ven, traverse Asia about the 42° of northern latitude.
The culminating point of this chain is a mass of hills remarkable
for three summits* termed Boghda Oola or the
Holy Mountain, whence Pallas gave to the whole chain the
name of Boghdo.
From Boghda Oola, the tract of the Tengri-tagh runs
eastward towards Barkoul, and it is to this part of the chain
that the name of Thian-shan, or the Celestial Mountains, if
more frequently applied, namely, to that division of the
interior crest which is intercepted between the mountains
of Bolor to the west, and the oasis of Khamil in the Sandy
Desert of Shamo, to the east. To the eastward of this last
point the whole area of the included plain rises into the high
wilderness of Gobi or the Stony Desert, which extends,
from the sources of the Siberian Orkhon to. the borders, of
China. Through all this tract the elevation of the chain is
feebly discovered, but it rises again near the great bending,
of the Hoang-ho or Yellow River-of .China, for the Snowy
Chain of the Gadjar or Inshan, which runs eastward above
the country of the Mongolian Ordos, is a continuation of
this line, the eastward extremity of which is*, according to
Ritter, the ridge of hills cutting off to the northwards,-the
Peninsula of Korea and descending to the shore *of ,„the
Pacific Ocean.
To the westward and beyond, that is to the western fide
of, the Belut-tagh, the line of the Celestial Mountains is
continued by the chain of Asferah, which, towards the west,
declining in elevation, still forms a dividing boundary as it
runs down towards the Caspian, between the basins of the
Oxus and the Jaxartes. In the.great midland depression of
the Continent this chain is lost, but in the opinion of Humboldt
and Ritter Mount Caucasus may be regarded as a
continuation of it beyond the Caspian.
- 3. As the chain of Caucasus is the western prolongation
of the Celestial Mountains, so the third system, or that of.
Kuen-lun, lies in the same line and in geographical connec-,
tion with Móunt Taurus. The two southernmost of the four
great mountain-chains approach and are connected totvards
the west. The Hindfi-Khfih or Hindb-Kbsh* appears in
reality to be the common origin-of both. Even in the time
of Eratosthenes this chain, which is the celebrated Paropa-
tnisus-'of the ancients* was identified with the Taurus of
Lesser Asia. Strabo has described carefully the direction of
these mountains] “ If %e- proceed,” says that geographer,
“ from the Hyrcanian Seèc, that!iS the Caspian, towards the
east, we hav^ëverHo the fight hand as far in the Indian
Sea that chain of mountains which the Greeks designate by
the name 'óf Taurus. Thése’ïnduntains,” he adds, “ begin
in Pamphyifa a n d ‘Ciliéf^; and u h » d iffe rën t names are
continued without intërrüptiöh'towafds the?east. Beyond
Ariana th^sè^hüis haveffedélved from the' Mdéedöniaiis, out
/bf compliment!‘<P%tMir lèaderwho compared himself to
Hercules*, th§ n#lê^öfCauóEiMs^1lh'e Indian Caucasus—but
the Barbarians term »them Pafdpaniisus, Eihodus,’ and
Imaon.”t This last name Alongèd h o t t e r , as M. de
Huiöbóïdt has proved, to the Bolor; 'thó^ransvérse chain.
The ch a i^ ^T au ru s, which forms ftdtb middle fa rt the
northern boundar^of' KhbWSan, %übsM^1hto a lower level
arid takes a rffeS##eva;tib^ in the'nëighbburhood of >Herat.
Here the Pardpamisah mbuhth,ih%hain begins m the hills
of Gür, which, continuiiig the same*dihef form the-natural
boundary of Kabul and Bokhara, bfdn a lte#f^6ale’of Iran
and Turkistan. - ‘At'Kok-i-Baba it tfiröws up three peaks to
the height Óf rS^OOO1 fëèt. Farther eastwafd;dietween 68°
and this ridgëviS'ïntë^cfed by thé pasSbiPH'ajikak,
which is the way to BamiyaU, and tö'dh#€§ètwUrd of this
pass it has thè'riame of Hihdu-Khuh1* -ehsOy Converted into
that bf the Indian Caucasus: Fartheb* eastward this chain
* The proper orthography, o f d f o g M f a 1- ^ffindu-kho is
written by Sheriff Bddin^the M tr a p t i H l Ibn-Batnta, in Professor
Lee% translation, terms ^ Öindll*kü^: ahld-nftferp^tè'lt' ’ a' place which
« destroys Hindoos,” iWtaely,, the* Hind* slavesIbroughf into the country.
This last name has been afppte^ by mopern travellers, asjfiy^Sir Alexander
t Burnes. It seems to* be.
*' See o b s e ^ l i o ^ l f M. A. 1 0 o i < | t , Asia Genh»^” tom. f , ^ e U7.
S ' | gtrabo in G e o g f ,^ j i^ 689.—Conf.,,p.68, Px490, ed Casaub., lib, xi,
p. 51Ö.--M. 'de Humboldt (Asia Centrale, i, p. 105), cites a correction of the
text of Strabo, by Grosskurd in his German translation.'