Central Asia

TRAVELS IN CENTRAL ASIA CHAPTER 1 THE COUNTRIES OF CENTRAL ASIA THE name "Central Asia" correctly describes, in a geographical sennse, the heart of that continent. It is separated from the river-system of the Aral and Caspian Seas, on the west, by almost impassable mountain-ranges; from the affluents of the Indus and Ganges, on the south, by the chain of the Kuen-lun, the rival of the Himalaya…

Mr. Vigne...gives the following description of the native villages: "They are clusters of flat-roofed huts, the poorer kinds looking very dirty, with smoke marks on the walls, and cakes of cow-dung sticking to them, for the purpose of being dried and used as fuel. The better kind of hut is distinguished by its new and clean mud walls: the ends of the rafters project neatly from the sides of the b…

Mr. Vigne's visit was shortly after the Sikh conquest of Cashmere, which accounts for the ruined state of the country at the time.