across the Obi, .In company with M. M. Ehrenberg and
Rose, M. de Humboldt passed some time on the frontiers of
Chinese Songaria, at one of the Chinese posts to the northward
of Lake Sai'sang, as well as in other parts of Siberia
and Central Asia. Here he enjoyed many opportunities °f
collecting information from travellers and frqm natives of
different places in Chinese Turkistan, and other countries
seldom- or never before visited by European travellers.
The results of these personal inquiries compared with the
materials collected during a long course of years by ^lenlifîc
men employed in the ^eastern stations of the Russian
empire, constitute- the basis upon which Humboldt has
founded his systematic idea of the geography of Central
Asia.--
The continent of Northern Asia* or rather that part: of it
which lies to the eastward of the meridian of Badakshan,
and beyond the high border of Bolor or the Belét-tagh
running from north to south,, is-traversed by four great
mountain-chains, which take a direction? nearly bupi not
wholly parallel from west to east. The southernmost. of
these is the Himalaya, the northern is the, Créât Altaï, the
Golden Mountain of the Tartars, continued to the eastward
by the chain of Sayansk, afterwards by the Jablonnai-
Khrebet or Apple-Mountains to - the northward qfk? the
country of the Mandshoos, and terminating by the chain of
Aldan, which reaches to the Sea of Okhotsk and the coast
of the Pacific Ocean. The former, of thesè5’boundaries
faces the low regions of India, the latter overhangs the
lower tracts of Northern Asia or of Siberia ; between them
is the region termed, though not without question as to the
propriety of its name, High Central Asia. There are two
other intermediate chains between the Himâlaya and Altaï,
which. may be termed the higher and interior limits of the
Central Upland. The Kuen-lun of the Chinese geographers
takes its course through Tibet to the northward of the Himalaya,
and not exactly parallel to its direction. It is supposed
to be united with the Himâlaya at its western extremity,
Passing eastward these chains diverge and include
between them the high-valley of Ladakh and H’lassa, and
the territoifiof Katchi. Far to the northward of Kuen-lun,
but' y’ef tor the southward of Altai, is the Tengri-tagh of the
Tartar nations, that is^the Mountain of Heaven, which the
Chinese • call Thian-shan. It runs likewise from east to
west. Between »these four chains are three comparatively
high regions, the-^terior, which is enclosed between the
-Tengri-tagh and the . Kuen-lun, being by far the most
extensive, but of very unequal elevation; The disposition
of theseoh-ighlands and the direction of the great defiles
which lead the* way into the lower, regions of Asia, have
exercised'great influence’on tbeimovements of the nomadic
tribes«.and on the destiny of the nations who, in almost all
parts of the world, have become-the victims of their greater
/hardihood and prowess. In this point of view it will be
worth while to mark somewhat'-mbre in detail the principal
porMensd^.fhesemiowirtain-chains. -
?I. The-System of Mount Altai.—Mount Altai, properly
so termed, scarcely occupies * the space« of seven degrees
of longitude; but the Altaic system of -mountains, so-
termed by Humboldt, forms the whole northern border
of thd great highland of Central Asia: it traverses that j-
continent between the «48° and 51° of north latitude.
Altai’ is-properly the western part of this tract ; it contains
the sources of the Irtysh and of the Yenesei or Kem.
The continuation of Altai Proper towards the east is Mount
Tangnon; beyond it are the Sayanian Mountains, between
lakes Kossogol and Baikal: further eastward it is continued
by the High Kentai and the Daourian Mountains, which
towards the N. E. join the Jablonnai-Khrebet or Apple-
Mountains. They are continued by the chain of Aldan, running
along the Sea of Okhotsk to the shore of the Pacific
Ocean. These mountains are in parts rich in metals. The
Turkish name of Alta-ibwpla means the Golden Mountains.
Parts of the Altaic Mountains were excavated in immemorial
times by people of a different race from the present
inhabitants, who there soughbthe precious metals of which
they formed the ornaments abounding in the tombs spread
over the vallies of the Upper Irtysh and Yenisei.
2. Thian-shan or Tengri-tagh, or the Mountains of Hea-
Vol. iv. ' 2 L