summit, called by the Calmucks, Iyictou (mountain of God,) and recently explored by Bunge, the Botanist, almost equals in elevation the peak of Teneriffe. Messrs Humboldt. Ehrenberg, and Rose, proceeded from Ridderski to the south towards the little fort of Oust-Kamenogorsk, passing by Boukhtarminsk to the frontiers of Chinese Dzoungaria; they even obtained permission to cross the frontiers and visit the Mungolian part of Bati, or Khoni-mailakhou, a very central point of Asia, (to the north of lake Dzaizang,) which is situated, according to the chronometric observations of De Humboldt in long. 82°, and consequently under the same meridian as Patna and Katmandou.

In returning from Khoni-mailakhou to Oust-Kamenogorsk, the travellers saw on the banks of the Irtyche the granite divided for a considerable distance into almost horizontal strata and spread upon a shistus, whose beds were partly at an inclination of 85°, and partly entirely vertical. From the little port of Oust-Kamenogorsk the travellers crossed the step of the lesser horde of the Kirghese by Semipolatinsk and Ousk by the lines of the Cossacks of Ischim and Tobol to reach the southern Ural. In the country near Miask three pieces of native gold were found at a depth of only a few inches in a formation of little extent; the travellers kept along the southern Ural, to the beautiful quarries of green jasper near Orsk, where the river Jaik, so abundant in fish, crosses the chain from east to west, from thence they directed them selves by Gouberlinsk to Orenbourg, (a city which, notwithstanding its dis tance from the Caspian Sea, is nevertheless beneath the level of the ocean, according to the barometrical measurements made during an entire year, by Messrs. Hoffmann and Helmersen,) and from there to the celebrated salt mines of Ildzki, situate in the step of the little horde of the Kirzhese at the capital of the Cossacks of the Urlask, who, provided with a hook, dive and catch with their hands sturgeons from four feet and a half to five feet long; to the German colonies of the government of Saratov, on the left bank of the Wolga, to the great salt lake of Eltou in the step of the Calmucks, and

by Sarepta, a colony of Moravian brothers, to Astrakhan.

From this latter place the travellers returned to Moscow, by the isthmus which separates the Don and Wolga near Tichinskaya, by the country of the Cossacks of the Don, the Woronegę, and the Toula.

The central portion of Asia has been found to form neither an immense knot of mountains, nor a continuous upland, but is traversed from east to west by four great systems of mountains, which have manifestly influenced the movements of nations. They are the Altaï, which to the west terminates by the mountains of the Kirghese, the Thianchan, the Kuen-lun, and the chain of the Himma-leh. Between, the Altaï, and the Thian-chan is the country of Dzoungaria, and the basin of the Ili, between the Thian-chan and the Kuen-lun, little or high Bucharia, Kachgar Ierkend, and Khotan (or Yuthian.) The three uplands, situated between the Altai, the Thian-chan, the Kuen-lun, and the Himma-leh, may also be indicated by the existence of three alpine lakes, namely, those of Balkachi, Lop, and Tengri (Terkeri, nor of d'Anville,) which correspond to the table lands of Dzoungaria, Tangout, and Thibet.

1.-SYSTEM OF THE ALTAI.

It surrounds the sources of the Irtyche and the Ieniseï; to the east it takes the name of Tangnou; that of the Sayanian Mountains, between the lakes Kossogol (Konsoukoul) and Baikal; further that of high Kentai, and of the mountains of Dahuria; lastly, to the north-east it identifies itself with Iablonnoi-khrebet (Apple Chain,) the Khingkhan, and the Altaï Mountains, which advance along the shores of the sea of Okhotsk. The mean latitude of its prolongation from east to west is between 50 and 51° 30′ The Altaï in Turkish, and in the Mongul, the mountains of gold. (Alta-in oola) is not a chain of mountains forming the limit of a country like those of the Himma-leh, which border the table land of Thibet, and consequently are abrupt in their acclivity only on the Indian side, where

the country is lower than on the other. The plains neighbouring the lake Dzaisang, and especially the steps neighbouring lake Balkachi are certainly not elevated more than 300 toises above the level of the sea.

De Humboldt avoids the name of little Altai, which has been given to a chain of mountains situated between the parallels of 49° 30', and 42° 30', and which in its extent and absolute height probably exceeds the great Altai. Arrowsmith erroneously calls by this latter name, an ima ginary continuation of the Thian-chan. It is not well known if the name of Golden mountains given in the ancient Turkish, and in Chinese to the Altai on the southern banks of the Narym, owes its origin to tombs containing gold, which the Kalmuks still find in the valleys, or to the abundance of gold in the northern parts of what is

called the little Altai.

