s and its connections thereby with
Central Asia than upon the plains of the Indus; its population, in
appearance and composition nearly as much Central Asiatic as Indian, is
engaged in traffic between the Punjab and the whole trans-Hindu Kush
country.[1198]

Where a mountain system describes a semi-circular course, its transit
routes tend to converge on the inner side, and at their foci fix the
sites of busy commercial centers. Turin draws on a long series of Alpine
and Apennine routes from the Pass of Giovi (1548 feet or 472 meters)
leading up from Genoa on the south, to the Great St. Bernard on the
north. Milan gets immense support from the St. Gotthard and Simplon
railroads over the Alps, besides wagon routes over several minor passes.
Kulm, Balkh and Kunduz in the piedmont of northern Afghanistan are fed
by twenty or more passes over the Hindu Kush and Pamir. Bukhara is the
remoter focus of all these routes, and also of the valley highways of
the western Tian Shan. It therefore occupies a location which would make
it one of the great emporiums of the world, were it not for the expanse
of desert to the west and the scantiness of its local water supply,
which is tapped farther upstream for the irrigation of Samarkand. In its
bazaars are found drugs, dyes and teas from India; wool, skins and dried
fruit from Afghanistan; woven goods, arms, and books from Persia; and
Russian wares imported by rail and caravan. English goods, which
formerly came in by the Kabul route from India, have been excluded since
Russia established a protectorate over the province of Bukhara. Across
the highlands to the east, the cities of Kashgar and Yarkand, situated
in that piedmont zone of vegetation where mountain and desert meet, are
enclosed by a vast amphitheater formed by the Tian Shan, the Pamir
Highlands, and the Karakorum range. Stieler's atlas marks no less than
six trade routes over the passes of these mountains from Kashgar to the
headstreams of the Sir-daria and Oxus, and six from Yarkand to the Oxus
and Indus. Kashgar is a meeting ground of many nationalities. To its
bazaars come traders from China, India, Afghanistan, Bukhara, and
Russian Turkestan.[1199] The Russian railway up the Sir-daria to Andizhan
brings European goods within relatively easy reach of the Terek Davan
Pass, and makes serious competition for English wares entering by the
more difficult Karakorum Pass from India.[1200]

[Sidenote: Cities of coastal piedmonts.]