Frozen Ocean. It is more correct to exclude these countries
from its extent.*
The part of the world thus designated contains countries
the geographical features of which are most remarkable,
and different from those of all other regions. It is likewise
the cradle and immemorial abode of some of the most
singular races of men, of those who deviate in the most
striking manner from the more ordinary type of physical
conformation. Many of these nations have; performed a
great and prominent part in the history of the world. But
before We proceed to describe or even enumerate the races
of people who have been formed, or whose national existence
has been developed within its wide extent, we must briefly
survey the physical geography of this region, which may
be considered as the nucleus or great central and solid
portion of the old continent, and around which the other
and lower parts are spread out as limbs or ramifications^
A principal part, though only -a-part, of Great-Tartary,
is the region designated by Ritter and other modern geographers
as High Asia. The Western and northern portion
of it is well known to consist for thernost parteof low
plains, which in parts are depressed below the level of the
ocean. Such is the flat country extending through MawCr-
al’nahar or Transoxiana, comprehending the1 ^asins of the
Caspian and of hake Aral, and reaching thence to4 the
* It may be observed that I have used the names of Tartar andTartary in the
sense in vrhich these terms have been adopted by M. Abel-Remusatj pot as
the appellation of a particular tribe or a particular district, but as a collective,
epithet. It was long disputed which particular tribe were the original Tartars
or Tatars, from which the title was extended to all the races allied to them.
Schloezer, Gmelin, and Pallas, would have appropriated this name to-the Turks.
It is now well known that the original Tatars were a tribe nearly allie’d to the
Mongoles in race, who inhabited the banks of Lake Bouyir, in the eastern
part of Mongolia. Their proper name was Tatars. It is said to have been,
changed into Tartar in consequence of an expression of St. Louis, who, when
the devastations of Tschingghis were heard of with horror in Western Europe, is
reported to have exclaimed, “ Erigat nos, mater, coeleste solatium, quia si prove-
niant ipsi, yel nos lpsos quos vocamus Tartaros ad suas Tartareas sedes, unde
exierunt, retrudemus, vei ipsi nos omnes ad coelum advehant.”
t This is the view taken of Central Asia by the greatest of modern geographers.—
See Ritter’s Erdkunde von Asien.
Lake of Ak-sakal, and northward beyond Omsk and even
the great Siberian steppe of Baraba, still under the process
of .desiccation, and through the country of the Ostiaks of
Beresow to the marshy coasts of the( Frozen Ocean. Many
phenomenaj as Humboldt has observed, here indicate the
former existence, of water over all these tracts, which
perhaps; formed a part of the Great Bitter Sea, placed by
.Chinese geographers iu the middle of' Siberia, across the
present course ©f%the Yenisei or of the ancient northward
expansion of the; Caspian* To-the eastward of the plains
through which-the, Oxus ‘and Jaxartes flow, a lofty wall of
mountains runs from South to North, and forms the limit
between -these lower countries and what is properly termed
High Asia. The traveller whp takes his | course in the
meridian of Balkh from the Uzbek khanates of Bokhara
and Ferghana, -by the >steep passes of Badakshan towards
the East/and into the territories claimed by-. China, »has. to
ascend the high ehain o.r terrtass of the Bolor or Belut-tagh,
Gr'. Cloudy* Mountains, r a te which he finds,, himself .on the
lofty Upland of Pariier, on > one of the highest levels of. the
Old-Continenthe there stands on thespsfestern edge of the
great plateau of ■ Central >Asia, a region of vast extent, of
which thh boundaries and geographical outlines have: be,en
illustrated^by the date researches of | Alexander, Yon Humboldt
and the learned Ritter.t,.- I shall, endeavour, to lay
before my readers a very brief abstract of the- description
which these writers have drawif of the physical and ;ge.Qr
graphical structure.of thqs^ regions. •
Vague and indefinate notions Were entertained as to the
site and direction of mountain-chains, and the respective
elevations- of different parts of 'Central Asia, until the
Baron Alexander Yon Humboldt undertooklfo investigate
the geography *of that continent. DuringM&,.journey
* Fragmens-de Géologie èt'dèi^lim'atblogie Asiatiques, par A. de Humboldt,
tom 1 Paris 1881» Also bis latelÿ^pûblisbed and admirable work entitled,
« Asia Gjéntrale»^^ee^grche^les^Chaînes de Montagnes et la Climatologie
comparée.* Paris, 1843, ^tom„ page U 4 . ;
- f .HumbôWt, ubi supra.—-RitteV, Erdkunde von Asien, bande.1-4.