Atdtda27: Of course, 768-769

[Paul Nightingale]

Inner Asia becomes for Kit the San Juans, his forward momentum taking him
back, the 'old' always the prism through which he will make sense of the
'new'. His response to Halfcourt on 764 indicates the importance of the
journey in taking him away from Yashmeen; whatever/whenever she thinks of
him from this point forward, he will remain elusive. Furthermore, going
back, the imagining/recovery of American landscapes, is to imagine a time
and place before he knew of her existence.

His impression of Lake Baikal ("... he understood why it had been necessary
to journey here") leads to a reference to "pure, small mountain lakes in
Colorado, unsoiled by mine tailings or town waste". Evidently, an important
part of his first impression of Inner Asia is the way the landscape is
populated by "aboriginal horsemen, trailside saloons and
altogether-incomprehensible women" (768); however, by the bottom of the page
human activity has disappeared. Hence, "... like looking into the heart of
the Earth itself as it was before there were eyes of any kind to look at it"
(768-769) positions Kit outside of time and space, his godlike perspective
making him the sole inhabitant of an uninhabited world. The opening
description, drawing the comparison with the San Juans, is interrupted by
the exchange with Hassan, and news that Prance has not made it this far. By
the end of the section Hassan too has disappeared; there is no alternative
to Kit's introspection.

It is also worth noting that Kit's first sighting of Baikal interrupts the
question he asks when Hassan says he is already acquainted with the Prophet.
If the landscape takes on significance here, Hassan becomes inscrutable,
then absent altogether: the reference to his "gaze ... open but unreadable"
leads to the "of course" of the final sentence on 769).