148 Baron Humboldt on the Mountain chains and 



period of the upraising of the Caucasus and the cluster of moun- 

 tains of Armenia and Erzeroum. No part of the earth, not 

 even excepting South Africa, presents a mass of land so extensive,^ 

 and elevated to so great a height, as that in Central Asia. The 

 principal axis of this upraising, which probably preceded the 

 eruption of the chains from the rents running from east to west, 

 as in the direction of S. W. and N. E., from the group of moun- 

 tains between Cashmer, Badakshan, and the Tsung-ling in Tibet, 

 where are situated the Cailasa, and the sacred lakes*, as far as 

 the snowy summits of the Inshan and Khingkan-f*. The eleva- 

 tion from below of so enormous a mass would suffice to produce 

 a sinking or hollow which, even at the present day, is perhaps 

 not half filled with water, and which, since it was formed, has 

 been so modified by the action of subterranean forces, that, ac- 

 cording to the traditions of Tartars, collected by Professor Eich- 

 wald, the promontory of Absherpn was formerly united by an 

 isthmus with the opposite coast of the Caspian Sea in Turco- 

 mania. The great lakes, which have been formed in Europe 



* The lakes Manasa and Bavan Hrad. Manasa, in Sanscrit, signifies 

 ** spirit." Manasa-vara is the easternmost of these two lakes : its name means 

 literally " the most perfect of honourable lakes." The westernmost lake is 

 named Ravanah Hrad, or " Lake of Havana," after the celebrated hero of the 

 Ramayana. — Bopp. 



•f- This direction of the axis of elevation fiom the S. W. to the N. E. is 

 again found beyond the 55th degree of latitude, in the space comprised be. 

 tween Western Siberia, a low country, and Eastern Siberia, a country full of 

 chains of mountains : this space is bounded by the meridian of Irkutsk, the 

 Frozen Sea, and the Sea of Okotsk. Dr Erdman has discovered among the 

 Aldan mountains, at Allakh-yuma, a peak 5000 feet high. To the north of 

 the Kwan-lun, the chain of Northern Tibet, and to the west of the meridian 

 of Peking, the portions of elevated land most important in respect to the ex- 

 tent and height, are the following : — I. To the east of the cluster of the Kook- 

 oonoor, the space between Toorfan, Tangut, the great sinuosity of the 

 Hoang-ho, Garjan, and the chain of the Khing-khan, a space which compre- 

 hends the great desert of Gobi. 2. The table-land between the snowy moun- 

 tains of Khangai and Tangnu, and between the sources of the Yenisei', the 

 Selengga and the Amoor. 3. To the west of the district watered by the upper 

 course of the Oxus (Amou), and of the Jaxartes (Sihoon) ; between Fyzabad, 

 Balkh, Samarkand and the Ala-tau near Turkestan, to the westward of the 

 Bolor (Beloot-tag). The upraising of this transverse ridge has produced in 

 the soil of the great longitudinal valley of the Teen-shan-nar-lu, between the 

 second and third systems of mountains from east to west, or between the 

 Teen-shan and the Kwanlun, a counter-slope from west to east, whilst in the 

 longitudinal valley of the Teenshan-pe-lu in Zungaria, between the Teen-shan 

 and the Altai, a general declivity is observable from east to west. 