The culminating point of the Altai is the Iyictow (mountain of God) or Alaus-tau (bald mountain) in Kalmuk. It exceeds in height the peak of Netkou (Pyrenees 1787 toises). The north westerly direction of this system shews itself in the beds of the mountain rocks, in the line of the Alghinsk, or elevated step of Tchouia, and in the clefts of the narrow vallies, and in the whole course of the Irtyche from Krasnoiarskoi to Tobolsk.

Between the meridians of Oust-Kamenogorsk and of Semipolatinsk, the system of the Altai mountains prolongs itself from east to west, under the parallels of 59 and 50 by a chain of hills and of low mountains upon an extent of 160 geographic leagues,* as far as to the step of the Kirghese. This prolongation, of very little importance from its extent or its elevation is of very great interest to geognosy. There is no continuous chain of the Kirghese mountains, which, as is represented in most maps under the name of Alghidin tsano, or Alghydin chamo, unites with the Ural and the Altai.

SYSTEM OF THE THIAN CHAN.

The chain called in Chinese, Thian Chan (or celestial mountains, also Péchan, white mountains) is called in Turkish, Tengri tagh, which has the same signification as the former. Their mean latitude is in the 42d degree. Their culminating point is perhaps the mass of mountains remarkable for its summits, covered with perpetual snowS and celebrated under the name of Bokhda oola; in Mongul-Kalmuk (sacred mountain) which circumstances led Pallas to give to the whole chain the denomination of Bogdo.

The

From Bokhdaoolat and Khatounbokda, (majestic mountain of the queen) the Thian chan takes an easterly direction towards Bar-koul, where to the north of Hami it abruptly diminishes in height, and comes upon a level with the elevated desert called the Great Gobi or Chamo, which extends from south west to north east, from Koua-tcheou a Chinese town, to the source of the Argoun. mountain Nomkhoun to the north west of Sogok and of Sobo, little lakes on the step, indicates perhaps by its posi tion a slight upraising, a kind of crest in the desert; for after an interruption of at least ten degrees of longitude the snowy chain of Gadjar or In-chan, which also follows a direction from west to east makes its appearance a little more to the south than the Thian chan, and according to Humboldt, as a continuation of that system to the great sinuosity of the Hoang-ho, or Yellow river.

In the neighbourhood of Tourfan and of Bokhda-oola, the western prolongation of the second system of mountains is found to extend between Goudja (Ili) a place to which the Chinese government banishes criminals, and Koutché; afterwards between the Temourtou, a great lake whose name signifies ferruginous waters, and Akson to the north of Kachgar, continuing în the direction of Samarkand. The country comprised between the first

and second system of mountains, or between the Altaï and the Thian-chan is closed on the east beyond the meridian of Pekin, by the Khingkhan oola, a mountainous crest which stretches from south south-west to north northeast, but to the west it is entirely open on the side of Tchoui, of Sarasov, and of Lower Sihoun. There is not in this part any transverse crest, unless we would consider as such the series of elevations, which from north to south stretch along the western side of the lake Dzaisang across the Targabatai as far as the north-east of the Alatan, between the lakes Balkach and Alak tougoul-noor, and afterwards beyond the course of the Ili to the east of Temourtou noor (between 44 and 49 degrees of latitude,) and which present themselves like a wall, several times broken on the side of the step of the Kirghese.

It is quite different with regard to that part of central Asia which is bordered by the second or third system of mountains, the Thian-chan and the KuenJun. Effectively it is shut up to the west in the most evident manner, by a transverse crest which stretches from south to north under the name of Bolor,or Belough-tagh (mountains of the country of Bolor which neigbours them.) This chain separates Little Bokharia from Great Bokharia, from the country of Kachgar of Badakchan, and from High Djihoun (Amou-deria.) The southern part which attaches itself to the system of Kuen-lun, forms, according to the designation employed by the Chinese, a part of the Thsoungling. To the north it joins itself to the chain which passes to the northwest of Kachghar, and has the name of Passage of Kachghar (Kachghar divan, or davan,) according to the statement of Mr. Nasarov, who, in 1813, went as far as Khokand; between Khokand, Dervazeh and Hissar, and consequently between the hitherto unknown sources of Sihoun and of the Amouderia, the Thian-chan attaining a greater elevation before it again de

