation gave place to a slight but important tendency toward increased rainfall and lower temperature. Kashmir became colder and more snowy, and hence more isolated; the rivers of Lop and Turfan gained greater volume; and the lakes of Lop, the Caspian and Turfan expanded once more. The habitability of the arid regions began to increase; migrations came to an end; and central Asia was prosperous for a time. Finally (about 1350) a latest and slightest change took place in the other direction, and we seem to-day to be in the midst of an epoch of comparative equilibrium, with no marked tendency towards climatic change in either direction.” There was, however, a period of comparatively high water in the Caspian in the early part of the seventeenth century.