scends into the Khanat of Boukhara, and presents a group of high mountains, of which several summits, such as the Thakti Souleiman (throne of Solomon,) the summit, called Terck, and others are covered with snow even in summer. Further to the east, on the road which goes from the western shores of lake Temourtou to Kachghar; the Thian-chan does not appear to attain so great an elevation, at least no notice is taken of the occurrence in the itinerary from Semipolatinsk to Kachghar. The road passes from the east of lake Balkachi, and to the west of the lake Issikoul, or Temourtou, and traverses the Narym, or Narim, affluent of the Sihoun. At 105 versts, to the south of Narym, Mount Rovat is passed over, which is pretty elevated and 15 versts in extent; it is penetrated by a vast cavern, and is situated between the At-bach, a little river, and the little lake Tchater-koul. This is the highest point before arriving at the Chinese post, placed to the south of the Aksou, a little river of the step at the village of Artuche and at Kachghar; this town, built upon the banks of the Aratumen, has 15,000 houses and 80,000 inhabitants, but is nevertheless smaller than Samarkand. The Kachghar davan* appears not to form a continuous wall, but to have open passages in several parts. The western prolongation of Thian Chan, or Mouz-tagh, is minutely described by De Humboldt. At the point where the Bolor, or Belough tagh joins itself at right angles to the Mouz-tagh, or even traverses this great system like a vein; the former continues to follow an uninterrupted direction from east to west under the name of Asferag-tagh to the south of Sihoun, toward Khodgend and Ourateppeh in Ferghana. This chain of the Asferah, covered by perpetual snows, and wrongly named chain of Pamert separates the sources of the Sihoun (laxartes) from those of the Amou (Oxus); it turns to the south-west nearly under the meridian of Khodgend, and in this direction is

+Waddington, p. lxvii.

called, as far as to Samarcand, Aktagh, (white or snowy mountain,) or AlBotom. Farther to the west, on the fertile banks of the Kohik, the great diminution in the height of the land commences, which comprises Great Bokharia, the country of Mavaranahan, which is so low, and where the careful cultivation of the land, and the opulence of the towns periodically excite the invasions of the inhabitants of the Iran of Kandahar, and of high Mongolia, and beyond the Caspian sea, almost under the same latitude, and in the same direction as the Thian chan, we find the Caucasus with its porphyries and its trachytes. Humboldt is inclined, therefore, to look upon it as a continuation of the fissure in form of vein upon which the Thianchan rises in the east, to the west of the great knot of mountains of Adzarbaidzan and of Armenia; the Taurus is recognised in continuation of the action of the fissure of the Himma-leh, and of the Hindou Kouch. It is thus that in a geognostic sense the disjointed members of the mountains of western Asia as Mr. Ritter calls them, in his excellent picture of Asia, attach themselves to the forms of the soil of the east.

3.-SYSTEM OF KUEN-LUN.

The chain of Kuen-lun or Koulkoun, also called Tartach-davan, a name which is further given to the western continuation of this chain called Thsoungling by the Chinese. It signifies mountains of onions, from a plant of that tribe, which is apparently abundant there. This chain is between Khotan Ilitchi, where Hindoo civilization and the worship of Bouddh existed five hundred years before arriving at Thibet, and Ladak between the knot of mountains of Khoukhou-noor, and

of eastern Thibet, and the country cal led Katchi.

This system of mountains commences to the west of the Thsoung-ling (onion or blue mountains) upon which M. Abel-Remusat has thrown so much light in his learned history of Khotan* This system attaches itself, as previ ously observed, to the transverse chain of Bolor, and according to Chinese works, constitutes the southern part of this chain. This corner of the globe between little Thibet and the Bakchan, rich in rubies, in lapis lazuli, and in Kalaïtet is very little known; and according to recent information, the table land of Khorasan, which directs itself towards Herat, and borders Hindou Khosh to the north, appears rather to be a continuation of the Thsoung ling, and of all the system of the Kuen-lun to the west, than a prolongation of the Himma-leh, as is generally supposed.

From the Thsoung ling, the Kuen lun or Koulkoun takes a direction from west to east, towards the sources of the Hoang ho (Yellow river) and penetrates with its snowy summits into the province of Chen si in China. Almost under the meridian of these sources, the great knot of mountains of the Khoukhou-noor takes its origin. On the north this range reposes on the snowy chain of the Nan chan or Kilian chan, also advancing in a direction of from west to east. Between the Nan chan and the Thian chan, on the side of the Hami the mountains of

Tangout border the confines of the lofty desert of Gobi or Chamo, which prolongs itself from the south-west to

the north-east. The mean latitude of the Kuen lun mountains is about

35° 39'.

4.-SYSTEM OF THE HIMMA-LEH. This system separates the valleys of